Sandy Hook School

I had thought to write a blog entry about the season, the celebration of light in darkness.  Or maybe about the Geminid meteor shower.  I actually saw some!  But then I heard about the killings in Sandy Hook.

When I heard about another school shooting I thought, oh no, here we go again.  Then I heard who the victims were, just little children.  Could it get any worse?  We have seen mass shootings all too often in America but seeing these little children - well, it broke my heart.

Some of my friends said that these shootings are all due to the prevalence of assault weapons in America and that strict gun control is necessary.  Others said that a crazy man will always find a way, laws or not, to get a gun and kill.  Another said that there is too little access to mental health for people who need it.  Several blogged or posted that violence in the media is responsible.  A good friend wrote that children are not being taught coping skills for dealing with their problems, a very good point.  All of them are partially right. 

I decided to look into the history of school shootings in the US.  I was startled to see that they go back to before the nation's founding, although they have become more numerous recently.  In every case but one the shooter has been male. 

I am not the first person to notice this.  The demands made on American men (to be emotional rocks, tough guys, always number one) are hard enough on the ordinary guy, let alone someone with serious emotional problems and no coping skills. Men are supposed to be capable of violence, although only in a good cause, as a last resort.  Easy access to firearms can make this a deadly mix but the problems are far more deeply rooted.

It's easy to see how our society hurts women.  I get that.  I'm a woman. What is not so easy to see is how that same society hurts men.  And that hurts all of us.  We need to  think about this, to do something, to change our demands, as a society, on boys and men.  Maybe then we will read about mass shootings in history books, and only there.

Writing about the season of light will have to wait.  My heart breaks for those little murdered children and their families.

Veterans Day Again

Veterans Day again, Remembrance Day in Canada.  I am remembering, or at least attempting to imagine, some of those wars.  I am also thinking of the photos of the Earth, taken from space, and the sense of wonder and unity those astronauts had when they took those pictures.  As I did last year, as I do every year, I am wishing for peace, for all of us on this beautiful planet.

A River Ran Through It

"A river ran through it."  That's what NASA said when they saw the pictures and the evidence.  It's what I thought when I heard the news.  And we knew it, didn't we.  We knew it.  There was running water on Mars, free running water, a river that ran for maybe thousands of years, maybe more. The smooth, rounded gravel in the old river bed could have been made only by water.  Wow.  

I'm betting Curiosity finds evidence of life.  We know that, too, don't we.  Wow.

This photo is courtesy of NASA.  They needed to label which riverbed came from which planet.  Yes, seriously.

Farewell to a Spider

She's gone.  My beautiful spider has vanished.  We had torrential rains last night but my Argiope had come through the remains of hurricane Isaac intact, without even any damage to her web that I could see.  But now she is gone.  All that remains are a few silky strands of her web.  I have looked around, of course, but I can't find her.  I know the world of a spider is full of dangers, so I should not be surprised.  I'm not, actually, but I am sad.  She was such a beautiful creature.  I would like to think that she has simply moved to a more protected spot, but I will probably never know.  I was privileged to admire her, even for a short time.

Bright Lady in the Garden

I met her by accident.  I was pushing through a tangle of flowers and ornamental plants at the edge of my garden, wondering what needed trimming: perhaps the golden tansy? The tansy is as tall as I am, or almost.  When I looked at it more closely, there she was: the gorgeous lady.

If she had been in the house I might have been afraid of her.  She is rather large, after all, and I was mere inches away from her.  But outside, face to face and eye to, well, eyes (eight of them on her side of the equation, two on mine), it was different story.  I was in awe.  She is black and golden, stunning.  Her home is a lovely, complicated web.  But who is she?  What is her name and her story?

Google knew.  She is Argiope Aurantia.  That's pronounced Are-Guy'-Oh-Pee Oar-An'-Chee-Ah.  Argiope means "Bright Face" and aurantia means "overlaid with gold".  When I speak to her it seems proper to be more formal and to use her genus name.  So I call her Argiope.  

Yes, she's a girl.  The males and females of her species are very different. Females are big and beautiful; my Argiope's body is maybe an inch long, not including her gold striped legs.  Males are skinny, with very long legs. The females make lovely big webs with reinforcing in the center to make it comfy, and they like to hang out there, head down.  Eventually, at summer's end, a male should come along.  He will build a smaller web on the fringes of hers, an arachnid version of a man cave, perhaps.  He courts her by thrumming on her web, making lovely spider music.  Eventually, if she likes him, they mate.

I have started watching to see if she has a boyfriend.  Not yet.  I read more about her and discovered the tragedy to come.  Directly after mating, the male Argiope dies, presumably of ecstasy, leaving the female an expectant single mother.  Eventually, the female lays her eggs.  She wraps them in layer upon layer of spider silk, seeking to protect them from the winter to come and also from other insects, like some wasps, which parasitize the eggs.  Then she dies.

I was devastated.  This wasn't the first I had heard of a spider's short life span.  

As a child I did read "Charlotte's Web", after all.  But this is personal.  I know this spider.  I like her.  The Arachnid Way is hard, very hard.

Or is it?  What would Argiope think of the Mammalian Way?  Would she consider it hard, to live so much longer than one year, to see your children grow, to make friends, but also to see so much hardship and heartbreak? Would she pity me? We are so very different.  I wonder what heaven would be like for her.  Is it an eternal summer afternoon, neither too hot nor too cool, with a very gentle breeze ruffling the tall flowers?  On such an afternoon a well-fed Argiope could dream, comfortable in her woven hammock.  Are we in fact so very different?

No, I haven't trimmed my tansy.

Cat poetry!

I have a new book of poetry out, "Meow, Cat Poems".  Is this a book of poems about cats or by cats or both?  I'll let the reader decide. The poems range from the serious to the humorous, including a limerick about the cat from Nantucket, which I wrote on a dare.  (It's clean; that was the dare.)  The book is available in e-formats only, from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  Both stores give away free apps for reading on devices other than kindle or nook. (Yes, I know some of you read books on your phones.  Some day you can tell me just how you do that.) I especially love the cover, a photograph of two of my former cats in a playful confrontation.  Their spirits still inspire me.

By the way; my Maine Coon-esque cat Cal claims that he is the true author of this book, at least by virtue of having shed enough fur on my keyboard.

Curiosity

Curiosity has arrived safely on Mars.  I still feel like jumping up and down.  I have always been in love with the Red Planet, ever since sneaking Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books into class in middle school. 

I know there are no civilizations on Mars, lost or extant.  I believe, all the same, that there was life there.  It is even possible that life may still be there.  After all, Mars is the most Earth-like of the planets, our sister planet. There was water on Mars.  If there is life on Mars, presumably in microbial form, I hope nothing from Earth contaminates it.

Curiosity is well named.  Humans, members of our genus, have been pushing the boundaries of exploration for hundreds of thousands of years.  Despite its drawbacks, the curiosity of the human race has served us well.  May Curiosity serve us well on the Red Planet.  And I can't wait for all the pictures!