If you look at the weather map from the National Weather Service for today, it shows typical winter time temperatures for the various regions and locales of the USA. Nothing sub-zero, just from temperate to cold: 66 in South Florida and 1 degree above zero in someplace in Oklahoma. IT"S FEBRUARY! It's expected. Yes it's cold, it's survivable and with some use of good judgement, you can stay safe and warm.
Donate some canned goods to a shelter, take in a stray dog or cat or make a little shelter for them outside, providing food and water. Be kind.
It's just another winter. It is not disproof of global warming. It is not proof of global warming.
The only (to us) odd thing about this winter's weather is the patterns of snow and cold. The reason these things seem odd to us is that our planet has a long life and we generally live less than a hundred years, so we cannot readily see the natural cycles beyond what happens on a yearly basis.
BIG HEADLINES on AOL today announce: NOW COMES THE DEEP FREEZE!
Too much hyperbole in the media. Everyone is looking for extremes and wants to be the first to announce them in big bold type with catchy phrases that are often tempting, tantalizing, suggestive, or simply misleading. Seldom are they profound.
Our culture has sunk into a miasma of individual and societal turbulence in part because of some twisted desire to always stand out and get that twenty seconds of fame.
Sadly, this is because most people have lost a secure sense of their own identity. tattoos, weird clothes, horrid behaviour, intentional disfigurement and wanton sexual proclivities are all screamiong the need for finding a personal identity different from everyone else, and in that, everyone is the same.
The Cairo riots, regardless of whether or not they are a staged astroturfing endeavor to garner support for some radical islamic takeover, show just how much in a group of people everyone can be the same without individuation. This is tribal identity run amok. This is swarm behaviour. This is humans sinking into a sub-human pit of iniquity. Mob rule is not the democracy they so inappropriately speak of. Their stated purpose is not the underlyiong factor. The factions operating in that part of the world are disturbingly radical and based on nothing more than fanatacism, fear and lack of personal identity. to identify only with a group, to lose oneself in a group is a thoroughly wasted life, and a waste of oxygen.
Moderation can be fun. I know that's not quite what the song says, and yet both are significant and appropiate modes of behaviour.
