Cherokee Legend

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.

Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

That’s what a father does……….protects not only his son but his whole family.  Unfortunately once they become a man, they are supposed to take care of themselves.  It doesn’t always turn out that way so who’s to blame if anyone?  That’s the question I want answered because I have no idea what the answer is myself.

Nick Nolte

Nick Nolte has long been one of my favorite actors.  He has played in some of my favorite movies like 48 hours with Eddie Murphy.  Sure he’s had has hard times but who hasn’t you know.  I mean we all go through some tough times and not necessarily with drugs and alcohol like Nick has.  But one thing stays constant and that’s his ability to act.

He was even named the “Sexiest man alive” by People Magazine in 1992.  Not too bad huh?  It was a great picture of him on the cover too.  But then you see a mug shot of him looking anything but sexy and I can’t help but wonder why we want to desperately to shoot someone down, especially celebrities.  They are people just like you and I.  They put their pants on one leg at a time just like you and I.  Sure they may pay more for their pants than we do but they earned that money with their acting ability just like we earn our money with what ever ability we have.

They entertain us, take us out of our lousy little existence sometimes and even through their art, give us inspiration to do better ourselves and still the media and us that are stupid enough to pay our hard earned money to buy the magazines and gossip papers that do all they can to bring them down.  We’re contributing to it.  Here’s a good example with Nick Nolte at the center.

“Nick Nolte, 67: Yeah, we were just as dumbfounded as you to realize that People declared Nick Nolte the Sexiest Man Alive in 1992, a year in which competition was apparently slimmer than Victoria Beckham in airtight Spanx. The actor, then 51 and coming off the success of “The Prince of Tides… more,” was called “sexy … very sexy!” by a dewy Christina Applegate, while the magazine enthused that he was a “big-lug Adonis with the heart of gold — sometimes known as the Bad Boy Reformed.” Except his bad boy days weren’t quite over. A decade after his Sexiest honor, Nolte was busted for DUI, which resulted in an epically unflattering, Hawaiian-shirt-and-electrified-hair mug shot that set the standard by which all celebrity police snaps are measured. He pleaded no contest and has continued to work steadily. And despite the occasional airport crash session and a tendency to dress like his homeless character from “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” he’s still some one’s sexiest: Last year, at the age of 66, he welcomed a daughter with girlfriend Clytie Lane.”

My wife is mad at me

I guess it should come as no surprise that my wife’s mad at me.  After all, isn’t that what most men say from time to time?  See, she has been working around the house and took down some old curtains in the dining room and put up some new ones.  I didn’t notice!!

Hey, I’m a man and I have had a lot on my mind lately.  Plus the curtains she took down were sort of a cream color and the ones she put up are a pale olive green.  That’s not a lot of difference other than the new ones are longer than the other ones too.  I just didn’t notice.

She was all happy because she had gotten them at JC Penney’s at a great discount price and wanted a pat on the back I guess.  Instead, I missed my chance and now she’s mad.  Guess I may as well just tell the dog to move over because I’m moving in the dog house with him.  I sure hope it’s only a one dog night and not a two dog night.  He’s a big German Shepherd so he should be able to keep me warm even if it is a two dog night.

Do you understand that expression, the one and two dog night?  It’s an old expression on how many dogs it would take to keep you warm overnight out in the elements.  A three dog night is a cold night!!

PETA

I’m sure most of you know who PETA is and what it stands for.  But just in case you don’t, it stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  I think that’s right.  It might be worded a little different but you get the idea.  This group does a lot of good but just like any other group, they get out on a limb on some things.  Did you know that they can come to your house and if by chance your dog has turned his water over and they see that the dog doesn’t have any water, you can be charged with animal cruelty even if you make sure the dog has water every day when you get home.  I don’t think that right.

Throwing flour on women wearing fur is crazy.  The animals that were used to make these fur coats were farm raised, not trapped like they used to be.  They were well fed and then, yes killed for their fur.  These animals are not then simply thrown out to rot, they are used for dog food and stuff like that.  These animals are treated better while they are alive than they would have been in the wild.  God gave us creatures for food, warmth and as companions too.

Yes it is wrong to club seal cubs for their fur.  I’m glad they are against that and anything that can lead to the extinction of a creature that God has given us.  Gluttony is a sin and can lead to the extinction of a whole species and with that in mind, they are doing a great thing.

But they don’t want deer hunted either.  Do you know what happens when there are too many deer in an area?  The deer don’t have enough food and then suffer, get sick and die a slow and painful death.  I’m sure there are some that suffer a slow and painful death when shot by hunters but as long as these hunters eat the animal, they are actually helping the deer that in the woods by thinning them out.  That’s far more humane than letting them overpopulate and die of disease and malnutrition isn’t it?  I think so.  All of this is just my opinion and if you see it differently, feel free to comment all you want and I’ll be glad to answer.

My people would call this a sign

A good friend of mine sent me some pictures of the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  In fact, my people would call it a sign from the spirits.  My friends live in Michigan and came across the pictures.  They know how I am about Gods creatures and knew how amazing these pictures are to begin with and wanted to make sure I got them.  I am so thankful to them for sending them to me and just wanted to share one with you so you could gaze upon the beauty of extremely rare ‘Gods creatures’.

Here’s the skinny on the picture.  It’s twin deer with their mother in the background.  That’s not the amazing part.  They are albino twin deer!!!  The chances of ever seeing one albino deer is highly unlikely but twin albinos!!  Just try and imagine the chances of that.  I can’t even wrap my mind around the thought.  Not only are they rare, they are absolutely beautiful. That’s their proud mother in the background of the picture.

I only hope that some hunter doesn’t shoot one of them just to have it’s head mounted on his wall.

Decided to go fishing today

The day started off a bit rainy and chilly but I really needed to get out some so I decided to go fishing.  It was a bit uncomfortable at first but then the sun came out and all was right in the world.  The fish bit pretty good and I caught a good run of bass.  No I don’t bring bass home.  I put them safely back into the water.  That way there will be fish for the next generation.

I never take something I’m not going to eat and bass just isn’t one of my favorite fish to eat.  I personally prefer salt water fish but a good mess of strippers from the lake or the ocean, well you just can’t beat that.  I wasn’t stripper fishing today though.  I just wanted to be one with nature and relax a little and that’s just what I did.  It was a great day.