I was listening to NPR this morning and I was struck by the optimism of this young man's belief. It comes from a series called, "This I Believe." Listen to or read this piece. It illustrates the dictum that we create our own reality. The right is all over this, and the left, to their detriment, doesn't understand its significance. I don't want to say that we can wash our hands of helping out our brothers and sisters, but there is a time when creating a new reality from a failed situation is the only good course of action.

It was cold and a little windy up there yesterday. I finished with a 42:14, a couple of minutes off my best. I don't think anyone I ran with did their best. The course is flat as it does an out and back through the skagit farmland. La Conner is always nice to visit. Have a great day.

I'm headed for La Conner with a friend this morning for the Smelt Run. They have a festival up there about Smelt (with running and selling stuff I'm sure, and beer). Needless to say it is an old, quaint fishing village. I don't go to these planning on doing badly, but I think I might do well.

I was going to put in an entry this evening but I've run out of time...later kids.

From Kos:

"The King's henchman have sounded the death knell for Presidential accountability. Just a few weeks ago, Republicans from Specter to Hagel to Snowe were calling for a congressional inquiry into the domestic spying program. On the eve of a Senate Intelligence Committee vote to determine whether such an inquiry should take place, the Washington Post reports that a "full court press" by the administration has swayed many Republicans against such an investigation:
...
Republican Senate DeWine says he will introduce a bill sanctioning the program, explicitly exempting it from the requirements of FISA. Both Hagel and Snowe are said to be in favor of the bill. So suddenly, Republicans are comfortable with the President breaking the law? Where was the bill in the 90s condoning Oval Office blow jobs and Presidential perjury? Oh, that's right. The lawlessness of a President is exempted only when that President wears a 10-gallon hat and calls himself a "conservative."

Good lord, our Founding Fathers must be shaking their heads in shame at the mindfuck that is about to occur in Congress."

I've been trying to find something which approximates Sonya's textbook reference in this post. What I've found so far is this. It is pretty close:

"At cellular levels the world exists with a kind of social interchange, in which the birth and death of cells are known to all others, and in which the death of a frog and a star gain equal weight. But at your level of activity your thoughts, feelings, and intents, however private, form part of the inner environment of communication. This inner environment is as pertinent and vital to the species' well-being as is the physical one. It represents the psychic, mass bank of potential, even as the planet provides a physical bank of potential. When there is an earthquake in another area of the world, the land mass in your own country is in one way or another affected. When there are psychic earthquakes in other areas of the world, then you are also affected, and usually to the same degree."

Jane Roberts, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. pg.38

Anyways. We are all connected, and to a degree you can't imagine. That's why we are supposed to be good to one another. It sounds cliche, but we are all One; an ever expanding, spiraling, and changing being. Can you feel the pull of those distant planets and stars? How about the cries from those in Pakistan or India or Sumatra? Y'all have a great day.

I did more today. After that stupid football game yesterday and then feeling this morning that I had enough energy, I invited a new runner to join me in an early loop prior to the regular 6:00 run in Redmond. She was looking a bit pekid at the end. We ran the powerline trail up and up and up. Peter said there are never enough hills. Then we ran the 5 mile route with the group. So we did almost 12 miles this evening. That makes my total from Saturday until this evening about 35 or so miles. I'll take tomorrow off from this endeavor in order to get some other priorities addressed and to give myself a break. Peace.

Some of us from the Eastside Runners ran with the Maniacs this morning in West Seattle. We started at the statue of liberty on Alki and then ran a 12 mile loop in the area. Half of the group continued on with another 8. We'd had enough. I don't want to get injured, though I think I could have done more.

On the way back I snapped some pictures of the city,



and of the home of the Seahawks who are to play in the Superbowl in a little over an hour from now.



Here is a neighborhood cat. I think it is very happy, as are the rest of us, that the sun has finally come out. I think it has been raining, until yesterday, since mid December. Enough is enough.



The 520 bridge was closed yesterday due to high winds and water going over the floating bridge. All of our properties should be a mess this coming week. In another attempt to leave the landscaping behind, I picked up this year's applications for school. I don't have much to show between last year and this, but I've been told all around that I should apply anyways. I plan on making concrete moves toward this direction this year.

I'm on my way to a friend's to see the game now. Go Hawks!