“Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; Then, for the third part of a minute, hence– Some to kill canters in the musk-rose buds, Some war with reremice for their leathren wings, To make my small elves coats, and some keep back The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits.”
William Shakespeare Quotes
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This evening I was frustrated about something and so just walked out the front door and sat on the bench on my front porch. Head in hands looking out at the pine trees silhouetted against a twilight sky, I whispered quietly asking the universe for some guidance. A couple of seconds later the hoot of a short eared owl echoed in the night air. A request answered?
Today I listened to the clip of Kevin Costner’s eulogy to Witney Houstan. Now I’m not a big fan of all the hype given to a woman who tragically lost her life the way she did. Someone who supposedly had it all. And while I cannot judge her, I can say I know of people right now laying in a hospice or palliative care centre who have a better sense of what it is to cherish each and every day.
I like to bring up two things about the Houstan incident that made me sit and think about the way our western culture sees things.
I was taken back some when Costner talked about how Houstan didn’t think she was a good enough actress or pretty enough. This was a woman of great beauty, with a voice like an angel and great talents. How does that happen? How does a woman of great beauty, with a voice like an angel and amazing talent think she is not pretty enough or good enough to express those talents? That just blew me away.
This has to be a red flag for all women exposed to the western propaganda created by large corporations and a media that is only concerned with filling its pockets with cash, rather than promoting women and girls to cherish and value themselves. Even I admit, at times I look in the mirror and think that I am a hopeless case fighting to accept my true beauty, physical and inner, without thinking I should measure up to a standard set mostly by males. I am not male bashing here, I am just stating a fact, and that is, “What must it take for women to accept their beauty without question, without doubt without fear of not fitting in or being accepted? Who’s generation is going to teach their daughters that it is acceptable to come in different sizes, walk in different ways, express the diversity of our very being?” We have got to get away from that thought that we are inferior and embrace the many different and amazing elements within each and every one of us, man and woman alike, that contribute to the strength and compassion of our human race!
Secondly, I always find it curious when an incident such as Housan’s death makes such press. During that same time, the Kayapo tribe received a devastating blow to its people. Dilma, (the president of Brazil), gave approval to build a huge hydroelectric plant (the third largest in the world). It is the death sentence for all the people living near the river because the dam will flood 400,000 hectares of forest, their livelihood. More than 40,000 Natives will have to find another place to live. It also means the inevitable destruction of the natural habitat, which includes deforestation and the disappearance of many species. What we as a race don’t understand is that this kind of decision has an impact that will not only affect the area mentioned, but touches every human being on the planet. You and I will feel the effect of such a decision, and I might add, not in a positive way. Yet what kind of world press did this receive? You tell me.
I do not dismiss the sadness and sorrow in the loss of any human being. I know what heartbreak comes from losing a loved one. But, at some point we must put perspective to what the grand corporations and media deem important, and what truly is important in this world, or we are doomed as a race.
Celebrities are ordinary people, they put on their socks one foot at a time just like you and I. But we as a culture have allowed the media to make these people out as Gods and in turn cloaked the reality of what’s really happening in our culture and our world.
I urge people to see past these illusions and start making small changes toward a more insightful way of looking at the world. I’d love to see a day when phrases like “low self esteem” and “skinny jeans” are no longer used in our vocabulary. When we stop raping the planet for energy, knowing full well that there are sustainable ways of creating it, that not only cost much less to implement, but will save us from the eventual death of our planet.
It is possible to shift things? Just ask an Egyptian. There is a movement, and I urge you to join it. It is as subtle as shifting your perspective and seeing beyond the illusions to the truth.
You see the thing about subtle is, it becomes mighty over time.
“When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.”
Lord Alfred Tennyson
