FUSsa-talk Mailing List: Thoughts on New Year's Day

[MADELINE SIMON (madeline-mpls]

It's New Year's Day, often a time for reflection, and I guess I am feeling a 
little "bloggy."  That's not foggy or hung over, by the way, and no, I am not 
going to start a blog.  I'm busy enough as is.  A couple of things I pondered 
today:
 
First, a couple of wonderful large black raspberries I ate last night which had 
been brought by someone at the party and included in a fruit mix.  Normally, we 
are looking at or considering a lot of issues, which I don't need to explain, 
about where food comes from and how, etc.  I thought today about them and 
pictured the sunshine, the plant, and its environment, and other things 
necessary for them to have grown.  Throughout most of human history, including 
our country's, and myself personally, people have always known where their food 
came from and most often saw and raised and picked them themselves.  As a child 
I picked berries on my grandfather's North Dakota farm, and those we kids 
didn't eat while picking, were put in pint/quart containers and loaded into the 
transport box lift on the back of my grandfather's small tractor and hauled to 
the small grocery store in the small town some few miles away.  I also recalled 
my experiences sitting on a fruit crate with my babuska riding on that lift 
behind the tractor into town.  I didn't know where these berries came from!  We 
do indeed live in a "Global Village."
 
Second, I was talking recently with the gardener who does tree trimming in the 
winter about having seen a couple of young deer in my yard with antlers engaged 
in practice for the first time.  He told me of two deer during rutting season 
who were found drowned with their antlers still stuck together.  I guess nature 
can also tell us that you might win the battle and still lose your life.
 
Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year!!!

Peace,
Madeline