Earlier this morning, I called one of my dear friends just to see how things were with her, and discovered she had a frozen water pipe from that last cold snap we had, along with several other weather related problems. I can’t stress enough to everyone how more careful and proactive we must be when it gets so cold outside.
Someone mentioned today how she used to like winter, but now that she’s grown older, each year she’s hating it all the more. I couldn’t help but reply, “Since you didn’t have to be out in this stuff when young because of your given duties to take care of animals like I did, I can freely say I’ve hated winter all my life. But, on calm days with the temps hovering about 30 degrees along with the sun brightly shining, that’s when I find winter–tolerable.
Can you imagine what kind of winters people had back in the middle ages? Even the aristocrats must’ve had their own personal on-going battles to keep warm. I don’t even want to think about what those poor peasants had to endure with their little dirt-floored shacks with everyone within trying to keep as close to a small fire which had to be continually attended to during the night. Yes, we really do have it light years better than they did, but when stepping back far enough and looking at the whole picture in comparison, perhaps in some ways they had it better.
In spite of it being a National Holiday today commemorating MLK, I was surprised to see so many business open–even City Hall. For sure, all the Federal Government related offices were closed. I made a mistake and told someone in our NE quadrant that the garbage trucks weren’t picking up today. Oops.
Don’t you think there should be a world-wide commemoration day to all humans whose relatives and forefathers endured slavery. Since most don’t delve deep enough into world history, it’s little known that nearly all those living in Europe, Africa, and Asia were subject in one form or another to slavery. Back when the Holy Roman Empire was at its peak, nearly every peasant/slave was subject to the whims of those who owned the land and them.
They had to ask permission to get married, permission to leave, permission to basically eek-out a primitive life off another’s land. And I’m sorry to say, they were even subject to torture, sexual abuse, murder, and a myriad of countless other indiscretions. The accounts I’ve personally read regarding happenings in Europe during those times would have in these times, been themes for horror movies. If you have time, place a search in Wikipedia for Elizabeth Bathory and read about what she did. I’ll mention nothing more about her.
What I fear in these times when seeing all the more rising of closed minded leaders creating totalitarian regimes, is that even though we’re becoming all the more technologically advanced, modern societies as we know them are rapidly de-evolving.
Someone just casually mentioned today something that stuck in my mind when saying, “Politicians all over the world are becoming all the more opaque.” I walked away thinking, “Yes, he was right because it seems far too many in governments around the planet have self-enriching hidden agendas that always seem to be under the radar.”
Do stay warm tonight, and I believe tonight’s photo is quite appropriate.
