Covid cats social distancing
remembering Puss (-2004) 2 of 8
she checked to see if my cabinet drawers fit her
remembering Puss (-2004) 3 of 8
she kept my wooden ducks in a row
remembering Puss (-2004) 4 of 8
she maintained my tools
remembering Puss (-2004) 5 of 8
she cleaned the bathtub
remembering Puss (-2004) 6 of 8
she dusted
remembering Puss (-2004) 1 of 8
I'd been alone for 16 years when Puss 'flew' into my life. I didn't want a cat but after she arrived I remember not being specific when I thought I said to myself a few days earlier, "God I need some company". We had a few laughs over the years when wondering about the circumstances of her arrival. She came to my door. I called her Puss because she'd probably been called Puss and giving her a proper name would have made her mine. I tried for a week to give her away then spent 8 years loving her. She was an angel.
remembering Puss (-2004) 7 of 8
she entertained me
remembering Puss (-2004) 8 of 8
She taught me how to take life easy; and in eight years she never once asked me to take her out.
At the end the vet suggested we "put her down". I resisted for a week or so but finally decided to take her in Saturday December 18 2004. On Friday afternoon I carried her upstairs to have our last of countless naps together. When we awoke I carried her downstairs and placed her on a pad on the heated floor. Mercifully sometime during the next 2 hours Puss died. I cried.
Lady Zola and Lord Nelson
I bought them at the local shelter October 2007. At that time Nelson was a 3 year old been there done that cat. Zola was an 18 month never been anywhere done anything cat.
Zola exploring
the washing machine
Nelson
He will lie anywhere but he prefers laps.
purrfect pair.
especially if it is Mom's lap
the mouser
Nelson hunts the mouse while Mom plays solitaire.
purreference
No lumpy laps for Lady Zola. She prefers the royal cushion.
purreference too
or the back of the king's chair.
Zola climing
the rubber plant
table scraps
friendly jousting at the dinner table
helpers
They thought the plastic sheet should be on the floor where they could play with it rather than on the mattress to protect it from drywall dust.
the writer
If there is something worth reading on these pages, Nelson probably wrote it.
the writer blocked
He knows the frustration.
copy cat
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Zola
The beautiful delicate 'flower'
where's my suitcase?
What suitcase?
keeping up on the news
Lord Nelson reading over my sister Suzanne's shoulder.
helper
Can I help turn the mattress?
helping
"OK; I've got it."
helper?
I need a break!
helper again
I've got it again.
Hope
Seventeen months ago I bought two cats from the animal shelter for $140.00 each. Lord Nelson, the big male is a Velcro cat. Lady Zola the pretty female was a +pole cat, sadly the same pole as me. For almost 17 months approaching her has been like trying to put the same + poles of 2 magnets together. When I'd get within 3 feet of her she'd make a cooing sound then buck like a horse an trot away. I was thinking I had wasted my money for what good is a cat that doesn't want to curl up in your lap once in awhile. Recently however, Zola discovered she loves to get brushed. Now if she is awake when I head down stairs she races past me and sits by her brush. I usually accommodate her. She has even begun to jump onto my lap on occasion, when Nelson isn't there. Zola is just like a woman I know. I have been waiting for her to let me get close for 17 years. Perhaps there is hope.
Lord Nelson
A hot air register is the next best thing to a warm lap.
Lady Zola
It doesn't look like it here but I really am a lady.
Lady Zola
She does windows.
Lord Nelson is one helpful cat. He lets me vacuum the hair off him before it falls to the floor
The explanation of life and related writings.
02/02/24
INTRODUCTION
Like everyone, I inherited an existence. Mine collapsed circa 1970 while I was at McMaster U, Hamilton, ON, Canada, getting a BA(math) and B. Phys Ed, so I could teach. While sorting through the rubble of my life I noticed, though not as pervasive as it is today, a continuum of varied and increasing conflict permeating our existence. I wondered why.
Though wondering for myself I thought I should find the reason for conflict before a student I might teach asked me. I couldn’t deduce the reason with math; nor did I think I found it in the 5 major religions and their thousands of offspring, or in the 11 volume history of philosophy I skimmed for electives.
So besides my formal degrees, I graduated with a major degree of motivation to find before I taught, the reason for conflict. I never taught. By the time I discovered the answer to why increasing conflict pervades our existence, I’d become, with the help of my brother, a self-employed carpenter.
I tried and failed to share the answer at least three times and each time I vowed to quit trying. The last was in 1998 when a friend of a friend, a philosophy professor, wished me good luck on other projects. To help keep my last vow I started an addition to my house. I received even more help in 2000 when I began caring for my parents.
But then, when my father died in 2004 I was motivated to try sharing my analysis one more time before I died. I was still thinking of a hard copy when a friend suggested I publish on a website. I’d never heard of websites nor could I type but with more help from my Mother I bought a computer, learned to type, and with expert help, created a website.
I first thought I’d bury the reason for conflict in an essay. But having already experienced web attention deficit disorder I decided to highlight the essence of it in my website logo and add context with blog posts.
Since there is no answer to “Why am I?”, attempts to answer it, such as the myriad religions and philosophies I skimmed, and a variety of other responses I found, are tries to fill the void. Though we can mix them, some may be similar and even have identical names, because we direct them to the void within us, our tries are all opposed and so cause conflict to the extent of our belief in them.
But, conflict is not inevitable. We can diminish it and resulting death to the degree we empty the void. Now, if we choose to empty the void, our lives are not then devoid of activity, on the contrary! Because it is essential, we each possess some remnant of “reaching out to the limits of our capacities, to others and to Nature’s God”, the natural activity that creates and tries to maintain all life.
So, even though in the 200k years since the birth of humanity we have replaced almost all our inherited natural activity with the human made unnatural, self-destructive activity of trying to fill the void, if we choose to empty the void, the remnants of our natural, self-creative activity will at least refill our lives and possibly answer “Why am I?”
I have been trying share these basic facts of life for a few years by advertising. Last year (2023) I bought 8 million page views with half the value of my home, without effect; but this time I won’t quit. The warnings about fatal climate change by hundreds of climate scientists over many more years have also been ignored.
However, I do have to reduce my advertising. If it is too late to prevent it, I’ll need a place to live where I can watch the increasing conflict within us, between us and with Nature, causing at least the death of us and maybe all of Nature, possibly even before I’d have died in peace.
If you feel moved to help me share these facts you can by using the share icon at the end of any post, notably my most recent piece of rhymed reason, “Analyzing Conflict”, or any other way of sharing. If you also click on the like icon you will see an explosion of hearts, an expression of my gratitude. 🙏 Doug E Barr.
Part 1. Nature’s ideal diet: It protected our predecessors from disease from conception to the birth of humanity when they realized the capacity to choose. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of individuals chose to ignore ’Her’ ideal and thus, our increasing disease.
Part 2. Nature’s ideal life: It protected our predecessors from conflict until the birth of humanity. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of individuals chose to ignore ‘Her’ ideal and thus, our increasing conflict.
Part 3. The integration of parts 1 and 2
Part 4. Existential risks: They are the result of our ancestors increasingly choosing to ignore Nature’s nutritional ideal. They may be reduced by expanding our mental capacity beyond what was realized at the birth of humanity. It would only take an instant, but the time we have to make the necessary choice is quickly running out.
Part 5. Appendix: Mostly diet related math that may have caused the mathematically challenged to quit reading in the middle of Part 1.
