The Story of Ama Tsusga

 Osyio. My name is Ama Tsusga and I was born and raised in Walker County, Georgia. It was about 300 years ago that European settlers started naming my tree species Water Oaks. Those were the days when this was Cherokee territory. I don't remember the Cherokees calling us anything, but I do remember that the Cherokee word for water was Ama, and for oak it was Tsusga. I never had a name but I did like the sound of Ama Tsusga so I took it for my own name. It's sort of musical, don't you think?

When I said that Europeans called us Water Oaks 300 years ago, I didn't mean me. I haven't been around that long. According to an estimate from a Georgia Forestry Officer I sprouted from my acorn between 230 and 250 years ago. I use the midpoint and tell other trees that I am 240 years old. What's that?...you don't believe that trees talk to each other? You just pick up J.R.R. Tolkein's book The Lord of the Rings and you'll see for yourself.

Anyway, that forestry officer based his opinion of my age mostly from my size. I am 75' tall, with a crown 75' wide and a trunk with a 4.5' diameter. If there are trees in the area bigger than me, I haven't seen them. 

Being 240 years old means that I first broke through the ground in the year 1785. That's a long time ago. What is now the USA wouldn't have a constitution until two years later and it didn't go into effect until 1779. I saw British soldiers and Colonial militia skirmishing against each other in the war of 1812. I witnessed the Cherokee and Creek Indians being forced off their land in the 1830s. I watched as the Federal soldiers retreated past me on their way to Rossville on September 20, 1863 after being defeated by the Confederate army. There was shooting all around me as the Federals retreated through Mac Farland Gap. The Chickamauga Military Park is only 3,600' from me.

Maybe this would be a good time to tell you where I am. I am near the center of lot# 23, section 4 of district 9, of land lot 81. The lot is 248' long by 95' wide and is shared with me by a tall slash pine, a spruce, a cedar, a bird cherry tree, an old dogwood, an exotic type of magnolia, and a grove of walnut and pecan trees. 

A Cherokee County plat map dated July 28th, 1832, certified by Thomas Gordon Mac Farland may be one of the first maps drawn of what would become Walker County, Georgia. Land lots in northwest Georgia were first plotted between 1805 and 1833, when Georgia began a land lottery to open the territory to white settlers. The Cherokee and Creek Indians had recently been forced off the land and resettled in Oklahoma Territory. 

In 1832, I, Ama Tsusga was 47 years of age and for the first time was owned by a white man who won a 160 acre parcel of land, with me on it. I know that Tom and Maribel (the present owners) have made several trips to the county court house trying to identify the first owner, and also to fill in some of the dates between 1832 and the present with names and events relative to this property, but it has been slow going.

Contrary to popular belief, Indian tribes and individual Indians did own land, though I don't know under what authority structure. Actually, "owning land" is a misnomer. The people named on a land deed are not really owners - they're caretakers. They pay money to occupy the land for a time, and then eventually turn it over to the next caretakers. They don't own the land but they do own the trees and any natural or man-made features on the surface. I believe that I have been lucky to survive all of these years without being cut down for firewood, incinerated in a wild fire or struck by lightning. While I do not remember how many people have been caretakers of this plot, I haven't forgotten how much their life styles have changed, from dwellings lighted by candles and heated by wood fires, to HVAC units and solar power. 

The photo below is of the John Ross house, located in Rossville, Georgia. It has seen all of the technology changes mentioned above. It was built in 1797 and is the oldest structure in North West Georgia. It is only ten minutes by car from where I stand. I was twelve years old when the house was built. My, how time flies. But, since it is not Tom's purpose to write about the Ross house, anyone interested in more information can start with this link.

Tom and his wife Maribel have been occupying this lot since July of 2017. They treat the land and me pretty good, though I know that Tom doesn't like it when a storm comes through and I drop lots of limbs and branches on the ground, but I think he understands that falling apart is part of the aging process.

Prior to Tom and Maribel, the previous caretakers had the property beginning in August, 2013. They took it over from a family who had moved onto the land in November, 1958. I haven't identified these people by name because either they or their family members are living, and maybe don't want any information about them to be made public. Some of the early names that Tom and Maribel came across in deed books, after 1832 and associated with this piece of land I'm standing on are Schmidt, Lemons, Murdock, Follett, Gentry and a few more. Based on buy and sell dates it appears that many if not most of them were land speculators. Which opens the possibility that the deed to this property could have passed through many hands over many years without anyone actually occupying the property. I don't remember when the first dwelling was erected on this site, and Tom and Maribel didn't locate any records of construction on this site or any other for that matter. I think that both of them are a little discouraged by the limited information discovered versus the time spent in searching. 

They do know that land lot 81 was subdivided about 1945 into at least 125 lots and was called Orchard Hills Subdivision. A deed record of restricted covenants was filed on May 15, 1950, detailing the restrictions each lot owner would be held to. The document does say that 23 lots which had already been sold were not bound by the covenants. Interestingly, lot 23; this lot was not listed as sold. In 1953 the restrictive covenants were revised, to last for a period of 50 years. No record was found indicating an update of the record of covenants,  which probably means that the 1953 document has expired without a replacement. 

Orchard Hills Subdivision has apparently also expired. There are no signs, markers or monuments displaying that name. Several old timers in the neighborhood refer to the area as Peach Orchard Subdivision. There were no records found referring to that name.  

I can tell that Tom thinks that this story has run its course, and wants to wrap it up. Maybe someday they will resume their search for information to fill in the gaps after 1832. Or maybe not. I am 240 years old, and Tom is two months away from 85. I think we're both tired.

That did not take long!

 I can’t say that I was expecting it, but while I was writing my previous post the thought did occur to me that some folks might take exception to my statement that over time everyone is forgotten, by invoking the names of biblical figures as examples of beings who will live forever and never be forgotten. One reader did send an email using that very argument to dispute me, specifically citing god and Jesus as examples. I really don’t want to get involved in a discussion on that subject, because the writer of the email is not comparing apples to apples. But…I feel like I have to respond so here goes.

My post dealt with real people, people whose existence can be/has been factually proven. The bones in the cemetery photo in the previous post are real, and with diligent effort their identities could be discovered. There is not one shred of concrete evidence proving that Jesus existed. There is circumstantial evidence but no actual proof. Many respected historians believe that Jesus probably existed. Two ancient historians; Tacitus and Josephus frequently mention Jesus in their writings, but they were writing almost 100 years after the supposed death of Jesus. Personally I believe that a man named Jesus – minus the parables and miracles, probably existed. I also believe that over time he will be forgotten.

Jesus is viewed as a god-like figure, and as such he will go the way of all gods. The longest reigning god in recorded history is the Egyptian god Osiris (center figure above) who was worshiped from about 3100 BC to 30 BC. That’s over 3,000 years. Other Egyptian gods not far behind him are Ra and Isis. All three were gradually replaced with the Greek gods; Zeus, Hera, etc., who in turn gave way to the Roman gods. Just imagine how many hundreds, maybe thousands of gods came into being and then disappeared during the 200,000 years of human existence prior to recorded history. Some ancient gods are still hanging in there. The Indian gods Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu are still with us today.

Human history tells us that, though gods will come and go, it is likely that there will always be gods. In this era one of the most active gods is the Christian god Jehovah, whose followers believe that it is their duty to convert non-Christians. And they are succeeding, having grown to 2.63 billion members from 2.52 in 2020. Christianity has the most followers world-wide, followed by Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Gods only exist if people believe in them. When belief disappears, so do the gods. Why do we need gods…what purpose do they serve? Gods are needed because we are afraid of death and want a landing pad…an afterlife. They are also needed to explain origin – of us and the universe. That is why every religion has a creation story.  

Let me finish this post with some thoughts that I seem to always have about this time of the year. Christmas shopping really heats up starting in November. Gifts and decorations are purchased as are plane tickets and other Christmas related items. Stores increase their hours and inventory and hire seasonal help. Airlines and airports do what they can to accommodate travelers. Work crews are busy decorating city parks and streets while home owners and businesses are stringing lights. Pigs run for their lives but to no avail. They will be the center piece on the Christmas dinner table. And then on the 25^th of December everything comes to a halt. The cost of this mass celebration is estimated in the USA to be 1.1 trillion dollars. And the root of it all is to celebrate the birthday of a man named Jesus, who may never have existed. That to me is mind boggling.

Is it important to be remembered?

 Homo Sapiens (that’s us humans) emerged about 200,000 years ago. During that period of time it is estimated that 107 billion of us have lived on this planet. Today’s population is estimated at 8 billion. Crunching the numbers shows that 99.9% of all the humans who ever existed are dead. In modern times, world-wide, about 170,790 of us die every day. The recent death of a friend started me wondering how many people will remember him or the others who died that day and for how long. I think that if you’re the average person; one who didn’t have a street or building named after you, and weren’t a celebrity or billionaire philanthropist, and weren’t a person of notoriety like Hitler, Alexander the Great, Abe Lincoln or Genghis Kahn, you won’t be remembered very long. That thought led me to another question. What does it mean…to be ‘remembered’? Friends and family who knew you will occasionally think of you and will mention you in conversation with others but that won’t last long, and after the third generation of your descendants has passed no one will know who wrote that old letter found in a drawer, or who that is in that faded photo. When there is nothing or no one left who knew of you or at least had heard your name, you will have ceased to exist. It seems to me that most of us want to be remembered, and remembered at the apex of our lives, probably because we view being remembered as a continuation of our lives. As long as someone thinks and talks about us, we may be dead but we’re not dead dead.

How a person is remembered depends on where you died and where your remains are located. For example, I lived in northern Peru for nine years and witnessed that the average Peruvian has a much closer and deeper relationship with the dead than we have in the USA. The formal grieving period can last for a year. It can include a church mass from day one and then frequently through the year. Those who are strongly religious will wear black and not dance or sing during that year. They will visit the burial site at least monthly and will shed tears each time as if the death had just occurred. The cemetery visits of those who grieve continue through their lifetime.

The cemeteries vary considerably depending on the finances of the municipality. There are some, especially the newer ones that resemble a park-like setting. The photo below is more typical of a small village cemetery.

Some of the individual family tombs can be very elaborate (and expensive). They are well maintained and are never without fresh flowers. I suspect that those inside will be remembered by many generations for a long time. In the poorer villages there is no agency or individual responsibility for cemetery maintenance, thus they are generally older, have been vandalized, and in too many cases the collective tombs are in various states of disintegration.

Are these people remembered? Most probably there is no one left who remembers or knew them. They have ceased to exist in body and memory, their bones left to bleach in the sun.

So is it important to be remembered? I think that it is, at least in the short term by friends and family who knew them and find comfort from their memories. In the long term we will all be forgotten.

The future - a good place to be?

The previous post in my opinion proved via the Histomap that no nation prevails forever. What the map doesn’t tell us is why nations decline. There are tons of books written about the fall of Greece, Spain, England, Persia, Egypt, Rome, etc. No one can read them all, and some of those I have read have left me confused and with more questions than answers (I will also admit that some of the more scholarly books are beyond my understanding). When I began my search yesterday for the reasons nations fall, I was hoping to find a Histomap-type graph that graphically depicted the reasons for decline. If not that, I hoped to find several knowledgeable sources that had simple, brief bullet point lists. My plan was then to select those causes in common from the various sources and call it good. That didn’t work. Complexity rather than simplicity seems to be the rule on the subject of empires failing. And agreement on causes are rare. Each source I read seemed to have its own pet theory(s) to explain why nations fail. Another issue adding to complexity is that nations that failed up to and through the Middle Ages fell for reasons different than those nations failing after the Middle Ages. Barbian invasion followed by rape and pillage is not so common in modern times, though Ukraine, Syria and some other countries may disagree.

We are entering the age of artificial intelligence so I asked Window’s Copilot for an answer to my questions. It gave me six reasons for nations declining:

Economic troubles – high national debt, persistent budget deficits,

Political instability – political corruption, loss of public trust in institutions

Social issues – inequality, increased crime rates, declining public health

Military weakness - I don’t think the USA has gotten weak. The bad guys have gotten stronger. Russia, China, North Korea and Iran could be the axis powers of WW lll.

Environmental degradation – Not sure I agree with this

Cultural decline – loss of cultural identity, declining educational standards

Let me add two of my own indicators that a nation is in trouble.

Lack of collective objective reasoning – Many people believe they are thinking when all they are doing is rearranging prejudices.

Ignoring the Golden Rule – nuff said

There is an article in The Hill titled “Five reasons American decline appears irreversible.” It was written a year ago but in my opinion is relevant today. I think that it hits the nail on the head. The article says that the ‘five reasons’ are irreversible. Are they? Human history says that they are. To me it depends on if someday we humans can leave the caves behind behaviorally.  

The Paradox of Learning from History

In my previous post I wrote that in my opinion the first quarter of 2025 is going to be very interesting. I placed it in the context of Donald Trump’s actions, but my interest in/concern for the future transcends Trump, Harris, Biden, Republicans and Democrats. Russia’s president Putin said that there is a new world order in the making. He is right, though it isn’t a world order that is new and happening overnight. Men, countries, nations, empires, gods and institutions have been coming and going for many centuries. Nothing is static; change is ongoing. The Unites States we know now is not the country of 1725 nor will it be the country of 2325, by which time the entire world stage will be different.

In 1931 a man named John Sparks created what is now known as the Histomap which shows the rise and fall of global powers over a 4,000 year period. It is an incredible document in that it graphically depicts the beginning, the high-water mark and the decline of the most prominent world powers from 2,000 BC to 1,900 CE. 

I’ll give you the link in a minute but first let me explain a few things. The x axis on top lists the most prominent world powers. The y axis is the time in 50-year increments. The width of the nations at any given year indicates the country’s relative power.  Egypt for example, is the big kid on the block at the top of the chart in 2000 BC. By following it down you can see the gains and loss of its stature over time until it ceases to be a world power. In the lower left corner you will see the United States. In the grand scheme of things we were a Johnny-come-lately and a medium sized power. If the data continued to today we would be the big guy. But for how long?

Here is the link. Please do yourself a favor and look at the chart. You will see living, moving history, and the certainty that change is inevitable. We can learn from history but thus far we haven’t been able to use that knowledge to alter our future. That is the paradox.   

Of Winners and Losers

For anyone interested in November’s presidential election, broadcast news is still hammering on the election and its aftermath. A barrage of issues old and new are presented every day. For me there are only two issues that I am interested in. One is Trumps nominees, the other is if he will really carry out all the threats that he has made…that he will take action on them on “day one”. I think that his actions will be less severe than his election bluster. For example, he has recently said that he may not pardon all of the capital rioters, and that he may keep us in NATO if the other countries live up to their commitments. Personally, I agree with his stance on NATO, but strongly disagree on pardoning any of the capital rioters.

I am also hearing and reading comments regarding Biden’s “abdication”, and Harris’s disappearance since losing the election. I think that Biden standing down is just dealing with reality. Some years ago a superior that I reported to announced his retirement. Almost overnight he became a non-entity. He was still shown respect, but he was no longer treated as a team leader, or even as a team member. I discussed the situation with him and remember him saying that, “…once you announce, you’re gone.” That’s where Biden is now, in the land of limbo. So is Harris. I feel sorry for her though I’m sure that she doesn’t need my sympathy. She ran a good campaign. Yes, she lost but if she is a loser than so are the 74.4 million of us who voted for her. That number represents 48.3 % of the total vote. Trump finished with 49.9 % or 76.9 million votes. Voter turn out was 63.7 % who cast 151.3 million votes. I find it interesting that in a year when there was so much hype and so much at stake, that out of 244.7 million voter eligible persons, 89.3 million didn’t vote. That raises another thought for me. I have heard a few Republicans say that the American people have given Trump a ‘mandate’. In election speak, mandate is usually interpreted to mean a significant majority. I don’t think it can reasonably be said that Trump received a significant majority. And, if the number of Harris voters and non-voters is added together, the total is 163.7 million who didn’t vote for Trump…more than double the number of votes he did receive. Anyway you slice it he did not receive a mandate from the American people.

Anyway, those numbers don’t mean anything now. For better or worse its over and done. I for one will be watching future events with a degree of apprehension. Whatever Trump does or doesn’t do, it is going to be one hell of an interesting first quarter in 2025. 

An Afternoon Walk in the Past

It has been said of me that I should have been an historian or archeologist, because my thoughts and focus are so often in the past. I usually reply that the future has not yet happened, and that the present becomes the past almost instantly, so for practical purposes the past is all that there is. But I know what they mean and can't argue the point. I definitely do have an affinity for the past. An example is a walk in the neighborhood yesterday afternoon.

Fairview is a large, modest piece of country dotted with modest homes owned by working class people. You won't find any mansions here, and are more likely to see houses that are in need of attention. The area was once known as the Peach Orchard. Some still refer to it as that. I don't know why. Anyway, while we're walking I try to imagine what the land looked like when the Cherrokee were the sole residents. I know that it is completely different, but the geography; the hills and ravines are the same as they were in the early 1800s so I have to content myself with that. 

It was sometime around 1838 that President Andrew Jackson ordered the forced removal of the entire Cherrokee nation to a reservation in Oklahoma. That opened the gates for the settlers to come pouring in. To my knowledge one of the first was Xanders McFarland, who quickly became one of the largest landowners in the area, including the land my house is on. I've been trying off and on to trace the owners of my property from McFarland to me with no success. 

Our walk took us past a car graveyard. For some unknown reason this Chevy Sport Blazer has always intrigued me. 

I can't look at it without seeing it sitting in the Morristown, Tennessee dealer showroom in 1987, with mom and dad and maybe a couple of kids looking at it. Dad is trying his best to look nonchalant in front of his family and the salesman, but inside he wants to drive this vehicle so badly that he is starting to sweat. Later, after the papers are signed I can see the Blazer tooling down the street; a smug look on dad’s face and the kids peering out the back side windows. Who knows where that car has been, who has driven it, how many owners it has had, what adventures it experienced, and how it came to be in this graveyard in Fairview, Georgia? The answer to the last part of this question seems evident - the front end on the driver side is completely demolished. Wherever it happened, it was a violent ending. There are other cars in the graveyard, some so deeply buried in jungle-like brush and undergrowth that it is impossible to get to them. And each has a story to tell.

Not too far away is what remains of what appeared to be a fine house. All that remains now is the front facade. The roof and all the walls are laying crumpled on the ground. The brickwork leading to the house talks to me. I can see quests ascending the concrete steps and following a path that today leads to nowhere. There is no way of knowing when this house was built. My guess would be anywhere from the early to mid-1900s.

There are more reminders of the past; more pictures to be taken. The final photo yesterday was of the return to our house. The sun was setting, the temperature was mild, and as usual the only sounds were from birds. Fortunately history doesn’t stop with our return home. At approximately 3:00 PM on September 20, 1863 a federal army defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga was hastily retreating through the McFarland Gap on its way to Rossville and then to Chattanooga. Our home is about 500 yards from the gap, and no doubt many Union soldiers traveled over our land to reach the gap. There to see them hurry by was a 161-year-old water oak (towering over the garage). The tree is now estimated to be 240 years old, which takes us back to 1784. Perhaps a Cherokee brave out hunting watched a squirrel bury the acorn that would become the massive tree that exists on our land today.    

When I am sitting in a chair 20 feet from that oak, watching burgers cooking on the wood grill, I think about that Chevy Blazer, the remains of the old house, the retreating soldiers, and what the land must have looked like to that oak as a young sapling. If time travel was a real thing....

Somewhat Disappointing

 In a couple of days Phase 1 of the election process will be over. Phase 1 is the part where potential voters are bombarded with politics. It is inescapable. Between the time when I am starting this post and then finishing it I will probably receive 5 - 6 or more emails telling me how angelic one candidate is and how demonic the other is. Television programs and the internet present themselves as news programs but they really are biased electioneering. I particularly enjoy the trite phrases, including the one that says how the other candidate is a serious threat to our country and democracy. 

Various polls have been showing for some time that the election is virtually even at this point. Which I find interesting. The latest stats that I have found say that there are 186.5 million voters registered in this country. If the polls prove to be true, that means that each candidate will receive 93.25 million votes. Think about that. Each side fervently believes that they are right and the other side is crazy (crazy is a word that's been tossed around a lot in this election). How is it possible that 93.25 million people see the truth, while the other 93.25 million are crazy? It would probably take a conference of 100 socialists and psychologists 10 years to answer that question. And 93.25 million people would not accept the group's conclusion. 

Anyway, next Wednesday Phase 2 of the process will begin. That will involve hundreds of accusations about voting fraud being tossed about. Investigations will be held; suits will be filed, and best of all endless conspiracy theorists will entertain us into the unforeseeable future. Some will even claim to have proof. I'll be 84 next month, and I am mildly hopeful that we will settle on who was elected president sometime before my 85th birthday. 

I voted early last week. When I handed in my ballet I was given a sticker that says, "I'm a Georgia Voter - I secured my vote." I wonder what that means? How did I secure my vote? If Trump looses he won't believe my vote was "secured". And I do hope that he looses. Now, living here in the south smack in the middle of a cultural far-right mindset, voting against Trump makes me one of the "crazies." I don't go around publicizing that I'm anti-Trump, and I don't bring up the subject in conversation, but I also will not back down if the topic does arise.  

When I left the voting both last week  I had a sort of helpless feeling. I would like to be able to do more to defeat Trump, but there isn't anything else. I did have one thought though that kind of perked me up. I thought of the most obnoxious MAGA guy that I know, and imagined telling him that I had just neutralized his vote - made his vote meaningless. That probably should not be a source of pleasure for me but that's the way it is these days, and that is somewhat disappointing.

The Last WOW!

 Yesterday Maribel and I and some friends ate lunch at the Local Goat restaurant in the city of Ooltewah, TN. It is a fairly new restaurant in a rapid growth area. The exterior appearance is tastefully modern as is the interior. The food and drink menus had a good selection. The ambience was so-so, the service and food quality was good. What was most pleasing, most enjoyable was the lengthy discussion with our friends. That is almost always the case. It doesn't matter where we are, it is being with our friends and the conversation that leaves us with that good feeling and memories afterward. 

This morning Maribel and I were critiquing the Local Goat restaurant and concluded, as we usually do, that it was okay but no wow. That led to us to trying to recall the last time we were wowed by a restaurant. Neither of us had an answer. We decided that if you've seen one restaurant, you've seen them all. What got interesting is that we began applying that same 'seen one seen them all' concept beyond restaurants. Yesterday afternoon we went to a Labor Day fair. Same thing...if you've seen one town fair you've seen them all. And our list kept growing to include: antebellum mansions, Civil War battlefields, antique shops, mountains, rivers, clothing shops, grocery stores, gift shops, and as much as we enjoy visiting and walking the main street of small towns, there isn't much difference between them. We know pretty much what we're going to see before we get there.

We then asked each other, when was the last time you experienced a wow feeling from any source? Maribel had to go all the way back to December, 2013 when she achieved her goal of many years...seeing Machu Picchu, with her son Brian and me. There is no doubt that Machu Picchu is a magical place. Even though we had crappy weather on the day of our visit, taking photos with the iconic background was a thrill for all of us.

My last wow moment occurred in Nashville in September, 2018. Some friends were showing us the sights. At one stop after getting out of the car, there in front of me was a full scale replica of the Greek Parthenon. Given my life-long penchant for history, that by itself was enough to get me excited. 

What I saw when I stepped inside was a powerful WOW! experience. There stood a 42' statue of Athena, gilded in shining gold. The statue in her hand is 6' tall. I walked around and around that statue, snapping I don't know how many photos. I was spellbound. The size, the detail and sheer beauty were awesome. Had I been by myself I probably would have spent the rest of the day gawking at my surroundings.

Seeing Athena happened 6 years ago yesterday. Machu Picchu was 13 years ago. That's a long time since our last wows. I do hope that they won't be the last ones. Maribel has been suggesting for some time that we visit Europe. It could be that in Italy, France or Germany there are several WOWs! waiting for us. I hope so.

 

A Riddle Without an Answer

 Last night Bloomberg's Opinion editor Tim O'Brien wrote on X...

"Trump’s taken control of the momentum of this debate — despite lying and living in an alternate reality — and Biden simply comes across as a somewhat dazed punching bag," 

That pretty much sums up the situation.

What does a thinking, reasoning voter do in November? The choice is between a lying, delusional megalomaniac, and a man who is not competent to hold any decision making position be it in politics or the private sector. 

Last night was Biden's swan song. There is zero chance of his recovery. Among the democrats there is talk of finding a replacement candidate. Who might that be? No reasonable individual is going to offer themselves up as cannon fodder. Though I see no possibility that they could work, there are only two options that the democrats could try. One would be to run with Taylor Swift...if she would accept the role of candidate. Her name is a household word, and her cult followers are probably just as fanatic and numerous as the MAGA cult. She couldn't be more incompetent than Biden, nor as divisive/destructive as Trump.

The other option would be to counter Trump's spewing of verbal diarrhea last night point by point with facts, a process that has already been started. Proof of his lies may move the undecided voters away from him, and who knows...may even penetrate the mind fog of some Trumpers. But to what end? Not voting for Trump leads us back to Biden. The choices are heart attack or cancer. I don't see an answer to this riddle. 

As for me, comes November I'll either be siting this one out, or voting for Biden with the hope that should he win he won't be in office long and that kamala Harris won't be as bad as I have imagined.

A Hidden Gem

It was mid-morning last Thursday when we backed the car out of the garage and, as we often do, took off for parts unknown. Driving in the mountains and forested countryside of northwest Georgia on the winding roads is a peaceful and relaxing experience. And you don't need to have a destination in mind. There is always something just around the next bend...a festival, flea market, junk shop or maybe just an old abandoned building that beckons to be looked at and to be appreciated for the images it conjures up about its glory days. The building has done it's job if it leaves the viewer with the age-old thought, "if only it could talk."

We had been on the road for a couple of hours when Maribel said she was getting hungry. We were a few miles from Summerville and were talking about which restaurant we should eat at when an old building caught our eyes. Some old buildings have character; some do not. I guess that it's up to the viewer to determine which category a building belongs in. We pulled over and got out of the car to take a photo and look around a bit.

We felt that this building has character, and its structure had us guessing about its age and what its original purpose was. The sign above the doors intrigued us; The Willow Tree Grill. It was too new...it didn't fit with the story the building was telling us. We peered through the windows, expecting to see loads of trash but were literally stunned by the sight that greeted our eyes. Inside there were tables and chairs and a bar, And people were sitting at the tables and bar. And there was a waitress carrying plates of food. This is a working restaurant! The parking area is not visible from the front, being located behind and some distance from the building, leading us to believe that the building was abandoned. 

The entrance is through a narrow door on the left side of the building. Upon entering we felt as if we were stepping back in time. I would not have been surprised to see a couple of cowboys and an Indian belly up to the bar and order whiskey. There was no way we were going to walk away without spending some time looking around and eating at this restaurant. 

The menu contained the typical southern family restaurant offerings. Maribel had a chicken salad plate which she enjoyed but was disappointed that the chicken was ground up rather than served in slices. I ordered fried breaded shrimp with onion rings and a house salad as the two sides. Everything was done to perfection, even the one-inch thick toast was delicious. The portions were generous, the prices reasonable and the service was excellent.

The Willow Tree Grill is a 50 minute drive from our home. We will be back. When we do return, I wonder if we will have the same feelings. It may be that having experienced the initial surprise and uniqueness, a large part of the attraction will be gone. It's happened before, but somehow I don't think so. I believe that The Willow Tree Grill truly is a hidden gem.  

Just Another Political Post

One thing that I've observed is that people are people. Customs and cultures may differ a bit, but what is consistent no matter where you are is complaining about politicians and weather. I remember an election in Peru years ago where the standard joke about choosing between the presidential candidates was like a choice between AIDS and cancer. Six months ago when it became apparent that the coming November election would feature Biden and Trump I told some friends that it would be like choosing between Bud Abbot and Lou Costello. At the time I thought that my comment was humorous. I don't see it that way anymore. I truly believe that Abbot or Costello would have been a better president than Biden or Trump. 

Joe Biden has lots of political experience. With the Democratic Party agenda. There's no need for me to enumerate on what that agenda is. My biggest complaints about Biden are his mishandling of the border problem, which is now much more that just a border issue as it is affecting the entire country economically and culturally. I also disagree with the position the US and some allies have taken on Ukraine. The endless dollars and equipment being poured into Ukraine isn't going to change the inevitable outcome of that war. Ukraine can't defeat Russia. It will either be completely overrun or will have to give up territory to survive. 

My viewpoint on the war is considered extreme. Russia has been a pain in the world's butt for over a century. That condition is not going to end. Putin is determined to see the reresection of the USSR. What I would liked to have happened is that on the day that Russian troops crossed into Ukraine, the United States and any NATO allies in a position to join us would have hit the Russian troops with everything we have excepting nuclear weapons. I believe Putin would have backed off, and in case he didn't we hit him in his own territory. Sure, it would have been risky but we're going to have to fight Russia someday so why not do it when they invaded another country? 

Realistically, the chances of our NATO allies fighting along side of the USA is a pipe dream. NATO, like the United Nations is a paper tiger. All that either organization is good for is considering resolutions or sanctions, neither of which have enforcement mechanisms. NATO has maybe four member countries who might join us in confronting Russia. The other countries are members only for protection from the US if they are attacked. Look at the following information.

The bar graph says it all. The US and Turkey are NATO's military force. And if it came to combat with Russia, Turkey would sit on the sidelines, leaving the US to do the fighting. On the other side, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Belarus would be analogous to the "Axis powers" of WW11. Not looking good in my opinion. Especially if Biden or Trump are at the helm. 

I don't have this conversation with many people, especially when I express my view on Trump. Doing that in the past has caused me to lose some friends, which I regret. When I leave the house these days I wear my 'Barry Goldwater in 64' campaign button. I think that it is a more subtle way of saying that I don't approve of either candidate.  

Some weeks ago I found myself fantasizing. In my fantasy I magically appeared on television worldwide, interrupting the reality and cooking and game shows that contribute so much to society's advancement. My appearance was in the guise of Abraham Lincoln. I told the viewers (my words were translated to every known language) that I was disappointed with humanity, and was going to take some unilateral action myself. First, I imprisoned Putin and his colleagues in a newly constructed prison in the Sahara desert. Then I removed all Russian military from Ukraine, and announced that Russia would pay  for the cost of rebuilding Ukraine. Next I removed all military equipment from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Not even a slingshot would remain. Those actions were just for starters. We have other problems.

The reason we have illegal drugs in this country is not the suppliers. It's the users. I couldn't  think of a way to stop the users, so what I did was have the skin and clothing of anyone manufacturing, distributing or selling illegal drugs turn a bright red. Hopefully there will be enough non-red people to jail and shame the reds. Next I tackled the internet hackers, scammers and trolls. Their skin I turned to bright green. The skin of corrupt government employees, politicians, cops and business people I gifted with bright yellow. I probably would have gone farther but Maribel called me to lunch. The whole point is that there are a lot of bad people on this planet, and by identifying them it might change their behavior. It may be that the reds, greens and yellows would outnumber the normal skins. That wouldn't surprise me. If that is the case, I would hit the reset everything button.

Oh...I almost forgot the border problem. This is how I see it. Anyone who is in this country (or any country)  illegally would immediately disappear and reappear in their own country. Makes no difference if they've been here twenty years and raised a family here. They know they are illegal and must face the consequences.  

As for unfinished business, I still don't know what to do about Trump and the far right folks. In my view they are the source of turmoil in this country. Given their attitudes, they would regard a skin color change as a badge of courage. 

Seeing the Real Peru

Sometimes in conversations the subject of foreign travel comes up. If I mention that I lived in Peru for nine years, the usual response is something like, "I've never been there but would like to see it." Occasionally someone will say that they have visited Peru, and add that Peru is a beautiful country. When I ask them where they visited, the typical reply is Lima, Machu Picchu, Cusco and Arequipa. I ignore the urge to tell them that they haven't seen Peru; that the locals who descend on them, especially the women dressed in native costumes and holding those cute little lambs, are not representative of 90% of Peru. What they and the hundreds of artisan kiosks represent are "un pueblo para turistas." And that's okay. Like everyone else in this world they are just trying to make a few bucks.

In my previous post I mentioned that the rock I was writing about came from the Chinchipe River near the village of Zapotal. Zapotal and hundreds of small villages like it located in northern Peru's costal desert and mountains are the real Peru. I seriously doubt if a tourist, or even a missionary has ever been to Zapotal. It is not an adventure for the faint-hearted.

The journey begins at Chiclayo, the normal departure point. A bus is the usual transportation, taking six hours on winding roads in the Andes Mountains to reach the city of Jaen (pronounced hi-een). In Jaen there are men with cars who make their living by taking people to outlying villages. This part of the trip is an adventure. 

The Chinchipe River must be crossed. The problem is that there are no bridges, so sometime in the past some ingenious people devised a way to cross the river. By using a series of cables attached to each other and ultimately to winches on shore, people, cars and even trucks are barged across the river.  

There are other, smaller rivers to cross. This is done by simply driving through them, but first stopping to cover the car's engine to the degree possible, because the river water  reaches about one-third of the way up the car doors.

After what seems like an eternity the village of Zapotal appears. The population of maybe 300 people are farmers. Their produce is transported to Jaen via the same route described above.

The Chinchipe River, which is milky colored with a fairly swift current is a focal point of the village. The villagers wash laundry and bathe in it, get their cooking water from it, and use it to cool off during the heat of the day.

You won't find gaily dressed women holding lambs, or kiosks selling everything under the sun, or tourist restaurants and night-life lounges. These are people who work hard from sun up to sun down just to get by. They are mostly content with their lives.

If you've been to Zapotal or a village like it, you've seen the real Peru.

View of Another World

 NASA has released some spectacular photos of the cosmos taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The purpose of the photos is primarily scientific...to provide information to physicists to better understand the origin, composition and extent of the universe. For the general public the photos offer the opportunity to be awed both by the sheer beauty and configuration of the celestial objects, but as detailed as the Webb photos are, they still don't get us close enough to see and appreciate the intricate patterns and innate beauty of other planets. 

Still, there are other worlds much closer to home to examine and marvel at, if one has the ability to exercise their imagine and to appreciate nature's wonders. Take a moment to examine the photos below of 'another world.' No...take more than a moment to look in detail at each segment of each photo (don't forget to click on them). If you can open up your mind, you may find yourself feeling this world worthy of appreciation, and asking yourself how such a world could have been created.

 The above photos of 'another world' are of a rock found in the Chinchipe River near the village of Zapotal, Peru. 

I have spent hours looking at the rock through a magnifying glass and still find features and patterns that I missed on previous occasions. Very recently these photos and a description of the rock were sent to the geology department of a university in North Carolina for examination. Hopefully they will be able to shed some light as to how the rock and its unique designs were created.

My take on the Republican debate

 

The eventual Republican nominee for the 2024 election was not on that stage last night. The front runner, Ron DeSantis looked and spoke like an angry mechanical robot, avoiding questions and instead spouting pre-recorded sound bites. On the few occasions when he was forced to go off-script he was extremely awkward. 

I thought that Pence looked good. He showed more forcefulness than I've seen before and I liked his answers and comments. Realistically he has no chance because to the MAGA crowd he will always be a traitor. Asa Hutchinson displayed good objective reasoning on most issues. Working against him is the appearance of a kindly old grandfather giving advice to his grandkids. 

Ramaswamy at first impressed me but as the evening progressed he became more combative and extreme in his views. I dismissed him completely when he said he would abandon Ukraine, and pardon Trump on day one. I was pleased when Nikki Haley challenged him on Ukraine. 

Russia has been a pain in the world's ass for more than a century. Putin is trying to rebuild the USSR and if he's not stopped he will succeed, with the help of China and other allies. In my view the day that Russia crossed the Ukraine border he should have been met with all of the firepower that NATO could muster. 

A different issue that all candidates seemed to agree on was that China and Mexico are responsible for the drug deaths in America. This is pure rubbish. No one is forcing Americans to use drugs. The drug cartels are simply supplying the demand that we have created. We are killing ourselves. Education is not the answer. Drug users know full well what the consequences could be. What's lacking is a sense of values; a sense of right and wrong. I don't have an answer as to why those qualities are lacking. 

Let me get back to the candidates. Chris Christie, the man I've been in favor of has gotten some favorable reviews regarding last night but in my opinion he came up short. He was a non-factor. He did on occasion display his objective thinking, but not nearly enough and his combative attitude toward Ramaswamy was distasteful. In the coming debates he must use his reasoning ability on the issues that Americans are concerned about.

Of the eight candidates, I could support Nikki Haley. Her stance on most issued mirrored my own. I like the way she handled herself on that stage. I liked her candidness, especially in her opening comments when she said that Republicans were partially to blame for the economy. My sense is that she has her own agenda that she believes in and is not trying to be all things to all voters. That's called conviction.

But as I said, none of the eight candidates will be the nominee. Baring something unforeseen it will be Trump. For Trump supporters these debates may as well not even take place, though it does give them an opportunity to boo the hopefuls. 

Yesterday in an antique shop Maribel found a "Goldwater in '64" campaign pin that I have been looking for for many months. Comes November of next year if the choices are Biden or Trump, I'll be wearing my Goldwater pin and voting for him just as I did in '64. 

Dreaming on a Chickamauga park bench

 It is a hot, lazy Sunday afternoon. Too hot to do any serious outdoor walking. Earlier in the week we'd done our antique shops circuit and mall walking so we didn't have a lot of options as far as getting out of the house goes. What we did was hop into the car, backed out of the driveway and just took off, with no destination in mind. We ended up in Chickamauga, which is not really surprising as it is one of our two favorite small towns in the area, the other being Ringgold.

Chickamauga is what could be called a bedroom community for Chattanooga, and to a lesser extent for Fort Oglethorpe. It has lots of newer subdivisions with nice homes, a large modern high school, an historic pre-civil war mansion open for tours on Saturday, and that's about it. For restaurants there is a Mexican restaurant, two pizza joints, and an ice cream shop that also sells hot dogs. For shopping it has...pretty much nada, and zero manufacturing.

Main street is about two blocks long and, like many small towns, half of the buildings are vacant. But the town has a friendly feel to it, and a park bench in the shade in front of one of those vacant buildings was just the ticket for us this afternoon. 

We talked a bit about the history of Chickamauga, and then narrowed our focus to three buildings across the street. This is not the first time we've talked about those buildings. Both Maribel and me are fascinated with their age, appearance, and what we imagine to be their past. Of the three only the middle one is in use, as a dentist's office. The other two are vacant. 

It is the building on the right that intrigues us. We wonder what purposes it served in the past, and what it would have been like to live on the second floor. And we speculate on what we would/could do with that building. To me it reminds me of one of the old time saloons we saw in Virginia City, Nevada. I can almost hear a honky-tonk piano and the sound of cards being shuffled. I can see the 'scarlet ladies' on the balcony waving handkerchiefs and shouting taunts to the men on the street. Maribel sees it differently.

She envisions a restaurant - her own, called Mary's Place. She is sure that with attractive ambiance, good food at a good price and exceptional service that the Mexican restaurant and pizza joints would soon be history. And that's not all. These buildings are lengthy, nearly running to the street behind them. There would be plenty of room for a Peruvian gift shop, stocked with inexpensive items that she and her fellow Peruvian Americans would bring back from their annual trips to Peru. 

We would sell our present home and move into the second floor. The only drawback we can see is that active railroad tracks are only a few feet from the building and it appears that switching railroad cars takes place very nearby.

Of course these plans are dependent on a thorough inspection by a competent building inspector.  And finding out who owns the building and if they are interested in selling. And us being able to afford the building, and whatever remodeling is needed, and the equipment to equip a fully functioning restaurant. 

In the end, Mary's Place has about as much a chance of happening as that 200 seat theater in Ringgold that I drew up plans for. But hey...life is not always about reality, and dreaming dreams on a park bench on a lazy Sunday afternoon is a perfectly valid way to spend quality time. 

Thoughts on a Sunday morning

I haven't kept track of the number of Republican candidates for the office of President in 2024. Not that it matters. Soon they will start dropping out one by one. DeSantis has plateaued and is on his way down. Christie, who is my choice for the Republican nominee is last in the polls, I believe largely because he is taking the wrong strategy. You don't win by attacking Trump. Doing that just provides more fodder for his followers. I don't think that there is a strategy that would influence the Trump faithful. They're not interested in truth. What they want to hear is rhetoric that supports what they want to believe. Civility, reason and objective thinking have no part in the present political climate.  

All Trump has to do is say something, anything, whether it makes sense or not and the faithful nod their heads, wave their arms and erupt in wild agreement. He proclaims that the ballots were fake, the election was rigged and the crowd shouts in angry agreement. He says that "I am being indicted for you" (this is a characteristic of the Savior/Jesus Complex) and the crowd becomes wildly indignant. As for all the noise being made about his present legal issues, I think it is just that...noise, that will fizzle out and disappear.  

On November 18, 1978 James Jones, an American preacher who moved his temple from San Francisco to Jonestown, Guyana called on his followers to commit mass suicide before killing himself. Authorities found 909 bodies; men, women and children. How to explain the hold that Jones had on his followers? What would happen if Trump told his followers to arm themselves and march on the Department of Justice? Sounds far-fetched...until you consider that many on the far right are calling the present divisiveness in the country a cultural 'war', and there were cries to "hang Pence" during the January 6th insurrection, as well as self-proclaimed freedom fighters decked out in tactical clothing with weapons in the crowd.

My guess is that the names on the ballot in 2024 will be Biden/Harris and Trump/?. Margorie Greene is working awful hard to ingratiate herself to Trump, McCarthy and others. She is such a loose cannon that I doubt if even Trump would select her as a running mate but I wouldn't be shocked if it happens.

Another four years of Biden/Harris concerns me. The blatant moves toward socialism are upsetting. I don't want to see student loans forgiven. I don't want to see illegal immigrants coddled. I don't want to pay reparations to blacks whose ancestors were slaves. Most of all I don't want to see Biden die or be unable to perform his duties. In a Kamala Harris administration there would be no room for straight white male conservatives. Her whole deal is apologizing to minorities of all flavors. 

As I stroll through antique/junk shops I continue to look for a Barry Goldwater campaign button. I voted for him 60 years ago in 1964 and as it stands now he'll get my vote in 2024.

The Waiting Room

 Let's get one thing straight right off the bat; sitting in a waiting room ain't fun. Don't make no difference if you're waiting for your own name to be called or the name of someone whose with you or if your waiting for someone who has already been called in to come out. Or maybe you're at an airport waiting for the announcement that your flight will begin boarding shortly or that you got lucky and your name was called from the stand-by list. Waiting just ain't fun.

Waiting rooms come in all shapes and sizes. Some waiting rooms are big and impersonal like at an airport of a county court house. Others verge on tiny with maybe 5 or 6 chairs like at the clinic that I just left. It was a physical therapy clinic. It was tastefully decorated as far as that goes but that doesn't help with the feeling that if I'm sitting there doing nothing a portion of my life is slowly fading away. 

I was waiting for Maribel who has a problem with her shoulder. A  doctor in Chattanooga says the problem is what's called 'frozen shoulder'. A doctor in Peru diagnosed it as tendonitis. Both prescribed physical therapy. It doesn't help the situation with me not being a fan of physical therapy. I rank PT right up there with chiropractic, acupuncture and voodoo as effective medical treatment. I firmly believe that anything that PT might help would have cured itself in time. 

One thing that waiting rooms all have in common is people, and more precisely people with cell phones. Some have it to their ear but most are scrolling or typing. Of the 4 people in the afore mentioned waiting room 3 had cell phones in their hands. Not me. And I didn't have one in my pocket. I don't now and never have owned a cell phone. No reason to get into why.

That doesn't mean my hands are empty. I know that someday a young person will approach me in a waiting room and say..."Mister, can I ask you what that is you have in your hand?" And I will reply..."This is called a book." I'll go on to explain that it has pages made of paper, that it has words printed on that paper, that a person wrote those words, that a publisher published it, and that books have souls. I will also show to the inquirer the book marker I use to keep track of where I left off reading. It's an elongated plastic marker blue in color with a pair of dolphins on the front and Barnes & Noble on the back. It has a tassel, also blue, on the top. It is cracked in several places and is held together with transparent tape. It has been my constant companion for at least 25 years. 

I imagine that the inquirer will probably return to their chair and Google 'book', and will read that books, like newspapers are extinct artifacts that previously were used to convey written information. I doubt that the article will mention that books also served a useful purpose in waiting rooms.

Trump Shows no Fear

 Trump is not afraid to take on anybody. Now he's added the mutants to his enemy list as having a hand in the recent indictments. I think he probably knows that it is risky to piss off mutants...those people have really wicked powers, but he's willing to take that risk because he has seen that no matter what he says or does, his fund raising and support from the MAGA group increases. Look for Marjorie Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Kevin McCarthy to spearhead a War on Mutants soon. 

There is an unsubstantiated rumor that Trump's next target will be the ALHP...Association of Left Handed Plumbers, because a poll from an obscure university showed that a majority of said plumbers living in Driggs, Idaho do not believe that the election was rigged. A militant group of MAGA folks dressed and equipped with tactical gear are reportedly in route to Driggs to peacefully protest against those heathen plumbers. Which will raise more campaign funds and support for Trump. 

These are crazy times.

Pushing back against Father Time

 The photo below from a previous post has drawn several comments about my physique. The photo came about because there are at least three gray squirrels with blond tails in the neighborhood. I have never seen a blond-tailed squirrel before and I assume they are not common. Anyway, Maribel was trying to get a photo of the three together but was not successful, however she did manage to snap this photo of a sweaty, stubborn, 82 year old man mowing grass in 90 degree weather. When I saw the photo it provided the idea for the post about why I don't wear shorts. The physique issue will take a little more explanation, and I guess is another example of my stubbornness. 

When the human body has passed the age of thirty it begins to lose muscle mass. By the age of eighty 50% of the muscle mass is lost. A scale may not show it because the muscle weight loss is often replaced by fat. The missing muscle contributes to the increased difficulty with age of getting into and out of a car, a chair, bending, climbing stairs, doing simple everyday tasks and maintaining balance while walking. I am determined to do whatever I can for as long as I can to delay that happening to me. The two options that are within my control to help me do that are diet and exercise. Diet is simply a matter of paying attention to what and how much I eat.

As for exercise, every morning I ride a stationary bike for thirty minutes at ten miles per hour on a medium resistance setting. I used to use a heavier resistance setting but my legs won't let me do it anymore for the full 30 minutes. What the bike does for me beside burning calories is to help maintain calf and thigh muscles as well as providing cardio exercise.

To maintain upper body muscle mass I have a weight lifting routine. I use two 15lb dumbbells to do four simple exercises. I start with overhead lifts, then immediately follow with shoulder shrugs, bicep curls and finish with chest flys. Each exercise is done to failure. I rest for five or six minutes and then repeat the exercises until I have done five repetitions. The total time takes about 45 minutes. The weight lifting I do every other day, to let the muscles recover. On alternate days I do kitchen counter push ups at random times.

And that's it. There is nothing exceptional or special about me...anyone could do the same thing. The biggest obstacle is staying with it. There are days when I blow it off, when I feel lazy and invent an excuse not to do it, but I always feel guilty and make sure that I don't miss it the next day. 

What motivates me more than anything else is the thought of Maribel having to take care of me, or worse, living in an assisted living complex. If a program of diet and exercise can add a few more years of physical independence to my life, it's more than worth the time and effort.