A trip to the Pioneer Woman Museum in Ponca City, Oklahoma, with two of our granddaughters was an enjoyable experience. The girls got to see two weaving looms in use, and learned lots of new things about pioneer women who helped settle Oklahoma. A rainy day during a week of RV camping gave us a good excuse to get out and spend an afternoon at the museum. The museum itself is simply chock-a-block full of information about the life and experiences of early white settlers in OK. The areas covered: Fiber Art, An Oklahoma Woman – A Patchwork in Time and Space, Coming to the Cherokee Strip, Small Blessings, Heart of the Home, Living the Good Life, Out of the Kitchen, Into the Fire, A Cultured Life, Help from the Past, Hope For the Future, Breaking News – Oklahoma Women Journalists, Bending the Rules, Bound to Please, A History of Corsets,and last, but not least, there is the Education Room with a small display of artifacts. We all enjoyed the time spent, and each had a particularly favorite display. The older of our two granddaughters was very interested in the weaving demonstration and posed many articulate questions to the docent. She also liked the Breaking News, Oklahoma Women Journalists section. Her interest there was perhaps sparked by her father’s work as a journalist. The younger girl really liked three of the areas – a Cultured Life with it’s fine collection of musical instruments, Bending the Rules with it’s list of preposterous etiquette rules and the adage that “well-behaved women seldom make history.” That really appealed to her. She also liked the gallery’s four flipbooks which gave information on the times and trends of notable Oklahoma women. T-shirt souveniers rounded out their educational and fun day. Hooray for camping with kids and a chance to share their enthusiasm and curiosity. If you get a chance to visit Ponca City, OK, make sure to include a visit to the Pioneer Woman Museum. There are many other sites of interest in and around this small city – The Standing Bear Museum, the Marland House and the Marland Mansion are just a few, and all worthy of a day each. If you can manage to visit the Standing Bear Museum during a Pow-Wow, the scope and pleasure of the experience will be greatly amplified.
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The People Speak Out!
NO! to the Keystone XL pipeline. On April 22, 2014, a large group of farmers, ranchers and tribal community members will arrive on horseback in Washington, D.C. That group, called the Cowboy Indian Alliance, will be bringing a message to President Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Their message is called “Reject and Protect.” They are concerned about the impact that pipeline would have on sensitive waterways if there is a pipeline break, such as happened in Arkansas and several other states last year. They are also concerned that the transmission of the toxic tar sands oil, destined for southern refineries and shipment to foreign markets, will have a significant negative impact on our national economy, our land and the well-being of future generations. More information about this unusual Alliance, their message, and their concerns can be found at http://www.greenpeaceblogs.org. It takes such alliances, with people speaking out about their well-founded concerns, to make a difference! This group will be joined by thousands of other individuals during the week April 22-April 27 to bring the message: “Stand for our people, for our water, for our climate, for our lands!”
IN WHAT WORLD???
Fracking is a controversial procedure that is being increasingly used in the quest for natural gas. There are too many questions and questionable procedures to allow this proliferation to continue without considered oversight. Water source contamination, earthquakes, questionable land grabbing, explosions at well sites, unregulated proprietary chemical use and disposal, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. Yes, we need the domestic energy source. But, at what cost is it reasonable? The public needs to seriously consider this, speak up, and require legislators to get off the oil and gas company payrolls!
A Giant Voice Stilled
Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed from life during this past week. He was an author of remarkable talent. This quote means a lot to me as age creeps up and some dreams seem dimmer. “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. They grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” Would that aging might be as William Wordsworth so poignantly put it: “O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth Age might but take the things Youth needed not!” from “The Small Celadine”, 1807 We all need dreams to keep us in pursuit of the force of life itself. When we quit dreaming, we wither and fade away. Thank you Marquez and Wordsworth for your insights. May you always be remembered.
On Righteousness
“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinance is from injury to animals” Albert Einstein
What Do You Love?
No Exclusion!
from the words of the venerated St. Francis of Assisi, animal protector – so true! Perhaps Governor Otter of Idaho will take heed.
From Scotland to the Sierras
“In wildness lies the hope of the world.” John Muir
April 21, 1838: John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, destined to become known as “Father of Our National Park System.” In 1849, the Muir family emigrated to the United States, where they finally settled near Portage, Wisconsin. The seeming siren song of the natural world became irresistable to John Muir, and he became a life-long, loving observer of the world around him. His horizons expanded to include many areas, and he travelled extensively, experiencing intimately all natural aspects of those areas. He began to develop an excellent ability to record the insights he gained on those trips in journals. He also became somewhat of an inventor, and won prizes at the Wisconsin State Fair at Madison in 1860. After completing three years of education at the University of Wisconsin, he began travelling expanses of the United States in 1863. He ended up in California in March of 1868. Walking across the San Joaquin Valley through waist-high wildflowers, he found himself in the high country of California for the first time, and lost his heart to it’s beauty and wildness. He thought the Sierra Nevada Range was “the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain chains…” He began to be known throughout this country for his writings about the region. Such famous men as Joseph LeConte, Asa Gray, and Ralph Waldo Emerson came to commune with Muir at his modest pine cabin in those mountains. Muir’s successful writing career had been launched in 1874 when he produced a series of articles titled “Studies in the Sierra.” Subsequent articles of his which were published in Century magazine drew attention to the devastation of mountain meadows and forests by grazing sheep and cattle. Muir worked to remedy that destruction. In a joint effort, Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson prodded the U.S. Congress to create Yosemite National Park. Muir was also deeply involved in the successful efforts to create the Sequoia, Mt. Ranier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks. Those great efforts have earned him the appellation “Father of Our National Park System. In 1892, Muir helped found the Sierra Club, with the express intention “to do something for wildness and make the mountains glad.” John Muir passed from this life in 1914, but his legacy of involvement and caring goes forward to this day. From John Muir: A Brief Bio, by the Sierra Club: “John Muir was perhaps this country’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist. He taught the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage. His words have heightened our perception of nature. His personal and determined involvement in the great conservation questions of the day was and remains an inspiration for environmental activists everwhere.”
A Discerning Eye
“Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all time has been the force of originality and creation profundly affecting the roots of human spirit.” Ansel Adams, photographer extrordinaire!
Rachel Remembered
Yesterday marked 50 years since Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, passed from this life. She was a remarkable woman, bringing attention to human practices that had severely deleterious effects on the environment. She fought to make everyone aware that what we did, as unaware, uneducated,or indifferent inhabitants of this beautiful earth, could kill it. I wish to carry forth her memory and her work in my own life, even though I have not her talent, or perhaps her inner fire. Still, I care, and wish to do my part to preserve and protect the environment and our beleaguered wild animals. We need to learn to live in harmony with this world, not try to legislate it to death, drown it in toxic substances, or rape its surface in the name of greed.
Mud 'n Feathers 