End, Begin, Repeat

Photo of the St. Croix River courtesy of the Nature Conservancy

   St. Croix River, Minnesota...buried in cold as the new year begins, the Arctic chill making its way down from Canada and bringing the moisture and cold with it.  I've never been there.  But it's history was briefly captured in Audubon's 2017 calendar:  It is found along a section of the St. Croix River that forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The area's natural history includes flowing lava, flooding by ancient seas, and earth-moving glaciers.  Its human story goes back 10,000 years, from prehistoric farming settlements, residency by the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples, and clashing cultures; through fur trading, logging, and steamboat travel; and up to its current protected status.  By the twentieth century, the land on both sides of the river was secured in the nation's first interstate park to prevent mining in a scenic gorge.  Then, in 1968, the river itself was among the first to be covered by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which promises to forever preserve it "in a free-flowing condition...for the enjoyment of present and future generations.  But that calendar was from 2017.   A new year has arrived and with it, changes to monuments and efforts to remove such words as "forever," unless it applies to tax breaks for corporations (in the new U.S. tax bill, individual tax breaks are not permanent but those for corporations are).  Grumble, grumble...but none of these changes are new.  Just as the years come and go, so do our historical cycles with these new tax changes being just one of a slew of "major" tax overhauls; said Bloomberg Businessweek: Since 1981, the year of President Ronald Reagan’s big tax cut, Congress has passed and presidents have signed 55 bills that the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center counts as “major” tax legislation.  During the prior 36 years there had been just 18.  Back in the 1920s, history virtually mirrored today's political scenario in the U.S. with oligarch-like monetary laws being passed (followed by the Great Depression).  But little of that mattered to me for it was the description of the St. Croix River that proved more captivating than any new tax plan, the microscopic view of today's politics being flipped into an even broader telescopic view of one tiny cold spot in one tiny part of one state...10,000 human years, rising seas, glaciers and erupting lava.  A beginning, an ending, and a beginning again...

    The new year brings with it a reflection back, and for me that is a wide-eyed peek at the piles of books and magazines and torn-out articles saved from last year (and many from years past).  It is so many that at times I feel tempted to pull that old Hollywood trick of an angered man sweeping his arm across the desk and sending all the papers flying...but that would only add to my mess.  It's like that, isn't it?  The moment you toss away that random pile of papers is when the insurance company wants that specific policy number, the one in the reminder letter it sent you some months ago, the one you just shredded or threw into the recycling bin which has already been picked up.  My mother's health policy was like that, the giant United Health Care notifying her that it would no longer be handling any federal military claims, that it was all being handed over to another behemoth, one that wouldn't accept her credit card so best to get that banking information in or lose your coverage; did I mention that she had about 45 days to do this?  Plenty of time for the ordinary Joe Blow; but that paper lay buried in my pile until it came down to crunch time and well, here it was, holidays arriving and the paper somewhere.*  So with that in mind, I am going to begin presenting some quick summaries of items I had saved and had hoped to write about, clips really, or vignettes of what could (should) have been a much more extensive subject...I'll leave it for you to decide.  So herewith, the beginning and all starting not with the paper part but with the "saved" tabs on my computer, a number almost as numerous as the articles and magazines still staring at me.

--Wichita Lineman:  What??  That old Glen Campbell song?  Turns out I have a soft spot for wondering why or how a songwriter thinks up a song, and why some songs are hits and some are so dang good that they just disappear.  Said the writer of this song, Jimmy Webb: What I was really trying to say was, you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t.  You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams...or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’  You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet.  And that’s really what the song is about.  You can read a bit more about that here...quite interesting for all you aspring songwriters.

--Bromance: Okay guys, who hasn't heard about or read about or watched some poor soul getting conned into an online romance?  Some of the movie versions are cute such as John Cuzak's Must Love Dogs and some turn out to be real thrillers and killers (even the FBI has a webpage on it).  But deep beneath all of that fiction some true con games are going on, as in raking in billions of dollars from people falling for those tet words of love.  It's an interesting and exploding category of online scams, and far more prevalent that you'd think.  There' are entire websites devoted to just such scams but this site gives you a capsule view of how extensive this bromance thing really is...even for military folk!

--Political Health Care:  Just couldn't let it slip by, could I?  So I won't dwell on these tales of woe too much but three things did catch my attention enough to clip them to my list, one being the uplifting story of an ironworker, a guy actually working with his hands and producing something, running against the Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan) who's main goal all along has been to rid the country of "entitlements."  His name is Randy Bryce and he's bluntly said to Ryan: Let’s trade places Paul Ryan, you can come work the iron and I’ll go to D.C.  His video went viral, which came on the heels of another similar video crying "marry me Senator, I just need your healthcare."  It was/is good to see ordinary folk jumping into the fray; but jumping even deeper in might be the healthcare industry itself which made record profits on all of this.   But then why worry about any of this when the "supervolcano" resting under Yellowstone could make any healthcare irrelevant?...the earlier piece on NOVA nicely captured this scary possibility (did I mention that Mt. Vesuvius, as in Pompeii Vesuvius, is also acting up again).

Photo: Britta Jaschinski, Nat'l Geo

--The rest:  Okay, there were dozens of flagged markers, you know, those articles and links to articles that you meant to read but just didn't have the time right then...flag it and get to it later.  So within that cluster were these.  How come the leaves of plants are so varied as in those giant jumgle-like ferns vs. the tiny leaves on your houseplant, asked Smithsonian? and what about animals that do our dirty work, asked Popular Science (hint, it has to do with cigarette butts and murder).   And speaking of animals, what happens to those animals illegally poached and captured, asked National Geographic; or the same magazine showing lions getting a new home or later asking "what happens when an astronaut drops something in space?" Or this tidbit, that millennials are using libraries in record numbers (more than us boomers) says the Pew Research Center; or the review in Literary Hub titled, When Good People Do Very Bad Things (like accidentally hitting someone and running away).  Or a piece in Science on the evolving world of robots (but on the molecular level?).

    There's more, of course, and at times it can seem impossible to go back and get to all of them.  The influx of new information coming from so many formats seems to only mimic the books and magazines that build ever so steadily on my racks.  Piles of papers, notes and bills, seem to cry out to be sorted as if realizing that soon they will be lost in a drawer or casually tossed without being noticed.  It's a bit like that with the new year, as friends and memories and experiences turn into those piles, treasures to be sure but treasures somehow gathering dust as if making way for the new.   It's necessary to do so, to sweep clean and re-evaluate what's important as the new year begins.  That word is right there...new.  It's a new chance, a new outlook, a new opportunity to delete, un-flag, and throw out.  Next post, you'll get the brunt of my paper clippings...but then they'll be tossed, ready to be recycled, and readied for the new; exactly what should be happening in our minds.



*It all got done in time, although it did cause me to wonder about those without a spouse or children or guardian to handle affairs; at my mother's doctor's office, the staff had no idea of any change in billing (I told them that future claims would be denied unless they obtained the new insurer's address, which I provided to them).  Imagine that date passing and my mother discovering that she no longer had health coverage...something that will likely happen to some 13 million (or more) others once the new tax bill is approved, a last-minute addition thrown in by Congress to repeal health coverage for many unable to afford the premiums.

**While Congress is on a different healthcare system and is able to set its own raises, its lucrative retirement and healthcare system is only slightly better when compared to other federal employees. according to Snopes.