This Is Tricky

This is tricky.

 

A fist-sized frog lives in an environment beneficial for its food supply but tricky for a home. His home is mobile, warm, and swarming with the frog’s favorite food—flies. The downside of this living arrangement is that he might suddenly feel an earthquake—the “land” beneath his feet lunging at a remarkable speed, or suddenly submerging into water. Water? Well,  that’s okay for a frog, but froggy dear, watch out for the mud.

The frog is living on the back of a Water Buffalo.

You know that the presence of frogs is one indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Scientists have found that when Water Buffalos move into abandoned areas, they bring with them, an abundance of frogs, bats, and plant life.

It is estimated that Water Buffalos number more than "200 million across 77 countries on five continents.” (BBC) These animals have long been used as plough animals and treasured for their nutritious milk. (Their milk is higher in protein and fat than that of dairy cattle.) Now, they are earning a reputation among conservationists as handy landscape managers.

For decades, local farmers have allowed their water buffalo to roam freely as they carve channels where fish, frogs, and other species enter. These, in turn, feed the wetlands migrating birds. 

 

P.S. I chose the title The Frog’s Song for my non-fiction book published by Regal House Publishing. The subject isn’t about frogs, although Coqui frogs are in there, but because I read that symbolically, the frog calls the rain that settles the dust for our journey.

The Frog’s Song is a journey.

One day, my family of one husband, one daughter, one seven-month-old grandson, two dogs, and two cats, and this narrator took leave of their senses, put their house up for sale, and moved to a tropical island to live off the grid.

The journey is what life is about. And this was our journey. It left a sweet spot in my heart where our ten incredibly green acres once existed. 

 

To read more about The Frog’s Song, please go to my website: https://thefrogssong.com. (Read about our leaving. It isn’t in the book.)

Better yet, go the Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+Frog%3Bs+Song+by+Joyce+Davis&ref=nb_sb_noss.

I was hoping it was FREE on Kindle Unlimited, it sometimes is. Keep checking. I don’t know why the price varies. It’s like the weather.

 

"Me, Me, Me, or You, You, You?"

 

 

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."-- Attributed to Abraham Lincoln. In reality, Lincoln never uttered or wrote those words or words to that effect. Instead, they were said about him.

The original version of the quotation came on Jan. 16, 1883, during a speech in Washington, D.C., by the prominent writer and orator Robert Ingersoll.

"If you" want to know the difference between an orator and a speaker, read the oration of Lincoln at Gettysburg and then read the speech of Everett at the same place. One came from the heart. The other was born only of the voice. Lincoln's speech will be remembered forever. Everett's no man will read. It was like plucked flowers."

 

From the Democratic National Convention came speeches we haven't heard the likes of in a while. No sound bites, full on speeches, given with conviction, truth, honesty, promises to lower taxes for the middle class, build more houses so the middle class can afford to buy one, preserve Medicare, and Social Security, feed the children, give teachers a living wage, maintain funding for schools, give our children an opportunity to be free of pollution and bullets, overturn Roe vs Wade to provide a reproductive freedom to women, give Americans hope again.

The American Dream raised its beautiful head again when two people from State Schools worked their way up the ranks; one was bussed to school, and the other who grew up on a farm could run for President and Vice President of the United States.

Remember when the strength of America lie in its strong middle class?

Yes, we had problems in the 60's, but we had the guts to protest wars, and march for civil rights, to change the dress code in schools--and champion men to grow facial hair.

Professor Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, now on Substack, helped me understand how Americans could vote for a tyrant.

Trump exploited their anger.

Americans, especially the working class, have been bullied.  They have been bullied by corporate executives, Wall Street, and upper-class urban professionals.

They're angry.

In Trump, they saw someone who they thought was different.

Except that Trump is a bully.

Trump used his wealth to gain power. He used his power to target people of color, harass and abuse women, lie, violate the law, and attempt to topple our Constitution. Instead of being a leader for the people, he became an advocate for himself. He was and still is vindictive against anyone who opposes him. And then he rages at anyone who calls him a bully. And he admires Hannibal Lector! What?! (Lector is fictitious character from the movie Silence of the Lambs, who eats people.)

Trump is a "me, me, me, person.

Kamala Harris said every day in court, she would say 5 words, "Kamala Harris for the People."

"Because," she says, "what happens to one of us happens to all."

"Kamala Harris is a You, you, you person." (Thanks, Bill Clinton.)

 

From Reich:

"We have learned that Trump cannot be beaten at his own game. He cannot be out-threatened. He cannot be shouted down. He is beyond shame or guilt. He emits lies at such volume and repetition they cannot be corrected.

"The only way to beat him is by playing an entirely different game that draws on qualities that are the opposite of his, that appeals to those aspects of the American character diametrically opposed to his.

"Lincoln spoke of the better angels of our nature. Those better angels are still there but have lain dormant since 2016. Biden tried reviving them, but he didn't have the energy or stamina to pull it off. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz do."

 

And why don't our adversaries trust women?

Women, we need to roar now to convince Americans to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Listen to Lady Gaga go against Trump. She  put it out there. (Trump lied with an ad stating that Gaga supported him.)

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/lady-gaga-slams-trump-at-biden-rally-in-pittsburgh-95211077945

"Vote to keep Trump out of the White House like your life depends on it, no, like your children's lives depend on it, because it does."—Lady Gaga.

And then listen to that Lady sing our National Anthem. Wow, those pipes of hers rang out over the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Memorial with the clarity of an angel.  

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-lady-gaga-sings-the-star-spangled-banner-at-biden-inauguration