(no subject)

[dragonfare]

Happy birthday to shaggy2lance - one of the few of you that I know IRL, so I can personally attest that she deserves to have a very good birthday.

When I went to the barn this morning, I saw a flower - 5 wide petals of the most delicate, pale lavender shade. In the field, there were flowers of the brightest, most sunnily cheerful yellow in daisylike shapes, and others, tiny white ones in clusters that, if you weren't close to them, looked like poofs of fairy snow. These are all "weeds". Maybe we should redefine our concept of a weed?

I watched the first part of John Adams today. I admit I watched it just to see my nephew, but even a fond auntie's eyes couldn't spot him in the costumes and wigs. However, the show is excellent so far, and I'm glad I got the motivation to watch it. The Revolutionary War is, in my opinion, one of the most significant events in history - and I don't say that just because I'm an American. It's a fascinating time, and because we sit on this side of the event, I think we often forget that the issues and the result were not obvious to the men who brought our nation into being as they are with our hindsight. That they rebelled isn't the astonishing thing, to me. What's astonishing is that they rebelled with a sound basis of principles. We Americans were not a mob who just happened to have more guts, weapons, intelligence, and determination than the British, but a people united and led by men who held up the principles of the Declaration as their banner. With all our faults, I don't think any nation in history has had a better start.

Comments

[starwefter.livejournal.com]

The best definintion of weed I ever saw said "a weed are any plant growing where it shouldn't -- by this definition grass in your flower bed is a weed." There is some point to this -- what is a weed in one place is not in another. The list of noxious weeds is a case in point -- each state has defined different plants as noxious depending on the local environment, and occasionally those plants are defined at the county level, not statewide, because statewide they are not a problem, only in specific areas.

Some years ago our local paper did a man-in-the-street interview of 10 random people asking them to sign a petition that started out "We hold these truths self-evident..." and which went on through the first two or three paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, including the part about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and which then talked about the necessity of replacing any government which did not support and protect these rights.

Scary was that only one recognized these - the other nine mostly shied away, one claiming that the stated position was too radical because it advocated violence. However, holding out hope for us all, was one old lady who, not recognizing it, neverless grabbed the pen and signed, stating something to the effect of "That's the spirit! Throw the bastards out!"

[dragonfare.livejournal.com]

You must be kidding me... 90% didn't even recognize it?? God. No wonder this country is so messed up.

[starwefter.livejournal.com]

Especially since they actually included the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" part which you would think would be a dead obvious tip-off... What was also rather frightening was that a number of people refused to sign it because it sounded like it would "rock the boat" so to speak -- a bit too "revolutionary" shall we say? I liked the spirit of the old lady though, who, even though she didn't recognize it, was quite willing to sign something this radical.