Buddha in the garden.
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Well, damn. No picture of my salad, no picture of the food laden table. Everything was so good…chicken and dumplings, enchilada casserole, clusters of green beans with bacon wrapped around the middle looking like miniature sheaves, corn and rice casserole, fresh fruit, my salad, deviled eggs, and more and that doesn’t even cover the desserts. And it was nice to have all the volunteers there, most all, a few were absent; the Monday group that deals with donations and other stuff but not open to the public and the Thursday group. As usual a prayer preceded the eating. I just stand there quietly and politely without bowing my head. I have no issue with the wishes for good health and being grateful for community and the good things in your life but the submissive appealing to the big daddy in the sky for granting those things or giving him credit for the same is where we part ways.
Actually, here’s what’s left of my salad moved into a much smaller bowl. I didn’t bring home very much.
I haven’t started on my painting yet but I have been working on getting the last box of paints my friend sent me added to the color chart…a rectangle with straight pigment on dry paper and one with diluted pigment on wet paper. It helps me choose what colors to use in a painting. This last box, the pigments are very strong, dense.
This was the first chart I made of the three small tins. I need to redo it with the larger format.
I looked out the back door the other morning to see half a dozen or so inca doves all fluffed up on the little patio right outside the door in plain sight. I snuck away to get my phone/camera but when I looked again they had moved to the left among the pots there so they’re a little obscured.
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News is that the man who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare has been arrested. I can only surmise that he wanted to be caught and arrested. They found the gun, the suppressor, the fake ID, the clothing, and a 3 page ‘manifesto’ on his person when approached and arrested, well maybe not the clothing but they did recover that also. Clearly the man has never watched a crime show. The first thing he should have done was dispose of the weapon, ID, and clothing and for all the gods’s sakes don’t carry around a 3 page manifesto. If I have learned nothing from watching General Hospital it’s how to dismantle and dispose of a gun after a shooting. So how did health insurance companies react to the killing of a CEO? Did they send out orders to stop denying tests, procedures, and care recommended by doctors? Oh, hell no, they beefed up security around their board members.
And last from the Department of Disconnect, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are going around spouting about the ‘deep state’ in government, the unelected bureaucrats running this country into the ground, and how they are going to purge the government. They seem to have completely missed that fact that they are themselves unelected bureaucrats.
Clearly, the fellow who carried out the assassination never watched "The Godfather." If he had, he would have followed the advice offered in the film to "leave the gun; take the cannoli." In his case, he should have left the gun, and taken the MacGriddle.
ReplyDeleteright? he had all the incriminating evidence on his person days later.
DeleteDamn, that salad looks mighty fine. As to Luigi, his friends say his personality changed after the botched back surgery. That doesn't cut it for me; my back hurts 24/7 from broken and crushed vertebrae and the prohibitive cost of pain meds ($300/month when I had to quit). Nevertheless, I've never murdered anyone.
ReplyDeleteguns and murder is our national culture. this country has gotten very mean.
DeleteHave you changed your font size? It's very teeny, I have to enlarge the text to read it. While it's not nice to shoot people, it is good that this has stirred people up to think about how much the insurance companies hurt people. There is talk about using United Health Care's algorithm for denying old people care at the VA.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/unitedhealth-lawsuit-ai-deny-claims-medicare-advantage-health-insurance-denials/
no, didn't change my font size. were you looking at it on your laptop or mobile? I increased the font size for my next post.
DeleteMe too about those prayers in community meals...I just have a few friends who also object. One of them offered to lead a prayer himself, which was a rote copying of some lines which thanked everything but I don't remember the details. Sort of sing-song. Anyway I'm with you on please don't say Jesus did this! Glad the conversation about health care is now coming to the forefront. It's time to have some justice there.
ReplyDeletethe woman who leads the yoga class I go to two nights a week always ends with a Jesus prayer. I could really do without that and when I sub for her...no prayer, just a moment to consider things we are grateful for. if they want to contribute those things to some deity they can do it silently.
DeleteThat salad looks excellent! Sounds like a good pot luck. And I love the photo of the doves - so fluffy. Yeah the shooter seems not too bright for such an apparently smart person.
ReplyDeleteit is an excellent salad.
DeleteThat paint pallet is scrumptious . Salad looks good too. It is hard for me to get too upset about the murder, the victim, the suspect- Karma is a bitch.
ReplyDeletewell, murder does seem to be our national pastime. pissed off about something? off the motherfucker.
DeleteLooks like a delicious salad. Glad your lunch was fun.
ReplyDeleteit was. especially now that I've been volunteering for a few years I know the other volunteers better. it was kind of weird the first few times.
DeleteYour doves are very beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love the little inca doves. we used to have a lot of mourning doves but the bigger white wing doves moved in and pushed them out but not the inca doves.
DeleteI do the same thing when prayers happen and I take great delight in looking around to see that there are other people who are doing the same. Often far more than I would have thought. Your color chart reminds me of something that a woman did at pottery. She made many, many strips of pottery and fired each of them with a glaze or underglaze color and hung and labeled them on a huge board so that folks will have more of an idea what color a glaze will be after it is fired. From what I understand, the color of the glaze before firing has very little to do with what it looks like afterwards. This is all still alchemy to me.
ReplyDeleteYour salad has some of my favorite combinations in it.
that's a good idea about the glazes. there is a woman who used to work in glass but after many many years switched to clay she does figurative work and posted an image of a piece she was working on with just the unfired glazes on that I really liked and thought I might buy. but the colors after firing were so dark it really turned me off the piece and I regretted telling her I might be interested.
DeleteYears ago at a funeral, the group formed a prayer circle. Everyone bowed their heads, except me, because I don't pray. About halfway through, one little old lady across the circle looked up to see me staring. Her face and eyes changed as if she were staring at Satan, eyes evil, accusing. I just stared blandly back as in, well, honey, how come you ain't praying? Judging, clearly. But not praying.
ReplyDeleteso far no one at the food bank has noticed as far as I know but I'm sure they know I'm not religious by now. I had to fill out a form when I first started volunteering there. one of the questions was what church or organization did I represent. I wrote 'humanity' in the space.
DeleteCodex: that's what a salad should look like.
ReplyDeleteAs to the health care system. It has been getting worse over the last 2 decades. Almost everywhere. I agree with you the whole Luigi story reads like a bad movie script. Killing is wrong. And a CEO will just be replaced by another CEO. Makes no sense.
killing is what we do in this country these days. pissed off about something? go kill a bunch of strangers. I could never afford healthcare until I got SS/Medicare. good thing I didn't have some sort of life threatening condition.
DeleteThose doves are interesting looking. I don't think I've ever seen those before -- unless maybe you've posted them previously! I read an interesting article in the Times about how society is treating the health care CEO shooter so charitably because he's good looking. It's amazing what looks can get you.
ReplyDeleteI think this is the first time I've posted a picture of them. I love the pattern of their feathers, look like scales. good looks opens a lot of doors.
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