An Army of Little Poopers

April 14, 2021 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 8 Comments

The clues started to emerge that they were coming, nay, that they were already here! Grabbing a pan from the drawer below the oven I spied small bits of play dough at the bottom. Strange that it would be there. No reason for it. I make it for my son and it goes from pot, to kneading on a cutting board, to official play dough container where it gets played with on the dining table. Most kids have outgrown play dough well before his age, but we could give it a new name to make it cool again, we would call it “brain dough” instead. Artists come by inspiration in many ways, and I would say even people who consider themselves “non-artist” have a form of art within them either unspecified or unnurtured.

For my son, the tactile feel of the malleable blob helps him open his mind to shape stories. The secondary evolution of these characters in his head have recently started to come out more through drawing. Maybe it all will stay as lifelong hobby, leads to an eventual career, or get put aside for other things. It doesn’t matter he’s only ten. This still doesn’t explain the play dough in the oven drawer though, but it was late, and I decided to deal with it tomorrow. Then yesterday morning my spouse remarks that the dog must have snuck down in the middle of the night and finished her last little bits of kibble. No, I knew then it was a mini intruder or intruders. A little play dough hoard, little missing bits of dog kibble, sounds like mice to me!

Sure enough I took all the pans out of the drawer find lots of hard play dough bits and mouse poo. I track the lines of poo along the edges of the wall. I can see where it’s been. It’s like they drop a turd for every step they take. How terribly inefficient. There was no smoking pile though, no obvious enter/exit point. I thought for sure it would be some small hole behind the refrigerator, that would be classic, but alas, I can find no entry point to block so I’m likely going to have to call for help. My regular guy recently retired. Despite being an exterminator, he was a nice guy, and like me doesn’t believe death needs to be unnecessarily cruel or painful. Some of the exterminators around here are shadier than any rat could ever be. They can fleece you out of thousands of dollars in their abatement schemes.

I just want the mouse or mice to not be in here, pooping along my baseboards. They should be out in the field, that’s why we call them “field mice” not “house mouses.” (Don’t get me started on that shady Micky Mouse either!) Another nature friend of mine, a former coworker, woke up one morning and felt a small fuzzy body curled up next hers once, it was a mouse! She did not freak out. She took it outside and let it go. That mouse was lucky! It knew it was curling up next to nice a human. We don’t really want to kill this mouse either. If I could catch it and put it outside to go live in the woodpile, we would do that.

When I was in India in 2004 I took an eight hour train ride from Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) to Raichur with my undergraduate group. We were there to study social and environmental issues in India as part of a study abroad program. I was the oldest student by about 5-7 years. Just before the doors closed in Bengaluru a mouse came on the train. Someone before us have eaten shelled peanuts and left them on the floor. Some of my fellow group members got all into a panic. The seats on the train were benches stacked two tall. So all the scared-y cats piled up on the top two benches and I got the peanut seat all to myself, until Kedar, one of guides/translators for the trip was happy to join me and equally chill about the presence of the mouse. I pushed the peanut shells deep under the seat where the mouse could pick through them without harassment.

Kedar and I spent the whole train ride talking. We talked about his upcoming arranged marriage and drafted schematics for bioreactors. A machine that can speed up the rate of decomposition for solid human waste into organic compounds for fertilizer. The tricky part isn’t technical or mechanical issues but getting the “material” from the producers; everyone in society, to the consumers; farmers that can use it to help their crops grow better. In manufacturing this is called a “closed loop system” or “cradle to grave” product because it is continuously redistributed. This is how we need to revolutionize manufacturing throughout the world if we want to survive as a species. This is why “single-use plastic” is a loaded term. When someone is using this term, they are telling you; “This item does not break down. It can stay with us for a millennia.” There are billions of single use plastics polluting the earth. You can do your best to reuse it as many times as possible, you can recycle it to be made into a new bag perhaps, but eventually its going to end up in the landfill, waterways, or landscape. It delays the issue; it doesn’t solve the issue. There is hope on the horizon, by promoting certain strains of bacteria that has evolved to eat plastic and poop out inert organic compounds.

Don’t let the doom and gloom of climate change stories leave you resigned to a fate of destruction. While I too occasionally get depressed over terrible stories or things that I witness I’m incapable of giving up. Letting go is hard to do, but I can do it when I know it’s the right thing to do, but I won’t give. I won’t give up on the life of this planet, little poopers and all.

A few stops before Raichur with only Kedar and myself still awake during the all-night train ride we watched the mouse get off at his stop. I knew exactly where it was going as if it could feel by internal rhythm or the smell of the air that this was its stop. I turned to my friend and said. “Ah look, how nice of the city mouse to come visit his cousin, the country mouse.”

More to explore, External Links:

Amazing Facts about Mice | OneKindPlanet Animal Education & Facts

How Do Bacteria Eat Plastic? | American Council on Science and Health (acsh.org)

Bioreactors Types: 6 Types of Bioreactors used in Bioprocess Technology (biologydiscussion.com)

Bioreactor landfill – Wikipedia

Aesop’s Fables The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse – Wikipedia

Eat the Children

March 31, 2021 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 8 Comments

“Grandma enjoys cooking her grandchildren and dogs.”

“Grandma enjoys cooking, her grandchildren, and dogs.”

Some people, like sentences, need to be approached with caution. One of the things I miss the most about our current life in this pandemic is walking my son to and from school. Those brief strolls in nature, fresh air, and the opportunity for him to decompress and tell me what’s on his mind. Sometimes we get to see things like these cool mushrooms. *Do not eat*

I can’t tell you how many adults I meet that ask, “What is this plant/fungi?” Follow by, “Can I eat it?” Like the natural world is some kind of giant salad bar! Leave it to the children to ask more sensible questions like “Is this poisonous?”

The other thing I liked about walking my child to school were the brief interactions with other parents. Nothing overwhelming for this devout introvert, just a brief “Hello” and “How about that rainstorm last night?” During one afternoon however, a mom whom I’d never met before strolled up to stand beside me. I thought she just wanted a simple chitchat, but she quickly whipped out her ulterior motive. “So what do you like to eat?” (hmm, strange conversation starter but okay.) “I’ve been a pescatarian for 23 years, actually. Which means I’m mostly vegetarian, but I eat fish once or twice a month.”

She turns to me and gives me this really scathing look and says, “Well, that’s not good enough!” She looks me up and down in disgust and proceeds to say, “You need to do better. You need to be Vegan!”

Whoa, Lady! Now I get it; why some people would get all shady and defensive when I’d mention being mostly vegetarian. They must be holding their breath waiting for some kind of lecture or critical assessment about their diet. Many don’t realize I’m a vegetarian until YEARS into our friendship or association with each other. Honestly though, you could eat old leather shoes for all I care. I’m not interested in telling other people how to eat. I’m happy to offer my perspective and concerns about certain topics, but your choices belong to you. I realized that woman had walked up to me spring-loaded and ready for a fight. She must be fun at parties.

I looked her dead in the eyes with a slow creeping smirk. Sinister? I was going for sinister. “You know you’re right. I could use more protein. I think I’ll add VEGAN CHILDREN to my menu!”

Of course, at that moment the bell rang and all the kids came pouring out around us. “Which ones are yours?” I asked.

I haven’t seen that mother since.

_{Photo credit? Uncredited, found on Pinterest ☹}

So yeah, we could all probably do better on making our diets healthier and less of a strain on natural resources, but I’m not going to do it because some crazy lady yelled at me. If you or a loved one has worked through a major life change, then you should know change only happens because the person is invested in making those changes for themselves. All you can do is provide support. They/You have to do the work.

I would like to recommend eating less meat though. The choice is yours. From my personal experiences, I refuse to accept or ignore inhumane treatment of any living thing. I refuse to support factory farms, especially where the lives of animals are concerned. Factory farms in the U.S. are decimating the competition, which are your local, family-owned small farms and ranches for profit. Generations-long family farms and ranches are breaking under poorly managed government subsides, the lobbying power and money might of factory farms and climate change. What bothers me most is that I know factory farms don’t care about the wellbeing of their workers or the animals they process. They also don’t care about the degradation to the land around them. I know, because I’ve been a food factory worker. I’ve worked at places that treated their workers as well as one could hope for in such an industry and I’ve worked for one that treated us like meatsack automatons. It’s grueling invisible work that damages your body and crushes your spirit if you let it.

In 2004, I had the opportunity to go to Karnataka, Southern India as part of my undergraduate degree for Social & Environmental Issues. I met with several Indian nonprofit groups who were trying to make positive changes in their communities. Some of the people I had to meet in the middle of the night, trucked out in the middle of nowhere because they feared for their lives. Their only crime was being gay and wanting to advocate for gay rights, other were survivors of corruption schemes by government entities or a major corporation. One of the groups was informing farmers of their land rights. Some of the farmers had no idea their lands were about to be claimed in the name of Imminent Domain because the notices were being posted in English in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) newspapers as notices. The farmers cried. This is not the end. We can still be agents of change like the Great Green Wall project across several African nations helping to repel desertification and support affected communities.

Where ever you live, you have the power to affect the great good. It’s always been there. You can make change happen. The factory farms make things cheap and easy for you to mindlessly buy from them. I’m asking you to stop for a moment and add a comma (a pause) to consider your options. Will you buy it because it’s cheap and you don’t have to think? Would you notice if the ingredients list started to change?

We may not be eating the children (yet), but we consume their future world with our choices.

Links:

Earthstar Mushrooms Geastrum saccatum – Wikipedia

U.S. Farmers: Climate, tariffs, debt and isolation drive some farmers to suicide. (usatoday.com) This is a photojournal that may take longer to load due to the large picture files.

Indian Farmers: Burdened by debt and unable to eke out a living, many farmers in India turn to suicide | CBC News

Meatless Monday – Meatless Monday (mondaycampaigns.org) A movement started to encourage people to go meatless one day a week. Includes recipes, resources, and inspirational stories.

Allegories & Interlopers

February 19, 2021 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 4 Comments

An allegory [ˈaləˌɡôrē] is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted in multiple ways, often encompassing a moral message or hidden meaning. Synonyms include parable, analogy, metaphor, symbol, token, tale, myth, legend etc.

When my son was three he asked, “Do volcanos like music?” I said, “I’m sure they love a deep bass line as much as I do! Maybe that’s why they rumble sometimes.” During another drive, he was unusually quiet. I looked in the rearview mirror to find him crying. I asked, “What’s wrong? And he said, “The music, it’s just so beautiful, and sad.” It was indeed a sad and beautiful song called “Forgiven” from the Battlestar Galactica Season 1 soundtrack. I often listen to soundtracks when driving. Nothing can make pulling into a grocery store parking lot feel more epic than Star Wars, “The Imperial March” as I prepare to conquer my shopping list!

So where am I going with this? Indeed. To me, nature is music and music is a part of nature. Wind instruments, anyone? I find that no matter how fantastic a science fiction story or soundtrack might be, there’s always an element of nature. Science Fiction is allegory for exploring what it means to be human, critique of our societies and wonder about our place within the world and Universe. Music is also great way for exploring the human spirit.

One of the things my son noticed at an early age is that characters are often represented by a musical instrument or series of notes. He’d only seen Star Wars “A New Hope” once when he made the connection that Hans Solo was represented by a flute. I could’ve titled this post “My brother feels stalked by three French horns.” He’s five years older than me, but “Peter and the Wolf” used to give him terrible nightmares. It was his Achilles heel. Whenever I’d had enough of being picked on by him, I could chase him away by imitating the sound of “the wolf.”

I feel a deep connection between music, storytelling, and nature.

When my son was five, he drew a picture of an alligator eating a nightmare about vampires. I was intrigued. Did this valiant alligator eat all of his nightmares? No? Just the ones with vampires in it. Other animals ate other types of nightmares and it seemed the strengths of each animal were well-equipped to defend against certain types of nightmares. Story logic and duality. The world is filled with allegory. Nature as a story and nature as a mechanism; hidden meanings and skeleton keys. I used to have a lot of nightmares until I created my own helpful story. His name is “Fright bear” a modest-looking teddy bear with a special power. Whenever I found myself in a nightmare, I would squeeze fright bear tight and he would strangle the nightmares within his stuffing. I believe this practice helped me become a lucid dreamer, by being able to pull something from the real world and repurpose it in my dreams. I offered Fright bear to my son once, but he preferred the menagerie of his animal army instead.

Let me tell you about the craziest incident I’ve had while lucid dreaming. I was missing a friend who was killed when we were nineteen. I wanted to talk to him so I laid down and envisioned the park where we’d once had a fabulous picnic. The other friends ran off to play football, but this time in the dream I didn’t join, I went looking for Tom instead. In the real memory of this day, Tom and I had played football and frisbee with everyone else. I passed a long table of picnickers, people I didn’t know, but one blonde lady caught my attention because of her distinct voice. I ended up meeting her in real life a few days later and that wasn’t even the weirdest part. When we were being introduced by my coworker, I recognized her immediately. She thought it was odd that she felt like we’d met before even though she couldn’t remember when. I was embarrassed for even suggesting it out loud but I said, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I recognize you from a dream a few nights ago. Another lady was raving about your macaroni salad at a picnic.” To my surprise, she did believe me, she felt it to be true and everyone she knows love her macaroni salad!

This alone was intriguing. That a dream I had consciously created was not populated with fictional people or NPCs (non-playable characters in video games) but real people! After passing the lady and her table I’d found Tom standing in the duck pond at the edge among the cattails. I knew it was him even though he was undefined. Imagine if you’re looking at a picture and someone had smeared petroleum jelly on one character to obscure them. I felt like him and not a false creation. Then I felt another consciousness as strong as my own watching me from behind! Someone else was just as aware as I was inside MY lucid dream that was neither me nor Tom! An uninvited guest! It felt like a violation. I panicked and pulled myself awake. The experience really unsettled me. I haven’t tried to reconstruct a time and place or reach out to anyone dead or living with my mind since.

My biggest fear was what if that person was better or stronger than I am and they had bad intentions? What if a person could walk into another person’s dream and manipulate them? I thought you had to be invited into another person’s dream, but maybe they can hijacked. How did I pull the other lady in? It makes sense that I might have seen her around campus before we met. The consciousness that came into my dream with autonomous awareness though, they didn’t politely make themselves known. No polite cough, no “Excuse me ma’am, nice dreamscape you’ve got here.” It felt like a test. As if they wanted to see how long they could lurk there without me noticing, but they brought shadows with them and maybe that’s what scared me most of all.

So now, I’ve given you an idea on how to combat nightmares only to kick you in the brain pan and say “Hey! Be careful who you let wander into your dreams!” If I’m a ‘ghost in my machine’ and someone else walks into my dream, is that a bug, or a feature?

More to explore:

Peter and the Wolf – Maestro Classics Hear each character as defined by it’s instrument in this old children’s classic.

10 – Forgiven – YouTube The song that made my dear sweet boy cry for it’s beauty and sadness.

Star Wars- The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) – YouTube Taking on the grocery store like a Boss.

Ghost in the machine Idiom Definition – Grammarist Descartes, “I think therefore I am!” vs Gilbert Ryle “ghost in the machine/consciousness is separate from the body” a philosophical debate.

Note: This post was inspired by Beth’s post, child’s story. | I didn’t have my glasses on…. When I start a post I never know how it will end, but I like to braid in groups of three, so now you can ponder; characters represented by their music, stories as coping mechanisms and lucid dreams.

Have an interesting dream or story that fits these themes? Do share! Are you a lucid dreamer?