This is the place to post poems, because Jim and J D need questions for the call in show on Friday. So please post poems here, and post questions for the District 3 Supervisors under the Speak Out area.
The Supervisors race is not about the Sheriffs race, it has its own issues. If you have things to say about the Sheriffs race, remember that you just make yourself look like a goofball unless you post facts. Name calling, while certainly a Standard of Internet Blogging, generates anger, it doesn't speak well for your argument, and it makes "your side" look like the characters from Dumb and Dumber.
So:
1. Poems Here
2. Questions for Jim and J D or the Supervisors race in general under Speak Out
3. Name calling -- don't post it.
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The Three-Ring Circus
in the towns of Luray, Stanley, and Shenandoah Virginia
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The Three-Ring Circus
in the towns of Luray, Stanley, and Shenandoah Virginia
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8 comments:
Alice, I'm going to sneak on down here to this thread because....well, because I don't know where else to put this and am trying to stay away from the election discussions. I was wondering if I was able to ask you some impersonal questions? You don't have to answer as I know you are kept busy in ten million other places. Thanks if you do.
1)What do you think is the number one problem here in Page County?(other than the lack of citizen involvement at meetings...we all know that's a given)
2)Have you met anyone here and liked them and then realized they were not what the first impression implied?
3)What has disappointed you most of all after moving here?
4)In some other blogs from other counties around VA we, Page County folks have been labeled rednecks, toothless, dumb, uneducated and just plain hicks. How do you see the citizens, from a fairly newcomer's point of view?
5)What is the best thing you have found from living here permanently?
6)This last question you don't have to answer---I am being facitious. Do the grammatical and spelling errors from supposedly educated people make you grit your teeth? Sorry about that one. I was pretty good in English and Spelling and I just notice things like that.
Gosh, Anon, I wish you had posted your name so we could get together sometime.
In my personal opinion:
1. The number one problem in Page County is also the number one beauty of Page County. Its isolation, due to lack of a good road that would allow commuting and business. Everything else is just normal things that happen with people.
2. Have I met anyone here and then felt that the first impression was not a good one? I've had some bad first impressions that I later decided were wrong, and the people were better after I got to know them, but I've never had a good first impression that turned out later to be wrong. I'm very impressed with the people here.
3. I'm not disappointed after moving here. I love this place. It's more than I expected. If I sound like I'm complaining about something, my intent is to be helpful in contributing, not critical.
4. The citizens of Page are Americana at its best, from my view.
5. The best thing about living here permanently is that it's like living at a resort, where I don't have to leave.
6. I would correct the grammar and spelling if I could, but comments are not editable.
Thanks for asking.
Alice
Hi,
It's me again. Thank you for your answers. Now if I may, I would like to comment on your answers. I think these particular questions were to help me get back on track and you were (sorry) my chosen one.
1) I was feeling like the number one problem here was small town minds and small town pettiness. Cynical, huh? Kind of like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. I forgot that small towns also mean knowing your neighbors, being plowed out by one of them in the winter, having your mail lady giggle with you when she brings you a check in the mail, or having a cashier open a register just for you. I never thought of beauty being a problem. I like that.
2)Sorry, I am guilty of making rash judgments. Albeit, I tried to keep them to myself but I probably passed up on some pretty interesting people just because I was in some mood or didn't take the time to listen.
3)Me too, I do love this place but I was forgetting why. I must admit I was raised in the city so I had a lot to learn. I thought potatoes came in bags and pork chops came from the Safeway. Now when I stand outside with my morning coffee I think I will actually look at "our" sunrise instead of looking beyond trying to see "their" ocean.
4) I love your answer on this one. My sister and I say there sure are a lot of Bubbas and Joe Bobs here. We don't mean it in a snide way. Just a stupid sister to sister observation thingy while standing in line at Wal-Mart. AMERICANA. Perfect. Our own Americana!!
5) First time I ever thought of this place as a resort. But you know, you're right. Mountains, river, National Park, rustic cabins, antique and craft shops. I really wanted to move away after my sons were grown. My husband says NOT!! I guess we do belong here. When we come back from vacation, it really does feel good to be HOME.
I think I understand a little more from this site than at the beginning. I couldn't believe how you held your temper or kept your patience. Okay it's....see both sides, look for the good, try not to be negative so much, be open to others and their opinions...appreciate and treasure our good fortune to live here and try to contribute to it instead of bemoaning the fact that we don't live in Paris.
6) I still think if I see one more "there" instead of "their" I'm going to scream.
Many thanks.
Anon, this is where I brought my sons, from the time of my last pregnancy, through their childhood, until they left home. I brought them here on weekends so they could be boys in the woods and the fields and the river, instead of on the city streets.
I would drive here with a car packed with their friends and some paintball and b b guns and fishing poles, so they wouldn't spend their time learning shoplifting and drugs in the city.
When they left home, my husband and I came here, because I said, "they will visit us here". Lots of empty nesters have trouble getting their kids to spend time with them.
We don't.
And now they bring their kids.
So, yes, I want the "rural lifestyle" preserved, too. I just don't think it has to be preserved at the cost of keeping the younger residents from having jobs. I believe it is possible to make an economy here, in a very careful way.
An isolated spot like this, with bad access roads, will have to have a special economy. I'm thinking enviro-friendly hub. Some cities have bio-engineering and genetics, all clustered together. We could have bio-fuels.
That's why I am for the SWS business.
Oh, believe me, we have never been empty nesters either. My sons (3) are grown and married. One built a house two fields over from us and one built a house one field in front of us and one visits from Manassas twice a month. We can't keep food or soda in the frig unguarded! I guess Page County isn't so bad after all when it comes to trying to keep your kids off the streets and out of trouble. Yes, the economy still needs work. Not enough money for the younger folks to start families and stay here. Maybe one day. Well, off to fish for two weeks. Thanks for the chat and the shoulder.
To post or not to post
What can I say
There is so much to choose
More and more posts each day
How does one choose
I must decide
Do I really want to vote
Maybe I should just hide
Wait until the election's over
Feel like I've lost my pride
No, I'll pray for the right answer
And let Jesus be my guide
There's so much to choose
But if we don't vote
We are the only ones who lose
Sometimes life hands us things that "just happen", be it good or bad. Because we are mortal, we all make mistakes. Because we are human, we feel them.
Newspapers
Sometime ago I was quite bemused
To take up the paper and read the daily news
Read the story of the violent teenage
Who killed his mother just to quench his rage;
Of the Middle Eastern War, how each side tried
To kill others, retaliate for national pride
Organized crime in my city, local mob
Murder and loot, rape, abuse and then rob
Teenage gangs forming themselves into bands
Against every authority trying their hands
Corrupt politicians, few getting caught
Stocks going up and down, some sold some bought
Money market players with their games would trade
Making billions, for which common people paid
Then I looked at the newspaper's date
I was reading it at least six weeks late
So I picked up the paper for that day
Hoping different news it would have to say
It had news about the teenage outrage
Same play, different names, another stage
Continuing the same Middle Eastern war
This time different groups, again had killed more
More organized crime and more teenage gangs
Corrupt politicians with serpentine fangs
Stock market games, money market trends
Ordinary Joe his earnings spends
As though six weeks time had not made a dent
Newspaper world, same message had sent
Newspaper world, perhaps like pulp fiction
Feeds another kind of people's addition
Continues to feed us of our affliction
More of the same thing is its prediction.
Newspaper editors recycle, reuse
Though with different names, the same kind of news
I realized then all my time I'd waste
To read the paper, relaxed or in haste
I vowed to myself that I would refuse
To read any more the daily News.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother Teresa
From the depths of obscurity
With a heart felt purity
Brought dignity to the slums
To the homeless and the bums
Calcutta in the world, as a sure
Beacon of light of the pure.
You preached "Love, till it hurts. "
Not just in gushes and spurts
But a constant love of all,
That became your life long call;
You won the Nobel Prize for peace
Yet you carried on without cease.
You were the Saint of our modern times
In the midst of our heinous crimes.
Though we have never come into touch
To my world you have meant so much.
When the world was busy with grief
You decided to make your life brief;
Into obscurity slipped away
Not waiting for anyone to say,
Our mother whose name meant charity
Epitomized spiritual clarity,
We commit your body to the grave
While your soul to God, peaceful, brave.
-------------------------------
A Tribute to William Blake
I saw the world in the grainy sand
And a heaven in the flowery land
I held infinity in the palm of my hand
And eternity in a narrowing band.
As above, so below
This is what mystics know.
As within, so without,
The New Age tries to find out.
We keep looking all around
Try fixing what we found.
So much to fix, so much to do,
What do you mean look inside you?
So little time, do you understand?
Why don't you give a helping hand?
Think globally, act locally,
Try to love unconditionally....
Try, try! They give me the guilt,
Nobody asks why so much we've built.
I stand apart and just say No!
Leave me alone and let me go.
I look around, I look within
I see the world in the mess I'm in.
Fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide,
Vitamins and minerals I put inside.
I protect the waters in reservoirs,
And no longer drink the water that flows.
I treat sewers and wastes, then to the sea,
I fast, take cleansers, what's wrong with me?
Giant cartels my agriculture,
Supermarkets my catering culture.
For Government ethics I have no patience,
I constantly put comfort above my conscience.
The justice system is falling to bits,
My own morality closely fits.
The medical system just goes for fixes,
I look for modern pills, potions and mixes.
Religious dogmas purely prescriptive,
My spiritual senses merely descriptive.
Hatred, crime, murder, hopeless brutality, what use,
Just reflecting domestic violence and child abuse.
Is there no hope for human kind?
Where must we look, what will we find?
The mystics answer the New Age quest
Forget Four Directions, North, South, East, West.
The moderns seek the light from outside in,
What a way to go, where do we begin?
The mystics found the light within
By looking in and seeing out, not outside in.
Forget the Whale, elephant and ox,
Fix the within, what paradox.
Follow your bliss, wisdom of old
By poet and mythologist told.
From Homer to the Holy Grail
All else futile, to no avail.
This joy is the God image of men,
Not study, action, piety, nor heaven.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ant
Timourleng once had a story
In the days before his glory
Sometime before he became a general
In despair leaning against a wall
He saw an ant trying to go over the wall
But his every attempt ended in his fall
General to be, told himself this would call
To count the number of times the ant was willing to fall.
So patiently he chose to sit by that wall
And watch the ant go up the wall and then fall.
Sitting there our general tired grew,
The ant's trials counted seventy two
Before the ant managed to clear the wall
Triumphant and successful in his crawl.
Timourleng swore an oath that never would
Give up trying, like the ant understood,
Determination he decided was the key
Try, try, from his goal never ever flee.
One day partaking of the sun upon the beach
I saw an ant upon the sand, my foot would reach.
So I decided to learn what he would teach,
I kicked some sand upon the ant, his safety breach.
Recovering, the ant climbed out of the sand
Consolidating his foothold upon the land,
In the original direction, ant took his path
This time I drowned him in a sandy bath;
Out of the sand he climbed one more time
And moved away from the scene of the crime.
He turned away after two, he ran, he flew,
Not even close to Timourleng's seventy two.
I thought about both these ants, which was right?
Should I forget my path? burdens alight?
Or try and try, persistently, with might?
Was his flight smart and bright, or caused by fright?
They say that smart questions contain
Their own answers, seeking elsewhere is in vain.
Considering my own question I see
Unraveling it the answer will free:
If my flight caused by fright
Persistently try with might,
But if it is smart and bright
Then turn away, burdens alight.
And to determine which is which
Higher wisdom to me shall teach.
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