There are shires and then there are...

 My apologies, friends! I just found some of your comments awaiting moderation and now I have read them and approved them. Why some needed this extra step and some don't, I have no idea! I'm sorry if you were waiting on pin and needles for some witty response back or more information to a burning question. I trust you survived the inconvenience. Since you haven't come to haunt me locally. I feel confident you are still alive enough to reside it whatever place you are currently living.

I first read The Hobbit when I was eight. I know Jon keeps a side bar of his Patron Saints. If I had such a side bar it would likely include JRR Tolkien. It would definitely include William Morris!

Look at that mighty soup catcher!

He's known for his wallpaper designs and books like "The Well at Worlds End." My favorite book of his however is The House of Wolfings. Its written in old English and very poetic which is not normally my style. I struggled to read it in the beginning, but once I found the cadence, I loved it. There's a really interesting book about him called "Anarchy & Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy" By Fiona McCarthy. He was a Socialist and I find a lot of the ideas about Socialism at the time really intriguing because he was also friends with an architect who was working on the concept of "Garden Cities" Sir Ebenezer Howard and Octavia Hill, "the little lady in the mushroom hat" who was an ardent housing reformer who worked to keeping open spaces green and accessible to all people. All this at the turn of the century.

I'm very frustrated at the moment. I learn about so many wonderful and interesting people throughout history and countries who have/had similar hopes to me and next to nothing seems to have come from their life's work in trying to create better societies for people and nature. How can I hope to arrive at a conclusion any different?

COP26 was a disaster in my eyes. Its not enough. The UNs 17 goals of Sustainable Development are resigned to live in the realm of fantasy. I don't know what to do. I thought I had found my place in the world, but my role in all this feels like a part in a play where the ending has already been written. Its 2021 and I'm having a Victorian crisis of faith all over again, but in America, and one does not approach mention of the word Socialism with jest around here. It is considered too closely related to Communism in the eyes of your average American, who know very little about either. Political pundits are quick to fill that gap of knowledge by saying that both are evil, because a threat to capitalism is a threat to democracy. It's not true. Capitalism is good for maintaining the caste system and that's what they're really afraid to lose. They believe themselves to be special because they can buy nice things. I believe we are only as special as we believe ourselves to be.

Despite my current frustration I shall persist in trying to make the world stay in the light.

I shall endeavor to be the little critter in the lower left corner. What is that? A Gerbil? Hahaha. Which one do you identify with?

Choose your Beatrix Potter inspired fighter:

 Someone commented calling this; "soul music for white people." It resonates with me. Hahaha. I need more hurdy gurdy in my life.