{"id":429,"date":"2009-12-10T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/dead-season-musings.html"},"modified":"2009-12-10T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T10:36:09","slug":"dead-season-musings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/dead-season-musings.html","title":{"rendered":"Dead Season Musings"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

It rarely freezes in Sebastopol.  <\/span>But ‘rarely’ is far from ‘never,’ and we have been hit with
\nan unusually cold series of days, with temperatures getting into the 20s and
\nteens.  <\/span>My favorite coffee place,
\nHardcore, had its pipes freeze. 
\n<\/span>Happily Molly, Hardcore Espresso’s<\/a>  wonderful owner, simply brought up the coffee van, and we could drink Liquid
\nLife anyway.  <\/span>Unhappily, she had
\nbeen looking forward to a day of relaxation.  <\/span>(I know many of you snow-buried folks in the east and
\nMidwest will be filled with sympathy for all our suffering).  <\/span>\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Actually it feels colder than zero did in upstate New York,
\nwhen I taught there, because up in the North Country<\/a>  <\/span>I got used to it, and grew to like
\na zero degree day.  <\/span>Here nobody is
\nused to it.  <\/span>It’s a little like jet
\nlag.  <\/span>We need time to adjust our
\ninner thermostats. <\/span><\/p>\n

And my heat has been on the fritz, adding to the chill. In a
\nway, it’s a time like after the death of a loved one, when we are most likely
\nto focus on what we regard as really important.  <\/span>I do, anyway.<\/p>\n

We Wiccans do not like to start new ventures, particularly
\nspiritual ones, during this time. It’s that period between Samhain and Yule,
\nwhen darkness is still growing and the return of the warmth at its most
\ndistant, with plenty of cold ahead even after the sun reverses course.
\nSymbolically it’s a time when old ventures that have outlived their vitality or
\nusefulness need to pass on.  <\/span>I’m
\nplanning some pruning and discarding, now that my incessant traveling during
\nthe fall and early winter is over and I have the time to think about things
\nfarther ahead than a week.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Politics will never disappear from this blog so long as I
\nregard our associates in the religious right and Neocon advocates of America as
\nthe new Rome as being threats to everything decent.  <\/span>But I hope it’s going to play a smaller role.  <\/span>Writing about it too often is bad for
\nmy soul.  <\/span>I cannot promise because
\nmost of what I post on politically is a reaction rather than an initiation, and
\nlike in totalitarian countries, the right has made everything political. But
\nI’m going to try.<\/p>\n

Focusing on the threats and abuses of power is something all
\nfree people need to do, but focusing too much sours the spirit, no matter what
\nthe position.  <\/span>This was abundantly
\ndemonstrated in the number of sour spirits writing idiotic posts that I deleted
\nin the last discussion.  <\/span>They were
\nincapable of distinguishing between the misbehavior of an organization and
\ndiscrediting science and claiming the existence of conspiracies everywhere,
\nevidenced little grasp of logic,  <\/span>didn’t
\nlook at the video, and were unwilling to respect their readers enough to offer
\nreasons for their bile.  <\/span>They need
\nto get a life, and even more, a heart.<\/p>\n

But like camping in the north woods in early summer draws
\nblack flies, writing about politics these days draws these jokers.  <\/span>The “Delete” button serves as my insect
\nrepellant, but less early summer camping and more at other seasons reduces
\nbeing bothered by infestations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It rarely freezes in Sebastopol.  But ‘rarely’ is far from ‘never,’ and we have been hit with an unusually cold series of days, with temperatures getting into the 20s and teens.  My favorite coffee place, Hardcore, had its pipes freeze.  Happily Molly, Hardcore Espresso’s  wonderful owner, simply brought up the coffee van, and we could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDead Season Musings - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/dead-season-musings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dead Season Musings - 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