The Power of the Trees

                 This week, ladies and gents, the topic of our picture game is trees. This is a pretty good topic because there are so many kinds to choose from. There are oak trees, elm trees, palm trees, Christmas trees, weeping willows, etc. There are also many fictional trees such as truffula trees from Dr. Suess’s The Lorax, or Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. There are even religious and mythical trees such as the tree of knowledge or the tree of life. So far, there have been interesting pictures. Colorful trees, paintings, fake trees, carved trees, and more. One person put up a picture of a Cherry Blossom in full bloom. Another put up the tree of life. The different seasons give us different views of trees as well. The New England foliage in the fall is entirely different from the green leaves of summer. Each picture evokes a different image or feeling. When I see a palm tree, for example, I think of the calm serenity of the sea. I can feel as though I’m there and seeing the beautiful blue waves hitting the gorgeous white sand on some tropical island. I can feel the warmth of the sun, smell the breeze off the water and the coconut scent of suntan lotion, even taste a fruity drink on my tongue. Yet a photo of fall foliage brings me to New England with different sounds, sights and scents. Such a picture, while maybe not as relaxing, is more comforting as it reminds me of my childhood. I am reminded of the smell of the leaves and the crisp autumn air. I remember the cool bite of that air while walking around outside. While relaxing on a tropical island is something most people would enjoy, I much prefer the autumn. It is my favorite season. Thus, the images and feelings brought on by such a photo are more enjoyable to me. I think of all the things I love about fall such as the foods, weather, and holidays. Fall means pumpkin coffee or beer. It means apple crisp or merely crisper apples. Fall means cooler temperatures but not freezing. It means Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Day of the Dead and Samhain. It is the time to watch Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. It is back to school season, which I always loved. Autumn is the time for deeper spices and the scents that go with them. All of these wonderful things can be evoked by the mere picture of a tree with dying leaves. So at first, I didn’t think much of this week’s topic. I thought it would be interesting, but simply trees. Something we see every day. Yet the more thought I put into it, the more intrigued I became. It isn’t just about the pictures, but about what the pictures bring to mind. So as you look at something that you see every day, think about it a little more. I know that I will be thinking about the effect of my tree pictures this week, more than just what they look like.

New Directions

Okay readers, I have a new direction for some of this blog. I will continue my random posts about anything and everything. I will also, however, now be adding something else. I have entered into a type of game with my aunts on Facebook. They do this thing where every week they pick a different theme, and each day they share a picture of whatever the theme is. Each person has to come up with a different photo, but that is the only rule. There is no purpose other than to have fun. I have decided to join because I have nothing but time and it seems like it can be interesting. Being me, I have also decided to take it a step further. I am going to write blog posts about the topic each week. Perhaps it will be a general post about the topic as a whole. Or I may even add a post about a specific picture or subsection of the topic. This little game has opened up so many new avenues and possibilities for this blog. So stay tuned to see what we post about!!!

Canine Cruelty

So today there was an article in the headlines about a dog that was put down in Belfast. After a ruling and an appeal to a higher court, the area in Northern Ireland deemed the dog dangerous. This is not unusual really. If a dog bites somebody, it is put down. This dog, however, didn’t bite anybody. In fact, he never hurt a single person. So why did he get picked up by a warden in the first place? The answer disgusts me. The dog was picked up because he looked like a Pit bull. Owning a Pit bull is against the law in the United Kingdom, which I also find ridiculous. Lennox, the dog that was just put down, was not a Pit bull. According to his owners, he has never bitten anybody and even wears a muzzle when around strangers. Although Lennox looks like a Pit bull because of his flat nose, he is not a member of the breed. The ruling was protested by animal rights groups everywhere, and the story was blasted all over the internet. A woman living in the U.S. even offered to adopt him so he wouldn’t have to die. The courts ignored it all and euthanized the dog today. The owners were not allowed to say goodbye and can’t even have the body to bury him. Although I have not owned a dog, or even a pet, in many years, I am appalled by this news. A person’s pet is like a member of their family. To take him away without letting them even say goodbye is just cruel. Yet this isn’t the first time Pit bulls have been mistreated. There have been stories of the breed being shot and abandoned. Often people will get a puppy and abandon it because they don’t know how to handle it as a full grown dog. Pit bulls get a reputation for being mean or vicious dogs. It is the same for Rottweilers and German Shepherds. The truth is that these dogs are only mean when they are mistreated or trained to be that way. I think there should be more of a process to adopt a dog. If a person wants to adopt a child, they must be checked, inspected, and tested before they can be approved. To adopt a puppy, you just have to walk into a pet store and hand over the money. I think there should be some kind of screening process in order to get a dog. I understand there is a significant difference between a child and a puppy. Yet there are great deals of similarities too. A puppy needs to be fed, bathed, and trained. It needs a great deal of attention and love. I once read a story about a woman who had over fifteen Pit bull puppies in her house. Eventually animal control was called and she admitted that she could not handle them all. It is sad how many people don’t ever admit that they can’t handle raising a dog. When that happens, it gets neglected and abandoned. With Pit bulls, all of these things happen more than most. Thus they are left to fend for themselves and get their vicious reputation. It isn’t fair to the dogs and it sure as hell isn’t right. It is our fault the dogs end up the way they do, and it won’t stop until we stop it. 

Another educational setback

                       So today I read a handful of articles about college degrees. At least once a week there are new articles about the best degrees to have in the economy right now. There are articles about the costs of college, the odds of getting a job, the best and worst degrees, the unemployment rate, the amount of debt, and so on. As a relatively recent college graduate, these articles interest me a great deal. I do, of course, wish I had read some of them while I was still in college. For example, after graduating from college, I read a few articles that said how the soft sciences were bad degrees. Since my degree is in sociology, you can imagine how upsetting that was. It wasn’t completely disheartening though, because there had to be something out there I could use my degree on, right? Wrong. Every job that I look into that is related to my field requires a master’s degree. That just means more debt. According to yet another article, nearly one third of the student loan debt in this country is held by people with graduate degrees. And that debt is in the trillions, so it is no small number. In theory, graduate school is a great idea. Hell, college in general is a great idea right? All the numbers indicate that people with a degree make more money and the rate of unemployment for graduates is lower than people with just a high school diploma. Yet these people have more debt. To me, that means it comes to about the same result. I would also like to point out that the amount of graduates with decent paying jobs, or even any job at this point, has been declining since about 2006. What year did I graduate? I’ll give you one guess. I even moved to a major city where there would be more opportunities to get a good job. It didn’t happen. At this point, it would be fiscally irresponsible to go to grad school, and ridiculously irresponsible to go to law school. According to yet another article, lawyers are a dime a dozen. I have read that the most civil suits against universities are against law schools. A large number of law school graduates don’t even take the bar, and many don’t even get jobs in a legal field. I am well aware that nothing in life comes easy. And I am even aware that you have to work to get the things you want in life. Yet in today’s economy, these concepts take on a whole new meaning. If a student goes after what they want, and gets all the needed education up to graduate/law school, there is a pretty good chance that they will be unable to get a job. There is also a very good chance that they will not only not get a job that leads to their dream, but they will not get a job anywhere near related to their field. I have read, in multiple articles, that many college graduates are working multiple minimum wage/ menial jobs just to stay afloat. With the bills that come with being an adult and the repayment of student loans, having a degree is not all that special. At this point, I’m not even sure it is a good idea. So in my quest to decide what I want to do with my life, another road block has been thrown my way. Now, instead of just insecurities and the challenge of going back to school while working, I have to consider if it is even worth it. Do I want a graduate/law degree enough to risk it all?