Been a while…

Been a while since my last post.  So, just what has been going on?

Well, I’ve been slowly getting better from that flu/pneumonia that basically sidelined me for the entire month of June.  That was without a doubt one of the strangest illnesses that I have ever had.

It honestly sidelined me for a whole month, well actually more than a month as of only two weeks ago my energy levels have felt like they have returned to normal and I actually want to do activities.  Crazy.

I also got my Wisdom teeth out.  Yep, finally.  I’m older as it were but when I was younger it was decided to basically do nothing with them as they had all come in straight and there was no real reason to pull them out.  Well, until now that is.  It’s a long story but in the end I opted to have all four of them pulled out.

The process was actually not that bad in fact I did not feel or remember a thing about the actual procedure.  Works for me.  The recovery has been pretty good too, I guess.  The first week sucked but now that we’re three weeks or so out everything is fine.  Healing nicely.

So, between the flu thing and the Wisdom teeth this summer has been pretty much a bust.  I have either had no energy to do much of anything except get though work and sleep or I have been in pain.  I’m down to the last few weeks before school starts and I resume work on my Masters so I’ve got to make the best of it.

I hope to head up to our lake side retreat here next week and basically stay up there until school starts on the twenty-second.  Here’s hoping I can make that work out.

Sick, blah!

The last couple of weeks have seen me hit hard with some virus from hell. I had the pleasure of experiencing body retching coughing spells, fever, sinus issues sore throat and a mild ear infection oh, and lets not forget the fatigue. The fatigue was and actually still is the worst part of this.

To put this in a little perspective, I generally sleep about 6-8 hours a night if I am lucky. With this little hell virus I have had been averaging 12-15 hours. Yeah, that’s just nuts. Couple all of this with a conference trip right in the middle of this hell virus suffice to say I have not been and still am not a healthy, happy camper.

The day I landed in Seattle for the conference it was all I could do to get myself to my hotel. I rolled in the door about 5 pm ish. I didn’t unpack, turn on the TV nothing, I simply crawled in bed, clothes and everything and slept through until 7 am the next morning. Crazy! This was pretty much my routine for the next week while I was there. I’d attend sessions during the day, grab some food in the evening then hit the sack early. So, not like me, and by all rights I should not have even gone to the conference. I felt I had to though.

I felt I had to just push through and deal with with this hell virus. Damned if I felt like complete crap and damned if I was helping to spread this little RNA/DNA fun factory around far and wide. So, I did. I did the best I could it was a miserable time and frankly I am not sure just how much I actually gleaned from the conference.

During this time I was reading some comments and other statements on facebook from people that seemed to brag about how when they are sick they just “power through”, or “I’m the only person in the office who can do “whatever” there’s no way I can call in sick”, these among other comments have been pissing me off for years.

Just what in the hell is wrong with taking a day to take care of your self? When did the work culture here in the US become one of “work at all costs your personal health be damned?” I don’t get it.

There was one day at the conference I had to call it a day. I could not stop coughing, I was running a fever, I could not concentrate. I made it about half the day. Now this was just a conference, all I had to do was sit there and listen to speakers and try to concentrate. What if I was actually doing my “real” job. A job that requires me to be on my A game; if I am not people can be hurt.

I get so sick of this pseudo tough talk about going to work while your sick. For me, it pisses me off. I don’t want you in the office. I don’t want that crap. I’d gladly do double the work if it means you can take a day or two and try to get feeling better. Especially during the first part of an infection when the likelihood of spreading the fun around is much higher, for the love stay home.

You’re not doing your co-workers any favors by being there if you work around patients or other populations of people that have compromised immune systems you’re sure not doing them any favors either in fact you may be responsible for that one last infection that pushes them over the edge, the one they cannot recover from, all because you think your are being tough by being at work when the reality is your simply being a selfish, ignorant person.

Now this is mostly just a soapbox rant. I want people to be able to call in sick and feel comfortable that they will have a job when they get back. This is life. We get sick. When we are sick we don’t contribute to the capacity we are able. Employers need to provide a culture where this is okay. Stop asking your employees to go into the doctor’s office just to obtain a note saying that they were “sick.” Why? Because now, they have just spread this around to the general population and the other sick people in the doctor’s office. When the reality is they just need to take a break. Sit on the couch with some chicken soup and rest. Most of the time this is all that is needed.

<sigh>

Pulse…

“…I love you mommy…”

To say the events at club Pulse in Orlando, Florida are beyond belief, sad, infuriating and obviously without merit would be and is a gross understatement.

Like thousands of others I heard of the events the next morning when I awoke, like others I found myself numb and without any real visible reaction; of course I was aware of the level of death and destruction it just did not have an immediate affect. A result of twenty-five years of direct patient care, it really does take a lot to get a rise out of me. It does not mean that internally things are not going a million miles a second.

As is the case with large incidents such as these the “fog” that roles in is thick and takes time to cut through. The media is on hyperactive, social media is having its melt down with wild theories being bandied about like they are two for a dollar.

It’s this time that drives me crazy. It’s this time that people “think” they know what has happened; they “think” they have their finger on the artery of the problem because they know, “someone, who knows someone.” Or, they had a family member who was involved in Police or Emergency services and “they” have herd their stories and anecdotes about that life style and what they have seen and “they” feel this gives them some insight. We also have our “leaders” who are trying to sort through this very same fog, this cloud of confusing information. They have a constituency that is in need of information, something, and anything. The “Fog” is big and nasty.

It is during this time that I become very quite and simply monitor the news feeds, pay attention to what the officials are saying. I’m trying to filter out the “non-information” I am also staying quite because I really have nothing constructive to say about the situation. I do so wish more would take this tack.

I do understand though that people need to vent, they feel like they have to put out an opinion or speak their feelings immediately. I guess to those if you must say something, try to be constructive. Try to avoid inflammatory language and rhetoric, as this is simply unhelpful. If you feel like you must do something please try to help out, but ask what kind of assistance is needed then by all means help.

As for me, right now I was doing really well until I read the text message that snippet above came from. I read this and it cut me right to the quick. That fast my defenses came shattering down it completely and utterly broke my heart.

That message was written by someone who thought they were going to die, (I have not looked any deeper to find out what happened to this person, I will) but he was calling out for his mommy, not his mom, HIS mommy.

Think about it for a second. Think about when you were small and things were going bad for what ever reason. Who did you call for? I imagine a great number of you called out for mommy! Mommy, the only person in the universe who could fix anything. Mommy!

As for me, I’m still not certain I have anything constructive to say about any of this just right now.   My emotions are still very high. This is not to say that I don’t have opinions or ideas I personally am in my information-gathering phase still and I must say some of the early, confirmed information appears to be very interesting.

I am heart broken though. Every time something like this happens a little piece of me is taken out and shattered on the ground. We as a people are so, so mean to one another. Why? Because I’m white and you’re a different color, because you practice one religion or another and I don’t, because I like sushi and you don’t? It’s all so ridiculous.

This is the twenty first century; you think we would be able to conduct ourselves better? Nope. We have to hate and reject others because they don’t happen to fit some dogma. We have to listen to inflammatory rhetoric from a neophyte who professes to want to be our next leader. How do people get up in the morning and deal with all of this useless hate? How do people get up in the morning and look at someone and think I hate you because….x. I don’t get it.

I know that we will probably never all be able to get along. Petty squabbles are bound to happen and that is fine. But do we really need to be killing our fellow human beings because they happen to be a member of the LGBT community, because they happen to be a different color or because they choose to worship some God or another? The answer is really simple. No.

 

A dumb meme made me do it…

-education-

[ej-oo-key-shuh n]

noun

1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
2. the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession.
3. a degree, level, or kind of schooling: a university education.
4. the result produced by instruction, training, or study:

to show one’s education.

5. the science or art of teaching; pedagogics.

-intelligence-

[in-tel-i-juh ns]

noun

1. capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
2. manifestation of a high mental capacity: He writes with intelligence and wit.
3. the faculty of understanding.
4. knowledge of an event, circumstance, etc., received or imparted; news; information.
5. the gathering or distribution of information, especially secret information.
6. Government. information about an enemy or a potential enemy. the evaluated conclusions drawn from such information. an organization or agency engaged in gathering such information: military intelligence; naval intelligence.
7. interchange of information: They have been maintaining intelligence with foreign agents for years.

While pursuing the Instagrams I ran across a meme that stated “just because you are educated does not mean you are intelligent.”

At first I just continued to scan on by but later on I found myself thinking about that statement. Education and intelligent, when one looks up the definition of each of those words you quickly find that you cannot have one without the other. The act of being educated is to acquire or impart general knowledge. While the act of being intelligent is to have the capacity for learning reasoning and understanding as well as an aptitude for grasping truths, relationships, facts and meanings.

Now, I’m not really sure what that meme was getting at, but I suspect it has to do with what is currently a trend or other popular thing in our country. That is the pervasive nature of being, ignorant or otherwise uneducated. It’s as if we are now wearing this idea of being uneducated and ignorant of the ways of the world as an award and we seem to be proud of it.

Going into all the whys, what if’s and what not’s of why this seems to be is beyond the scope of this writing. I do think that this initial writing will set the groundwork for a larger paper later on that will delve deeper into this. For now, this is only my hypothesis interspersed with a healthy dose of opinion.

This phenomena blows my mind. From my perspective I love education. I love what it gives me, intelligence. The ability to have achieved an education beyond high school is something that I cherish and is open to many however, there is a give and take that usually happens.

Now, before anyone starts spouting off about white privilege. I am white but that’s about it. My education beyond high school was financed by myself, I worked hard, I took advantage of student loans and other programs in place to help people pay for, yes what I feel is a very expensive proposition that we can do more to bring in line and make it more affordable but there is a general backlash here in the US because to some it screams of Socialism, it doesn’t, or of entitlement, it doesn’t. It does however feed in to this anti-intellectualism that so pervades our country at the moment, I could talk about that for hours. I digress.

Because of my hard work I now have several college degrees under my belt, I am working on a graduate degree as I write this. I do still have some student loans I am paying on, all worth it to me but it has meant I have had to do without some other things in my life, yet for me I would rather be educated and intelligent than have one more useless trinket on my shelf.

I have been criticized by some for still having student loans, the interesting thing about where this criticisms come from is two fold, some of it comes from people who have never been to college and the more surprising is from those who have been to college yet they seem to be annoyed that they even went and can’t seem to find anything useful from it. They seem to be content with where they are. That is actually fine. I personally don’t appreciate the baseless criticism. I don’t understand how they don’t feel that they walked out college not having gained anything?

I look back upon my various degrees some of which apply directly to what I do day in and day out and some of which don’t have anything to do with what I currently do, at least on the surface.

I utilize all of my college skills almost everyday, every paper I have written has trained me to research, compose and write. Every equation I have solved has better trained me to deal with large and complex problems, problems that not only deal with what I do as a profession but skills that apply to other areas and interests. I have spent time (LOTS of time) studying human anatomy, biology, chemistry and pathophysiology. ALL of which I use almost everyday.

What has my education given me besides, education and intelligence? The ability to know to realize when I don’t understand something. The ability to admit when I am wrong. The ability to figure out why I don’t understand something. This is how you learn. This is how you become educated and conversely gain intelligence.

 

Hiking, art and bellybuttons

Damn it! I’ve been stuck inside for three damn days with some sort of half-assed cold from hell. Particularly annoying is that Monday I went on my first great hike of the season and by that afternoon I was feeling blah, blah, blah.

Watching movies and typing is about the only thing I can that doesn’t leave me super duper tired. Now, for some folks this sounds like some sort of dream come true. For me it’s murder watching some of the best weather we’ve had just go to waste. Grrrrr.

So, since I’ve been laid up I thought I put down some random thoughts and snippets of conversations in to a new blog post.

The hike I did the other day was along a series of trails laid down by our local governments. Collectively they are part of what’s called the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system. They are situated on the eastern side of our valley along the foothills at roughly the altitude of the old shoreline of the large body of water called Lake Bonneville that was a huge feature in this region many thousands of years ago.

Anyway this trail system provides many great views of our valley and are free to hike to those who care to. I only did a short hike as I was breaking in some new socks and a new set of shoes so I did not want to get into anything too technical. Now, I liked the socks but the shoes had a hot spot that left a wonderful blister on left big toe, ouch.

The day was great for the hike. I got up on the trail head about 10 am before the sun had come over the mountains so the trails on the east side of the valley were still in the shade. I decided to hike North for a few miles along the trail system. Along the way there are numerous forks that will take you back into some canyons that have rivers and some with waterfalls. All in all not a bad first hike but now I’m left figuring out what I need to do with my shoes. I can do without the big blisters.

A few weeks back I was chatting with a friend about an art exhibit at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Apparently this was an exhibition being put on my a person working on her MFA and as part of her thesis was the presentation of some of her original art.

During our conversation I was able to see some of the work that was to be displayed. Amazing, was the first word that came to mind. Sadly my write up will not do it justice as the conversation took place several weeks ago. What did stick in my mind were that the art pieces were of the human form and that some were nudes.

This lead to a chat with my friend about the differences between using the human form in an artistic way such as in a painting or photograph and what constitutes the difference between what is construed in our society as art and what is construed as pornographic material.

The conversation was a good one and frankly the reasoning’s we both had are beyond the scape of this writing but generally speaking we were in agreement that the human form is quite thing to behold and when used as a topic for art the results can be fantastic. I do need to get her friends name as one to watch because her art is amazing.

Had a funny conversation about bellybuttons not too long ago. That innocuous little left over in the middle of our stomach. This chat came from a friend of mine who is pregnant and she was starting to get annoyed that her bellybutton is starting to already poke out like a turkey timer. This cracked me up. I guess that when it completely sticks out it means you’re done I said. She did not think that was very funny.

I find it entertaining that most people think bellybuttons just take up space and not do much. Well, on both of the counts they would be right. I on the other had get a kick out of them and actually find them fun to look at even if they are a turkey timer to some. LOL.

Well, kids hiking art and bellybuttons. A truly random post.

 

 

So, The Cure and a Wonderland

Thirty years.  Two of my favorite albums turned thirty this year.  Peter Gabriel’s, So and Erasures Wonderland.  Wow.  Like Erasure’s The Innocents, these two albums have played heavily into my life over the years.

When these two albums came out I was fifteen years old and still trying to figure out just what kind of music I liked.  In fact at the age of fifteen, neither of these albums were even on my radar.  It was not until almost ten years later when I was in my early twenties that I discovered them.

With Wonderland it was one of the very first CD’s that I bought that along with INXS “X”.  I had been introduced to Erasure a few years earlier and had bought both The Innocents and The Circus on cassette tape, yes tape. I was not yet the super fan I am today but,  I was interested in more of their music so I went to the beginning and found Wonderland.

What a great album.  I’m not sure there is a bad song.  I mean, come on you have great tracks like Who Needs Love Like That, and Heavenly Action that provide fun danceable riffs all accompanied by Andy Bells unique voice.  Just Awesome.  Then you can’t not like Songs like March on Down the Line and Cry So Easy.  Take the time to listen to the lyrics and what they are saying.

All of those along with My Heart So Blue, which we used in our annual Year In Review for my Senior Year of high school.  I love that opening line “I’ve got a picture it’s there on the wall;  I can’t remember why I keep it at all.” I have pictures like that, in fact I’m looking at one right now.  And sometimes, I do wonder why I keep it, then I am instantly transported back to the time that picture was taken and I…remember.  Fucking awesome!

If you have not heard Wonderland you are doing yourself a disservice.  Go, go buy it right now.  Even though the songs are thirty years old this year they are as relevant and amazing now as they were back then.

So, I love this album as much as I love Erasure’s The Innocents.  Peter, puts so much emotion and verve into these tracks.  Many of them are very deep and simply wonderful.  Like Andy Bell, Peter Gabriel has one of those singularly unique voices.  I love to put this album on and sit back and close my eyes and just listen to him sing.  It’s amazing.

Like The Innocents this album touches me and takes me back to much different, younger times when dare I use the cliche’ statement? When it was easier and less stressful.  It reminds me of people, some of whom are lost to time, distance and the ether, Laura, Heather and My friend Mike who died many years ago.  He was my fellow Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark fan.  I do miss working with him at the record store.

Oh, the songs.  So many good ones.  You have to like Red Rain, and Mercy Street.  Sledgehammer and it’s somewhat veiled references to sex and uh oh.  Tee hee.  I said it.  Hey if Cyndi Lauper can have a song about it why can’t Peter.  Let’s not forget Don’t Give Up.  Many times I have found myself down and not really knowing what I wanted or even needed to do.  I’ve put this song on and it has helped to center me.

Yes, I’m going to mention In Your Eyes.  Yes, yes we all know that it became famous thanks to John Cusack standing outside with a boom box blasting this song, but that does not make it any less good.  I LOVE this song.  This song really speaks to me about what I might like to find in another person and a relationship. “Love, I get so lost sometimes.”  So true, who doesn’t get lost in it sometimes.  I know I sure have.  “Your eyes, the light the heat.” Oh, how I long to look into someones eyes again and see just that.

Go get So, listen to it and love it.

Why were on the topic of old school bands let’s talk about The Cure for a minute.  I had the opportunity to see them in concert last night.  Wow!  What a hell of a show.  I tell you he still has it.  his voice was unfucking believable.  The show went on for I believe over two hours with only a few short breaks.  They played all of the classics and a bunch of stuff that I don’t remember having heard before.  It was all good!  So, if you see The Cure come to your neck of the woods, do yourself a favor and SEE THEM!  You won’t be disappointed.

 

Sum of the individual…

I dabble a bit in photography but,  honestly, I’m not very good and generally I  do it just for me and I find I do more of it if I am bored and need to kill time.

One area of interest I have is in portrait photography.  Recently I ran across an article on “LightStalking.com.”  The article was entitled “Create Portraits with a Twist by Photographing Body Parts.”

There is something about the human body in that we are the sum of our parts and when taken as a whole we are really a pretty amazing thing to behold and think about.  However, there is beauty to be found in those individual parts of the whole.

Fascinating, enjoy.

 

Madness I say!

For the last week I have been fighting a world-class anxiety attack. I’m happy that I don’t get these very often at all maybe once a year with only very little ones interspersed throughout the year for good measure. Joy!

I’ve been dealing with anxiety for the better part of a decade or so. I don’t even remember what really precipitated my first attack or if I even knew what was going on, all I can really remember is that I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. Guh!

I have talked with people over the years. I’ve officially been diagnosed with it and it’s not something that I have made up. Trust me, why would someone make something like this up? If I was going to make something up I’d say I was an astronaut, or I’ve been to the bottom of the great Marianas trench, now that would be something to make up. No, believe me when the anxiety kicks in I’d rather be either of those things or a thousand others.

To this day I really have no idea just what starts the attack or why really. I can recognize when they are starting though. They usually start with some annoyingly irrational thought that seems to plant a seed in the pit of my stomach that grows steadily over the course of a few days until it gets to the point where it bursts through much like a baby alien from the movie Alien and it gets very hard to concentrate on damn near anything else. The damn of all of this is that irrational thought has a mirror copy rational thought, one that I know is true and correct. Yet, the power of the irrational thought is overwhelming and I’m basically left with settling in and letting the anxiety run its course.

I guess I can be lucky that the mild attacks only run a couple of hours and unlucky in that the big ones, like I am experiencing now, will run for a week or more. Blah! I do have to say that this current one could not have come at a worse time as I am wrapping up first (second) semester of graduate school and I really, really, really need to concentrate on my final paper as a full third of my grade is depending upon a good showing. And no, this doesn’t help the anxiety, as I am worrying about this too. Gads!

I have tried a variety of treatments from medication to horseshit holistic therapy. Frankly, they all have their problems. The meds cause annoying side affects that ironically feed into some irrational thoughts. While the holistic therapy is well, bunk. Now, what does work for me?

Frankly, letting the attack run its course. I have lived with them for a very long time and I have become adept at dealing with them and I do know that they are self-limiting in nature. Sadly, just like I don’t really know what precipitates them I likewise have no real idea as to what begins to bring them to an end aside from raw time?

I have however, begun to notice a disturbing trend in the bad ones in that they seem to be coming on a bit more often and are lasting longer then they used to. Through some discussions with some trusted medical professionals they feel that the stress and strain I have been dealing with for a few years courtesy of a poor work situation is beginning to have an affect on me physically as well as with the usual mental annoyances that come along with being in a poor environment for a period of time. It seems that my body is really trying to tell me something.

As for now, I need to let this damn thing run its course and keep focused upon what I have going on right now in the hopes that will lead to some much needed change in my life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1988

This morning I awoke to a text message from my friend Michelle informing me that Erasure’s “The Innocents” was twenty-eight years old today. I thought, damn! I have to listen to that album today, I have, and twice, because of this I have had Erasure and the years 1987-88 on my mind all day long. Where was I, what was I doing all of those things have been running around in the empty space that is my mind.

According to the calendar twenty-eight years ago it was 1988. This year saw me at the confluence of my sophomore and junior years of high school at Highland High in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was your typical confused and awkward teenager not a clue. Truly had no idea if I was coming or going. I was taking all the usual classes one does during these years. My favorite being one called Television Production taught by an amazing man, Ralph Smart whom is still a part of my life thanks to Facebook. See, Facebook is useful for something. A truly great man who began to teach this unruly no nothing about work and work ethics as well as open up my creative corner in my mind.

I had turned sixteen and was learning to drive. My autos of choice at the time were my moms old Reliant K, the K-car, and my dads Chevy S-10 2 door Blazer with the 5-speed and clutch from hell.   I have always said that since learning to drive that truck there hasn’t been a clutch I couldn’t master. So far that holds true. I’m still waiting. Oh yeah, cars. I can’t recall but I think I had my baby blue Volkswagen Bug, a ’68. Well, it was a hodgepodge actually, it was comprised of so many different years it really is hard to nail down just what year it was.

I had just scored my first job thanks to McDonalds on 3300 South and 3300 East. Ya gotta hand it to those first jobs and the managers who put up with a metric ton of shit from no nothing little brats who have little idea what a work ethic is. I have to say that my tenure at Mickey D’s was a good one. I worked my way up through the ranks and even got a to run a store for a while.

I had my first real girl friend. Heidi, to this day I can’t believe how we ever became a thing seeing as how she asked me out on a simple dare from her friends one night while I was at work. Funny, how that stuff starts. We ended up dating for the rest of high school and just a little bit after words before we got bored with each other as high school relation ships are want to do.

The Innocents came out. The first song I remember hearing from the album was “Chains of Love”, followed of course by “Little Respect.” Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps even today. I was hooked. But, I had a reputation to uphold. You see I was trying to fit in with the “cool” kids and I dressed like a rocker and claimed to enjoy Motley Crue, and Ratt, and Metallica and all the other rock bands of the time, hell I even had a mullet. Don’t mock man, all business upfront and party in the back.

Anyway my tastes also swung towards the new wave and pop music of the day. Erasure, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, The Cure and others, but I couldn’t let some of my friends know as I would be teased mercilessly. LOL.

Oh, The Innocents. It was this album that put Erasure on the map and to this day is still my favorite one and the one I move to when I am feeling lost, or down or even happy. This album has it all for me. Happy hooks like Chains of Love and Respect and juxtaposed with some sullen thought provoking riffs like Hallowed Ground and Weight of the World. It’s all there for me.

You just cannot beat the musical styling’s of Vincent Clark nor can you beat the vocal tone and range of one Andy Bell. When the two of them are in sync it’s magic. I adore it.

1988 was a long time ago yet it seems like only yesterday. All I have to do is put on The Innocents and I am magically transported back to much younger days, more friends, more fun not a care in the world. This album has saved me on so many occasions. Still does, even today.

 

 

 

 

 

Just be a good person…

 

You will always know where you stand with me.  Why? When I say something like, I love you, or let me try to help you, or I am always there for you, or you’re a great person don’t let anyone ever tell you differently, or I don’t like that person because…, or I don’t think they are a nice person, or I don’t want to do, x, y or z because I don’t like it, or I don’t feel right about it or any of many, many, many more things.

You know this is coming directly from me because I do not live my life as if there is something looking over my shoulder taking notes or a tally of my good and bad deeds.

Conversely, I do struggle a bit with people who choose to live their lives as if they are constantly being watched and tallied.  I have difficulty telling if their actions are coming truly from within them or stemming from an in-bread desire to appease some sky being while they hope the sky being does not know they are not being truthful or maybe they are.

Sky being or not, we should all strive to be good people and good stewards of this rock called Earth, our home, the only home we have.