58

Moths in the rain

Sylvia Shawcross

I am left now with only Frederick the racoon at the window. He has stopped scratching at the handle for my attention and instead is catching little white moths with his agile little fingers. Once he has caught them all, he settles down there, his plump bum pressed up against the glass.

He will not go away entirely. He is where he wants to be. I accept his presence and work hard not to feed him.

Do not feed him. Do not feed him.

Feeding one led to feeding 24 and absolute chaos. Because of one raccoon. Do not feed him. My heart does not agree. So many times in life our heart does not agree with our head.

When the sun rises over the river I can see him silhouetted there. My gaze follows the frieze of trees down to the edge of the property where fog disperses above the pond below. I wonder if there are enough frogs there to help feed the children of the night I have loved all this time. I don’t know. Today there is a sunrise but it is blinded by the dark rain. The hard rain that falls. The hard times that come. For the children of daylight.

They are still sleeping at dawn, lost in dreams, waiting for the alarm that jolts them into their life for the day. They who have neither time for heart nor head but only for the herd. Herd into buses, into offices, into the machine. Herd together or at least pretend. Herd into the lineups. Do as others do. Say as they say. Believe as they believe. Go where they go. There is safety in numbers. Follow the herd. It is that time. Now. Is it?

Even with this rain I can hear the husky buzzing of motorcycles on the highway going too fast. Too fast. And why? Because some days nothing matters. Nothing at all. And we see that more and more. Nothing and nobody matters. The social niceties tattered by trauma now gone. Just fight the way through the day. Find the money to pay the bills. Find a place to stop worrying if only for a few moments. Don’t pay any attention to the people around you. They don’t matter. Now. Ride in the rain as fast as you can.

There are still some who believe in kindness. They are overwhelmed with others’ needs. They are drooping in the rain now like the maple leaves against a grey sky. They are tired. They keep on going until they don’t. How much heart is enough? Where is the end to this time? This pressing want and anxiety?

The hard rains that are coming will sting bitterly. It is said this will be worse than the Great Depression by those who study such things. But we don’t believe that. We can’t. How can we? A human cannot live without hope and that sounds about as hopeless as can be.

We aren’t prepared for much of all this. Perhaps however, it will be easier on the “colonialized” countries of the west because we are closer to the time when pioneers did everything from scratch, living without the luxuries, having to build everything they needed, building up countries that ironically are now being dismantled as if all that toil and dreaming of better lives meant nothing.

There are still some who remember people who lived the early days. Many of them now have cottages far from the city without electricity and conveniences so they can live the pioneer life. Aside perhaps from fond memories of times past, such endeavours make me wonder why now. Perhaps it was a better life. There is the hope. It might just be a better life all round if we can get there from here and leave the madness that we’ve seemingly created behind.

And this would be fine. If there weren’t those who will not allow such things now in charge.

We are to be put into boxes in the cities where we will be provided everything we need. The chickens and the cows and the wood stoves gone. A button on a wall. A machine making meat. AI as our friend and neighbour and the dark framed glass buildings our new history.

But no one is in awe of a box of glass. It is not a cathedral. It is not soul searing catch at the heart. It is pragmatically utilitarian. Perhaps that is what we are to marvel at? How cost effective. How efficient. No. We do not. We will not. It is head not heart.

No tourist of the future will come to marvel at the architecture. Did they who build such ugly things think they would? They who are in charge do not understand that in the windows of the glass boxes there will be no raccoon catching moths in the rain.

And that matters.

Sylvia Shawcross is a writer from Canada. Visit her SubStack if you’re so inclined.

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Sue
Sue
Jul 28, 2024 11:48 AM

Brought a tear to my eye. But remember, what they are doing with all their fakery and fraud and threats and absurdities is…. painting a picture. It’s not real. Humanity is real and will prevail. Nature is real and will prevail. Don’t lose hope, Sylvia.

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Jul 27, 2024 4:07 PM

This is awesomely beautiful Sylvia. Frightening and beautiful at the same time. Thank you.

les online
les online
Jul 27, 2024 2:56 AM

It’s claimed ‘Paris maybe unable to handle the crush of visitors
to The Games’ – so maybe a few (alleged) “bomb scares” might
be used to discourage many from visiting ?
And about the sometimes fecal polluted Seine in which athletes
may have to swim, is ‘Bird Flu’ lurking amongst the poo, ready
to strike ?

les online
les online
Jul 27, 2024 12:18 AM

Olympic athletes compete for national media headlines
against (alleged) “bomb threats”…
The State has it’s full Defend Democracy arsenal on display…

(So far, ‘Bird Flu’ has not put in an appearance… Not invited ?)…

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 11:09 PM

“Achtung Achtung: Alarm!” The Ivans/Russkies/Bol-
sheviks come! Electro new-wave project by Conrad
Schnitzler and his son together with Peter Baumann.

https://www.discogs.com/master/91165-Berlin-Express-The-Russians-Are-Coming

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 8:40 PM

He who sows stupidity will reap idiocy.

Has it ever been different? Of course not.

Unfortunately, people need to be reminded
of this time and again, otherwise they will
start to think their madness is “natural”.

niko
niko
Jul 26, 2024 8:39 PM

Thanks, Sylvia, for your meditations from the wilderness, last week as well. I’ve lived in more natural settings at different points in my life, and your words bring back the feelings and values of living in relation with other living beings, lost to most of us in ‘advanced’ industrial society.   I especially remember living in a cabin community right at the edge of wilderness in the Colorado Rockies, where wildlife was just outside the door. In fact, my first evening there brought this home, so to speak, when I returned from a hike to find porcupines in the proverbial act of having sex – very carefully! – in front of the door on the deck, and I was happy to hike a little longer to let them finish. Later, I Iearned I had moved into their home, as they had been in the habit of hibernating during winter in the space underneath the cabin. Not so happily, however, I often got caught between family feuds of porcupines and skunks crashing the party, and there were many times I had to spend days and nights in cabins of friends who more than graciously endured my stench while my cabin aired out. Racoons figured prominently in our little ecovillage, their hunger the mother of necessity leading to all manner of inventive means of satisfaction. A friend who became dissatisfied with their raids upon his trash can hoisted it up onto his cabin’s wall outside, only to be awakened that night by the incessant sound of it swinging across the wall between two racoons who had teamed up to bring it back down by pushing it back and forth. They were also fearless creatures, confident perhaps from their sharp claws that permitted them to climb walls (and cause others to climb the walls), as they often raided dumpsters in… Read more »

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 27, 2024 8:52 AM
Reply to  niko

We lived in the Aussie bush for twenty two years.
Snakes (sometimes in the house), lizards, goannas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus, deer, over seventy species of birds, echidnas, bats, bull ants butterflies, bushfires, droughts, a million stars and once or twice the Aurora Australis.

It was amazing, awesome, and humbling.

I miss it.

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 27, 2024 10:00 AM
Reply to  Johnny

Forgot to mention, frogs, tortoises, possums, sugar gliders, foxes, rabbits and hares.

Our furry, feathered, spiky and shy friends.

Bloody hell.
Life IS beautiful.
Why do humans mess with it so much?

ariel
ariel
Jul 27, 2024 6:00 PM
Reply to  Johnny

Yeah, at some point living in Benificio in the Alpujarras we had a viper move into the front wall of the cabin. In addition to the more permanent residents, the singing geckos who clung to the upper walls and ceiling. I felt deeply honoured, as I know how frequency sensitive they are supposed to be. Even more so from my habit of playing fairly loud electric guitar just outside, which didn’t seem to bother them at all.
Wild cats, wild goats (fairly deadly to vegetable plots) metre long multi-coloured lizards. Eagle owls, hoopoes, golden orioles, eagles, mostly distant as they moved down to use the shortest crossing to Africa. Reputed lynx further up the valley. I forgot about the swallowtail butterflies and the occasional giant moth.

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 28, 2024 4:51 AM
Reply to  ariel

Wallabies, wombats and parrots in particular are the ‘enemies’ of fruit trees and veggie gardens.
Pesky buggers.

George Mc
George Mc
Jul 26, 2024 7:45 PM

Pending to the left, pending to the right. Into the valley of pending.

George Mc
George Mc
Jul 26, 2024 7:43 PM

This just came through my feed. Oh how I laughed:

*

“TELL META: Don’t Kill Your Crucial Transparency Tool, CrowdTangle!
Meta has announced it will be abandoning CrowdTangle, its industry leading transparency tool, this August – in the middle of the biggest election year on record.

CrowdTangle is used by thousands of researchers, journalists and advocates to monitor political disinformation and hate speech on Facebook and Instagram.

The decision to kill this crucial tool without an equivalent replacement couldn’t come at a worse time: Elections affecting approximately half of the world’s population are taking place this year. Meta’s irresponsible decision poses a direct threat to our ability to safeguard the integrity of these elections – but we can still stop it.

Sign the petition now to call on Meta to maintain CrowdTangle during this critical period of elections worldwide to protect election integrity in 2024 and beyond!”

*

“Your crucial transparency tool”!

Don’t abandon us! Tell us what we can trust!

Tell us how “to monitor political disinformation and hate speech”!

We need to “safeguard the integrity of these elections”!!!!!

protect election integrity in 2024 and beyond!”

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 7:40 PM

And I always hear: “But there are so many nice Indians, Arabs and Africans!” Apart from the individual reasons why these exposed representatives are oh so nice: That’s not the point at all! It’s about the fact that these people have no business here and belong in their own countries! They can be nice in their own countries.

How does this distortion of reality come about? Basically, people have no idea of the true situation. They have a dark-skinned doctor’s assistant who fulfills their wishes out of duty and believe that she is a typical representative of their race. Of course, this is pure nonsense, because this girl was chosen by her employer because of her suitability, which she now meets.

The Chinese, who relied heavily on the American “construction method” (or whatever that is supposed to be), are now being overtaken by reality. The East Frisians would have paddled ashore on their rafts long ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQq7FoIz_WU

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Jul 26, 2024 7:39 PM

I have swam in the Thames several times,,,Ethiopia look the Best, but wtf are they doing with a British Flag….what’s Ethiopia got to to with us???

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Jul 26, 2024 7:31 PM

I thought the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympics and even The Opening Ceremony were absolutely Brilliant…She said keep up on our fold up bikes I had no idea until covid in 2020, that it was a prediction..

Paris are highlighting with The Miserables in The Rain.

Its lovely here in London but pissing down in France

ossam
ossam
Jul 26, 2024 6:47 PM

Today is the Opening Ceremony (ritual) for Olympics..
Role model Snoop Dogg is passed the Olympic Flame, ahead of the Opening Ceremony later today.

ossam
ossam
Jul 26, 2024 6:40 PM

I like Frederick the racoon

however this lot need clubbing.

They applauded like paid to perform seals….here’s a quick countdown https://x.com/i/status/1816233955311706156

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 6:14 PM

Communication is ultimately a comparison of mutual men-
tal maps: How far have you already traveled in your head?

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Jul 26, 2024 5:57 PM

Syl, we used to have a problem with moths, but our kitten is now nearly 9 months old. Even when she was 4 months old, she could fly around the house, and easily catch a moth in her paws and eat it before she landed. The moths have taken the hint, the mice and birds haven’t quite yet got it. She even turns her nose up at fresh chicken breast – she likes it raw real fresh and hunted, and she is ever so sweet.

comment image

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 8:19 PM
Reply to  tonyopmoc
Rhys Jaggar
Rhys Jaggar
Jul 26, 2024 5:48 PM

‘There are still some who remember people who lived the early days. Many of them now have cottages far from the city without electricity and conveniences so they can live the pioneer life. Aside perhaps from fond memories of times past, such endeavours make me wonder why now. Perhaps it was a better life. There is the hope. It might just be a better life all round if we can get there from here and leave the madness that we’ve seemingly created behind.’ Ms/Mrs Shawcross: the pioneer life may be better, it may be worse, but what it is, indubitably, is INDEPENDENT. People who live pioneer lives want as little to do with governments as possible. They want to source their own water, create their own power, grow their own crops, manage their trees, hedgerows, maintain their own homes and generally, NOT BE TOLD what to do by faceless administrators in some city or other. Right now, that kind of life is more likely to free you from the following: Forcible mRNA vaccinations of your kids. Brainwashing by politiicans, corporations or dodgy evangelists. Theft of all your investments on Wall Street or wherever. Daily hatred of purported enemies overseas, none of whom have ever bombed the lower 48. Freedom from global boiling nonsense. If you want to bring up your kids to run free outdoors without social services saying you are an irresponsible parent, maybe the pioneer’s life is the way to go? If you want to eat healthy food, not contaminated by processors, seed companies, farmer-hating oligarchs etc etc, maybe the pioneer’s life is the way to go? It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. You need plenty of knowledge about a lot of practical things to make it pay financially. But it’s definitely one way to withdraw one’s… Read more »

mgeo
mgeo
Jul 27, 2024 5:45 AM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

Govt. reps want money, for the expanding bureaucracy or as extortion. You earn that money by joining the rat race. Children without “formal” education may become threats to the status quo. Aborigines/natives are the biggest affront to capitalist values. Lacking papers, they can be crushed one by one, or one hamlet after another.

mgeo
mgeo
Jul 27, 2024 5:47 AM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

Govt. reps want money for the expanding bureaucracy or as extortion. You earn that money by joining the rat race. Children without “formal” education may become threats to the status quo. Aborigines/natives are the biggest affront to capitalist values. Lacking papers, they can be crushed one by one, or one hamlet after another.

Thom 9
Thom 9
Jul 26, 2024 5:39 PM

We are to be put into boxes in the cities where we will be provided everything we need. The chickens and the cows and the wood stoves gone. A button on a wall. A machine making meat. AI as our friend and neighbour and the dark framed glass buildings our new history.

Thanks Sylvia those who go willing into the “boxes” could be said to be “Moths to the Flame”.
“From our cages we wondered what our lives might have been like had we just fought back”…
Peace

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 5:31 PM

The human mind is a phenomenon. This is where the real wars of modern times take place. The white race is a spiritualized race. This means that its questions never stop, but are always conquering new territory in order to eradicate the blind spots of ignorance.

The mind is therefore both a map and a conquered territory. People behave in exactly the same way. A questioning of their previous truth causes them to defend with claws and teeth their “territory”, which they have fathomed out so far and considered safe.

So you could certainly talk about a kind of proxy war, it’s about intellectual (and therefore ideological) air sovereignty. A dog also doesn’t like it when his beloved and familiar dog house is taken away from him. The dog can therefore understand when its master senses an intruder.

Howard
Howard
Jul 27, 2024 3:50 PM
Reply to  Ulf

Okay, I’ll take the bait. What exactly does it mean to say “The white race is a spiritualized race”? Spirituality is not race specific. There are individuals within every race who are spiritual – as well as those who are decidedly not spiritual.

Unfortunately, far too many people equate spirituality with some other worldly establishment populated by gods and other ghosties. While it’s certainly possible for believers to be spiritual, it is also possible for them to be anything but.

Case in point: the Israelis who have settled (i.e., taken over) the West Bank of Palestine. They are definitely believers; but anyone capable of robbing and even murdering others is definitely not spiritual.

gordan
gordan
Jul 26, 2024 5:21 PM

leonard cohen wrote some of zimmermans music
the thing with the cohen they do not hide bob dylan from zimmerman
enough with the dylan all these acts are military anglo zion nazi
name stealers identity thieves oded yinon new khazharia
these folks are satanists
destroyers of the world

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Jul 26, 2024 6:30 PM
Reply to  gordan

Leonard Cohen, was absolutely Brilliant, when the girl you had fallen in love with told you to sod off.. You are almost suicidal, and listen to Leonard Cohen, OMG, I don’t feel that bad. I want to live. Jimi Hendrix did Bob Dylans best Work.. He came to London and Blackpool to get his first Gigs, as they had killed off most of the American Indians

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
Jul 26, 2024 6:38 PM
Reply to  gordan

Excuse me Sir?

Rolling Rock
Rolling Rock
Jul 26, 2024 4:57 PM

The hard rains that are coming will sting bitterly. It is said this will be worse than the Great Depression by those who study such things.

The writing is certainly on the wall. Perhaps, it doesn’t turn out as bad economically and financially for ordinary people if they just accept the CBDC, social credit score and digital ID.

Time to get knowledgeable with useful hands-on skills and make friends with those who have them. Making, fixing, repairing, healing and cultivating knowledge and experience will be very much in demand and could be crucial to surviving the downturn.

mgeo
mgeo
Jul 27, 2024 5:51 AM
Reply to  Rolling Rock

The priority: local networks of skills, exchange and info.

Howard
Howard
Jul 26, 2024 3:41 PM

We know civilization is all wrong because they mostly see raccoons as pests – intruders in “our world.” For the most part, give a wild beast an inch and he’ll use it to best advantage. Give a civilized human an inch and he’ll take a mile and scoop out all Earth’s treasures – then go looking for more.

mgeo
mgeo
Jul 27, 2024 5:59 AM
Reply to  Howard

Racoons, honey badgers, some monkeys, even some octopus are analytical, creative and focused to a great extent. They have overcome most of our efforts to keep them out. Maybe we fear the competition. Snakes are not far behind.

Pilgrim Shadow
Pilgrim Shadow
Jul 27, 2024 3:53 PM
Reply to  mgeo

“Competition.”

That’s the key word. Self preservation is the first Law of Nature.

ossam
ossam
Jul 26, 2024 3:02 PM

Fantastic article then you finished with a MacDonald’s music of a contrived manufactured popstar.

Bob Dylan Moshe Ben Tov
comment image

Ulf
Ulf
Jul 26, 2024 3:09 PM
Reply to  ossam

The East Berlin schlager shiksa believes she is a “yenta”
now only because some circumcised Shlomo b*ngs her.
https://aussiedlerbote.de/en/andrea-kiewels-israel-necklace-causes-critique/

https://linkmix.co/24848883

Mathyssek not a Jewish name, but
Polish and means “little Matthew”.
https://forebears.io/surnames/mathyssek

Howard
Howard
Jul 26, 2024 3:44 PM
Reply to  ossam

I won’t quibble over particulars. But could you give us an example of a piece of contemporary music you consider non-MacDonald.

George Mc
George Mc
Jul 26, 2024 7:35 PM
Reply to  Howard

I know the anti-conspiracy rant is bullshit. But you can go in the opposite direction where everything is “part if it”!

e.g. I’ll read David Icke but when you get to the symbolism, there doesn’t seem to be a shape or an image that doesn’t have some sinister secret meaning. Nor does there seem to be a single historical event not powered by the Brotherhood or the Illuminati or whatever.

The thinking on display above seems to be: Dylan is Jewish ergo…….

underground poet
underground poet
Jul 27, 2024 2:00 AM
Reply to  George Mc

Change your name?

George Mc
George Mc
Jul 26, 2024 7:36 PM
Reply to  Howard

Admin I’m pending again. Must have been the “J” word.

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
Jul 26, 2024 6:43 PM
Reply to  ossam

So Bob Dylan is not allowed to give a Doo a hug before all hell break loose………..LOL?
You guys are so funny  😅 

Pilgrim Shadow
Pilgrim Shadow
Jul 26, 2024 2:30 PM
ariel
ariel
Jul 26, 2024 1:50 PM

One day driving back up the hill from the local market town, I saw a racoon sat on the left side. It’s heavily wooded, fairly steep, and with nowhere to pull over. It’s also in the UK.
Racoons? Yes I have seen them in various parts of the U.S. And probably Canada too.
I suppose it might have been an escaped pet. It’s just one of those things, I guess.

niko
niko
Jul 26, 2024 11:36 AM

Amerika’s Manifest Destiny:

comment image

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 26, 2024 12:06 PM
Reply to  niko

Ditto Australia.

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Jul 26, 2024 6:10 PM
Reply to  Johnny

Nah, We sent The Religious Lunatics and Psychopaths to America, and the Criminals to Australia. The Aussies turned out OK – same Sense Humour as Me.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTFd2RdaYAAk1-C?format=jpg&name=900×900

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 27, 2024 8:21 AM
Reply to  tonyopmoc

They weren’t criminals, they were convicts.

Criminals run the country.
Suiturds, all of them,

ossam
ossam
Jul 26, 2024 3:00 PM
Reply to  niko

ironic they call the originals – simple, savages, 3rd world.

Pilgrim Shadow
Pilgrim Shadow
Jul 26, 2024 4:42 PM
Reply to  ossam

Meanwhile, down in Mexico, the natives (themselves colonizing immigrants) had an advanced civilization and a capital city that was larger then almost any in Europe:

When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (…) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (…) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.

— Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

They also sacrificed untold numbers of victims, cutting out their hearts while still alive, and later devouring them.

Pilgrim Shadow
Pilgrim Shadow
Jul 26, 2024 4:31 PM
Reply to  niko

Thomas Jefferson wanted the country to be agricultural.

No one, other than maybe Satan, envisioned what the country has become.

Thom 9
Thom 9
Jul 26, 2024 8:00 PM
Reply to  niko

Looks like all the towns along the Trans-Canada Hwy 1…

Baldmichael Theresolute
Baldmichael Theresolute
Jul 29, 2024 2:25 PM
Reply to  Thom 9
Johnny
Johnny
Jul 26, 2024 10:05 AM

Thanks Sylvia.
Here’s a variation on ‘Eat za bugs’
(Moths, that is);

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 26, 2024 10:12 AM
Reply to  Johnny

The Bogong Moth was/is a food source for the Aboriginal people.

With a body length of up to one and a quarter inches they made for an easy and plentiful high protein meal.

Not my cup of tea 😖

Steve
Steve
Jul 26, 2024 7:13 PM
Reply to  Johnny

This bitch is white. Maybe 1% Aboriginal?

Johnny
Johnny
Jul 27, 2024 12:12 AM
Reply to  Steve

Grow up.