Introduction

Welcome to my personal blog! Some of you already know me, and some of you don’t. But either way, I urge you to read this (very long) introductory post before you read the regular blog posts. It will lay the groundwork for various topics I’ll be covering, and perhaps prevent some confusion.

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I’ve had a chaotic life with a wider range of experiences than most people have.

I’ll be posting about my own experiences, people I’ve known, my thoughts about things, many interesting observations I’ve had.

Some of the things I’ll be posting about:

Wherever I Go, There I Am

I’ve been homeless, and I’ve lived up the good life (when I dated a rich guy for a couple of years). And I’ve experienced just about every socio-economic status in between those two extremes.

I’ve been cold and hungry.

Some people would (and do) resent the bad experiences in their past. I do not.  Although some living experiences were miserable to get through, I am glad of them. My perspective is much broader than it would be if I’d had a stable life. I have interacted with people in every kind of situation. Because of this, I have learned to not judge those in whose shoes I have not walked. I have developed a keen empathy for others.

It’s this empathy that often makes other people judge me. Conservatives often accuse me of being liberal because of certain views I have. I am more conservative than liberal! But some of my views do not always line up with other conservatives because of experiences I’ve had, and because of experiences I’ve been involved with in others.

For example: how often I’ve heard conservatives say things like: “ANYONE can get a job if they really want to”.  “They’re on Foodstamps because they’re lazy”.  “They’re homeless because they’re lazy”.

Well, I have news for you. It’s not that black and white. Oh yes, I’ve seen able-bodied people buck the system and abuse it. Way too many of them. But soooo many people are in bad situations not of their own doing!

For now I’ll just say, I will be posting about some specific situations and some generalities about these subjects. If you want to stay judgmental, that’s on you, not me.

Another bright side to some of the less-than-ideal situations I’ve lived – because of them I’ve met some fantastic people and been to some fantastic places that I never would have experienced if I’d been living an ordinary, stable life. I look back on these things with pleasure.

Mother Dear

A mother. A central figure in everyone’s life. Even if you were abandoned as a newborn on the steps of an orphanage, you wonder about her your whole life. Who was she? What was she like? Even if you pushed her completely out of your life at some point, she’s always there, in the back of your mind.

There are good mothers and bad mothers. And then there was mine.

As I recount various incidents about or involving my mother, you will think I’m writing about two different people. That’s because, in a sense, I am. She was like being two different people; a Jekyll and Hyde.

Her good side: she was a wonderful, cheerful Spirit-filled Christian who loved the Lord.
She was talented, brilliantly smart, generous, charitable, undiscriminating, kind, compassionate, and hated bigotry.

Her bad side: she had periods of deep dark depression, delusions and paranoia.
She was resentful, unforgiving, judgmental, critical, spiteful bordering on cruelty, vindictive, and racist to the bone.

Her dark side would come out when life was working against her and she felt like she was losing control. Then she would slip into a deep depression, and the anger would be working it’s way out. I can understand that. I have some of the same tendencies, but a key difference between her and myself- I am introspective and very good at self analysis. She was not, and always blamed others even when she was at fault.

Her basic nature was the good side. Her bad side started in her childhood with her own mother. Her own mother resented her birth and emotionally abused her in the worst ways. That abuse was unrelenting until my grandmother ended up in a nursing home, then died. Some of the things I’ll tell about what my grandmother did may shock you.

There have been a few people in the world who only ever saw my mother’s good side, which was easy to fall in love with. I don’t know if those people would ever believe anything bad about her.

I am uncomfortable in talking about my mother’s bad traits, like I’m besmirching her memory, when she’s not even here to defend herself. But so many aspects of her life and mine are so tightly interwoven, that it would be impossible to tell my story without revealing her dark side.

I’ll periodically be posting about incidents and situations involving her. I just wanted to give a heads up to the reader to understand why sometimes I’m posting about a saint, and sometimes a psycho, both of them being the same person.

All Creatures Great and Small

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with animals.  I’ve interacted with or just observed a wide variety of domestic and wild animals.

I will have plenty of fun, wonderful and intriguing animal stories to tell, and yes, the occasional sad one.

Time for Church!

I will be publishing some very Christian posts! Links to those will be found HERE

These posts will be geared specifically to those who have a true relationship with Jesus and thus on a journey of spiritual growth. I will talk about specific Bible verses and what they mean to me. I will relate specific experiences which have enhanced my own spiritual growth. I’ll post about anything that I hope will uplift and encourage my Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Unbelievers and maybe some lukewarm Christians will have no interest in these topics and won’t derive any benefit from them.

Let There Be Science

Scientists are born, not made.

Some scientists go into all kinds of fields – physics, medical research, paleontology, archaeology, planetary science or astrophysics, biochemistry or microbiology, botany. or zoology.

Some scientists never realize their dream. Maybe their parents pushed themselves into something “practical”. Or maybe they couldn’t go to college for some reason. The luckier ones of these will find a way in a hobby or other activities. A wannabe geologist might accumulate a large collection of rocks- and they can tell you about them, too. They can become real experts A wannabe paleontologist or archaeologist might volunteer for digs on their days off from their mundane jobs (yes, many of the workers on digs are volunteers). Other people will read every book and watch every documentary they can find on their chosen subject.

I am a scientist who never got to go into my chosen field.

As far back as I can remember, I was beyond fascinated by the world around me. I wanted to know how everything worked and why things are the way they are. I would spend hours in the yard watching birds and insects and squirrels and whatever else do the things they do. I would pick up a leaf and carefully examine the veins, wondering why they were there. I would dissect a flower, trying to figure out what all the parts were.

I had a million questions. What are the stars and why do they not fall down? Where does the sun go at night? When the water goes down the drain, where is it going to? Where does the stuff in a store come from? How does water freeze into ice cubes?

I would pester my mother with questions. Why does the room light up when you flip the switch? Because it lets the electricity reach the light bulbs. What is electricity? That stumped her.

I understood there were no tiny people in the TV set, but I wanted to know how we could see them. She tried to explain they were from far away, but she didn’t know how to explain about radio signals.

When my mother discovered that I was avidly reading at the tender age of two, and had outgrown my little kiddy books, she bought new, more advanced books for me, including a set of encyclopedias. Encyclopedias! What wondrous thing is this? I dove in and discovered astronomy, dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, and so much more!

Then I started to school and discovered the school library. I was in heaven! Books on every subject imaginable! I couldn’t get enough!

Sometimes people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Most young children will answer with things like a teacher, a nurse, a firefighter, a policeman. I always answered, “Scientist”. Grownups thought that was funny. It wasn’t funny at all, and I couldn’t understand their attitude!

The years passed, and I continued to read everything I could get hold of about a variety of subjects. But I was in a quandary.

I was raised in a very churchy very fundamentalist environment. My m. grandaddy was a preacher (he was nice, but he did not marry a preacher’s wife! More about that in future posts).

The churches we went to taught that every word in the Bible was 100% true. But something wasn’t meshing with the science!

I am not speaking against the church members. Most of them were absolutely wonderful people, but they had been taught to not question the church teachings, as had their parents and grandparents before them, and they simply accepted it.

But I was seeing some discrepancies. I went on an intellectual journey to learn the truth. I will be posting a considerable amount concerning science, history and archaeology as they relate to religion and the Bible. I will bracket the titles of these types of posts with a scroll:
📜 Like This 📜

Most people will probably disagree with much of what I have to say, but that’s ok.

Jack of All Subjects

I have so many interests, I’ll be posting about a little of everything!

Archaeology, paleontology, astrophysics, much more.

I have a keen interest in ancient civilizations, especially western civilizations. But also North and South American pre-Columbian history.

I’ll just post about anything that strikes my mood and fancy.

Of course, I’ll also post about myself – incidents from my childhood and beyond.

I’ll post about people and animals I’ve known.

Just anything that comes to mind that I feel a need to post about. There should be something of interest to just about everyone.

Some of my posts will be about controversial subjects. I encourage any comments, even if you disagree with me about something. But I will reject any hateful comments.

Conclusion

A few ending thoughts….

I may or may not use the real names of people in my past or present that I post about.

I have almost no photos from the past, so I’ll be using appropriate memes, clip art, and random pictures that fit the topic.

I was a gifted child. NEVER EVER think I’m bragging about that. Aspects of it will come out in some of my personal posts. Gifts are only useful if you use them, and mine have gone to waste. I have nothing to brag about.

TRIGGER WARNING! Some of my posts about my childhood will be difficult for some people to read.

I hope that I will provide entertainment, knowledge, and something for my readers to think about.

To reiterate:
📜 Scrolls 📜 in titles – Science, history and archaeology as they relate to religion and the Bible. These posts can range from dryly academic to hypothetical musings and will sometimes have some very religious thoughts of mine.

Christian Only posts will be found HERE

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