Johnny D. Symon
Pardon me: Make my deity
By Johnny D. Symon
A few days ago I granted myself the rare luxury of a day out, a day away. I excused myself and took a day off work. My wife, a close friend, and yours truly took to the hills, the hills of Cortes, Andalusia. Our main intention was to hunt out and gather wild oregano and thyme. Early summer has proven to be an ideal time to herb hunt. It's an opportunity to seize the moment because if you don't the wild goats will do it for you, and this year there were hundreds of those critters around the hills, foraging and chewing.
We drove down a narrow track until we reached the bottom of a wide valley, the cork oak trees blocked out the sunlight and surprisingly there were no goats around. It would appear that they hadn't been down there for quite some time, the undergrowth was thick, and a possible fire risk. But here was a place that we'd been looking for, part of the undergrowth consisted of big bunches of flowering oregano. Later on we fell upon clumps of wild thyme ... our mission was accomplished.
We drove up the mountains then stopped on a good vantage point to have lunch and survey the golden glory of the region of Cortes. Being a flyer myself, my ears began to pick out the hum of a distant twin turboprop plane, it was heading our way but was too high in altitude for to pick out with the human eye, which meant that it belonged to the National Park fire crew: We'd just been herb hunting while those people performed a hunt of their own, the hunt for fire.
For a spell I began to feel a little guilty, my day off work involved the pursuit of pleasure, whereas the people high above my head, out of sight but not out of mind, were spending their day ensuring that tragedy would not spoil my idyllic moment. And this experience cast my mind adrift in an ocean of thought involving those special people throughout the world who have dedicated their working lives to protect and serve: Fire and rescue crews, paramedics, cops, and everyone else who works towards the security and safety of others. I offered a silent and feeble prayer for them all from my warm and glorious vantage point that lunchtime.
Several days have passed and I write this weeks scribblings with the strong scent of sun-dried thyme and oregano permeating the room, and even the scent, the aromatherapy even, serves as a reminder not of my day off work in the mountains but as a lest-we-forget experience; a tribute to those who protect and serve. And as the dual odor of both herbs make their home in my environment I begin to think on a wider scale, and again pay tribute to those who lived and died to protect and serve on September 11, 2001.
That fateful day now serves as a catalyst that's helping me to recall many other fateful moments in history, and all of those moments had one thing in common; the selfless efforts of those who protect and serve. Unfortunately those selfsame historic moments bear another of life's little lessons, they tell the tale not only of the historic and special nature of selfless peoples, but the nature of others who only lived for themselves: Manmade tragedies were made by those very people and still they craft those tragedies today.
When the work of man's hands leads to misery, death and destruction, the vital spark encompassing them all is the universal act of self-service and a subsequent disregard for the welfare of others.
One of my lifelong catch-phrases, used on those frequent occasions when others have spilled out their tales of woe to me, is "Well the world is not a just place." I learned this truth at an early age and accepted it as an established fact. I'm one of those guys who has to work just that little bit harder to get through the week. I guess some of us are destined to be in the firing line from cradle to grave, whereas others silver-spoon it from start to finish with a little help from their friends, and others still claw their way up the ladder of success by blocking and putting down those with far greater ability than themselves. None of them ever entertain the idea of living life for the benefit of others, and subsequently the joy of living eludes them; they begin to live from one dirty scheme to another in order to feed their own growing selfishness and greed. History has proven this type to finally destroy themselves and I guess it's all because man was really created as a vehicle to protect and serve mankind, not a vehicle to protect and serve themselves and their ego.
Another thing I thought about on my herb hunt the other day, was the recently controversial subject of Presidential pardoning. I guess my views are middle ground on the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby thing because I don't agree with any President having the power to overrule a court decision. I see it this way; either we have a President who works as a sole judge and jury in the country, or we have a proper judge and jury throughout it. We can't have both and still boast that justice is seen to be done.
Like the honors system in the United Kingdom, the right to pardon will always be subject to abuse. Clinton, if my memory serves me correctly, made over 3000 pardons during his two terms in office, whereas G W Bush has pardoned less than 200. Within G W's meager ration of pardons I can find no trace of international drug barons. I do admit, however, that old Libby was wrong in what he did, but three years behind bars looks and smells to me like a politically motivated sentence, and due to an almost universal dislike of the Iraq war and its aftereffects, most of the Bush team must be feeling like sitting ducks and likely targets.
The bottom line on Presidential conduct, as I see it, must be measured by either "to protect and serve" or "self-serving." Which of those two motivators led Clinton to pardon an international drug baron? and which of those two items led G W Bush to attack Iraq? I'm satisfied with my knowledge on the former, and plan to expound a little more on the latter subject in a future ed. I'm already on record as a "democracy for Iraq" skeptic. Actually skeptic is the wrong word, I said two or three years back that it was an impossibility.
But I'm more concerned with the subject of Presidential pardoning because I myself am just another normal Joe, so my life is on a different level to Kings and Presidents. For me it's easy and natural to follow the advice of Dr Suess ...
© Johnny D. Symon
A few days ago I granted myself the rare luxury of a day out, a day away. I excused myself and took a day off work. My wife, a close friend, and yours truly took to the hills, the hills of Cortes, Andalusia. Our main intention was to hunt out and gather wild oregano and thyme. Early summer has proven to be an ideal time to herb hunt. It's an opportunity to seize the moment because if you don't the wild goats will do it for you, and this year there were hundreds of those critters around the hills, foraging and chewing.
We drove down a narrow track until we reached the bottom of a wide valley, the cork oak trees blocked out the sunlight and surprisingly there were no goats around. It would appear that they hadn't been down there for quite some time, the undergrowth was thick, and a possible fire risk. But here was a place that we'd been looking for, part of the undergrowth consisted of big bunches of flowering oregano. Later on we fell upon clumps of wild thyme ... our mission was accomplished.
We drove up the mountains then stopped on a good vantage point to have lunch and survey the golden glory of the region of Cortes. Being a flyer myself, my ears began to pick out the hum of a distant twin turboprop plane, it was heading our way but was too high in altitude for to pick out with the human eye, which meant that it belonged to the National Park fire crew: We'd just been herb hunting while those people performed a hunt of their own, the hunt for fire.
For a spell I began to feel a little guilty, my day off work involved the pursuit of pleasure, whereas the people high above my head, out of sight but not out of mind, were spending their day ensuring that tragedy would not spoil my idyllic moment. And this experience cast my mind adrift in an ocean of thought involving those special people throughout the world who have dedicated their working lives to protect and serve: Fire and rescue crews, paramedics, cops, and everyone else who works towards the security and safety of others. I offered a silent and feeble prayer for them all from my warm and glorious vantage point that lunchtime.Several days have passed and I write this weeks scribblings with the strong scent of sun-dried thyme and oregano permeating the room, and even the scent, the aromatherapy even, serves as a reminder not of my day off work in the mountains but as a lest-we-forget experience; a tribute to those who protect and serve. And as the dual odor of both herbs make their home in my environment I begin to think on a wider scale, and again pay tribute to those who lived and died to protect and serve on September 11, 2001.
That fateful day now serves as a catalyst that's helping me to recall many other fateful moments in history, and all of those moments had one thing in common; the selfless efforts of those who protect and serve. Unfortunately those selfsame historic moments bear another of life's little lessons, they tell the tale not only of the historic and special nature of selfless peoples, but the nature of others who only lived for themselves: Manmade tragedies were made by those very people and still they craft those tragedies today.
When the work of man's hands leads to misery, death and destruction, the vital spark encompassing them all is the universal act of self-service and a subsequent disregard for the welfare of others.
One of my lifelong catch-phrases, used on those frequent occasions when others have spilled out their tales of woe to me, is "Well the world is not a just place." I learned this truth at an early age and accepted it as an established fact. I'm one of those guys who has to work just that little bit harder to get through the week. I guess some of us are destined to be in the firing line from cradle to grave, whereas others silver-spoon it from start to finish with a little help from their friends, and others still claw their way up the ladder of success by blocking and putting down those with far greater ability than themselves. None of them ever entertain the idea of living life for the benefit of others, and subsequently the joy of living eludes them; they begin to live from one dirty scheme to another in order to feed their own growing selfishness and greed. History has proven this type to finally destroy themselves and I guess it's all because man was really created as a vehicle to protect and serve mankind, not a vehicle to protect and serve themselves and their ego.
Another thing I thought about on my herb hunt the other day, was the recently controversial subject of Presidential pardoning. I guess my views are middle ground on the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby thing because I don't agree with any President having the power to overrule a court decision. I see it this way; either we have a President who works as a sole judge and jury in the country, or we have a proper judge and jury throughout it. We can't have both and still boast that justice is seen to be done.
Like the honors system in the United Kingdom, the right to pardon will always be subject to abuse. Clinton, if my memory serves me correctly, made over 3000 pardons during his two terms in office, whereas G W Bush has pardoned less than 200. Within G W's meager ration of pardons I can find no trace of international drug barons. I do admit, however, that old Libby was wrong in what he did, but three years behind bars looks and smells to me like a politically motivated sentence, and due to an almost universal dislike of the Iraq war and its aftereffects, most of the Bush team must be feeling like sitting ducks and likely targets.The bottom line on Presidential conduct, as I see it, must be measured by either "to protect and serve" or "self-serving." Which of those two motivators led Clinton to pardon an international drug baron? and which of those two items led G W Bush to attack Iraq? I'm satisfied with my knowledge on the former, and plan to expound a little more on the latter subject in a future ed. I'm already on record as a "democracy for Iraq" skeptic. Actually skeptic is the wrong word, I said two or three years back that it was an impossibility.
But I'm more concerned with the subject of Presidential pardoning because I myself am just another normal Joe, so my life is on a different level to Kings and Presidents. For me it's easy and natural to follow the advice of Dr Suess ...
-
"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind."
© Johnny D. Symon
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