the drama

The picture is titled

"All the World is a Stage".

Drama seems to illustrate, as well as teach, about life. Shakespeare suggested that all the men and women are merely players and that we are all actors. Maybe he meant "just actors"? The real question might be "who wrote the play".

Father's Day Thanks

Great Grandfather John Davis Jones was born 2 November 1831 at a place called "Yetgoch" which is Red Gate in Welsh, in the Parish of Llanllwni, County of Carmarthen, Wales. The Cottage was on Llanybyther Mountain, which were pretty sure is the house that is in the grove of Trees in the picture above. The other picture is a cousin by a sign in a town nearby. John's Father was raised by his maternal grandfather, Evan Jones, and he took his name having been from the Davis line. At 17 years old he left his family and friends and went to Llanybyther, traveled on to Swansea in a cart, where he boarded the steamer "Kubadore" with other who were on their way to Salt Lake. The sailed to Liverpool where they stayed two weeks and then boarded the ship "Buena Vista".. They left the Waterloo Dock on 26 of February 1849 with 249 others. The ship's captain was Dan Jones. After 7 weeks and three days they arrived in New Orleans on the 18th of April 1849. The boat had to be towed in and when it was unloaded it then sank in the harbor. They then traveled up the Mississippi River in the Steamer "The Highland Mary" to St Louis. They went from there to Council Bluffs Iowa where they stayed for 6 weeks and then left for Salt Lake. They arrived on the 28th of October 1849.

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A thought on this Father's Day is to say "thanks" to the young man who made this trip.

Not Alone

Fathers Day

Tomorrow is Fathers Day. What is a Father might be a good question? Maybe it is easier to answer if one has been both a father and a son. In both cases a father should be a help. I like the Cherokee Legend below. I think Fathers really never leave and are always close by

Cherokee Legend -

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage?


His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him, and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sunshine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
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We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him................... Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there. 'For we walk by faith, not by sight.'

Some good books on a lot of stuff, "forgive me for saying so"

Nibley's viewpoints marked him as atypical of Mormon stereotypes. He was an active Democrat and an ardent conservationist, and often criticized Republican policies. He was strongly opposed to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War during an era "when it was very unpopular in LDS culture to do so." I actually have 8 of the books shown here. I really like reading what he has to say. He wrote in that the purpose of life on earth was to be tested but that above all the two things that we can be good at are to "Forgive and Repent". He said that even the Angels envy our ability on Earth to Forgive and Repent". Thinking some on this I was reminded of a comment I just read actually where Religion often invites OCD behavior. This probably is due to the fact that "Religion" suggests that we can ourselves be perfect or at least that we should. On the other hand the real core of religion is that we can be forgiven. Nibley hit the nail on the head suggesting that the thing of most worth would be to Forgive and Repent. Mostly folks don't get OCD over these two goals. On the other hand maybe we should.

The Shad0w knows

We were both looking at this at the same time and both thought of it as a "good picture" at the same time. One of us went up got the camera and took the picture the other one felt some ownership, at least enough to not feel guilty about lifting the picture and putting it on his own blog.

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A good way to spell shad0w is to use the zero rather than the o. The reason is that using the word shadow in a well known phrase in the title can attract a lot of "searches" from folks one doesn't know. I suppose one reason to blog would be to attract those folks and so I suppose, again, that you could pull a lot of searches to a blog by filling the title and or message full of things. I wrote a blog about Tony Hi11erman a few blogs back. I spelled his name right using two Hill....rather than Hi11 and it pulled hits on the site meter that night. Must have been some interest around the world about this New Mexico poet who died not to long ago. Anyway KJ showed me her approach of using other symbols for letters and so there you go..........."Shad0w", as a word, was also inspired. Did I mention that it was me that lifted the picture. Course I did.

photo of interest

I ought to start out admitting that I didn't take this picture but then I don't take the very best pictures and it probably is obvious that I didn't take it. Then the question is why post it or even better why do I like it. I found it interesting to see the flower on the right be right in front of the sun. The light is blocked and appears to be almost totally covered by the flower. On the other hand the other flowers are brighter because of the sun. Perhaps this all has some deep meaning. Then again maybe it doesn't.