faulker012

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) I admit it, I'm a nerd about many, many fields of study. The Chauvet caves in Southern France have always left me in a state of awe, so I was delighted to discover this documentary deep in the bowels of Netflix.  The film begins with a quick run around the old hills and rivers of southern France where Chauvet cave is hidden. The landscape speaks of eons past for it is old old old. Our guides appreciate the magnificence of the way we travel and we fall into silent reverence, awe. When we finally see the entrance to the cave we see that authorities have sealed it and have actually placed a locked steel door to protect the delicate balance of chemistry and biology and artistry within the cave. The original entrance to the cave suffered a massive landslide thousands of years ago and is now buried within about fifty or more feet of rubble and crystal stalactites. What an interesting thought to ponder, that the immensity of time allows for bo...

Never in the history of this blog have I ever gotten overtly political. NEVER in my time on Facebook, prior to 2016, have I been a political loudspeaker. But I can't help myself these days. I simply can not be silent. Saying Stop Shooting Our Kids   does not make me a libtard snowflake. It makes me a human being with a heart and mind. But I see what they are doing there, they  being the people who are working so hard to desensitize us to human suffering. They   being the generation before me that wants to suggest that the current outcry to STOP the bullshit is a bunch of sensitive  do-nothings. They   being the people who want to shame the people who are slowly finding their own voices. I know what they are doing. They are snidely and systematically attempting to devalue the opinion of the loudening voice, the voice that has been kept down, quiet, hidden, feeling alone for all of these years. The minority voices of all kinds, the voices of all women, the voice...

One of my favorite things is a little writing group that I started a year or so ago. We meet weekly, as long as all conditions are right , at a local coffee shop across the street from a beloved friend that we all secretly hope joins us.  💓 Most of what we do is, using prompts from books, websites, or of our own creation, from all over the place, and write for three to ten minutes. Then, if we wish, we read our writing to each other, pause with love for one another, and move along. Our writing often prompts wonderful conversations full of emotion, love, and connection. It's truly a beautiful thing, with a side order of iced tea and brownies. With the love of this writing group, I've decided to add my suggestions for some excellent writing prompts. All around the internet you can find website with dozens of memoir writing prompts, most copy from one another. Each of these personal narrative prompts is from my own head. Enjoy: Which of your parents are you the most like? How. De...

This post was featured on Karen Garst's blog faithlessfeminist.com I am delighted to see it so well-received there. The idea for this post started about five years ago when I read a book by atheist activist  Christina called Why are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that Piss Off the Godless .  I thought Greta's book was brilliant , but incomplete. And that's why I took this effort to add to the incredibly long list of things that I an angry about. Please add your own in the comments. Am I raging and wounded? Have I seen too much pain and unfairness that  I have entered a period of anger at God? Am I in despair and feeling hopeless? Am I afraid that God has abandoned me in my desperation?  Am I feeling that Life Isn’t Fair? Am I unable to locate any gratitude towards God? In my time I have been accused several times of being angry at God?  The Christian god, presumably. People making this suggestion to me never ever take my reply as honest. They simply cann...

In a day where the Christian religion is setting itself in competition with science, secularism, and critical thinking, it behooves all Humanists, science-minded people, freethinkers, atheists, and all secular peoples on the planet to celebrate those humans in history who have made it possible to be outwardly skeptical.  Today, February 12th is now celebrated as  Darwin Day, in honor of Charles Darwin. This man, Charles Darwin, struggled for most of his adult life with that which his senses could detect again and again and with the belief system that so shackled his mind, and the mind of the western world of that time.  Charles Darwin endeavored to satisfy his voracious curiosity and questioning within the bounds of the religion of his upbringing, but found no satisfaction there. Concluding that species change, evolve, over time was something he could not ignore, despite the strong, stranglehold that the Christian churches had built in his mind. We have his amazing braver...

One of my favorite things is to have lunch at Panera, here in St. Louis it is called St. Louis Bread Co because they are based here in town. *  I'll get my favorite delicious salad with extra wontons and an iced tea, sit down alone, and read the Everyday section of the paper.  No, I don't read the news section of the newspaper because I get plenty of news everywhere else! But I love the comics, the word games, the crossword puzzles, and I really used to love Dear Abby. When it was Abby. But now I find myself snorting and shaking my head with disgust nearly every time I read it. Why am I disgusted? Because her advice is ridiculously shaming and personally disempowering to so many of the people who write to her. For example, here's one of the letters from this week: DEAR ABBY: My husband is very outgoing. He loves chatting on the phone for hours, and talks with all the neighbors up and down the street. He's retired, so it's fine -- up to a point. We have a set time...

You know how you listen to the problems all over the place and think, UGH, what can I really do to help, to really make a difference? I feel that way often whenever listening to the news. Huge, real problems and little old me wondering what I can do that is real and that will make a difference. Well, I've got a small thing that you and I can do to make a difference for the Humanists in Milwaukee. Proceeds from all activism on the website will go to help victims of rape and sexual assault. Really, RIGHT NOW. If you and I simply donate a buck or two or ten we will be making grassroots differences in the greater Milwaukee area...and won't that feel great?! The Brew City Benefit happens in Milwaukee, WI April 7th, 2018, benefiting RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), and helping to create a new Milwaukee Humanists group. DETAILS & DONATIONS:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-brew-city-benefit#/

A couple of weeks before Mom died she and I were in her kitchen talking about her favorite music. We were cracking up, making fun of the dudes we were attracted to in our teens.  She mentioned a couple of 50s singers who were dreamy in her teenage imagination, guys that I had always thought of as has beens .  I think I mentioned Andy Gibb.  🙂 That night I went home and sent her a couple of CDs from Amazon.com and she was delighted. Surprised and delighted. I noticed the discs being used regularly over the next week or two. And those CDs came in handy later. A couple of weeks later Mom and I were, again, hanging out in her kitchen, feeling kind of maudlin and sad and wanting to connect. Now we knew there was cancer. Now we had a glimpse of serious days ahead. I selected a song from one of her CDs, one of the popular tunes of her dreamy guy, and we danced together. When the tune was over Mom said, Wait, there's another one I want to dance to, number 24 on disc 3 . This wa...

Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what is bugging me. I'm a bit slow on the uptake and I'm generally a happy person so putting my finger on a thing that is ruminating in the back of my mind can take me a bit longer than most...but I've finally put my finger on it.  And not in a gross way. It's this: being an atheist person does not guarantee that one is a skeptic. * M aybe it is the pervasively anti-intellectual climate that we live in that is to blame. Or it is that popular and warm-fuzzy idea of being spiritual that is to blame ; that one always annoys me more than it should. The entirety of that school of thought called New Age just screams ridiculous to me. I'm trying to hold my temper here, but my anger and frustration with the whole idea of spiritual rather than religious just annoys me. There is no skepticism present in this ...what...realm? I have had more than my share of uncomfortable conversations where the other person insists that the constell...

OK, so I'm a curious person. For years I've been thinking about those DNA testers and thinking I'd get to it sometime. This is the time.  I gathered up my spit and sent it in to   23 and Me a couple of weeks ago and now  I'm waiting for the results. Only four to six more weeks to go before I get my results. On my dad's side of the family we can only go so far back, back to my dad's grandfather. That man, according to the only family story that I know about him, was raised in an orphanage someplace in Bern, Switzerland...the place burned down. That's it. And I don't even know if that story is true. One elderly and incredibly beloved relative of mine once told me that someone in our family was Italian and had invented the Gamma Ray, because their name was Gamma.  LOL. I'm thinking that some parts of that story aren't true; in fact, much of what little I know is questionable. For a number of reasons, family history is pretty sketchy on both sides o...