About a hundred people got together this week in Carlisle Pa.  They came from as far away as North Dakota, Minnesota and all over Pa.  Some were people with a mental illness.  Some were staff who work with people who have a mental illness.  Some were administrators of agencies who find ways to make our mental health programs work even in a rough economy.

But all who came had one reason for getting together.  All have hope, all believe in the spirit of recovery from a mental illness.  All believe the same thing:  that people with a mental illness are just like everybody else, and want and deserve a happy, healthy life, enriched by all the things that can enrich a life.

Each Lodge Conference has seminars to reinforce hope and recovery, and teach people more about the recovery process.  Some of the folks at this year’s conference were newcomers to Lodge life, and some staff just getting their Lodges started.  Others of us have been around a while, and know what a difference living in a Lodge can make.

People living in Lodges are semi-independent.  There is a staff person available for each Lodge for general guidance.  But the Lodge members make their own decisions, just like everybody else.  Because, well, they actually are just like everybody else.  They work, they run a household, they have pets and go shopping and play baseball and, oh, whatever everybody else does.  That IS recovery, and we are all working at it. And it is working.

When we get together annually we recognize outstanding people who have done outstanding things in their lives and Lodges.  We share the camaraderie of a group of people who all have the same purpose in their hearts.   We learn, we teach, we absorb, and we enjoy our time together and all go back home refreshed from the energy of recovery and hope that was everywhere in the Conference.

Oh yea, we also have some fun!  Those of us who live around here have all been to Gettysburg.  But we had people coming from all over who had probably never been there.  So our Conference organizer and Lodge Coordinator, Bill McHenry, had the marvelous idea to organize a bus tour of Gettysburg, for people who may not get to this part of the country again.  So a bunch of us got on a bus, drove about 45 minutes thru a downpour, which somehow ended  just as we pulled into Gettysburg.  Then the sun shined and we got to get out of the bus with an excellent tour guide, and take pictures and look at famous monuments at this very important place in our history.

We also eat well when we go to Conferences.  The hotel we were at had several great meals for us.  And, we also had a pig roast on Thursday night, catered by Crider’s Meats and Catering from Shippensburg.   Everybody seemed to really enjoy the pig and all his side dishes.  Well, everybody but the pig enjoyed it……………

Carlisle has a rich history,  since this area was the frontier as people were moving to the west.  It’s a great town to visit and Conference attendees seemed to like everything about the Conference.  Next year, Chicago!

It was early and we were catching up on the paperwork from the day before.  We had a tv in the office, but hadn’t turned it on.  Then the husband of the worker in the ER called to say we should turn on the tv, because a plane had gone into one of the towers of the World Trade Center and it was reported that there was more going on, that this had not been an accident.

We turned the tv on and watched for a few minutes, transfixed.  We saw the second plane go into the other tower.  Surreal was not a word I ever really understood until that moment.  We watched for a few minutes, silent.  Then I said to the other worker: This is Real.  It felt like something you would see in a very well done movie, so real….because it was real.

Shortly we heard that there were more planes, hijacked, real planes with real people on, not knowing what else was about to happen.

In a while another patient came into the ER and I needed to go down to interview that person.  As I walked thru the hospital doing what I was supposed to be doing, it was like a dream, not sure whether what I remembered seeing had really happened, or whether I was really dreaming.  But yet I knew I was wide awake, walking around while people were dying and nobody knew what more was to come.  I know of no other time when I felt as confused as I did then.

I noticed the psychology of people as I walked thru the building.  Some were silent, heads down and saying nothing, walking as tho there was no other person near them.  Others were quick to speak: speak about anything, other than the obvious.  Comments about each others’ clothes, or how many people were in the ER, or how slow the elevator was today.  Some needed to make contact, even with strangers, and others were deep in their own thoughts.  Maybe some that were silent knew that they had somebody who was being affected by what was happening.  No one mentioned what was happening, or  being afraid, yet there was a tone of fear in the building that was almost tangible.  It was as tho it wasn’t true if we didn’t say it.  But it was true.

Little did we know at that time what all was yet to happen.  We’ve come a long way since that day, yet that feeling of fear will never go away, remembering those hours.  Or the feeling of people, here, walking thru a hospital, wondering……………We can only hope  that we’ve come far enough that a horror like this can never happen on our  shores again.

A friend of mine took this picture from the Statue of Liberty a few months before 9/11/01, and she has given me permission to show it, as it was.

Artfire, http://www.artfire.com/ has changed the abilities we have to manage our studios.  New color schemes, a crisper, cleaner look, and more ways for our customers to check out are all nice upgrades for the site.

They’ve also changed some studio rules, and Basic (free) accounts will cease to exist as of 8/15/11.  Due to that, I’ve been moving some items out of my Basic account, Gypsie Travels, and combining the two studios together.

Who knows what SarasinArt, as the Gypsie Travels, will come up with next!

Psychological Effects of Wrongful Imprisonment
Dwayne Custer

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” –  Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

“A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.” – J. Krishnamurti

Before: It Could Happen To You

Fear.

It is one of the very first things to pop into one’s mind when considering how one would react to being wrongfully accused of a crime and subsequently incarcerated. Fear of losing one’s identity. Fear of losing one’s family. Fear of losing time and opportunity. It is at the core of all humans and one of the most motivating emotions of any kind. Fear is not the opposite of courage. Fear stands on its own. It cannot be turned into courage by will. Fear can only be overcome by going into it, understanding it, and eventually assimilating it. From this understanding many psychological doors open for an individual.

Imagine sitting down to dinner with your family or plopping comfortably into your recliner to watch a television show, and the doorbell rings. “Who could that be at this hour?” you say to yourself. Being the cautious person that you are, you look through the peep hole to see who could be needing your attention. To your surprise it is the police. Nervously you open the door and the officer in charge begins the conversation by asking if your name is “such and such”. You freely confirm their question and ask them how you can help. They respond by saying you’re under arrest as a suspect in a local murder. Immediately fear roils through your body. Your hands begin to sweat and your heart pounds heavily. “What?!” you ask. But the officer is beyond further conversation with you as he pulls out a set of handcuffs, begins to read you your rights, and asks you to turn around. “This is ridiculous” is the only repeating thought in your mind. Your neighbors are looking out of their window as you are led to a police car and shuffled away. Your family is left standing in the door way and your youngest child is crying.

Fear.

An overwhelming number of people have experienced this kind of scenario in their lives. They have been wrongfully accused of crimes they didn’t commit and yet are not exonerated by our justice system. Instead they are declared guilty and sentenced to long terms in prison. This paper attempts to address some of the psychological effects of wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

It is easy to place yourself in the shoes of another person in order to try and understand what it must be like to be arrested and thrown in jail for something you didn’t do. Fear, anxiety, worry, nervousness, confusion, mistrust and suspicion cloud your mind as you fight to find answers to how this happened.

Put yourself in the shoes of Ronald Cotton. In his words, he describes the surreal experiences of being sentenced for a crime he didn’t commit.

“On January 18, 1985, I was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. I stood there as the judge read my sentence. He called me one of the most dangerous men he had ever met; the district attorney said I was a ‘menace to society’. I could scarcely look at anyone, but I caught a glimpse of my mom and some of my sisters like someone had just slapped them. I pinched my right arm as hard as I could. The crescent indent marks on my skin appeared just as the court officers moved in to take me away: This was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from (Thompson-Cannino, 2009).”

During: Coping on the Inside

You have given up all hope of being set free and your innocence proven. You’ve seen the circus they call the criminal justice system for what it is. In light of all the evidence, a single determinant placed you behind bars; an eyewitness. But this eyewitness supposedly saw you in the middle of the night running down a dimly lit alley. How could anyone possibly identify you as the criminal when they couldn’t even see five feet in front of themselves? Nevertheless, the jury found you guilty of first degree murder and the judge sentenced you to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Your first day of incarceration brings you to your knees. You feel that either you are going to die here or through some miracle might be able to get through one day at a time. The thought of ever being free again slowly fades day after day as you are psychologically beaten down to conform to prison life. Yet, there is still a small glimmer of knowledge in your heart that you are innocent giving you hope and courage to continue on each day.

According to the authors of The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment published in the Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice in January 2004, many prisoners find out quickly if they are going to be able to adapt to this new life or not.

“The deleterious effects of long-term imprisonment have been well documented in literature. The special stresses that affect prisoners include relationship difficulties, such as loss of existing relationships and problems in developing new relationships inside prison; concerns with physical and psychological deterioration; the indeterminate nature of sentences; and the prison environment itself. Research on prisoners’ coping strategies has revealed that prisoners often adopt a fatalistic perspective that established the release date as a time boundary, focusing on the ‘here-and-now’ and using prison time to acquire education and training skills. However, since most long-term prisoners have poor coping abilities to begin with, they tend to fare poorly. …Several…coping strategies (have been identified), including cooperation or colonization, withdrawal, and rebellion or resistance. These strategies are a reaction to the experience of imprisonment and are influenced by the social and cultural backgrounds of individual prisoners (Campbell, 2004).”

Prisoners must adapt to the physical and psychological environment of incarceration or they are chewed up and spit out by the other inmates. Ronald Cotton maintained an edge over others in the system by shaping his body and mind. “In prison, working out and staying strong is a form of surviving. Not only did you need to be able to throw someone down, but you also needed to exhaust yourself or else you might never sleep (Thompson-Cannino, 2009).”

Survival.

Once you’ve overcome the fear and cultural shock of entering prison, survival is paramount. Violence is an every day occurrence and a reality that the weak cannot overcome with conversation or dialogue. One of the interviewees from The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment named Jason describes every day life in prison. “You’ve got armed groups, armed different factions, freely walking around, high-medium and maximum-security institutions. Armed, concealing, chemical weapons, fire weapons, bludgeoning weapons, slicing weapons. [Did you ever fear for your life?] (Campbell, 2004)”

Strategies used to survive also include cooperation and belonging. These adaptive measures insure the safety and survival of inmates who are unable or unwilling to participate in violence. Additionally, while some individuals may survive using adaptive measures like violence, cooperation and belonging, others may turn to other coping mechanisms such as withdrawal leading to isolation and suicide ideation (Campbell, 2004).

Once again, imagine you are the person that has been incarcerated wrongfully. Your entire psychological makeup would inexorably be altered to adapt to the social and culture environment of prison life. Everything you once held as truth and rational would be dissolved in a matter of weeks. The life you had would end in abortion and a new life would impregnate your spirit. It might be likened to a death and resurrection of sorts. Believing there is no hope for salvation, you turn to your only resources for survival; adaptation, coping and overcoming.

After: Forever Altered

Exonerated.

The word rings through your mind every day for years as you adapt to life in prison. An intangible carrot dangling just outside of your reach. It is the hope upon which you place your entire life and one that seems will never happen. Time slips away and everyone and everything you knew changes forever. The outside world has evolved. Imagine going into prison not knowing what a computer was and coming out to find that the entire world was using them. And that’s just one area of change. The evolutionary process is overwhelming for those that finally leave prison.

After 12 years of incarceration, your appeals have finally been heard. The DNA evidence that proved your innocence never existed a decade ago. You laugh to yourself as the judge “apologizes” for the injustice that has been served. He hopes you find forgiveness in your heart and a hopeful new life in the outside world. “How dare he” you say to yourself. “How dare he sit there high and mighty pretending to understand what I just went through. I hate him and I hate our system. I want revenge but that would only put me back in the prison I just came from.”

Anger, uncertainty, frustration, and hopelessness follow many people out the door of a prison and into the streets of a “free” world. The problems that many released individuals experience are in direct correlation to the the blind eye that the criminal justice system used to incarcerate you in the first place. They refuse to compensate you for your psychological and physical abuse, or for the theft of the life you once had. They refuse to admit their failings in serving justice and they admonish you to pick up the pieces and move on.

“How dare they.”

A study of 18 men referred for systematic psychiatric assessment after wrongful incarceration and release from prison show without a doubt that the trauma they incurred is sinister form of cruel and unusual punishment. A long list of psychological and emotional disorders is presented in the paper Psychological Consequences of Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment.

“The assessments revealed evidence of substantial psychiatric morbidity. Fourteen men met ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for ‘enduring personality change following catastrophic experience’, twelve met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, and most reported additional mood and anxiety disorders. There were major problems of psychological and social adjustment, particularly within families. The difficulties were similar to those described in the clinical literature on war veterans. …Specific traumatic features of miscarriage of justice and long-term imprisonment both appear to contribute to the post-release psychological problems (Grounds, 2004).”

It does not require a suspension of disbelief to know that these individuals end up suffering irreparable personality changes and disorders. Findings by Adrian Grounds in Psychological Consequences of Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment show that “families consistently said the men had changed – they were not the people they used to be; they were withdrawn, unable to relate properly. One mother said of her son, ‘He is like a stranger to you …He always used to be affectionate. Now he can’t express emotion, he can’t sit and talk. He jumps about, he is unsettled. Prison has changed him. His personality has changed.’ (Grounds, 2004)”

Additional information from Pam Cytrynbaum of Northwestern University, confirms that readjusting to life outside bars is not always easy, especially when someone has served many years or decades in prison. “ …Once they are exonerated, many remain incredibly panicked that they will be picked up again, wrongfully, and are incredibly fearful, even paranoid. But you know what they say about paranoia – you may be right. It’s such a deep level of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some can fight through it but some remain imprisoned. (Cytrynbaum, 2011).”

There are few studies done on the before, during and after life of people imprisoned on false accusations. There are even fewer programs and assistance available to those that are lucky enough to find exoneration and freedom. Besides the traumatic effects on the psychology of prisoners, many problems of adjustment haunt them through life. They initially lack the practical skills to find jobs, housing and means to adapt back into a foreign socio-cultural environment. They are plagued by a lack of purpose and are often harassed by the ignorant who still consider them guilty of a crime they didn’t commit. And, perhaps most importantly, they have lost time. Time to love, grow and experience the world change around them. Instead they are robbed of that time and told there is no compensation for it whatsoever (Grounds, 2004).

Cytrynbaum best describes the chasm between the release of rightfully accused and wrongfully accused prisoners.

“One of the cruelest ironies of wrongful conviction is this: If you are guilty and you do your time, when you are released, you’re on parole and you get access to a range of services. You get job training, some education, a parole officer, access to programs that help you adjust.. etc…. It’s not great, but it’s something. If you are found innocent and exonerated, even though you served 20 years in prison, you are not considered to be on parole so you do not have access to any services. You are released wearing the same clothes you were arrested in and maybe given bus fare if you’re lucky. It is yet another outrage and horror (Cytrynbaum, 2011).”

Conclusion: Small Glimmer of Hope

You have been handcuffed, accused, sentenced, imprisoned, traumatized, shocked, and literally tortured for something you didn’t do. You have had good and bad days with hope and distress intermingling with one another like dolphins and shark in the waters below you. Yet, there has been a ray of light in your ability to adapt and the knowledge that you are innocent.

You are as quickly thrown out of prison as you were put in it decades earlier and told “good luck.” You look around your feet and in place of the turbid waters you find thousands of pieces of a puzzle waiting for you to put them back together again. But how can you? How can you just pretend it was all a game?

You resolve to help organizations like Innocence Project hoping that by helping others you in turn can help yourself. You hope that you can find peace in a world that turned its back on you and labeled it “justice.”

According to the Innocence Project website there are tens of thousands of people (prime suspects) wrongfully accused of crimes but exonerated by DNA evidence (Innocence). But it doesn’t say how many may have fallen through the cracks or whose cases are too old to hope that DNA evidence will exonerate them. They are the hopeless and forgotten.

Innocence Project goes on to provide more statistics that represent human beings who are or have suffered a dysfunctional justice system.

• There have been 272 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States.
• 17 of the 272 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.
• The average length of time served by exonerees is 13 years. The total number of years served is approximately 3,521.
• The average age of exonerees at the time of their wrongful convictions was 27.
• Since 1989, there have been tens of thousands of cases where prime suspects were identified and pursued—until DNA testing (prior to conviction) proved that they were wrongly accused.
• About half of the people exonerated through DNA testing have been financially compensated. 27 states, the federal government, and the District of Columbia have passed laws to compensate people who were wrongfully incarcerated. Awards under these statutes vary from state to state. (Innocence)

References

Campbell, Kathryn, Myriam Denov, The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment, Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, January 2004

Cytrynbaum, Pam, Personal Interview, July 2011

Grounds, Adrian, Psychological Consequences of Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment, Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, January 2004

Innocence Project, Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations, http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Facts_on_PostConviction_DNA_Exonerations.php

Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Toreno, Picking Cotton – Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martin’s Press, 2009

MaChatte, like all my other lifetime of cats,  has been an indoor-only cat.  But this cat wants to go out more than any cat I’ve ever had.  She races from one window to another hoping to catch one more glimpse of the squirrel, bird, or rabbit she was watching from the window before.  My other cats looked out casually, somewhat interested, but this cat is obsessed with what’s going on outside.

Sooo, I decided it was time to take this one outside for some visits and to see what it looks like and smells like out there.  I got her in July 2 years ago, when she was 10 weeks old, and had spent part of her time before I got her outside, where she was born and lived for 10 weeks.  Maybe she remembers, and really misses it…………

So off I went to PetSmart, and found a very nice and sturdy harness.  Strong nylon, well put together, and I tested it by pulling and tugging at the places it was joined and also the snap.  I live along a main in-town street, with a woods behind my house. And I’ve seen stray cats hit on my street, cos they go whizzing by here.  So between the street and the woods, I need to know I can trust this piece of equipment, trusting my dear little friend’s life to it.

We put the harness on with some resistance, and left it on for about an hour in the house so she could get used to it.  I adjusted the sliding adjustments on it too, to makes sure it was tight enough so she couldn’t slip out of it.  She didn’t make much effort to get it off once it was on.

Then we put on the leash and went on the back porch.  She looked around like someone who had just landed in an alien land.  It’s a big world out there when you’re 6″ tall and weigh 9 lbs, and everything out there is BIG.  Big trees, big plants, big sounds that sound different than they do from inside.

But she decided to step off the porch.  Then the adventure began.  There are pots on the back patio that need to be investigated, around and between.

Chip monk holes to stick your nose in! With mom hoping the chip monk doesn’t stick his nose out at the same time.

After such an adventure, it’s nice to just lay down and take a rest……….

Knowing she is now liable to get fleas and ticks, I knew I needed to get one of the new treatments that you put on the nape of their neck and it works for a month.  I’m 62 years old and there is an old company called Hartz Mountain that’s been trusted all my life time.  So when I went to the store, I saw that their treatment was much cheaper, and only had 3 months’ worth, compared to 5 months’ worth of the treatment I see advertised on tv.  I don’t need 5 months’ worth, cos it will be cold before that, and I trust the name Hartz Mountain, and that’s what I bought.

I put the treatment on her, and it was oily and there seemed to be a lot of it.  She didn’t seem to care, but 24 hours later it was still oily and matted on her fur.  That didn’t seem right.  So then I called my vet and asked about whether they recommend Hartz Mountain.  She said they do not, that some Hartz Mountain products can have toxic effects on pets.  She suggested that I bathe MaChatte, and wait about a week, and then apply one  of the well known brands advertised on tv, and which my vet sells, one dose at a time, so you can get just the amount you need.

I have never bathed a cat before, in my life!  It’s an experience that I’m sure she doesn’t want to repeat, and I don’t either. But I got the oily stuff off her fur, stuff that could have made her sick.  And she walked around wet for a while, looking insulted.

I’m not here to be-labor the Hartz Mountain story.  But if you Google “Hartz kills”……you can read what a lot of other people have written about it.

MaChatte reminds you to stop and smell the roses, errr, rather, marigolds!

In times of trouble, it’s  easy to forget that there is still a lot of good around us.  There are lots of good people, and still lots of good values among us, and a lot to be thankful for. Being thankful is something I like to be sure to remember, often.

We live in a place that is safer than many others, and many people need to be thanked for making that true.  Many gave so much, and many gave it all.  Many are still serving all over the world to protect and defend us and our freedoms. I wanted to make just a quick post to say that it’s a good day to be an American.

I’m not in to country music, but there is one song that crosses all music lines and brings tears to my eyes each time I hear it.   I hope hearing it will have meaning to some others as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf8hfZuzw_A&feature=share

The North and South again went together on the street in Shippensburg yesterday, re-enacting a small skirmish that actually happened here so many years ago.  Shippensburg was occupied by Confederate troops for 7 days during the Civil War.  Those troops were originally under orders to go to Harrisburg, but the plans changed then, and they went instead to Gettysburg, by way of Chambersburg.

The March to Destiny organization, http://www.marchtodestiny.org/  works hard each year to bring this great event to our town.  Their intent is to keep Shippensburg’s role in the Civil War alive.  The event does that, as well as providing an educational and very fun event for the town and all visitors on the last weekend in June each year.

I always like to walk around in the village behind the Library.  I’m usually on my way to help out at Shippensburg Historical Society, http://www.shippensburghistory.org/  The village is a fascinating place and behind the village you can find the Union camp.  I enjoyed a good hamburger while I sat and watched the activities going on all around me.  I strolled around for a while and even took a ride in a beautiful horse-drawn carriage.  Here are some random pictures I took as I walked among history.

Dy

During the street skirmish , the Confederacy pushed the Union back on King street, leaving dead behind, as guns blazed, smoke filled the air and a canon was shot several times.

We are proud of our local history in this area, and welcome visitors to come to visit us and learn about all that happened here in the past.  March to Destiny is something you should plan ahead for for next year!

Shippensburg Historical Society  http://www.shippensburghistory.org/   is open to the public Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, 1-4, except holidays.  Much information is available there for research, genealogy, or just to tour one of the oldest buildings in Shippensburg.  Also, check out our Facebook page, for upcoming events and announcements.  http://www.facebook.com/ShippensburgHistoricalSociety

Now, linked to that FB page, are many other pages, all also of like minded people.  Those of us on these pages don’t like the way a lot of things are working (?) in our world, and would like to see changes.

To use the word hippies might bring up two kinds of memories.  Some saw us hippies as dirty druggies with no direction in life.  If that was your experience, you knew the wrong group of hippies!  The people trying to spread a philosophy in that era were spreading ideas of fairness, and peace, and gentleness, to ourselves, each other,  and our environment.  For many of us, who are now of course much older, those ideas have never changed.

If you subscribe to any of those ideas: peace, conservation, fairness to all citizens, good quality of life, fear of global warming, fear of war, fear of chaos, then we  invite you to come check out this wonderful group of people who would like things to improve in our world.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hippies-were-Right/131351033605798

We are hippies, old and young, from all walks of life, origins, and beliefs.  One belief we all hold, tho, is that there is a better way of life.  We’re looking to find it!

March to Destiny, http://www.marchtodestiny.org/    is always a wonderful time of celebration of our history.  This year is bigger and better yet, since it’s the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Shippensburg will be filled with re-enactors, activities, special presentations, music, food, and a street skirmish that has to be seen, cos it can not be accurately described.

The Street skirmish is  on Saturday afternoon at 3.  Here are pictures from last year.

On the very hot afternoon of 6/26, two armies went together in battle on the streets of Shippensburg! Well, they were small armies, and they were re-enactors, but the Street Skirmish at the March to Destiny is very real. You can hear it, and feel it, and smell it!  A real skirmish did happen on the streets of our town during the Civil War, and it is re-enacted by local Civil War enthusiasts every summer during March to Destiny weekend.  In a battle, you would expect people to be injured, or killed, and the wounded in this battle  fall down, and medics and doctors take  them away to safety as quickly as they can to  give aid.

And Friday night, they do the most authentic and amazing thing, so real that it’s eerie. They will block King Street off to traffic and put luminaries along the sidewalk.  Soldiers will then patrol that area,  just as they did during Martial Law, in our several days of occupation.

March to Destiny is a wonderful time in our town.  It’s good to celebrate our local history, and there are all kinds of fun and educational experiences for everyone.  And don’t forget the good food in the little village set up behind the Library on Saturday! Here are more pictures from last year in the village.

The doctor had quite a lot of medicines with him.

People dying out on the battle field required the embalmer to be there.  He explained the whole process of embalming and the necessity of it at that time.

He had his tools with him.

But it was also a village of every day activities just as any village would have been at that time.  There were two young people playing a game called Game of Graces.

The blacksmith was there, making necessary tools that people used every day.

Sutlers were there with all sorts of every day things that people needed too.

This year’s weekend events  will be held June 24-26. There are activities all week long, as well. Check March to Destiny’s web site for a full schedule.  http://www.marchtodestiny.org/  And while you’re down town, don’t forget to check out one of my favorite places, Shippensburg Historical Society.  http://www.shippensburghistory.org/

So much destruction from storms that were not seen just a few years ago.  So many people killed by the storms, homes and whole towns lost, it is scary to think that this could be our weather now.  I was in my basement last week one evening for the first time ever due to tornado warnings in our area.  We don’t speak the language of tornadoes here, don’t know how to think about that the way the people raised in plains do.  But even those people who are as well prepared as people can be, were not prepared for what was coming to them.

Floods, taking whole towns and killing people.  Millions of acres of farm land under water.  Our weather can kill us, much more likely to kill us than just a few years ago.

We have ravaged and raped the earth for many years.  There is great debate about whether what is happening is due to that, or natural changes in the earth.  Either way, I think each person can still do things that would help: the natural conservation things that we read about all the time, and so many people don’t do.

Whether you believe that it would help, depending on which side of this debate you’re on, it makes sense to try to change something about the way we live.  If nothing else, it will make you feel better. It will give you some sense of hope, and I like to talk about hope a lot, cos we sure need more of it.

Conserve something, reuse something, recycle something, something more than you were.  Plant a tree,  grow some of your own food. Get some water from the tap instead of loading the land fills with plastic bottles that last there forever.  Shop locally and support your neighbors who are  producing food in your own area.  Get involved in your own politics and get out and vote for the people you believe have your best interests at heart.  Volunteer somewhere where people less fortunate than you could use some help.  Give some blood to the Red Cross.  Be nice to somebody who looks like they need somebody to be nice to them today. Give something of yourself, and there will be hope in you that will make you feel better.

Send good energy to the earth and its people, so many of whom need help right now.  Pray, meditate, light candles,  have ceremonies: whatever you do to send something positive from yourself to something or someone who needs hope and help.

Above is an agave, a desert plant that shouldn’t really be in PA.  They are called Century Plants, cos some people believe they only bloom once each 100 years, but that is not true.  The bloom is a good thing that happens when the plant is ready.  All over there are good things happening in the face of disaster, and we need to find and hold on to the good things.  Search hard, cos they are out there.