Continuation of last thread

Jung Personality Analysis

New Mexico

These are some pics I took about 3 weeks ago on a walk in my neighborhood. The foliage is pretty common around here - requires little watering and does well in this soil. The lavender bush is "lavender" Lots of people have it in their yards. It grows like crazy. The house with the brightly colored door is in my block. I love it. In the fall and winter when everything is brown, it brightens up the scenery. Xerascaping is very popular here since the water supply is dwindling, 2 houses with xerascaping. I am including one tree that I have no idea what the tree is but it was gorgeous at that time. The leaves at the top of the tree were bright green and there were long willow-like vines flowing down with bright red and orange leaves. It was a beauty. I had to send a pic of a cactus. Finally, there is a bush with pink-red flowers - I think it is a form of sage. The hummers love it in summer. If one of you wants to put these up sometime when the wells have run dry elsewhere, post which ones you like. All are within 2 blocks of my house.

Posted for Jan

Continuation

Jan's last two pictures (first blog only would take 5 of them)

Posted for Jan

Emma Nicole Happy Halloween 2009

I wanted to display Emma's cute little Halloween picture, but I don't really have a Halloween story (I'm just 'not' a story teller, but I admire those who are). So, what we end up with here is more or less a definition of the 'meaning of Halloween'. By Christmas, I'll be sure to have some pictures of her showing her 'million watt' smile. It's her crowning feature, but for now, no smile in these pictures. Soon though. :) (By the way, Emma was born 1-15-09.)

Meaning of Halloween
O­ne obvious question about Halloween is, "What does the word itself mean?" The name is actually a shortened version of "All Hallows' Even," the eve of All Hallows' Day. "Hallow" is an Old English word for "holy person," and All Hallows' Day is simply another name for All Saints' Day, the day Catholics commemorate all the saints. At some point, people began referring to All Hallows' Even as "Hallowe'en" and then simply "Halloween."

­While it takes its name from All Saints' Day, modern Halloween is actually a combination of several different traditions. In fact, a lot of the things we do on Halloween predate Christianity entirely.

Halloween comes to America

Spooktacular Halloween Just for Fun

Halloween decorating has become a big thing,

second only to Christmas.



Cheers to all those who have taken the time

to create these spooktaculars.

The White Lady of Union Cemetery

Easton Baptist Church





A Halloween treat or maybe it's a trick. I'm sure that many small towns have their version of ghostly apparitions, and my town is no different. For as long as I can remember, the story goes that The White Lady wanders through & near Union Cemetery & many claim to have seen her at night when driving near the cemetery.







Union Cemetery in Easton dates back to the 1600's & it is claimed to be the most haunted
cemetery in Connecticut. The cemetery is next to the Easton Baptist Church and is separated from the rest of the church property by an

old wrought-iron fence.

Lorraine & Ed Warren (he is now deceased) well-known ghosthunters visited the cemetery many times over the years and after much research stated that the cemetery is filled with 'demonic influence'. They even wrote a book about the cemetery entitled "Graveyard". The Warrrens even claim to have captured The White Lady's essence on film. She is described as having long, dark hair & wears what looks like a white nightgown.

The identity of The White Lady is unknown, but the legend goes that there may have been a love triangle involved. One version is that The White Lady is Ellen Smathers, who wanders the cemetery & its surroundings looking for her husband John, whose body was found in a sink-hole behind the Easton Baptist Church weighed down with iron chunks in his pockets. A man named Richard Dean Jason confessed to his murder because of his love for Ellen.

The other version is that another body found in this sink-hole around the turn of the century was that of a Mrs. Knott, who was supposedly killed by her lover, Elwood Wade & dumped in the sink-hole or it may really have been Mr.Knott who her lover killed. After the murder, Elwood Wade was hanged & it is said Mrs. Knott spent the remainder of her life in jail & now roams the area searching for them.

The White Lady usually appears in the road along Church Road & Route 59 or further down the road in Monroe, often being 'hit' by vehicles when she appears out of nowhere. She is never found after an incident,nor is there damage to the cars that pass through this ghostly woman.

It is said she may be walking back & forth between Union Cemetery to nearby Stepney Cemetery in Monroe.

In 1993 an off-duty Monroe fireman reported driving his truck along Route 59 near Union Cemetery, when he saw an eerie red glow & a farmer with a straw hat seated next to him in his truck. He looked up to see The White Lady in the road in front of him. He could not stop, struck her & heard a thud & then she & the mysterious passenger disappeared, leaving a dent in the front of his truck. So the story goes.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, Happy Halloween.

Born with the Golden rules

Been doing some thinking about Ivy' post (very good) the other day: The one had a list that her friend had sent her...it was mostly about ethical, and moral behavior. I was going to write my own answer..but I will post something that I have copied to note pad, and no link to the Author..but will try if you want me to keep looking.

It's that synergy thing...we can't escape it no matter how we try to change it...we are all one, and all the one.!!

Obviously, says the monkey.

Human nature simply cannot be understood in isolation from the rest of nature. This evolutionary approach is already difficult for many people to accept, but it is likely to generate even more resistance once its implications are fully grasped. After all, the idea that we descend from long-armed, hairy creatures is only half the message of evolutionary theory. The other half is continuity with all other life forms. We are animals not only in body but also in mind. This idea may prove harder to swallow.

We are so convinced that humans are the only intelligent life on earth that we search for other intelligent beings in distant galaxies. We also never seem to run out of claims about what sets us apart, even though scientific progress forces us to adjust these claims every couple of years. That is why we do not hear any more that only humans make tools, imitate each other, have culture, think ahead, are self-aware, or adopt another's point of view. It is the rare claim of human uniqueness that holds up for more than a decade.

If we look at our species without letting ourselves be blinded by the technological advances of the last few millennia, we see a creature of flesh and blood with a brain that, albeit three times larger than that of a chimpanzee, does not contain any new parts. Our intellect may be superior, but we have no basic wants or needs that cannot also be observed in our close relatives. I interact daily with chimpanzees and bonobos, which are known as anthropoids precisely because of their human-like characteristics. Like us, they strive for power, enjoy sex, want security and affection, kill over territory, and value trust and cooperation. Yes, we use cell phones and fly airplanes, but our psychological make-up remains that of a social primate.

To explain human behavior as a "mere" product of evolution, however, is often seen as insulting and a threat to morality, as if such a view would absolve us from the obligation to lead virtuous lives. The geneticist Francis Collins sees the "moral law" as proof that God exists. Conversely, I have heard people echo Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov, exclaiming that "If there is no God, I am free to rape my neighbor!"

Perhaps it is just me, but I am wary of anyone whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior. Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed to form a livable society, is built into us? Does anyone truly believe that our ancestors lacked rules of right and wrong before they had religion? Did they never assist others in need or complain about an unfair share? Human morality must be quite a bit older than religion and civilization. It may, in fact, be older than humanity itself. Other primates live in highly structured cooperative groups in which rules and inhibitions apply and mutual aid is a daily occurrence.

Even without claiming other primates as moral beings, it is not hard to recognize the pillars of morality in their behavior. These are summed up in our golden rule, which transcends the world's cultures and religions. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" brings together empathy (attention to the feelings of others) and reciprocity (if others follow the same rule, you will be treated well, too). Human morality could not exist without empathy and reciprocity, tendencies that have been found in our fellow primates.

After one chimpanzee has been attacked by another, for example, a bystander will go over to gently embrace the victim until he or she stops yelping. The tendency to console is so strong that Nadia Kohts, a Russian scientist who raised a juvenile chimpanzee a century ago, said that when her charge escaped to the roof of the house, there was only one way to get him down. Holding out food would not do the trick; the only way would be for her to sit down and sob, as if she were in pain. The young ape would rush down from the roof to put his arm around her. The empathy of our closest evolutionary relatives exceeds even their desire for bananas.

Reciprocity, on the other hand, is visible when chimpanzees share food specifically with those who have recently groomed them or supported them in power struggles. Sex is often part of the mix. Wild males have been observed to take great risks raiding papaya plantations, returning to share the delicious fruit with fertile females in exchange for copulation. Chimps know how to strike a deal.

Our primate relatives also exhibit pro-social tendencies and a sense of fairness. In experiments, chimpanzees voluntarily open a door to give a companion access to food, and capuchin monkeys seek rewards for others even if they themselves gain nothing from it. Perhaps helping others is self-rewarding in the same way that humans feel good doing good. In other studies, primates will happily perform a task for cucumber slices until they see others being rewarded with grapes, which taste so much better. They become agitated, throw down their measly cucumbers, and go on strike. A perfectly fine vegetable has become unpalatable! I think of their reaction whenever I hear criticism of the extravagant bonuses on Wall Street.

These primates show hints of a moral order, and yet most people still prefer to view nature as "red in tooth and claw." We never seem to doubt that there is continuity between humans and other animals with respect to negative behavior - when humans maim and kill each other, we are quick to call them "animals" - but we prefer to claim noble traits exclusively for ourselves. When it comes to the study of human nature, this is a losing strategy, however, because it excludes about half of our background. Short of appealing to divine intervention as an explanation, this more attractive half is also the product of evolution, a view now increasingly supported by animal research.

This insight hardly subtracts from human dignity. To the contrary, what could be more dignified than primates who use their natural gifts to build a humane society?