To write

Have you ever watched someone write?
Have you ever identified those born calligraphic, with their long liquid strokes, holding the pen like a delicate canary bone, creating art with every waltzing dance of their wrist?
How about those who are destined writers, with their fevered devotion to the words spilling onto the page, with no care to the formation of individual letters, just an energy and tempo so intent?
Have you ever watched those who never learned the fluent language that wrists share with fingers, which translate to the foreign language of the pen? They bend over the paper, fists clenched about the pen, with their mouths agape as they clumsily transfer their thoughts doggedly and with much effort.
Strong hands, soft palms, angled wrists, fingers bent just-so.
Writing might be one of the characteristics of advanced society, but it would be nothing were it not for the thick, thin, strong, weak wrists which faithfully translate thoughts shallow and profound.
These are beautiful things.

Over again

I am so glad I've started my life over again. To be given a crack at happiness is like having been imprisoned for millenia and finally having your chains fall away.
Away.
Away is where I moved to, after a short good-bye to a life filled with strife. Those days are simply unpleasant memories, never forgotten but vestigial. Seldom ever do people recognize a second chance until it is far too late to act on the offer.
I was lucky.
In starting over again, I have experienced no pain post partum. All membranes of attachment have been dissolved, and I have been able to live free and happy. I am no longer a refugee from life.
I am alive.

Brave Heart

It's official: I'm getting a horse! This is Life Goal Number One for me, and I'm finally accomplishing it. His name is Brave Heart; I plan on calling him "Willie," after William Wallace, the real Brave Heart. He's AMHA reg, and isn't even a yearling, which is fantastic for me as a trainer. He should mature to be around 31 inches tall with perfect conformation. He'll be new "breed standard" blood on PEI, and to top it all off, he is not related to any minis on the island.


Unlike with Cheyenne, who I had minimal contact with until 2008, I'll be able to start this guy young. I expect him to respect boundaries, turn to the left first, walk, trot, and back up before we start anything really intensive. No jumping until he's three, no cart until he's two and a half, and no breeding until he's three. This will give him time to grow and mature until he is physically and mentally capable of accomplishing these things. We'll be turning him out with the rest of the herd until he's one, and then we'll separate him and put him with Monty. I am so very excited; I have many hopes and dreams for this little guy, and I'm confident he can live up to them.

I shall call him Willie and he shall be mine and he shall be my Willie.

Summer 2010, in short

Well, I had a fantastic summer here on PEI. I competed in six miniature horse shows with the horses I trained myself. Over the course of the summer, Montana and Cheyenne have taken home one 6th, two 5ths, six 4ths, three 3rds, eight 2nds, thirteen 1sts, and a Reserve Champ. This is the second year I have ever competed in any horse shows, with very tough competition to boot (come of these kids have been showing since they were two!). Hopefully, I'll have two horses trained and ready to compete in driving classes for next summer! The best part of showing for me is training the horse, and showing it yourself; that way, even if you don't place, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your horse did a good job, and is gaining experience. ...Of course, building a good reputation helps, too. :)

As far as riding goes, I'm still riding Dama, the Icelandic horse. We have progressed very far in the short year that I've been riding her. She's gone from not understanding leg cues to me being able to steer her with minimal leg and rein pressure. She backs up willingly, moves forward without balking, and will even go for rides outside of the the field (BIG change, let me tell you!). She is attentive, and no longer looks peeved at being saddled. I am just very happy with her overall. I do miss horses with a large stride though (AJ)!

Also this summer, I went to vet camp at the Atlantic Veterinary College. It was a lot of fun, and very very interesting. We got to dissect pig hearts, watch a necropsy done on a calf, and work on some bacteriology and parasitology labs, among other neat things. Also, a few kids fainted, so I guess not everyone was having as good a time as I was. Oh, well.

Creative Writing Club

Well, I have many excuses for not writing. I have been very, very busy these past few weeks, what with Art Club, Yearbook, SAGL, driving, riding, training, and Creative Writing.
Speaking of Creative Writing, last night I had a poetry reading at the Confed Center. We all did very well. I look forward to being part of the group again next year!

The event ended at 9:00 pm, and I was planning on going straight home to go to bed, but my friend Al1 and Al2 invited me over to Al2's house to watch a movie. Well, I could not resist. Instead of going to bed early, I stayed up until 12:30. We didn't even end up watching the movie; we just sat around and talked for hours! That's how you know you have good friends: you can talk for hours about a variety of topics without getting bored. We don't need booze to have a good time, unlike the curmudgeons of my age group. Having a group of intelligent and zany minds is enough entertainment for me.
At any rate, Al1 told an awesome story. Here goes:
Al1's dad has a friend who has a son with high functioning Down Syndrome, enabling her to leave her son home alone while she goes to work during the day. On one particular day, she left for work as usual, leaving her son at home for the day. All was well until about two hours into her work day, when she received a somewhat panicked phone call from her son. "Mom! Mom! Mom!" "What's the matter, honey?" "There's a troll in the closet! A TROLL IN THE CLOSET!" Of course, she assumed that he was just doofing around as everyone is known to do on occasion. "Okay. I'll check it out when I come home, okay?"
A few hours later, she walked into her house, to find that the front hall closet had been barricaded by her writing desk, and her son was pushing against it to keep the closet door shut. The closet door was rattling and shaking, and her first reaction was to think 'Hmmm... That must be a big raccoon or something.' She convinced her son to pull the desk out of the way, and she carefully opened the door to find.... a midget in the closet! He was a Jehovah's Witness, and he had apparently been doing his rounds when he knocked on the door, and was pulled inside and stuffed into the front hall closet having been mistaken for a troll.

What a silly little person!

Famine

Sing sweetly, sap, and
Sickening,
Out here among the flowers.
Eyes to the sky,
Filled like a pie,
Where crows and locusts
Glower.

Now swooping down,
These morbid clowns
Do set upon a shower
Of buckwheat, rye, and corn flowers
All grain gone,
Work of hours.

Now eyes awake
With sweating palms
The farmer loses sleep
And paranoid of living storms
That do his harvest
Reap.

American Indians

The term "Native American" was originally introduced in the United States by academics in preference to the older term "Indian" to distinguish the indigenous peoples of the Americas from the people of India, and to avoid negative stereotypes supposedly associated with the term "Indian". Because of the acceptance of this newer term in academic circles, some academics believe that the term Indian should be considered outdated or offensive. However, many actual indigenous Americans prefer to be called American Indian. Also, some people point out that anyone born in the United States is a native of America, and that the academic who first promoted Native American confused the term native with indigenous. People from India who are citizens of the United States are called "Indian Americans" or "Asian Indians."

Criticisms of the term Native American come from diverse sources. Many American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, an American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed on the Indians by the government without consent. He has also argued that this use of the word Indian derives not from a confusion with India but from the Spanish expression "En Dio," meaning "in God". Some American Indians question the term Native American because they argue that it serves to ease the conscience of "white America"* with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. Both Indians and non-Indians argue that the term Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be capitalized in order to differentiate the intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin.

A 1995 US Census Bureau survey found that more Native Americans in the United States preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, Amerindian and Native American, and the terms are often used interchangeably. The traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Why classify people, and then worry about offending them? If only people would think before speaking.

Sources:

Jack Larkin (2003). "OSV Documents- Historical Background on People of Color in Rural New England in the Early 19th Century." Old Sturbridge Inc. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=2044. Retrieved 2010-3-21.

"I am an American Indian, Not a Native American!". Russell Means. http://www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/means.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.

"What's in a Name? Indians and Political Correctness." All Things Cherokee. http://www.allthingscherokee.com/atc_sub_culture_feat_events_070101.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.

"American Indian versus Native American." Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.