valley views Cacophony of chatter, chaos and beauty T
he birds outside my bedroom window go crazy every morning. I love it. They wake up – sometimes one by one, other times as groups - all with something so say, something to contribute. Perhaps they are calling out to friends or family; perhaps they are marking their territory or chasing squirrels from their nest; perhaps they simply like to hear themselves sing. It doesn’t matter to me. I just like the music – and or – noise they make. Because when they all chirp and tweet and whistle and trill and screech and caw and hoot and peck and squawk it often doesn’t sound much like music. It’s almost like they each are trying to
sitting by the edge of a outdo the other and that pool in the afternoon. I comes across as a rather was in love with the suncacophony of chaos. I did not come up with shine. Then the children enthat term on my own. I heard it and knew I loved tered. Sometimes one by one, but mostly in groups, it and knew it was the accompanied makings of a by their adult column. counterparts. And then Jill Pertler Syndicated columnist They splashed I thought of the birds in their way into the water, and the morning, it was obvious from the and I knew where the start that everyone had cacophony would land. something to contribute. The bird calls are a They began calling out cacophony of chaos. to sisters and brothers – They compete with each dunking and diving and other and contribute to squealing and giggling – the overall symphony each claiming their own of noise. It is music and spot in the pool. Some chaos all at the same demanded the attention time. of grown-ups to see them Birds creating musical chaos: I thought that was do a water trick. Others rejoiced loudly as they the end of it. practiced swim strokes or Until I found myself
Slices of Life
The state of oil A
s the Ukraine invasion enters another week, our gas and diesel prices now eclipse the old record set in 2008. Mindless partisan haranguing on causation and solution play out with hackneyed ‘Trump did it better’ and ‘Biden has the vision.’ Our energy conundrum is best addressed by an educated populace, not political platitudes. Republican candidates and law makers have 10 - March 30, 2022
chortled for 14 years, “We need to build the Keystone.” Anyone still using this is admitting they have no idea what they are talking about. “We” is not us. Trans-Canada (TC) is who would build it and “we” can’t make them. When President Biden withdrew the on, off, on again, off again permit TC lost millions
of USD. The tar sand oil crude was to be refined by two refineries on the Texas Gulf set up to handle the abrasive crude. One is owned by the House of Saud and Brad Molnar the other by State Senator the Royal Dutch Family. The crude was to be turned into diesel then shipped to Central America. Bakken crude put in the pipeline in Baker would have been
Down the Middle
dives. They added to their noise by splashing and laughing. They were, in a word, loud. It was almost as they were all trying to outdo one another. It didn’t matter me. I love the sound of children playing: their chatter, their squeals, their screams and their laughter. None of them seems to be listening to the other because they often aren’t, and I thoroughly enjoy tuning to their own fun and glee. It’s almost like they are each trying to speak over the other and that comes across as a second cacophony of chaos. Another one! Who would have thought this cacophony could happen more than once in na-
ture? Got me to thinking. Maybe cacophony isn’t so much of an accident. Maybe chaos is planned. Perhaps chaos is more common than we think. Birds in the back yard. Children at the pool. A family gathering. The dynamics of a workplace. A baseball, basketball or soccer game. A group of friends from high school or college. A book club. A golfing group. A classroom. A neighborhood. A church. A school. Perhaps we are all part of the cacophony of chaos. Wouldn’t that be lovely? I think maybe it would be. Maybe it already is Because lately I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe chaos is beautiful
shipped out of country as well. Talk radio pendants daily lament that we purchased oil from Russia thus financing the invasion, and now buy it from Venezuela. This gets blamed on Biden for pausing drilling on federal lands. In fact we bought the oil from Venezuela until we slapped sanctions on them for human rights violations. Then refiners turned to Russia to supply the
requisite minimum .5% sulphur content. We also import the requisite .5% from Canada and Mexico to augment what we produce in the U.S. We got 3% of this needed crude to make diesel and heating fuel from Russia. The recent decision to not buy from Russia plays into a long-standing shortage and thus cost. It will get worse. Mexico has announced they will no longer export
Valley Journal
see page 11
– if we allow it to be. Appreciate your chaos. Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.
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