TO BE AN "OOZIE". Who among us can deny that, as a child - especially when the circus was in town - we - each of us in turn - wanted to be the lithe young man or girl who rode high atop the ponderous elephant and controlled the mighty beast with just a tiny, wand-like stick?
The word is little more than slang today in Myanmar. There, in Old Burma,elephants are still in use commercially and good elephant drivers are in demand. The usual word is "mahout". But the name "oozie",especially in a family-oriented business,a son in the family is often assigned to be in charge of a specific elephant. The partnership forms early. Very often they team up more or less or life.
The common means of control in driving an elephant is goad and it, too, has a variety of names depending on its having been trained for military or commercial use. Instructors usually rely on ancient texts detailing thee specific phases of training. The guidelines are in Sanskrit language and have age-old precedent behind each of them. The first say for you to love our animal and to use that love to control its actions. The second phase demands that you use your ingenuity in outsmarting the elephants and the unquestioned third rule -called "Balwan" teaches one to control elephants with with cruelty.
It is at this point that young modern elephant driver loose much of their desire to even try it. The goad used for training is about with an iron rod extended from the lower end which is sharpened On the inner side the flat rod a a large metal hook is mounted. A downward thrust,flattened against the elephants shoulder, back, side, or neck would be enough to cause any animal to turn away from such pain. Love takes over the next day when we see the trainer rubbing soothing oils into damaged hide areas.
The next time you feel any urge to drive any elephants which happen be in our area give some thought to elephant training methods and be content with your old jalopy for a while longer.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 10-20-06 [c371wds]
LET'S JUST SAY: "UNSTEADY". I try to avoid thinking about the subject - time-to-time but when I do avoid it, along comes another news item which,in effect,upsets my entire fruit stand and not just my apple cart. The point I ponder at such a moment has to do with estimates of the relative stability - in its grandest sense - of each of us as a nation of people or peoples.
Is it a "possibility" or even, perhaps, a "probability" that either both the rulers and the ruled segments of the so-called "nations" of the Earth - the governors, kings, queens, dictators,residents, prime people of some place - might, perchance, have slipped or slithered over the edge at some zig or zag opportunity along the rather sketchy pathways of man's true history.
Only yesterday,on the very day we here in The United States have nose-count of 300-million in inhabitants, we were also told that The World's Primary Nut Nominee for Now Kim II, of North Korea has decide to do an encore performance of his low-level nuke test of last week's headlines and footnotes. No one know his reasons for doing so, but this is another of Kim II's re-takes for his well-known film collection.
This number business about 300-million of us is another question "well." What man or women in their right mind, would even consider being named to hold the office which would put them in charge of governing such a mass of people of people, guiding them to fruitful careers in jobs they all cherish, of meeting every need for soul-satisfy attainments in the arts, technology, music in rock, rap and on-line recordings thereof. Just keeping up with the numbers might be a problem. If you keep careful record of birth rates, death rates and immigration rates or will find we get anew citizen every eleven minutes or so. If you are running for the presidential place, remember these newcomers will not be voting for another eighteen year or so. Be sure to work small details like that into your plans...and "Good Luck" to you.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 10-19-06 [c372wds]
"AS ONE OF THEM" The moral values we hear being discussed somewhat more frequently largely because of the reporting of the Congressman Marc Foley scandal are not as portable as we might be made to make them seem to be. Such in-bred morals of preferences like any truly inner marks of worth, are largely constant. You don't "take from" and /or "add to" them as if they were trading stamps of some sort.
Many individuals, perhaps, have a wealth of such possessions and yet they remain unaware of them as a major factor in the their lives. They are worn as are worn as armor against evil forces, as one makes a stand in favor of goodness. They are used to nourish other less fortunate persons. They can wave as encouraging banners during moments of special movement in our lives. They can sound forth as trumpets leading to the discovery of soothing harmonies in the basic composition of life's melodic themes.
I dislike seeing Foley shortcomings being exploited as a political tool to sustain the fevered state of the scandal alive as long as possible during the election year. I am well aware of the fact that, were "the shoe on the other foot" the accusations and recrimination would be going in the opposite direction".
This all has a personal meaning for me. Years ago when I was physically able to move about doing church work, I was one of four Elder named preach at a small church south of Staunton,Virginia. Each of us was to speak two Sundays.
I find myself parroting lines from those talks.
I used the entire "Book of Obediah" as my text. The words which come back to me even after all those years are- a parody, no doubt.."...on that day we I saw count stand aloof and watch my enemy tear down my gates and enter my home and pillage...you were as one of them!..."
I have often wondered if anyone got anything from my sermon that morning. I did. The notes are still around somewhere in my "files". I think of lessons behind it all in election years.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 10-17-06 [c-371wds]
