Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
The end of the year is at hand. It is time for me to look back and assess what my activities this year were all about.
Over the past 12 months, I developed new ideas for saving the African elephant, created more worksheets for preserving the community allophonome of the Seneca language, helped both my staff and clients to improve their Jingles-related skills, pointed out various ways in which we all can work together to improve the situation for all living things on Earth, increased the number of ancillary materials for teaching The Jingles, and developed various pronunciation exercises that can be used in conjunction with The Jingles.
Somehow, I also found some time to direct attention to my family and friends -- as well as to my physical well being. In addition, I was able to maintain my land in Oregon and to organize its infrastructure, funding many of the endeavors related to these ends by selling off a sizable number of trees. As for the bullfrog woes on my land (See installments 247 and 248.) they still have not been resolved. But at least I have laid the groundwork for my ongoing struggle to eliminate those personable -- but unwanted -- exotic creatures from my Oregon property.
All in all, 2015 has been a good year. But I hope that 2016 can be better!
1. Hopefully the nations of the world can begin implementing various proposals put forth during the recent conference in Paris. We cannot afford to delay a reversal -- however small it may be in the early going -- of the increase in the temperature of our atmosphere and in the number of blood vessel scarring particles in it. 2. It is also my hope that the "live and let live" approach can gain more of a foothold in the hearts and souls of the obsessively intolerant. Religion is NOT something that should be forced on people by edict, conquest, or terrorism. Nor should people whose gender, skin color, physical capacity, language, or opinions differ from those of others have to face the possibility of being murdered, harassed, or discriminated against in any other form by fault finders. 3. May the weapons we have at our disposal serve to quell rather than to foment violence! The attitudes of those possessing weapons will govern whether those weapons are used or not -- and whether they are used justly! 4. It would please me very much if countries with populations in which the aged far outnumber the young were to produce more babies in 2016 -- and if countries in which the young far outnumber the aged were to produce fewer babies during the same period! 5. We humans need to put our hand held devices away from time to time so that we can be part of the web of life and not be caught in the web known as the internet. 6. I must find ways for my blogs to reach more people -- and to move them to "do the right thing" whenever possible!
These are but a few of my thoughts. Hopefully my readers can take them for what they are worth and work to implement them in various ways as the new year begins!
Happy 2016!
Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.