Attempting Mundane or Heroic Feats

Remember this: When you make the decision to destroy records, both good or bad, you are destroying a stranger's hopes of knowing whom their ancestors are.

A photograph dated 1896 is sold at an estate auction in South Carolina with other photos bound in copper-colored fabric covered albums with metal trimmings.

The photographs travel to their new home. Only two photographs have names written on them. One is a death note of a woman in English. The other is a postcard-style photograph bearing text written in Japanese cursive. Both sit for years until someone decides to find their ancestors or have them deciphered.

The death note is passed in copy to a living ancestor who was having problems filling in the family genealogy.

The post card style photograph traveled with her, as if he were her ancestor, until she finally found two people, who together but in parts, translated the name of the person who penned the text.

His name was realized. His attempt became awareness.

Have you ever seen something and much later the thought of it gnawed at you gently, like someone was trying to nudge you into action? You couldn’t explain it but there was something there and you were to push the thought out into the world. We always say it is just thoughts, but what if it isn’t?

I haven’t experienced a good week of night time sleep lately. I am a troubled sleeper on occasion. I wish this wasn’t so but I know the cause of it most nights.

My waking thoughts have been intruded upon by the image of this oriental man. He walks around pacing and then comes closer like he is looking into a peep hole.

It could be my own subconscious that feels a need to bring him back from his unknown grave and point out something about what little of his life that I do know.

I did read something, now lost, of a letter to the current Meiji Emperor of that time ripping the current regime’s antics. He was a little rebel and had very verbal opinions on the state of how his world should be. I guess so, he lived there and it affected him and his people. You can’t hold in one’s opinion of tyranny forever.

The photograph shows the image of a man named Professor (Reverend) Yoshisuki Samuel Sacon. Yoshi means lucky or righteous and -suki means to like. He was righteous and well like for his pluck.

Professor Sacon took the picture in 1896 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I thought him stylish in his wooden shoes and cultural clothing. The picture was mailed from Tsuruga, which is a Fukui Prefecture of Japan. He graduated Saint Drew Theological Seminary in 1895 in Brooklyn, NY where his address was 11 Dodworth Street. He traveled to Washington, DC and landed in Fresno, California where he was doing work with local Japanese immigrants.  

I called the local university and spoke to the Professor of Japanese Studies. She was very kind and I left a copy of the text with her so at her leisure she could try and translate it. She also sent the text to someone else but never got back with me on that. She translated that the photo was sent to someone because Professor Sacon had gotten busy but didn’t want to forget. He sent the image to the receiver. Given the information Professor Sacon was a theologian of Christianity, the current professor translated the word kami-gami, which refers back to the ancestor gods of Old Japan.
Kami-meaning Supreme Being or God and -gami meaning graceful or divinity. I am not trying to be politically correct on that as literal truths. It is just a reference point. He must have followed the Shinto religion or born into it.

One source, now lost to me, noted that Professor Yoshisuki Samuel Sacon was the first Japanese man to attempt to translate or revise the Japanese Bible, in particular the New Testament. I found some researched snippets for documentation on this fact.

The Christian Work and the Evangelist, Volume 19, page 309 stated, “Since the outbreak of the present war in the Far East, the Japanese Empire is so wide for the Christian evangelism as before. Consequently, the demand for the Christian literature increasing everywhere among all classes throughout the Empire” and “The Reverend Yoshi-suke Samuel Sacon of Japan is now undertaking the much needed revision in this city of ours, where he can more easily avail himself of an access to the libraries and all other necessary helps than in his own country. During his stay in the city he is making addresses to any congregation on the religious subject in Japan.”

                   

                    Rev. Y. S. Sacon

                    1296 Webster Ave

                     New York, NY

This next snippet was taken from the Printed Report by Drew University Library, page 7.

“From Professor Y. S Sacon of Tokyo, Japan, we received a copy of his translation of the Psalms in the Japanese language. It is his first volume in his heroic attempt to revise the translation of the Japanese Bible.”

Upon reading these different accounts, when Professor Sacon was in Fresno, California there was a written report where a pastor talks about how the local Japanese immigrants who practiced Buddhism was blocking the Christian attempt to recruit Japanese young men into their ranks. I thought this odd but is that not the way of all religions, to find more people to indoctrinate.

Yet somewhere in Professor Sacon’s attempts to translate the New Testament there were problems. For what little I did find on this man, his efforts were not fully realized by higher ups. There was a problem with the way the translation was being rendered. It was an issue of ideographs and characters in lieu of there being a literal translation of the bible’s message. Once again, let me reiterate the lack of a wide range of information to build a good case here on the part of Professor Sacon, sage that he was.

I almost laughed when the thought occurred to me that these Moral Oras thought Professor Sacon was going to secretly change the meaning of the Bible to usurp the current Christian regime through a slash of the ink pen here and there via character and ideographs. A little late for that because of King James and his versions and exclusions.

I really got into reading The Japan Daily Mail, let me tell you.

The Japan Daily Mail dated 9 Feb. 1907 on page 148 stated, “We published another page, the first part of a translation of the Epistle to the Phillippians, made by Mr. Sakan Yoshisuke, who has studied in America for some time and who is very strong of opinion that a new version of the Japanese Bible is called for. He proposes a new translation of the whole of the New Testament.”

In one of the reports of the newspaper a reviewer of Professor Sacon’s translations of the Epistle to the Romans, noted an attempt in translating a different meaning to the Word, to know or understand by writing this particular word with ideographs sometimes and with a character. Whoever this reviewer and his party were did not like this issue and wanted the work to move to Kiragama(sp?) or the whole bible to be printed in Romanji (I am not sure if this word is the correct spelling~probably not. The document was blurry. Maybe it was my eyes…who knows).

The word in question might have been shitte iru but I am not sure. Word aside I have looked everywhere on the internet for a revised version of The Bible by Professor Yoshi-suki Samuel Sacon.

I contacted the librarian at St Drew University. He sent me documents on file. Someone else had signed for them. I tried to contact the retired female professor on the papers but she was 80 years old. No one returned my mail or calls.

In my readings it was noted the Professor Y. S. Sacon's heroic intention of translating the Japanese Bible were unfinished. It never saw it's end with him.

I wondered what message I could render from this man pacing across my third eye. Could it be my own failed attempts that were never realized conjured in an oriental man’s appearance?

I attempted many things in my life to some success but some to a failure of sorts or unfinished business.

Does it make a difference what goal we put our energies to? How do we know it is the right goal? What if it starts off as a great experience but end in tragedy? Does that make memes on the internet relevant about being a lesson? What if I don’t learn from it or realize it ever? Am I truly cosmically screwed?

I don’t think it was the subject of Christianity or the play on words.

I could say it might indicate knowing a person otherwise hidden. Yet, it was the attempt regardless of success or failure that kept reminding me, as long as you are preoccupied by a goal, that goal can become your whole life. What about all the experiences on the outskirts of the goal? What about the people you passed by on your way to the goal that fell to the wayside as unimportant? What about being so glamoured or distracted by a goal that you never experienced organic sensation because you were so engrossed in the thought process? What if you were having sex but became disconnected from your lover because you were thinking of an equation or something? What am I saying? People stare at their phones all the time entranced by the little pixels on the screen. Those are the things passed by because the goal becomes all important. There is no reality except the goal’s end or is there?

We should all attempt to have goals and do things. Situations may arise to hinder those goals.

There was a message in there somewhere about fear, mistrust, and not having confidence in someone because the person or group feels the individual is an outsider even though indoctrinated and could corrupt the message being sent, right or wrong. In that era when war was an issue, it can be seen today with questions of national loyalty or past discretions towards people based on ethnic origins pertaining to location.

Imagine being an oriental man from Japan ministering to other Asians while being under the watchful eye of a European belief system that worships a God, where in your homeland it's ancestor gods or The Way.

It’s my belief that no matter how many religious foods you taste, you retain those elements of the recipe from the final product that make sense to you whether they are in or out of order or make sense to others.

I ingest all of it like a beast because of the end goal. You can call it Salvation, Nirvana, kicking the can, or the Happy Hunting Grounds. That Goal being: the Soul or Cell finding the end of its physical form and moving on as energy to the next life, whether celestial, finality or the Unknown. The information of your life is passed through your ancestors with every event of the DNA.

It could be the concept of awareness.

I don’t really know what Professor Sacon’s leisure time was like but for a man who could question the revisional needs of the Japanese Bible, he must have noticed something not quite right. He was aware at some point.

Could he have internally argued a foreign religious concept or merely wanted to find the bridge between two different religious concepts to marry them into one without sacrificing one or the other.

I reflect back on awareness. Be aware that you do have the ability to decide and attempt, for in the attempt you overcome fear and find courage to do something no matter the outcome; that outcome need not be the defining moment of your life to determine your value or worth. It is merely a preoccupation that society pushes to differentiate between worthiness and mediocrity. Yes, there will be people questioning you in suspicious or less than confident ways. Screw it and jump out the plane unless they try to stop you, then jump anyway.

As humans, we do not elevate the deserving element of humanity. We elevate big buttocks, shallow reality television families, and the world spins on gossip. Gossip could be its own religion.

The sad truth is for every crop of children bred and raised to adulthood, as a society the profane knowledge thought up a long time ago is hidden in books or not even passed on to the child. Children stop playing outside and now have become these societal clones moving and being controlled by inorganic screens that give them useless, destructive knowledge that rarely makes the world a better place.

I could also argue the individual that finally is aware of a problem then acts on finding a solution instead of always complaining about the error. There again the futility of speaking up and being ignored or over-ridden by Authority.

I can state now that I don’t feel completely satisfied with my interpretation of this because I feel some things weren’t revealed to me in meditation but that is okay because I attempted to resolve this mental issue in my head by writing about it. I have satisfied the issue to some degree.

You were worthy when you were born as you are just as worthy now.

Just attempt whatever it is and don’t overthink it. Don’t think at all just follow through. That is all it takes sometimes.

Grace has success.

In small matters

It is favorable to undertake something.

He may keep pacing until I am aware. 

Update: September 3, 2015. Received intelligence from Michiko Ito, Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Kansas. After several tries at translation there is a break through. Ito reports some of the calligraphy text is from the Gospel of John 3-16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Isn't this fabulous. We must give Michiko Ito much thanks for efforts to translate this piece of personal calligraphy.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Preferential Treatment: Resident Hunter vs. Tourist Trophy Hunter

Remember this: Eventually, you will come to the moment where someone will decide who makes it into the life raft while the ship be-a-sinking.

I knew somewhere this would happen. Where non-resident hunters would get preferential treatment over resident hunters via guided outfitters because of legislative and governmental decisions and policies.

This issue is much deeper than bear decimation out the Pitt Valley Region in the British Columbia area. This is a symptom of the disregard for legal matters, the residents as a whole, and the manipulation of legal matters for self-serving purposes on the part of local and foreign outfitters with or without the knowledge of the trophy hunting tourist. There is probably more as is always.

What I have read thus far in my on-going read-a-thon on this matter is: On  10  Dec 2014, the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations decided to allocate an increase in the proportion of licenses available to the 'industry'. It seemed to imply from further reading, the outfitter guiding services. The implication of putting the guided outfitter's service business needs over the resident hunter in British Columbia, who walks out his yard in his home country to do his business of bringing fare home for the table.

Why the special treatment?

I read there was legislation that allowed guide outfitting operations to be own by foreign corporations. This is being done off the backs of local British Columbians and her resident hunters. I wondered how exactly is this done  off the BC residences backs? Why and What?! Capitalism, go figure.

In  February 2013, the Forests, Lands, and Natural Resources Operations Amendment Act, 2014 removed the requirement that a guide outfit can only be owned by a citizen of British Columbia. I guess someone let the door open for outside foreign entities to establish a business, like so many other foreign business that come and use up local resources,  do their damage, close up shop and move on to the next honey hole. It is very rare that these groups leave things in pristine shape. These types of businesses leave a wake of destruction that takes years to repair when left to nature. They are there for the money, will do the song and dance of the locals to win them over, while robbing them blind.

Here is the trouble. Canadian Government is advancing the Hunting industry or something else, and not the resident hunter or non-hunter per se.  When you encourage people to learn to hunt, then restrict existing and new hunters or show preferential treatment to business entities such as outfitting guides for the sake of trophy hunting tourism and charging insane monetary amounts towards non-residential hunters for the life of a animal, in trade for what takes a short period of time for a bullet to fly and the animal to die, is potentially unsanitary in thought and action.

Add on top of this the public reports of Canadian residents, both hunter, non-hunter, tourists, and fisherman, etc that in localized areas wildlife are being removed from the landscape over an extended period of time by unscrupulous outfitters, who commit crimes in other locations and are not penalized in their home country or elsewhere for existing offenses. 

An individual willing to do bad things will do bad things again...and elsewhere.

Is it that easy to work around Canadian laws and shove the bear meat under the rock and walk out the wood with the hide? Is this what is being taught to non-resident hunters? As long as you have the money and the ability to keep your mouth shut and not get caught, we can get away with it. When we are done we will  move to the next territory, fly under the radar, kill again, shove it under a rock and walk out without anyone noticing. What if some hunting tourist has his/her kids there hunting with him/her? Is that something ethically and morally to learn?  

Wildlife management should first benefit the wildlife and the landscape not the politician or the outfitters pocket. If an outfitter charges the rate of $3000 to $5000 per bear shot, then shoots the area clean, that outfitter has the money to move on. Whoever lives there is left with nothing. Unless someone is going to be relocating animals to empty areas, it does take a while for new ones to come in. That outfitter already knows from his buddies on the Outfitter Grapevine and all these great people posting the trophy photos, where the bear are. Thus they move on...

I read one pdf that referred to individuals and groups as black bear stakeholders, as if black bears are some kind of stock on Wall Street.  When you think about it black bear stock is high at four figures, not including hunting fees, and setting up incidentals such as food and lodging. Black bear can become a five figure stock bond hanging on your wall that you will never be able to cash in. 

I have snake oil I would like to sale...

Once you have certain groups that are given more say in the care, handling and harvesting of a beast, while the rest of a country is disregarded in their intellectual or emotional input is disturbing. It speaks to the lack of respect of countrymen and women, the environmental habitat and the creatures themselves. It's an affront to your humanity.

This is a very good case to explore on how a non-resident with money and privilege can walk into someone else's country and be given preference over the resident hunter living there by the country's own legislation. This legislation should be working for the habitat, wildlife, and resident constituent and not the visitor-tourist.  

There is also the concern that the Hunting establishment, which is run by unnamed individuals  or groups with privilege, power and  money can hold sway over the political regime. These people, you will never meet, will establish an influencing force over hunting policies in countries and other states that are not their home location. What happens when that self-serving agenda causes the residential hunter the loss of rightful privileges and hunting quarry due to money, greed, the desire of a specialized group or hunting tourist for a animal body part to look at on a wall, access to that desire and selling out the animals for nothing more than a picture and a skin?

When you think about it, you are a resident living in an area where you feel the security of a particular animal, stream, or plant being there and then it is gone. This usually indicates change of a negative nature, so you think or feel. The feeling you get is suspicion, anxiety, loss, anger and then helplessness because someone or something came along and took away that thing you held as a constant in your life away without remorse at doing so. All because the stranger you would never meet or know...could.

Look into it yourself.

http://www.bcwf.bc.ca/

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/trophy-hunters-decimate-bears-bc-valley-under-abysmal-policy?page=0,1

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

The Suicide Runner

Click on image to enlarge.

Remember this: It takes over thirty men to gun down one buck.

I wasn't going to write anything but yesterday I was out riding and came across an event. Let me explain...

The green squares are hunters with guns on the shoulder of the road or standing in the road from the area the deer are run.

The pink squares inside are X amount of hunters because I don't know how many were in there. By the gun fire, I would say up to 10, maybe.

The orange is a two-lane road.

Inside this square is a corn pile.

The little map above is a six-mile loop. Starting close to where I entered the two lane road was a red truck with a hunter in it. I went down the road and turning onto Point B, found more hunters. I passed through them all. I turned onto Point C where more hunters were. Point B and Point C had a total of four or five young boys under 13. I finally got into the residential area. There was a man square in the middle of it and another man hiding behind his house with a shotgun. From the time I left Point A, shot gun blasts could be heard all the way up until I got back to Point A. By the time I got to Point C's turn, four deer had been killed. When I arrived back on Point A to cook tomatoes and rice, four more deer where killed.

The way this little driven hunt was set up was each hunter had a handheld radio or a headset to which they talked to each other.

By the time I counted fat men with guns, there was over 35 men. All that for what might be 8 does, if a buck were in there. Most of the deer, I am guessing, were the babies from late August that were just weaned because they weren't even a year old. I can imagine if it moved it died. Baby or not. No wonder you don't see a lot of deer here and if you do they stick there toe out for gun fire.

People would call this a driven hunt but it looked more like a military movement or a slaughter. I'm pretty sure, from what I have seen that they start a few days before and get others to flush the animals up from other hunters spots. Then the property owner or asshat that contrives this has no one go in there to hunt. The deer think it is safe and unhunted then the men carrying guns (I don't consider this hunting) surround the place and pen them in and slaughter them. The only way out was to run horizontal to the eastern part of that patch of woods into peoples back yard.

I thought, wow, people are talking about how their hunter wife made the Hottie list and all things are great in hunting but this is what I have to look at. I wondered what those kids learned. Don't worry about the way you hunt, just kill it no matter what or how?

I almost visualized a great wire fence around this guy's property and he might as well charge per pound for whatever was killed on top of a hunting lease. He was even ballsy enough to threaten my neighbor for hunting his deer on his land and then invites thirty some people to a killing party.



This was the suicide runner. She came out the woods and got hit by a car. I flipped her over looking for a bullet hole before man's vultures came to cart her carcass away in the back of a truck. She died with a smile on her face I guess because she wasn't going to be killed that way. Better to die by your own hoof, I guess. She started to get rigors. One of the men pulled up after I finished my ride and was going to scrap her up and I told him not to because she was stiff as a board and the buzzards were on her.

This evening I went again. Gun shells littered the road. I guess those men aren't even beholden to come pick up their litter after they leave it on the side of the road.

This screamed hunter desperation to do such a thing. It was the last day of the hunting season, the DNR office was closed and no one was watching the chicken house.

This hunter named Christine came and asked me why I stopped writing. I told her it all looks negative and until I do something I truly feel is positive, don't see how I can write about it. All this stuff is not made up and I haven't put near a quarter of events. There are a lot of things good but more wrong with my life and I have to go an make it right because there is only me.

I was also glad to say goodbye to online hunter asshats even if they didn't feel the same way. It is poison.

The lady down the road said the hunters were after this huge buck. I would hate to know it took over 30 people to kill one deer.

I really didn't want to be opinionated on this. It is what it is. You wanted to see a dead animal. Here she is.....in all her glory.

Doe says, "Fuck you. Let the buzzards eat me."

This will be here for only two days then I am going to put it to rest with this dead deer.


Written by:W Harley Bloodworth

Just for Angelia

 

I am progressing in a positive direction.

From whatever point I am experiencing life now,

I can make a positive move toward greater fulfillment.

Whatever type of person I now seem to be,

I can begin to grow into the person God or the Universe,

created me to be.

I can choose a new pattern of thinking and acting.

I can make choices to put me on the path.

This choice will bring me greater joy and inner peace.

If I am unhappy with the way I have reacted in some circumstance,

I have the power to acknowledge and change my behavior.

I have an inner spark of divinity.

The spiritual me that has been created,

In the image and likeness of God.

I wish to express in the inner-outer realms.

I turn to inner guidance to: think, speak, and act positively.

I follow a higher calling and move at a comfortable

pace in a positive direction.

 

Bunk Bed Buddies: The Walking Dead



Remember this: Sex is not the center of the Universe.

Last night I was watching The Walking Dead’s episode, “Consumed”. I also watched the Talking Dead with Chris Hardwick.

The content on both shows was interesting and thoughtful.

I was impressed by the input of Yvette Nicole Brown. She is the kind of person you can have deep intellectual conversations with because she pays attention. Life is magic when you have a listener.

I have thoughtful perspectives on this and wanted to share for whoever watches the show. I wondered if anyone shared this particular thought.

If I were the character what would I be thinking, feeling, or remembering from history I didn’t know. I was an archeologist digging into the minds of strangers based on my experiences; making up my own tales.

The online fodder revolves around Daryl being gay or hooking up with Beth or Carol, or both. I don’t particular subscribe to this potential storyline. That is the writer’s path. I do find it fascinating the way in which the writers handled this episode.

When Carol and Daryl are on the bunk bed talking, I did not get the feel of any kind of sexual chemistry. Likewise, I don’t see this with Beth either. I was reading the content writ in online conversations and between Hardwick and his panel. The posture by Daryl is of an overly protective brother.

Fathers and brothers can surrogate for the female in a non-sexual way until the female finds a mate. This is why it is important for the male role not be a violent one. This helps the female determine if the potential mate is an asshole-to-be-avoided. She will compare non-relative men to this example. If it is a poor example, God help you man that you overcome her problems if you so desire to pursue a woman that you feel is worth it.

I wondered. Why it is so important for people to see something that is not necessarily there? The viewer wants the idea to be true because it is lacking in their life or they just want to see it to fulfill some fantasy. You must always ask in the back of your mind, is it true or distorted. Is the viewer happy to see traumatized people have a happy moment; a moment in a sea of dead zombie shells. This scenario only complicates the storyline and suffering of the characters. This is great material for the writer. At the basis of this show is literature, which the visual is built upon.

What I saw on the bunk bed was a platonic surrogacy. The universe is always delivering unto its life forces things they need to get them over the hump, if recognized.

In the Walking Dead Cosmos, surrogate benefactors nurture and move the characters on. The reality they knew before is now replaced by a bastardized version of what life is at present. No one is safe. 

Carol, a domestic abuse survivor, probably has thoughts on life being more secure before the zombie apocalypse. Even if it is with an abuser. 

Was it better to be a relationship victim where escape to a normal life was possible? Or is it worse to be stuck in a hell of zombies and good people turning into less-than-human killers? Or is that humanity at its basis form? Those good people you otherwise wouldn’t kill but now have to.

I could say animals but that’s derogatory because humans are animals. There was reference to Rick’s group now being animals. Why treat humans above reproach when humans are not?

This is how I saw Daryl. Daryl at that moment was the surrogate man Carol probably wanted or needed before the apocalypse; the man that would take care of distasteful things in times of emotional and physical lows without the abuse. He’s the guy you will sleep with but not love, have him fix your car but give no thanks as you ride off into the sunset with someone else, and call to whine about your problems while treating him like an emotional dumping ground. The silver lining in the surrogate’s cosmos is he may be used temporarily, but such good karma he has built could be repaid with some gift from the universe; thus rectifying karmic debt. We all want a person or group to alleviate the begrudged burdens that are forced upon us.

When Daryl tells Carol she doesn’t have to act or make a decision in the building with the child and adult zombie, Daryl realizes Carol’s affliction. At times we don’t want to admit our problems when the closest to us see them clearly. The only way the afflicted can come to terms and acknowledge these problems is self-realization. Being told you have a problem tends to flare up the denial in the person it is issued to.

Up to this point, even though Carol is with Daryl moving through a landscape as part of a unit, Carol seems to be thinking in terms of the individual separate from Daryl; making the decision to follow through with complicated problems, not because someone asked her to but because she takes it upon herself. This could speak to Carol’s inability or lack of education on interacting in relationships and distrust of significant others. She sees herself as being more capable to deal with the situation without realizing how it drains her and that someone more capable is standing right there. Carol carries this idea there is no other option but to carry burden, is implied.

There again, another viewer may not see this because that is what I see. I am internalizing the scene in terms of my past experiences.

Daryl’s character punch comes in short bursts, which is more effective than other characters. To some degree, Daryl is unconsciously applying horse training techniques on Carol. He applies pressure on Carol as she moves away in denial.  This tactic is implied with the conversation of who Carol is from Carol’s standard versus how Daryl knows her when they are looking at a painting. Carol moves away in denial because she claims Daryl doesn’t really know her. Daryl begs to differ. Then there is Noah under the bookcase, Daryl moves away to Carol’s panic. Carol goes in and acts to stop the zombie.

How do you get someone to make the right choices with the right pressure without traumatizing them further into mistrust or detachment?

I began to realize there was this pressure from the masses for Daryl to have sex with someone or something. I became aggravated that the character of Daryl couldn’t just develop at his own pace but now was being poked and prodded by unknown assailants that wanted him to bed the older woman, the younger woman, etc.

Carol is the semi-mature, older woman with what some would consider fading beauty or beauty with age and wisdom. Being close to his age would be more socially appropriate. She appears more of a motherly type.

Beth is the nubile youth growing into a woman through brutal acts and situations. On some level, Beth is mentored by Daryl but some viewers want this dynamic to turn into a sexual relationship. This is seen a lot in movies where older men are connected physically with younger women.

I am dwelling more on Daryl’s character here. He is the center of that particular universe through manipulation. He seems to be making or not making the decisions on his ethic where women, age, and who gives a shit comes into play. His character might feel he doesn’t have time for that or doesn’t need it.  Beth and Carol are fruit on a tree and he just has to decide which one to eat. What if Daryl were picked by someone? Someone he wasn’t particularly enamored with immediately; maybe enamored but in denial or just doesn’t notice because anxiety, deranged people, his standing on a constant ledge of madness and mayhem daily leaves him with the decision to not go there. Should Daryl be suspended in emotional animation or moved along into some fate worse than death, love or hate of a particular nature? Why is this so important?

The reactions of the world made room for puzzling over this. Do people really want happy-endings for favorite characters? Are viewers more concerned with who is hooking up with who? Should this be denied to the public or handed over? When you spend time watching a show to see who hooks up, you don’t get the sublime messages that are more meaningful. It is overshadowed by the potential for sex.

Shifting your mentality to what really matters when dealing with people that is not sex driven is where you truly connect to people and yourself. Emotionally developed characters can exist even while occupying a tragic landscape.

Daryl, Carol, and Beth can separately develop while being together and not in a sexual way. The sexual component lessens the family dynamic being built yet chess pieces can move into positions previously not occupied, but at what cost?

Relationship changes are not always for the best on the board. Connecting on the familial level is more important because sex is not the glue to relationships. If it is, the glue can wear away and the relationship shows the hallow emptiness of what was only a voyeur’s desire to see sex. This sex could be a lowering of the character and the spirit surrounding them. The characters are not barflies, getting drunk, and looking for love in all the wrong places while stabbing zombies in the head. Relationships are important components because even the characters walk along stabbing zombies in the head with no second thought to it. Killing the zombies is white noise to the viewer. This hook-up attitude can indicate a degrading of the character.

Daryl is the male sacrificial virgin. He has wings on his back and people want to see the character that has been elevated to archangel status fall to Earth by the hand of a love interest. This only works when it is the right person. Anything less would not get the same effect. It has to be quietly epic. Maybe people want to vicariously experience a perceived supernatural biblical moment. The fallen angel has to burn or become the thing it was before the fall. Do viewers want to see a sullying of characters to make them more sinful, more human, or average in terms of human nature? Handled right it could be the most beautiful thing but always potentially tragic.

After watching so many shows where sex is carnal and debasing to the character but conveyed or interpreted as empowering, I would just like to see a character find their way without being molested for viewers satisfaction on the character’s terms via the writer; not always the helpless badass blowing in the breeze.  

When you like characters equally in these potential hook-ups there is going to be a loser. People want connection but there isn’t thought put into the type of connection or where it is headed. Making sound decisions towards relationships tell you whether they will work out or not.

On-the-fly relationships could develop into meaningful things but only with work.

I began to think in terms of Carol, Beth, and Daryl as an outsider making decisions on what they needed, not what they wanted. Funny, how the outsider always sees something etched on the outer and inner shell of the person. Sometimes that interference from the outside world puts the character on the path or diverts the character off. It could also be a manifestation of the inner self’s development into the end product.

I wondered what kind of character, if any, would best be applied to the character of Daryl. I didn’t necessarily think it was Beth or Carol long term.

To best torture the character of Daryl the opposing character would have to be a sort of wild animal in the form of a devil combined with an angel, which is what Daryl is so the character would be reflective. The character would have to have the ability to kill, save, love, or hate Daryl, who would mutually be tortured by this dynamic yet not want to live with or without the other.  Again, it could be as in real life; nothing, finding no one ever, and dying all alone wondering why you weren’t good enough or chosen.

I refer back to those famous wings. In the strata of God and the Devil, the ultimate reconciliation would be this particular relationship. God must merge with the Devil, as one. This function would be Daryl with Daryl; Daryl with another person(s). There would be no moving on into other relationships without the malice of disappointing failure.  The common denominator is to be right with one's self before being right for another.

As humans we rush in blindly to complicated, torturous unmaintainable love-hate-sex-empty relationships. We even attach ourselves to people out of security and familiarity but does it ever make us feel the way we should? What exactly is that feeling and will we know it or do outside things distract us such as who Daryl will have sex with. Do we just want another image to add to the sex fantasy reel of Daryl doing it with someone regardless of the female face attached? Viewers can transpose their face onto Carol’s or Beth’s and be the one Daryl is with. What does Daryl represent as the male character?    

I really enjoyed this episode and could talk on it more. I’ll just sit here on my perch and read online fodder which tickles me on occasion; people and their online comments.

People do watch the show loyally so it is not just Daryl getting laid. If that ever came out I am sure people would have Hurricane-type parties where they pile on a couch just to see poor Norman Reedus giving it all he’s got. The expectation has got to be either crushing him or challenging him. I would hide on the Mothership to if everyone was peer pressuring me to death with sex. Maybe he just wants a motorcycle ride and a cold Slurpee?

Sex is never the long-term answer. This little monster wears away and you start seeing the real person you are sleeping with. Some poor souls don’t get to sleep in the bed overnight. They get kicked out where the cat stares from the warm cozy window at them out in the snow.  

Sex is a smaller facet of a bigger jewel. Feeding a voyeuristic need to spy on a character solely for the satisfaction of watching a character’s sex act seems to me a slap in the face to the character, especially when the character is being developed into a person with a life of its own. I asked myself this question: If it were my lover or husband would I want to share them, in that way, with the world? Or would I want to keep some things sacred? Would I want them to feel like I put them on the sacred pedestal, protected from grabbing, unloving hands?

It’s like saying to the character, “I don’t care about you. You are just here for my jollies.” I can warrant this attitude in people’s real lives as viewers.

I am not a prude but when did the happy ending stop at the moment two people have sex? Do people live for that magical moment solely and not the millions of moments thereafter with the person? Why in my mind do I feel this empty space of self-induced amnesia or dementia when I hear people talking about “the moment” and nothing of substance follows?

It’s bad enough when you are a teenager going through puberty that your friends pressure you into sex, your relatives constantly ask you if you’ve found someone, or you avoid going out because you don’t want to feel the rejection. The other side of this seedy coin is finding out the other person fragrantly lied to you thus making you a fool and they, a tart.

The ones you were interested in didn’t like you back, making you feel unsexy. Ergo I say this, but you aren’t psychic and maybe they did but your mind talked you out of it.

God help those unwed, deep in their thirties, forties and beyond. People eyeball and whisper they will never get married then give up on them; like you have to make those people with judgey eyes happy.  

I am laughing at myself for saying that but oh well.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

~Courtesy of the AOFH~