I’ve always claimed that autumn in my favorite season of the year—and well it should be. In the high desert milieu of Utah where I currently live and dwell, fall days are sunny and warm, the nights cool and crisp. The wind seldom blows and the landscape is awash in color as chlorophyll green begins to make its seasonal retreat, giving way to pigments of red, yellow and orange. By now the sky has assumed a more transparent look but there is still enough blue to heighten the visual effect. Even the air is hygienic.
So why, during my favorite time of year, am I consistently plagued with a spirit of melancholy? Perhaps it’s because I mourn the passing of summer and subconsciously lament over expectations unfulfilled. Maybe it’s because the hint of winter on the breeze foretells of gray days to come. One could also make a good case that because the photo period (amount of daylight) decreases dramatically beginning in September, the human pineal gland—sometimes referred to as the third eye—responds to decreased light exposure by altering endogenous hormones and neurotransmitter levels, thereby affecting a change in mood and perception of well being. Then again, maybe I just want to prepare for hibernation but realize that isn’t an option so I get depressed!
Of course it doesn’t help that right now, in the midst of fall and all its glory, the cost of living is going through the roof, the economy is crashing, my 401K value is swirling down the drain, and huge job losses are anticipated in several business sectors including mine! On Monday of this week, Schering-Plough, a major pharmaceutical company similar to the one I work for, announced it was cutting 1000 people, or 20 % of its U.S. sales force, and the cuts are to take place by October 1. Rumor also has it that Merck & Company, one of the giants in our industry, will lay off perhaps thousands as early as February of next year. I’m not sure which is worse, having a week to worry about getting axed or 4-5 months!
Shortly after my sweetheart and I were married in 1979, I bought a book called How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years by Howard J. Ruff. Being young but feeling the weight of responsibility incurred by my newly wedded state, I took the teachings of the book to heart and incorporated many of Brother Ruff’s survival strategies into my own fledgling family life. Sadly however, Ruff’s book and popular newsletters implied that the coming bad years were just around the corner and not 28 years down the road! Those who really prospered during the 8o’s were those who did just the opposite of what Mr. Ruff advised and unfortunately, I was not one of them! Now the only lasting result of my short lived discipleship to Howie is a pattern of buying high and selling low that has plagued me throughout my entire adult life.
Ah, but who am I to complain. Some would say our family has prospered in spite of my poor investments and it would be hard to argue that point. We haven’t always had it all but we’ve always had enough. There are many blessings we can count.
Now as I contemplate the change of seasons, and the winds of uncertainly that are beginning to blow, I’ve concluded to suck it up and counter the days of melancholy with days of gratitude and hope, I’ll look for the silver lining instead of the cloud, if life gives me lemons, I’ll make lemonade—and I might even take out a loan and start buying gold!
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3 comments:
Don't buy gold. That would be an unwise investment. Sure it is skyrocketing in value right now, but it won't hold if the market stabalizes; and on top of that, you are really only buying a note that says it's worth gold...kind of like our plummeting dollar.
Do the Indians have a history of how many Indigenous residents of the Massacre were killed by Carlton, when, where and who. Piute is a Federal Designation for Indians of the Uto-Aztecan language group. Pi or Pa means people of a key feature where the tribe mainly wintered. The name of the tribe itself, which is designated by the second syllable?
His call for a Federal extermination order of Mormons as well, as existed in Missouri, I think a very poor argument for the separation of Church and State.
My father used to say that he'd have to take the back off the TV
to clean out all the dead Indians.
The excoriation of those who were preparing to flee into the mountains for the lives, burn their houses and salt their fields, many of whom lost family members or whole families to the kind of militia men hired as experienced Mormon Killers by the Fancher/ Bakers, brought spark to the Tinder Dry Emotions of Southern Utah.
One thing can be said for certain, if the Federal Army had not been so occupied and entertained
by slaughtering Indians, more men would have been available for the war of attrition between those working with pick and shovel to bury the unlucky company and the wolves and Coyotes.
Jacob Hamblins' son reported killing 50 wolves at the site and the cashe of bones the grave sites represented to the wolves, Coyotes and Wild Dogs was passed from mother to kit.
It makes me wonder whether Carlton gave better buriel to his victims. The Massacre at the Meadows took only a few minutes, I am sure his soldiers took much more pleasure in what they did.
The initial dispatch of Squaw Killer Harney with his unlucky detachments in the first year of the war so clearly signaled Federal Intentions that our efforts to protect ourselves and the Indians
ought to be understood.
Would it have been better had we had no Elected Governor to deal with the Federal troops and greet Governor Carlton when he came in the second year of the war.
The massacre was a tradgedy, and I don't think those left behind Southern Utah as a skeleton
crew ever felt they had the authority to take action against the Fanchers. Most boys and men
were making preparations for the showdown with Federal Troops in the North where the
appointed Governor would first encounter Salt Lake, emptied of people, tended by
boys with firebrands ready to burn it's hay-filled houses.
I will be interested to know if any indication is presented in MMM that G.A. Smith's trip to
Southern Utah had anything to do with this wagon train. Trouble with this and future
trains were the purpose of food preparation and caching of food in the Mountains.
I believe in the separation of Church and State, but there were thousands of Indian
Groups, each with their religion and territory. True Separation of Church and State
would have changed the landscape of America with equality and their original
territory for Each Indian Group. Settlement, as happened in Utah, could have been
attained only by equality and fair negotiation with Indians across the Country.
Each massacre needs to be understood and regretted, each taking of a slave or
Celt and chaining them to the decks of famine ships.
How much easier to narrow the discourse from hundreds of millions dead in both
hemispheres of the Americas to this mourned massacre in a remote site. Where
fools walked boldly where Angels would have dared to tread. Instead of settling
any needs they might have had in the temporary capitol of Fillmore, they counted
on their numbers to bully rationed food out of the small towns in the South of
the State.
This Edition of MMM was published only a week or so after it was announced
in a California press release that essential papers could not be obtained from
the California Library System which includes historical societies and sites like
that in the Mendocino County, dedicated to the Indians and their Massacre.
I was pleased that the monument was built and dedicated with the names of all
wagon train victims who died there researched and included.
The current puppet effort to delete one of the broadest civil preparation for conflict
in the History of the West is unfortunate. Is all that somehow unmentionable
because in this case, loss of life was not avoided?
There's my comment. We have a closer relationship to the Meadows, which was in my Great Grandfather's care
after Jacob Hamblin's tenure. Nice to see that cairn permanently piled there, it was a long, grueling effort.
I think my GGGrandfather may have been the translator who haggled
with the Fanchers for the
threat-ridden, self-proclaimed assassins
of Joseph Smith. In the old West bragging was as
good as a full confession. The porcelain
Gun they are said to have brandished was given to my Great-grandfather [the
monogamous Bishop educated to speak fluent
Piute, 3 at the time of
the massacre. I believe that it may have hung in
the tavern before that.
He allowed the pawning of guns and as the West waned, he had a few notorious ones. The Saloon finally closed as
the Mountain Men gave way
to the temperance drinkers.
It was the Old West and holds many secrets to this day.
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