In the inaccurate History of our leveraged Schools I remember our teacher talking about the Roman Emperor Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned.
Fuzzy history but it became euphemism that carried on for years to come.
We have our Rome and we have our Nero.It was implied, by our bedraggled teacher, Nero was insane.
I would say he simply knew it was part of a larger plan.

When we don't see the larger plan, no matter how insane the plan, behavior by those around us loses context. Without context, actions and speech becomes nonsense.

Now we see our little Napoleon cracking jokes as the Constitution is cast aside, the economy is crumbling and Monster Corporates destroy little business.
Nero fiddles while Rome burns. He either knows it is part of the plan or..

A lone crow flies overhead, Caw, Caw, as if it's seen it all before.

Living life seems like a great circle. Moving through it, being part of it, and being it. Moving on the great circle it seems as though it is a straight line where we move from one experience to another, never going back only, seemingly, to slow down or speed up.
We see little circles in our life when we make the same mistakes or repeat actions. We see bigger circles when friends come back into our life, when we return to places we have left long ago.
And, larger still, we return from where we came after completing the circle of life.
The circular journey of life. When we have humor, compassion, understanding, love and joy our journey is one of shared experiences. We are strength
If we have anger,fear, hate, blame, and complaints, we are a journey of tears in darkness and always alone. We are weakness.
We have choice each hour, each day, each week to make our journey on the circle of life what we want.
May your Circle Of Life surround joy, kindness, compassion and strength of Spirit.

Standing on the old bridge over one hundred feet above a ravine. Late afternoon and overhead a Cooper's Hawk glides away towards the setting sun. The blue sky taking on the warm glow of evening. The Hawk silhouetted as are the crows that are harrassing rentlessly the Hawks journey. The Hawk seems unusually stoic as he runs the gauntlet of attacks. They diminish in the distance
I turn around and look up the ravine. There, landing on a tall snag of a branch is a female Cooper's Hawk. She lands and her head immediately begins the stop/start scanning processes.
I get it. The husband draws away the crows and blackbirds while the wife glides stealthily in for a chance at an evening meal.
I watch her scan, look and reposition herself.
Unexpectedly the Husband comes in for a slightly unsteady perch right next to her. He looks a bit ruffled from his part of the ruse.
After steadying himself he turns his head and beak toward his wife and tilts his head. she turns to him and bobs her head.
I could see it right away.
He saying
"You haven't got anything? After the beating I took to give you a clear field to hunt?"
She saying,
"I just got here my self. It's not like there is something waiting to be eaten"
Then they turned and looked out at the expanse. Time passed and unceremoniously he leaned forward, wings spread and glided off. He caught a thermal and soon was a speck.
She left just a minute or two behind him and flew to another tree, waited and then glided off home.
Only the warm glow of the Sunset remained.

When I read that the news was considering torture as "harsh" I was appalled. Hard water is harsh, hard soap is harsh, swearing, grounded for a week is harsh.. Torture is cruel, life threatening, psychologically, spiritually and emotionally damaging. The rationale for torture is ALWAYS psycho-pathological and is encouraged by such and by sociopaths.
I have interviewed murders (while in the Military) they are generally lucid, chatty, often well read and the last person you would see as murder. (Heck, Ted Bundy was a Republican who attend the national convention in the past.)
It is a mental condition of the utmost depersonalization of seeing other humans as animals.
Some of the troops who have conducted these tortures are damaged for life...as damaged as those that were tortured...if they are not damaged by willful cruelty, then they are pathologically demented and are to be feared as any animal that would torture and kill for the sheer joy of torturing and killing.
Torture is never excusable and is a war crime under the Geneva convention which our country signed and prosecuted Nazis for violating..

Still a chill in the morning air. Soon the Sun is high in the sky peaking through the clouds. Warm Sunlight plays on opening blossoms. Kaleidoscope colors begin their arrival.
Time for a weekend walk through the woods, along the coast, down a suburban street, or in a city park. Time to witness nature's promise of life. Time to witness the renewal of life and see how, we too, are part of the grand plan. A plan the dwarfs the egos, petty tyrants,and crooked bureaucrats.
Let's enjoy the show of the Spring season, if only for a week or so before we resume the drama around us.