Absolutely Nothing!
My oldest sister was born at the beginnings of World War II. A war baby to a very young mother. I was born at the endings of the Korean War. Another war baby to a still very young mother.
My point…I have, we have, always lived in a state of war. Or “conflicts”
Myself… The Korean Conflict. Viet Nam, The Cold War, The Bay of Pigs, the American occupation of the Dominican Republic, The Irish Troubles, The Angolan Conflict, the Six-day war, Afghanistan, The Middle East, …ad Infinium. From 1945 to 1971 the world saw over 200 conflicts, wars, uprising, battles of attrition, and enemy encounters alone. That means…From my birth until my graduation from high school our world was engaged in approximately 180 regional and worldwide battles.
I watched the Russian ruler Khrushchev on television; pounding his shoe on a table, (obviously a Mandela Effect, because that NEVER happened) declaring he would bury us. I worried about someone attacking Iowa with an “A-Bomb”.
Our youth went off to other countries, for no understandable reason. Returning with a great deal of ongoing emotional and spiritual anguish, physical damage, or dead. I marched with Viet Nam Vets against the war, helped to hold up a flag of Peace at our local Iowan government center. I thought I was all that. I was not. I was just a young unfashionable hippie in patched up jeans.
So now we have another battle; a peaceful country being invaded by its bully of a neighbor, a raving despot determined to win back the glory days of Russian imperialism.
And this is indeed another world conflict, with all of the sanctions, protests. And boy howdy I am right there, angry, tearful, appalled. I want Ukraine to be left alone to continue its move towards a peaceful future. I despise Putin. I despise him and all of his sick cronies.
And now the hard part, the little niggle in my mind. Currently this year, today, the world has 45 of these events happening, everywhere. Death of innocents, invasions, destruction. We have grown so used to this. We ignore it when we wake in the morning.
Loss of freedom is a thing. We are soft here in the North American continent. We equate loss of freedom to being told to get a shot or wear a mask. We equate that to fascism, to socialism. We don’t care about capitalistic spoilage of our environment. We care about only the bottom line…our personal comfort.
BAH!!!
We white, pampered citizens are awfully spoiled and whiney
We are for some part a racist, non-caring, angry people here. We (I) jump on temporary bandwagons when we (I) have real trouble shoved in our (my) face.
We are soft, we need to care more, we need to toughen up to help save our world.
Way before European settlers came to the Dassel area, way before Dassel, back in 1030 or so BCE this area was inhabited by the Woodlands People.
1869 was the year of many firsts for Dassel. Our small settlement was platted this year by the St Paul and Pacific Railroad.
Dassel is located in Meeker County Minnesota, just off the intersection of Highways 12 and 15. We are about 30 miles south of St Cloud, 60 miles west of Minneapolis, and 15 miles north of Hutchinson. So, we are situated in a prime location. 
Yesterday we received the news about our friend Ahne. The news that she had passed. By her own volition.I can’t claim to have been Ahne’s close friend. I saw her seldom, and we really had no heart to heart conversations. I cannot, however, remove this sadness from my spirit. The idea of her pain, her hurt, her despair. It continues to revolve around that hamster wheel of my brain. At odd points during the day I am struck painfully with her death. I woke in the night, often, and imagined her.
Her smile, Ahne had the biggest, the best, the kindest smile. And she cared about others, about their needs. It was not uncommon for her to take care of others, to help.
Tilly Evan Jones 