KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH LOVE AND VISIBILITY
The ideal is that it’s mutual
When we love someone, and they enter a room, that room gets a little brighter for us, like the lights have been turned up a notch. What brings that glow, that brightness from another fellow human being?
Love is too rich and complex to boil down to some single facet or data point; but one of the essential elements that goes into feeling love for one another, is the experience of being seen.
When we fall in love with someone, we aren’t just seeing who they are, we’re seeing the best of who they are; and to see and be seen in this way is one of the greatest, deepest joys of life. One of the central qualities of happy marriages is that both partners continue to see each other that way over time.
A SULTAN’S ARABIA
Nakhal Castle, Oman. If you want to see an ultra-rich Arab sheikdom with exotically designed skyscrapers, you go to Qatar or Dubai. But if you want a more genuine Arabia of Sultan’s palaces, of forts and castles perched on rocky crags, of traditional villages tucked away in mountain fastnesses, of rock pools and grottoes gushing with spring water hidden in secret valleys, a place out of Arabian Nights rather than one of garish ostentatiousness – then you come here to the Sultanate of Oman.
Omanis are a polyglot people from all over Arabia, Persia, and India who’ve lived here for millennia, creating a cosmopolitan trading society that adheres to its traditional culture. There are fabulous hotels with great bars, concerts by the Omani Philharmonic Orchestra, and once outside the capital of Muscat, an Arabian wonderland so exotic it seems out of a movie. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #119 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SO SORRY YOU WEREN’T
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – AT THE NORTH POLE WITH MY 10 YEAR-OLD SON
April, 2003. On my 21st expedition to 90 North, the geographic North Pole, I took my son Jackson. He was nine, but handled it like a trooper. And no wonder – it was his third time! The first was when he was just six, following his brother Brandon whom I had taken to the Pole back in 1990.
We landed our ski-equipped Twin Otter on the sea ice – and as it’s featureless with the ice slowly moving on the Arctic Ocean surface, nothing stays there for long. So if you want a physical candy-stripe North Pole, you have to bring your own! It is so indescribable to actually be on the very top of our planet that it has to be experienced to be understood. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #95 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 08/05/22
Welcome to the Summer Fun HFR!
It’s early August, we have a month to go ‘till Labor, so let’s enjoy it. The photo and story linked above is in the New York Post. She’s Mimi Israelah, a pro-Trump proud Filipino-American. When she couldn’t find her driver’s license when pulled over, she showed the cops her White Privilege card for a laugh, and they thought it so funny they let her go.
The Post, however, doesn’t mention The White Privilege Card’s inventor, the “Legendary Black Redneck: himself, Joel Patrick.
Buckle up, folks. We’re going for a fun ride.
SKYE’S LINKS 08/04/22
Huge jackpot win in the 9th Circuit on social media being a public forum and that the First Amendment prohibits viewpoint discrimination by public officials on this media. This is a very big deal that has received practically no attention, and has immensely important consequences going forward. If appealed to SCOTUS, I'm confident that this 3-0 decision will be upheld:
9th Circuit: Political Officials' Blocking of Social Media Comments May Violate the First Amendment
Evidence of social media collaboration with the Federalies arrives:
CDC Gave Big Tech Platforms Guidance On COVID Censorship
The Rumble versus Google lawsuit moves forward to the discovery stage. Here is why this is likely to be a very big deal:
Court Rejects Google's Attempt To Dismiss Rumble's Antitrust Lawsuit, Ensuring Vast Discovery
You see the Good News pattern here?
SCOUNDREL’S VIEW OF MOUNT EVEREST
You’re looking face on Everest’s West Ridge, the border of Tibet and Nepal. On the right is the Southwest Face in Nepal, on the left is the North Face in Tibet. Called Scoundrel’s View because this is a better view than trekkers to Everest Base Camp see (a viewpoint called Kala Patthar).
You have to make another trek up the Ngozumpa glacier (longest in the Himalayas) in the Gokyo valley, where above the fifth Gokyo lake at 16,400 feet you get to call yourself a “scoundrel” for seeing what Everest trekkers don’t.
High on the Northeast Ridge on the left horizon is the last place Mallory and Irvine were seen heading for the summit in 1924, and then disappeared. Hillary and Tenzing summited in 1953 via the Southeast Ridge over the right horizon. Everest Base Camp in Nepal is at the foot of the big snowy buttress below the West Ridge. Called the West Shoulder, it blocks any view of Everest from Base Camp.
On our Himalaya Helicopter Expeditions, we get an abundance of spectacular views of Everest, up close and personal – Scoundrel’s View is only one of many. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #29 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE LIQUID RAINBOW – WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL RIVER
This is Caño Cristales, a river flowing through an ancient tableland in a remote roadless region deep in the forests of Colombia. Known as The Liquid Rainbow, geologists consider it the world’s most beautiful river.
The colors are due to endemic riverweeds that grow only here, clinging to the rocks of the riverbed, and the crystal clarity of the water. It is not easy to get to – fly a light plane to an airstrip, take a boat upriver for miles, then walk a few miles more. But then you get to explore one of the most beautiful sights nature has to offer – replete with dozens of small fun waterfalls, surrounded by an uninhabited forest teeming with tropical birds.
No wonder National Geographic calls Caño Cristales “the River of the Garden of Eden.” Yet it is only one of the many extraordinary experiences in this huge country – for Colombia is larger than Texas and California combined. Wheeler Expeditions will be conducting an exploration of Hidden Colombia in 2023. Hope you can be with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #22 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DECLARES OPEN SEASON ON RELIGIOUS HOSPITALS THAT OBJECT TO GENDER TRANSITIONS
In 2016, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule that would have forced doctors across the country to assist in “transitioning patients” out of their biological sex, regardless of a provider’s medical opinion or conscience objections.
The rule left no room for religious physicians or institutions to breathe, instead menacing them with draconian fines, were they not to toe the controversial new line.
In stepped the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which secured a permanent injunction in federal court that stopped the rule from going into effect, on the grounds that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and likely violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Tomorrow (8/04), however, Becket will march back into the courtroom, having been dragged back in by the Biden administration and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.
OPEN LETTER TO PARENTS: IF YOU DON’T GET A GRIP ON YOUR KIDS’ SOCIAL MEDIA, TRANS ACTIVISTS WILL
An elementary school in Indiana must allow a 10-year-old boy who “identifies” as transgender to play on its all-girls softball team despite a new state law preventing males from competing on female sports teams, a federal judge ruled last week (7/26).
This is just the most recent example of how the trans movement is affecting our kids: an elementary school’s all-girls softball team. What is behind all these stories of young children gender bending? Social media and smartphones could have something to do with it.
Parents are the only ones who can protect kids from trans influencers and other harmful content online. You are the ones on the frontlines, and circumstances are increasingly demanding that you “go nuclear.” Here’s how.