Truth

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." ~Aldous Huxley
In the above statement, Huxley states a highly important principle which many choose to ignore. There are many examples of this unfortunate phenomenon in the world today.
For instance, although many choose to ignore or disbelieve that there is human trafficking, it is a fact that it takes place. Although numerous people consider such occurrences to be "a thing of the past," every day people are sold into slavery or are sexually exploited on a commercial level. Even though people discount this as impossible, it does not stop it from continuing on.
Another example of this may be seen in schools. Simply because a student failed to listen and take note of the fact that there was homework or a test to study for does not mean that it was never assigned. The teacher assigned the work whether the student chooses to ignore it and fail to complete it or not.
Similarly, many religions claim that they are truth and that there is not truth besides their own. However, it seems impossible to claim that one is right when in reality it is completely wrong and other than the truth, and another is totally right and true. The post-modernist view of truth is that "all is relative." While it may be wrong for one person to commit a certain act, for another, it is the right thing to do. However, truth is absolute rather than relative. While defining someone as "fat" or "thin" is relative in comparison with the weight of those to which the person is being compared, truth is an "across the board," set standard of thought and behavior which is universally accepted and considered to be either right or wrong without variance or middle ground.
Even if someone were to ignore truth, it would still remain. Supposing someone believed it to be okay to murder their spouse, despite their firm belief, their action would be considered as wrong and contrary to truth and the law. In conclusion, because truth or facts are ignored, they do not stop being, but rather remain the same throughout all opposition.

"The Other Boleyn Girl"

I just finished watching the movie "The Other Boleyn Girl" that recently came out. I do not know how historically accurate it is, but regardless of precision, there are many questions which it raises to my mind.
First of all, it is desolate thought to consider what it would be like to be Queen Catherine who was divorced and removed from her place of royalty simply because she could not produce a male heir. In this day and age, such a thing is practically unheard of, and would indeed be considered outrageous. However, in her day, that was a very real and present predicament. What I fail to comprehend is how they expected a woman to have control over what gender she carried. Not only is that impossible, but it is not simply a woman's genes or ability to produce a male that come into play. The genes of the father of the child factor into the outcome to the same extent. Theoretically, the father is just as responsible as the mother for the outcome's gender, health, looks, etc.
Next, I fail to comprehend the relationship between the Boleyn sisters, Anne and Mary. It is an alliance full of betrayal and mistrust. Mary unwittingly steals the king away from Anne in the beginning, and Anne, angry at her sister and having lost faith in her, is exiled temporarily to France. Meanwhile, Mary becomes the king's mistress, and soon conceives a child be him. When she is bedridden early in carriage, her father and uncle send for Anne to come and amuse the king to keep the Boleyn family in his good graces; however they charge her to direct the king's affections continually ever towards Mary. During Mary's pregnancy, the king falls in love with Anne, to the detriment of Mary's trust. When Mary gives birth to a healthy male heir, he will have nothing to do either with her or their bastard child, as his sole desire is for her sister Anne. Anne refuses to give herself to the king until her annuls his marriage with Queen Catherine and they are safely wed, as she will be not part of being his whore through which he may have his pleasure and beget his bastard children as he did with her sister. According tto Anne's wish, the king sends Mary and their child away from the court to live in the countryside. During the long and grueling process of divorcing Catherine, some question comes up as to the purity and integrity of Anne. The king will only believe Mary, and she lies to cover up for her sister, in a desperate attempt to regain her trust and affection and heal their bond. Anne's first child as Queen is, unfortunately, a girl rather than a boy. This begins the king's withdrawal of affection from Anne, that ultimately turns into a loathing contempt. When she becomes pregnant again and soon thereafter miscarries the child, Mary and their brother help Anne to cover it up for a time. Soon, however, when questions are raised as to why she is not showing, she decides to sleep with her brother to become pregnant again rather than to admit what would be considered her ultimate weakness. His wife sees them crawling into bed together and soon reports to the king of the Queen's treacherous and incestuous encounter. However, in reality, the siblings never went through with their despicable plan. Anne is charged with high treason for being an adulteress and having an incestuous relationship, and is convicted. Her brother is beheaded. Mary interceeds on the behalf of her sister to the king, but he is unable to evade her death sentence. Anne is also beheaded. Only Mary escapes, and that to a quite life in the country with a young man that had worked for her father for a time. In the end, Anne's female child became the Heiress and Queen Elizabeth. Obviously, the sisters' relationship was full of betrayal and mistrust, but somehow they eventually managed to come through for each other in the end. Their sisterly bond continued to the end, with not wont of affection.
Lastly, I believe it to be a despicable thing that those women could be put through so much and blamed for so much at the whim of a man, and yet he was not held responsible at all for anything. Mary was recently and happily married when the king decided that she should be his mistress. She went to him as a lamb to the slaughter, innocent and helpless, with no control whatsoever over the situation. Being the only woman in his life that bore a male child, even then she and her bastard son were cast aside as useless and unwanted and at the mercy of the nation's gossip. Next, Anne tried to wield her power over him and prevent her own disgrace. She had kept him from having through the divorce of his wife Catherine and his excommunication from the Catholic Church, but just before they were married he roughly forced him to make love to him. Their marriage began with Anne angry and hurt and feeling abuse and the king despising her for her power over his desires, as well as for making him divorce Catherine and leave the Catholic Church for her. When she fails to carry a male child for their first child, she is in danger of being passed over as Catherine was, and when her assumed treason was revealed, he did not even attempt to believe her defense of her actions. She ultimately died because the first child he conceived within her was a female and the second was not healthy enough to even enter into the world for a moment. After her sister's execution, Mary was commanded never to return to the king's presence or the court again under penalty of death. Catherine was disgraced before the world, and most importantly her beloved nation, and caste aside like a rotten egg.
It is amazing to me how conniving people can be. Yet even more disconcerting is the betrayal even of the most intimate friendships, and all for the sake of "love" and a male heir. Perhaps the monarchs of the olden days were not such the great legends they now seem to be. Perhaps being a lady-in-waiting in the queen's court was not the honor and adventure and fairy-tale story that is seems it was. Some stories are quite disheartening and disillusioning!

Pollen

One of the surest signs of the arrival Spring is the yellow dust which covers cars, houses, driveways, roads and basically everything else outdoors. While some view this powdery film as a nuisance that makes vehicles dirty and people ill, some consider it to be the hope of new beginnings and the coming of warmer and better days. Now, the frosts, bleak horizons and freezing winds of winter are fading into more vibrant shades of color from the whole spectrum. The flowers begin to bloom without fear of an icy death. The trees begin to bud new leaves that will spread out their branches to make large canopies that create shade during the heat of the summer. Birds begin to awake the earth in the early morning hours with effervescent harmonies. In the evenings, the katydids and crickets chirp a soothing cadence to announce the coming of balmy spring days and soporific summer evenings. Honey bees and butterflies flit and flutter to and from flowers and plants. Clouds now float pleasing and lazy across the azure skies, now peaceful instead of menacing. Rays of golden sunlight stream down, warming the earth so that once again the barefooted children may run about its surface freely and even enjoy the refreshment of its various bodies of water. It is almost as if the sun, bursting with warmth and energy after a long repose during the icy and gray months of winter, sprinkled it's fine gold dust over the surface of the earth to announce his resurrection. It is almost as if this yellow powder is a gift and a promise to the earth and mankind of life and hope and beauty.