Times have never been better. Look, Exxon just reported the highest earnings of any company in US history.
US crime is lower than it has been in over 30 years...the media just hypes everything out of proportion and they are also now capable of telling you just about everything that happens. Back in the 70s, they could not do that, but there was actually much more crime then, you just never heard about it.
On a global level, I think that during WWI and WWII, times would have been a lot worse than they are today, or ever since then.
The world economy is healthy. Look at tird world nations are growing economically faster than ever before.
While the Katrina disaster exposed poverty in this country, most of those folks were doing alright and many were getting a free handout from our great uncle. At least our country is much better off than we were during the great depression, where you had widespread poverty and starvation.
And look how PC every is...I was just listening how Halloween has been banned in our schools. They may have a "Fall Festival" in some schools, but not the same pagan worship that it used to be. As a matter of fact, "Fall Festival" is unnacceptable in some places because some religions do not recognize the changing of the seasons.
What could be worse? The Bird Flu might mutate and cause a mass flu epedemic. Perhaps we are due for a good global cleansing anyway. Perhaps Iran will get some nukes and wipe Israel off the face of the earth and start a great global nuclear meltdown...then what? We would lick the wounds of whats left of the earth and continue on like we always have.
I don't see the end is near at all, and all that doomsday propoganda has little credibility. Anyway, when the end does come, most likely it will come individually for each of us. So each of us needs to prepare ourselves for that time in whatever way makes us feel good for the time being and allows us to continue until tomorrow. Be it your fanticaly religious faith or the cut and dry. As for me, I'd like to believe I get 70 virgins when the lights go out. I'd like to believe that I will float amongst the clouds in pure extasy. But I think I know that for me, I will return to where I was before I came...nowhere.
Ring around the Rosie,
a pocketful of posey.
Ashes, ashes,
we all fall down!
Ring around the rosy..
One of the first symptoms of the plauge was a red rash around a red bump. The rash would have appeared as a ring to the casual observer.
pocket full of posies..
A common belief at the time was that the plague was spread through "foul air" so by putting the flowers in their pockets people could protect themselves from catching the disease. It also served to cover the smell of death and decay. This was used by the healthy as a way to push the reality of what was happening out of their minds, as well as by the already sick to cover the stench that was another symptom of the disease in order to protect themselves from the angry mobs.
ashes..ashes..
One of the final stages of the illness was internal hemoraging. This sometimes triggered sneezing when the breathing passages became irritated. "Ashes" could be a childs view of the sound made when someone sneezes. Another explanation of this verse is that the property of the sick was often burned, as well as the remains of the sick themselves to prevent spreading of the disease. The ashes would then be referring to the burning performed to prevent catching the disease.
we all fall down!
This line becomes obvious once you realize what the poem is about. During the reign of this plague, half of Europe was wiped out. It was rampant and very hard to control due mainly to the squalor people lived in at that time and the fact that they still viewed bathing as a dangerous habit that could cause pneumonia and only did it once a month, if then.
