What Is The Song That The Singer Must Sing?

jane-goodall-birthday-80 What is the song that the singer must sing?

I was recently having a conversation with a friend regarding a Bible passage. The passage in question was in Genesis 22, where God is declaring the great blessings Abraham would receive in response to his great victory of faith and obedience. One translation renders one of these blessings as “…in you [Abraham] all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3, English Standard Version). My friend said something to the effect that maybe when God said “families,” he was not only thinking about all the human families of the world, but all the plant and animal families as well.

What is the song that the singer must sing?

That conversation sparked something in me. Some time ago, I dreamed a beautiful dream. My dream is for every plant and animal species on earth to have at least one human advocate, one human singer. For example, I consider Dame Jane Goodall to be an excellent advocate for chimpanzees and other great apes. I believe the world needs a few million more Jane Goodalls to advocate for other species. I’ll settle for a few thousand more at this point. I haven’t picked a species yet. Perhaps I should just to set an example. But what came to me recently was the idea of the responsibilities of such an advocate.

What is the song that the singer must sing? Article II, Section 3 of the U. S. Constitution says that the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;” This is the Constitutional basis for the annual State of the Union Address. I am telling you this to tell you that the advocate for a given species has the responsibility of giving from time to time information of the state of that species, and recommending to the consideration of the world such measures he or she deems necessary and expedient.

What is the song that the singer must sing? I would like each day of the year to be a day where the annual State of the Species address for at least one species. Unlike the State of the Union Address, which has become a bloated exercise in political pageantry, I would like the State of the Species address to be relatively succinct. Something like “Here’s where the species is thriving, here’s where the species is struggling, this is what’s causing the species to struggle, and here’s what the world could do about it.” I would like there to be a limited number of bullet points in each category, to ensure that the advocate focuses on what is truly essential.

What is the song that the singer must sing? I believe you get the idea. I realize this is a dream at this point. Of such I dream, my world! And yet, I consider it a beautiful dream. It is a little dream on the way to the bigger dream of a humanity that is no longer a reckless, adolescent, destructive race. I hope that when you see me, you will find me working on this dream.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Should You Speak, Sing The Eternal Farewell?

Eastern-cougar Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell?Of the stories of endangered species, I consider this story to be unusually strange. Furthermore, I consider this story to not only be strange, but to have been strange for some time. It is the story of the Eastern Cougar (known scientifically as a subspecies of Puma concolor).

Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell?

The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the eastern cougar extinct in March of 2011. That declaration was presented as something that probably should have been done a long time ago. The last confirmed eastern cougar was killed in 1938. The agency recommended that the eastern cougar be dropped from the endangered species list.

Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell? It was therefore considered something of a shock when a cougar was killed in Connecticut in July of 2011. It was a cougar, and it was in the east, therefore it must be an eastern cougar, yes? Not necessarily. It was later discovered that this cougar had come to Connecticut from the Black Hills of South Dakota, by way of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell? A cougar was shot in Kentucky in 2014. This cougar was considered to be a western cougar, and that cougars seen in the eastern United States were relatives of the extinct eastern cougar.

Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell? Some scientists are of the opinion that the western cougar and the eastern cougar are but two names for the same animal. If that is the case, then the eastern cougar isn’t really extinct because there never really was an eastern cougar. The case is that the American cougar’s habitat has decreased to the American west, but the American cougar isn’t extinct. And if the eastern cougar doesn’t really exist, then it shouldn’t be called extinct by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Should you speak, sing the eternal farewell? The US Fish and Wildlife Service is making their proposal available for review and comment until August 17, 2015. The IUCN Red List reports that the cougar species as a whole, Puma concolor, is considered “least threatened” because there are varieties throughout North and South America. All I know is that unless the cougars have an advocate, it won’t stay that way.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Streaming And Creeping In The Gathering Darkness

WilliamStafford Streaming and creeping in the gathering darknessAmerican poet William Stafford (1914-1993) wrote a poem about a gathering of the gone or endangered species of the earth.

Roll Call

Red Wolf came, and Passenger Pigeon,
the Dodo Bird, all the gone or endangered
came and crowded around in a circle,
the Bison, the Irish Elk, they waited
silent, the Great White Bear, fluid and strong,
sliding from the sea, streaming and creeping
in the gathering darkness, nose down,
bowing to earth its tapered head,
where the Black-footed Ferret, paws folded,
stood in the center surveying the multitude
and spoke for us all: “Dearly beloved,” it said.

Red Wolf. Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The IUCN Red List reports the red wolf as critically endangered. It was extinct in the wild, but recently reintroduced in the United States.

passenger pigeon. Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

They say there were once as many as 3 billion passenger pigeons. Audubon Magazine reports that the passenger pigeon was hunted into extinction by 1914.

dodo bird. Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The scientists say the dodo became extinct around 1690. The animals that Europeans brought to the dodo’s habitat had a taste for dodo eggs.

American bison. Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The bison came close to extinction in the 19th century, but is now merely “near threatened.”

Irish-Elk-Skeleton. Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The Irish Elk vanished around 7,700 years ago.

polar-bear-hero Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The polar bear is currently listed as vulnerable, as the future size and quality of its habitat is uncertain.

black-footed-ferret Streaming and creeping in the gathering darkness

The black-footed ferret is listed as endangered, making a comeback from being extinct in the wild.

The music is a portion of the Irish tune “Limerick’s Lamentation,” performed by Patrick Berry.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

What Species Will You Sing?

Carl_von_Linné What species will you sing?In February of 2014, I shared a beautiful dream I had. My beautiful dream is for every plant and animal species on earth to have at least one human spokesperson, at least one human advocate, at least one human singer of that species. When I shared that dream, I had no idea whether this dream was possible or not. Between that time and now, I have encountered some numbers regarding this dream.

What species will you sing?

Question: How long has humanity been identifying species?
Answer: While the idea has been around for a long time, most people draw the dividing line with the publication of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus (pictured above) in 1735. His system of kingdoms, orders, genera and species is used to this day, with some minor additions. This system has been in use for the past 280 years.

Question: How many species have been identified?
Answer: A. D. Chapman reported in 2009 that there are 1,900,000 identified species on earth. Some people claim that some of the species are duplicates. The State of Observed Species Report says 19,000 species were discovered in 2011. These numbers are for eukaryote species, organisms more complex than bacteria.

Question: How many species are there on earth?
Answer: The most current estimate is 8,700,000, plus or minus 1,300,000. The researchers made this estimate by observing the patterns of species within a genus, genera in a family, and so forth. If this estimate is true, then humanity has a long way to go in merely identifying the full complement of life on earth.

Let’s suppose the number of species is 10,000,000. The earth’s population is 7,137,000,000. That works out to 713 people for each and every species on earth. Some of these species already have advocates, like ducks and pheasants. Many of them do not. A. D. Chapman said about 10% of the 60,000 vertebrate species were threatened. Perhaps it would be a good thing to focus on those 6,000 species. There are over a million people in the world for each one of those species. If you’re thinking about advocating for one of those species, this might be a good time to start advocating. Which species will you sing?

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.