A Day Without Liberal Arts

I was just reading an article about student loan debt (thank you, parents, for paying my way!) and it got me riled all over again about how the world treats liberal arts majors. When I was going to school, the math/science majors got away with taking far fewer breadth courses. They didn't need "broadening" - they were studying something important. I'm sick of the pay differential between math/science and liberal arts. Are you with me, liberal arts majors??

I propose we have a worldwide wildcat strike once a year - "A Day Without Liberal Arts". Anyone who majored in liberal arts should just boycott their job. If they're lucky enough to be working for themselves, they shouldn't produce that day. Just take every thing artistic, creative or redolent of the humanities away from the technological overlords. Let them learn to make their own lattes, cook their own gourmet meal, pick their own produce, drive their own taxis, etc. etc. Just see how well the world runs when the only people going to work are the math/science majors.

But I'm not bitter....

Ah...

I feel better today. For once my hands weren't puffed up like balloons and I didn't have hives all over (although I'm still itchy). I'm even in a decent mood given that I only got 6 hours sleep due to a wakeup call from State Disability. The claims person for State Disbility was a cool human being? OMG Since I could feel something bubbling under the surface, I took two Benadryl anyway. I'm hoping that my positive energy lasts throughout the day. Knock wood.

Nature: Red in Tooth and Claw

Feeling more energetic today, I went out to see what I could do in the garden before it got too hot. On the deck, I saw flies congregating around a small batch of intestines and unidentified organs. At first I thought it was a bird's remains (stupid...I don't think bird's have intestines), then I noticed it was fur, not feathers. I feared it was the blind kitten of that beautiful feral cat that hangs out in my yard. Eventually, I discovered a head and a paw between the deck and the fence and that confirmed it.

It's very sad, but probably for the best. The kitten had gotten some sort of infection which had surely blinded it. Survival of the fittest, you know. I figured a raccoon must have gotten it. But then as I continued with garden chores, I wondered if its own mother had done it. She nursed it and did the usual motherly duties, including growling or leaping at me if she thought I was getting to close. However, I thought that she was a little too willing to leave it unattended at times when she was presumably looking for food. A kitten with that kind of eye impairment had even less chance of hiding from or fighting off a predator than usual.

My usual modus operandi with dead birds, rodents or other things I find around the yard is to leave them where they are to decompose unless they're really stinking up the place or unless they're too close to food crops or other things humans will hang around. But I got a shovel and buried the remains in an unused corner of the yard. While I'm not as grossed out or broken up as I would be if I had made a pet of this kitten, I still don't want to see its severed head and paw. It's too sad.