BOOK ONE—END FIRST KISS Part 6: PLEASE THINK AGAIN ... (99)

Whenever you think your first thought is

Your best thought please think of

The domino effect that got its start
Years before my defense system
Called upon denial to block
The conscious portion of my mind from
Feeling the depths of humiliation, which
Had layered up subconsciously, each time

I, trying to secure a seat on that

Hebrew school bus from Hell, lost
Hold of my memory’s conscious capacity to
Remember the ongoing series of deeply insulting
Tongue lashings that I received, repeatedly ...

As you shall see
Brave souls must we grow to be
In order to muster the intuitive courage
Necessary to dive ever more deeply

Into memories, which had been subconsciously
Repressed based in the fact that certain details felt
Too painfully confounding for a child’s mind to ‘bare’

Once our processors develop a courageous sense of
Intuitive readiness to dive toward (and surface with)
Lost puzzle pieces repressed at early stages of life
‘Forgotten’ details begin to emerge from
Subconscious storage, thus empowering
The conscious portion of our thought processors to
Formulate Aha! moments that startle
Self awareness into acknowledging certain
Character traits that contradict what we’d believed to be

True of ourselves (or another)—
As a matter of fact, it’s likely that during
Moments of inner conflict
The first thought to pop into
Your conscious mind (or mine) may stem from
Denial’s original self deception, which keeps
The main root of your conflict with yourself
Subconsciously buried, suggesting that
Significant details necessary to clarifying
The bigger picture of our personality development
May remain blocked from conscious memory to
This very day, which is why
Our diving expeditions have need to delve
Ever more astutely into the distant past if
We hope to deepen our understanding of
The complex nature of the human brain that
Functions within our own heads, and being that
Every brain is a master at self deceptive mind manipulation
Our inner drive to dive toward deeper truths demands
Great gobs of courage and patience for this reason:
No puzzle proves more challenging to work through to
Its very core than is true of each person’s inner need to
Identify the host of self protective (inter-related) secrets that
Our egocentric defense systems are apt to hide from our
Thought processors’ conscious connection to emotional intelligence ...
Yikes!

BOOK ONE— END FIRST KISS Part 5: SEEK THE MAIN ROOT AND YE SHALL FIND THY LOST ‘PEACE’ OF SELF ESTEEM

Pray tell: Do you know where this domino effect, which continued to frazzle my self worth until recent years (when I was diagnosed with PTSD) got its start?

If you think my self worth was first shattered by the bully on the Hebrew school bus, please think again, because thus far, we’ve only collected a few pieces of the puzzle, which will create the bigger picture that escaped my self awareness for decades for this reason:  The most terrifying pieces of my personal history (which my storyteller has yet to reveal and reassemble) had been shifted, during early childhood, by my self protective defense system from conscious memory into the unfathomable depths of my subconscious where those jagged remnants of my past remained so dauntingly haunting as to pierce my processor’s connection to clarity with bouts of insecurity over most of my life.  And with that added factor do we clearly come to see that the domino effect concerning my having repressed a negatively focused attitude about my self worth had been launched years before my shattered friendship with Joseph had confounded the conscious portion of my mind (and my heart) until one day in the distant future when intuition bade me sit down to write our story at which time the insight-ladened portion of my memory had readily released the beating that I gave him in return for his kiss, and with the release of that memory did my subconscious open the door, behind which, additional memories were released that made sense of everything that had continued to confound us both during the next two years of junior high at which time Joseph and I continued to circle each other without ever making contact, again, because denial, on my part, had imprisoned my processor within a self degrading place so dark that it was impossible for my frightened brain to see my way toward peaceably piecing all of the facts sensibly together, suggesting why I continued to think that Joseph had ruined my junior high social life until (while writing our story, four decades later) one forgotten detail popped out on my computer screen, and once that first detail escaped from subconscious repression, the door, which had unlocked one of several storage compartments deep within my memory, sprung open, releasing a barrage of answers to questions that had befuddled my intelligence for over forty years ... Geez!

BOOK ONE— END FIRST KISS Part 4: FUN HOUSE MIRROR

Sooo—
Without knowledge of
Limbic reactiveness (which
Is contagious unless
A line of self control has been
Consciously developed), you’d think
I'd have felt devastated rather than
Bedazzled—Right?

However—knowing 
Selective memory to be one of
The brain’s natural defense mechanisms
(Most especially when our processors
Flood with confusion or fear), we can clearly
See how certain memories can be
Darkened or whitewashed or completely
Deleted from the conscious portion of
Our minds, so, let’s think again

Most likely, my processor, feeling fearsomely overwhelmed, showcased Joseph's unexpected invitation and shocker of a kiss while the head-beating that I gave him in return dimmed into non-existence on a back burner deep within the subconscious portion of my mind. And here's why I believe that to be true:

Though no memories emerge of—going home feeling devastated while eating dinner or doing homework—I can actually recall falling asleep with a giddy sense of incredibility at the possibility that Joseph now considered me to be his girlfriend—I KID YOU NOT!

The fact of the matter is this:  Just as a fun house mirror reflects distortions of the truth, the human brain is a master at mind manipulation in that whatever we hear and see and feel and believe ourselves (or another) to be doth not necessarily operate with such depth concerning mental clarity as to match reality.

At those times when
We can not see
Or hear
Ourselves
With mental clarity intact then

We cannot see
Or hear
Others
With anything
Resembling mental acuity—

And if the inter-related nature of
Those insights prove true
More often than we’d think then
Common sense suggests asking
ENT and EYE Doctors to step aside in favor of

Asking an astute psychologist
To examine the connection that
Exists between our brain’s
Defense system and the attitude with which
Our eyes and ears choose to see and hear

In short, rose colored glasses worn by
Our mind’s eye while basking in
The presence of one person may be
Whipped off and exchanged for
Dark lenses as soon as another comes into view ...

When you see Annie enter the sixth grade cloak room, the morning after her first kiss, you may have sound reason to agree with my perceptions concerning the self-deceiving nature of denial, because the ensuing nature of the domino effect that’s about to turn this preteen love affair into a star-crossed tragedy, where self protective masks are worn on both sides, is just getting started ...

BOOK ONE— END FIRST KISS Part 3: ONE SHOCK LEADS TO ANOTHER (96b)

So back in the alley, next thing I know, I'm listening to:  God Damn It, Annie!  Look what you did!  When I get home I'm gonna catch it for sure!

It was not Joseph’s words but his eyes, blazing with humiliation’s fury, that shot the burning arrow, which pierced straight through my heart right before he bent down to grab up the soggy mess, which had landed in a muddied puddle of melted snow at our feet.  And with one hand shaking off dripping lumps of half frozen muck sticking stubbornly to his hat, Joseph, yanking at King's leash with the other glares at me before spinning on his heel, leaving me staring at his back as he stamps off in a huff down the alley toward his house on the next block while Pixie and I, remaining utterly stymied as though we’d been swept up into an electrified whirlpool of emotional reactiveness that spit us out as fast as we’d been sucked in, stand glued to the spot, brains reeling in a mindless state of disbelief, because no one would ever believe that of all the girls in our class, Joseph had just kissed the laughing stock from the Hebrew bus, whom no guy in his right mind would ever ask out on a date!  And as my first crush with his best friend in tow leave Pixie and me behind, I, feeling utterly bedazzled by this shocking change for the better in my fortune am suffused with an extraordinary sensation of wonderment coursing throughout my entire being while staring after Joseph until he, entering his back yard, fades from view before I, caught up within love’s magic spell, feel myself spinning as would a dancer on a pedestal once the lid of a fully wound music box had been opened, revealing reason for my spirit to float on air, as though in slo-mo, once Pixie and I head for home without so much as even one conscious clue that my defense mechanism of denial has swept Joseph’s fury at my instinctive reaction right into subconscious storage—so huge was my processor’s after-shock while the conscious portion of my mind remained fully focused upon digesting the deeply confounding fact that The Leader of the Pack had just hugged and kissed ME!

Upon entering my back door, leading into our kitchen, we see the dancer on the pedestal bend down to unleash and stroke Pixie‘s head with no clue of having taken yet another step deeper into the dark, hazy maze of Denialand where I can't see or feel the tree in the forest falling on me to save my life.  But then when it comes to memory, lots of changes are known to take place inside our heads to which we remain blind most especially at twilight time—and if the truth be told, do any of us really have a clue as to what shocking event may be lying in wait to shake each of us to our very core from one minute to the next?  I mean, how often do we hear that life can spin toward unexpected change on the toss of a dime ...

In short, who can fault the inexperienced mind of a child, who has habitually (beginning at the age of three), maintained her grip on sanity based in the belief that all is well in her little corner of the world, and as long as Annie harbors need to weave daydreams into pipe dreams while her wall of denial layers up, blocking her conscious memory from acknowledging the subconscious existence of the dark side of reality (which is far too painful for her young mind to ‘bare’), nothing will interfere with her perception of her dreamscape as being true, through and through until  ...

LETS REVIEW—96a BOOK ONE—END FIRST KISS Part 2: DOMINO EFFECT

So here we stand—a pair of preteens, lip locked within an embrace more intimate than I'd ever imagined in my wildest dreams—Well truthfully—at the age of twelve, my wildest dreams see me being chased down a dark street by a mean minded gorilla, and though my mouth is wide open, no scream for help gets past the huge lump in my scared-to-death throat (which is tightening, right now, exactly as had been true all those decades ago).  And each time that gorilla closes in on me (this being a repetitive dream) as though narrowing the gap between life and death, I choke up even more—as proves true while Joseph’s bear hug crushes my body against his until his arms, relaxing their hold on mine, free my arms to fly up as though all on their own in defensive readiness to beat my very first crush soundly all about his head (as I long to do to the gorilla?), shocking us both every bit as much as his kiss had shocked us only moments before—and as you and I watch Joseph ducking and weaving like a prize fighter dodging my two fisted blows, the wool cap, warming his ears against this frosty winter's eve, somehow gets snagged onto the tip of my thumb, which, pulls it off Joseph's shocked to the max head and flings it down to the ground where it lands in a muddy puddle of melting snow, ending up as muddled as the utterly stunned brains of two, out-of-control pre teens—neither of whom has a clue of the fact that one limbic (Google it) reaction stimulates another—which is why your narrator (being an impassioned instructor of sane communications) plans to revisit many moments in Annie’s life that seem to make no sense since her rising level of personal accomplishments and sudden slides in self confidence cease to match), and as Annie’s limbic reaction to unexpected passion is not uncommon, I strongly suggest that along with Sex-Ed, Jr. high school curriculum coordinators would be wise to offer preteens a required course in basic psychology so as to instruct youngsters about the intricacies with which our limbic (emotionally instinctive, defensively insensitive, egocentric portion of the human brain) reactions literally lock down our Neo cortex (where knowledge and logic are stored) whenever our personal well being feels threatened—and as this classic hypersensitivity to emotionality is both contagious and universal in nature, it’s important to note that during impassioned moments, out-of-control emotionality is the norm most especially during puberty when hormonal fluxation is expected to be all the ‘rage’, thus unbalancing self discipline during those highly volatile developmental years in which children’s sturdy bodies and well organized minds labor through complicated (deeply confusing) stages of transition until each one’s metamorphosis toward adult independence is complete—and as humans grapple with all of these confounding changes without benefit of a cocoon (which Mother Nature thought to gift the caterpillar so as to protect this harmless creature from the harsh environment of predatory personalities during its ungainly time of unsightly transition from a creepy, crawly little critter into a beautiful butterfly, ready to take wing) just think of the internal mess that would surely be seen if the caterpillar’s cocoon was ripped open before the natural transition from fragile dependency to existential independence was complete ...

Actually, a human being engaged in teen-aged transition from total dependency toward flying free of the nest may be compared to the scrawny ungainliness of the unfeathered baby bird, which would surely parish without the lasting patience of its mother’s instinctive nature, which continues to nourish her young until its fragile wingspan proves so strong and supple as to support its own weight mid flight—no parental squawking and screeching insults that serve to clip the natural growth plates of the younger generation’s spirit as in—you’re nothing but a no good lazy lout who thinks to sponge whatever you can off of me until I get so sick of your rebellious face as to kick you out into the street where, emotionally unprepared for the cold cruel world, you’ll have no clue how to fend for yourself without viewing everyone you meet as dog eat dog ... (whoever told parents that trips to the woodshed made caring, compassionate, responsible adults of children whose brains, during an eighteen year span of gestational development have so much knowledge to absorb as to look up to parental guidance for encouragement (not discouragement) while distinguishing which path (of many) each is best suited to carve out as one’s own—Unfortunately, as parents rarely comprehend the lasting affects of their limbic reactions (which prove immature) upon the developing self image of each next generation, all too few children grow to be adults who have gained so much as a glimmer of a clue concerning the importance of developing a contemplative comprehension of the confounding nature of the contradictory intricacies commonly associated with each person’s multifunctional brain—inclusive of their own ... in short, as all children learn through absorption and mimicry, common sense guides us to role model voice tones, word choices and behaviors that we wish to receive from our young ...

So with today’s informative, train of intuitive thought chugging through the forefront of your mind and mine where our potential to absorb and permanently store logic exists, here’s where the concept of ‘either/or’ comes in:  At different times, either the neo Cortex or the limbic system of our brains is stimulated to lead us wherever we’re about to go, next, and once a courageously positive or fearfully negative attitude takes us to wherever we end up, either the neo cortex or the limbic system will dictate the brightness or darkness of the tone of everything we hear (and say) and see (and do) and feel and believe and perceive)—which is why two people may remember the very same experience differently.

Some of us are settlers.  Others are explorers.  Both are needed for stability.  In fact, just as some ‘settlers’ will stay put in one mindset for quite some time, others, who grow toward becoming explorers, will feel compelled to scout out untried territories and then beckon to other courageous settlers to uproot their comfort zones (not to be confused with their principles) so as to expand their mental horizons, too.  On the other hand, if, at any moment during the throes of inner conflict (to remain rooted in complacency or to grow ever more assertive), one person is operating from the limbic (fearful) portion of his/her brain while the other person, (who has been guided to consistently practice the conscious adoption of A Line of Emotional Control while expansive solution seeking is taking place on the spot) is operating primarily from his/her neo cortex then no matter how logical a problem-solver’s train of thought may prove to be while this pair of minds is debating a point, they’ll be unable to see eye to eye, because one mind will be operating from yesteryear’s unidentified (repressed) fear of failure while the other mind focuses upon releasing creativity to soak up today’s expansively sunny horizon.  And if, at some point in time, one feels need to goad the other into diving into his/her dark side for cover, over and over again, then—Watch Out! because once both think tanks feel defensive, it’s a short leap into the bottomless abyss where a pair of limbic systems, reigning supreme over logic, will engage in a fight to the finish without so much as a bell ringing aloud offering a fair warning signal before fireworks ignite causing a friendship made in heaven to fend off so many friction-based sparks as to land with a sudden thud in the fiery bowels of hell where everything that had felt so sweet and peachy feels rotten to the core, because neither side has a clue concerning the ease with which the limbic (fight, flee, freeze) portion of your brain and mine knocks out the neocortex on both sides—unless a well-coached Line of Self Control pops up, behaving as objective as a well trained referee, who stops two locomotives from engaging in a head-on-collision in the nick of time ...

Bottom line, the length of time that each person will momentarily lapse into emotional immaturity depends upon how often and quickly an insight laden sense of self awareness can be regained concerning the necessity of consciously rebalancing emotionality (natural instinctive reactions) with logic based (insight-driven intuitive trains of thought) so as to switch tracks from duking it out toward drawing forth the concept of brainstorming with long term memory intact so as to employ spot-on, detailed solution seeking skills, which having been conscientiously absorbed and permanently stored within one frontal lobe or the other, serve to cool down hot headed conflicts before fury ignites short fuses to explode.  

Once my neocortex had hungrily absorbed info about the limbic system (why didn’t anyone clue me in when I was young???) I consciously trained my brain’s neocortex to be my primary leader in charge of my on-going, well balanced welfare (meaning that I had to discern between times when as an adult I was truly thinking for myself vs times when parental tapes, turning themselves on inside the subconscious depths of my brain, were directing my embarkment, yet again, upon yesteryear’s undeserved guilt trips taken during my youth).
And in order to consciously turn down spikes of latent anxiety, based in one of childhood’s guilt trips or another, I continue to calm my mind (while others are giving way to limbic reactions) with thoughts of the accomplished, well balanced person I’ve consciously chosen to grow to be, today, so as to reflect back with a rebalanced, rewired attitude concerning what a good kid I’d actually been, and little by little, I’ve managed to reconstruct the bigger picture of my self image to match reality rather than matching my parents’ momentary over-reactive outbursts in response to my natural existential need to challenge their autocratic attitude of authority, early on, and as detailed memories of hard won personal growth spurts bubble up BEFORE my stormy over-reactive egocentric reaction can geyser up (scaring or angering my current mental state half to death), I can differentiate between those times when the courageous side of my brain is actively encouraging me to grow toward overcoming my fear of failing to please everyone I love, today, as had once been true of my need to please my parents thus arousing my repressed fear of feeling emotionally abandoned, which had detoured my brain’s decision-maker from focusing determinedly toward achieving a difficult heartfelt goal based in the anxious side of my subconscious feeling so limbic as to overwhelm my connection to logic, and if my spirit feels discouraged from deep within about advancing toward achieving a difficult goal which, in truth, remains just beyond my reach, that same repressed fear of being abandoned unless I achieve success, can still arise to haunt my connection to well being, today.

Needless to say, by now, my faith in my brain’s ‘miraculous’ well practiced intuitive transitions take place in the wink of an eye, and thus do I wish that all parents, teachers and role models of children understood the importance of offering youngsters a developing comprehension of the temporary nature of limbic reactions that we all toss back and forth during the eighteen years in which age appropriate taste tests of self control can be offered to tots and teens just as I chose to share that which I found fascinating to absorb about the complex workings of our brains with my sons at levels that each could understand, absorb and digest while this trio of rambunctious little boys transitioned from natural competitors into each other’s self disciplined, supportive friends (and mine, as well).

In short, I continue to choose to study the consequential effects of inner conflict—most especially repressed inner conflict, which sees the intuitive portion of my brain engaging ever more naturally with my wavering mental state so as to determine whether a latent fear, left unresolved, is lifting the lid on the past, causing my current level of emotional maturity to feel more confounded, less clear-headed than I am consciously aware of whenever an emotionally charged choice is challenging my well practiced connection to mental balance to fear toppling one way or the other off of what feels like a tension-springed high wire, no net in plain sight (because the netting is made of intuitive insight, which has not yet filtered through my wall of denial so as to be clearly absorbed by the conscious portion of my mind).  Whew!

Upon reflection, we can see that my defensive ‘choice’ to smack Joseph soundly about his head was purely instinctive (limbic in nature) based in my projective repressed self protective need to defend my voiceless self from being physically attacked by a pedophile, who had ‘loved’ me in such a perverse way as to have left an inexperienced child feeling utterly bereft, deeply confounded and guilt-ridden, suggesting my wholly negatively charged reaction to Joseph’s shocking bear hug.  In this instance, my defense system, reacting on its own, freed pure instinct to reign supreme over my preteen brain so naturally as to be utterly subjective (locking any hint of objectivity out of my head), thus narrowing my mindset (attitude) so considerably that Joseph’s reaction to being beaten all about his head never registered within my conscious memory as being in need of care taking, and as attitudes (most especially repressed attitudes) either brighten or darken our viewpoints, instinctive spontaneity is not always the best way to achieve heartfelt goals as we make our way (experimentally) through each next naturally impassioned stage of life.  So sad that when a boy I’d loved hugged me, impulsively, my limbic reaction slugged—a dangerous bear.

Let’s face it, experiments in labs blow up more often than not before remedies for dis-ease meet with success.  In fact, when compared with intuitive reactions, animal instincts concerning survival can be much more aggressively childish than not.  And as we are presently turning reflection’s objective spotlight upon a girl whose self-assertive voice had been unknowingly caught in a choke hold beginning at the age of three, has yet to develop in defense of herself, Annie’s twelve year old fists leaped up in instinctive limbic defense of—my—life, because once fear had naturally locked my neocortex down, all my brain had left to function with was this limited trio of choices—fight for my life then freeze in place like a solid cement statue sinking in quicksand or flee the scene—why?  Because animal fear disconnects the problem-solving portion of our think tanks, which is why no insight surfaces to save the day.  And as long as insight remained caged in the dark side, my self protective defense system had successfully kept me sane by locking every memory of sexual abuse out of my conscious mind—and with denial’s self protective amnesia creating a mental block concerning repetitive abuse, my brain could not inform my conscious mind of my deeply repressed fear of being sexually abused, again and again, and thus do you and I understand my instinctive reaction though Joseph and Annie did not when subconscious fear struck out on its own then froze up my voice as a fleeting fear of feeling subconsciously unworthy of love had surfaced momentarily based in the undeserved guilt that I'd unknowingly harbored beginning at the age of three—needless to say, none of these insights would be mine, today, had I not invested my time, money, courage, mental energy and patience in intensive psychotherapy ... 

So—what shall you soon see?  You’re about to see my negatively focused limbic reactions to Joseph’s instinctive impulsivity result in a host of negative consequences, all around.  And not until a later chapter in my life will you watch my intuitive sense of objectivity develop electrified sparks of positive focus that will naturally ‘shock’ my attitude's negatively focused, narrow-minded need to rebalance my insecure take on Joseph’s power over my pre-teen social standing,  ... and once depth in terms of detailed memory retrieval is mine, change for the better will naturally rewire my brain’s adult capacity to reflect ever more objectively over my original, severely limited understanding of situations that had made no sense to me when my mental thought processes had been so youthfully subjective as to lack any mind brightening insight, at all ... 

AZERBAIJAN AND QATAR

Let’s bid a warm welcome to Azerbaijan and Qatar

Azerbaijan (UK: /ˌæzəbaɪˈdʒɑːn, -ˈʒɑːn/ (listen), US: /ˌɑːzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn, ˌæz-/;^[8][9]Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn]), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan(Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn ɾespublikɑˈsɯ]), is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.^[10] It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, and has an 11 km (6.8 mi) long border with Turkey in the northwest.

Republic of Azerbaijan Azərbaycan Respublikası  (Azerbaijani)
Flag National emblem
Anthem:  Azərbaycan marşı "March of Azerbaijan"
Location of Azerbaijan (green) and Artsakh[a](light green).
Capital and largest city	Baku 40°25′N 49°50′E
Official languages	Azerbaijani
Ethnic minority languages	Armenian, Avar, Budukh, Georgian, Juhuri, Khinalug, Kryts, Kurdish, Lezgian, Russian, Rutul, Talysh, Tat, Tsakhur and Udi
Ethnic groups (2009[1])	91.60% Azerbaijani 2.02% Lezgian 1.35% Armenian 1.34% Russian 1.26% Talysh 2.43% others
Demonym(s)	Azerbaijani
Government	Unitary dominant-party semi-presidential[2]republic under an authoritarian state[3]
• President	Ilham Aliyev
• Vice President	Mehriban Aliyeva
• Prime Minister	Novruz Mammadov
Legislature	National Assembly
Formation
• Democratic Republic	28 May 1918
• Soviet Socialist Republic	28 April 1920
• Independence from Soviet Union	30 August 1991 (declared) 18 October 1991 (independence) 25 December 1991 (completed)
• Full membership into the CIS	21 December 1991
• Admitted to theUnited Nations	2 March 1992
• Constitutionadopted	12 November 1995
Area
• Total	86,600 km2(33,400 sq mi) (111th)
• Water (%)	1.6
Population
• 2019 estimate	10,000,000[4] (91st)
• Density	115/km2(297.8/sq mi) (99th)
GDP (PPP)	2018 estimate
• Total	$178.470 billion[5](73rd)
• Per capita	$17,954[5] (75th)
GDP (nominal)	2018 estimate
• Total	$45.592 billion[5](88th)
• Per capita	$4,586[5] (106th)
Gini (2005)	16.6[6] low
HDI (2017)	0.757[7] high · 80th
Currency	Manat (₼) (AZN)
Time zone	AZT (UTC+04)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+994
ISO 3166 code	AZ
Internet TLD	.az

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republicproclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. In 1920 the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.^[11][12] The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991,^[13] shortly before the dissolution of the USSR in the same year. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Republic of Artsakh.^[14] The region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential^[2] republic. It is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations,^[19] including the United Nations (since 1992), the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. It is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS)^[20] and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Azerbaijan also holds observer status in the World Trade Organization.^[19][21]

Qatar (/ˈkætɑːr/,^[9] /ˈkɑːtɑːr/ (listen), /ˈkɑːtər/ or /kəˈtɑːr/ (listen);^[10] Arabic: قطر‎ Qaṭar [ˈqɑtˤɑr]; local vernacular pronunciation: [ˈɡɪtˤɑr]),^[11][12] officially the State of Qatar (Arabic: دولة قطر‎ Dawlat Qaṭar), is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Whether the sovereign state should be regarded as a constitutional monarchy or an absolute monarchy is disputed.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]} Its sole land border is with neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchy Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. The Gulf of Bahrain, an inlet of the Persian Gulf, separates Qatar from nearby Bahrain.

In early 2017, Qatar's total population was 2.6 million: 313,000 Qatari citizens and 2.3 million expatriates.^[19] Islam is the official religion of Qatar.^[20] The country has the highest per capita income in the world. Qatar is classified by the UN as a country of very high human development and is widely regarded as the most advanced Arab state for human development.^[21] Qatar is a high-income economy, backed by the world's third-largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves.^[22]

Qatar has been ruled by the House of Thani since Mohammed bin Thani signed a treaty with the British in 1868 that recognised its separate status. Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in the early 20th century until gaining independence in 1971. In 2003, the constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum, with almost 98% in favour.^[23][24] In the 21st century, Qatar emerged as a significant power in the Arab world both through its globally expanding media group, Al Jazeera Media Network, and reportedly supporting several rebel groups financially during the Arab Spring.^[25][26][27] For its size, Qatar wields disproportionate influence in the world, and has been identified as a middle power.^[28][29] Qatar is currently the subject of a diplomatic and economic embargo by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates(UAE), Bahrain, and Egypt, which began in June 2017. Saudi Arabia has also proposed the construction of the Salwa Canal, which would run along the Saudi-Qatar border, effectively turning Qatar into an island.

And now, with Ravi at the cabin, over these past several days
My brain has enjoyed a much needed sense of down time from
Lion King, Bambi and princesses and princes (who take turns
Saving each other from life’s wicked spells), suggesting that
My storyteller feels ready to return to the rafters above
Center stage in order to review the last portion published
Concerning Annie’s First Kiss, so without further ado
(At least for a while) let’s revisit part two, which will
Lead us forward toward part three, at long last ...

PS
Though I’ve not yet named the one brain function
In need of personal adjustment, intuition suggests
Offering you a detailed explanation concerning that
Which had been unknown a bit later down the road in
Order to move our story forward while my pen is hot to trot
So suffice, for now, to say that, historically, when it comes to
Acknowledging need to create change for the better—I’m on it

PSS
Oh!  One last extraordinary announcement for today—
On July 2, 2019, Will arrived home wearing a smile so
Wide that he barely squeezed through the door, and
My spirit laughed right out loud upon hearing
My husband’s gleeful declaration—
I shot a hole in one, today!