Taking a Break. Don’t Go Too Far Away!

Published October 24, 2017 by Nan Mykel

I’m going to force myself to take a two-week break from blogging because I’m still buried with old genealogical stuff I have to dispose of. I was administrator of two Myfamily.com blogs but Ancestry bought them out and I never got switched successfully to SPOTK, I think it is. I won’t forget you in the meantime, and please don’t forget me. I’ll be back by Nov. 7. By the way–are any of the free art apps really free?

No Assistant, No New Avatar

Published October 23, 2017 by Nan Mykel

I said I was going to add a new avatar from 68 years ago tonight, but my helper didn’t show up so I was unable to. Although I’m not making it an avatar, I can share a photo from 81 1/2 years ago: (My helper recently cut her thumb so that’s probably the reason she’s not here. Or I haven’t checked my e-mail or I got the dates mixed up again).

Sorry I Missed This Earlier…

Published October 22, 2017 by Nan Mykel

Art by Rob Goldstein. re-blog by me of a re-blog by kstreet607, The Fifth Column, from Gronda Morin 2016.

Does Blogging Change Your Personality?

Published October 22, 2017 by Nan Mykel

I used to be shy, even an Avoidant Personality, I think. Recently I’ve become one of those people who talk to strangers in public. (“Those shoes look comfortable.Where did you get them?”) This afternoon while napping I had a long dream in which I talked to many strangers, both male and female. When I woke up I was waiting for the right bus and preparing myself to take an abandoned kitten home with me, to a place that I knew wouldn’t be too happy about that.

I know on one level I’m waiting for “Sweet Chariot” to take me home. On another level my tongue is getting looser, maybe an early warning of the “D” word. Then it occurred to me that I have so few followers because I admit I’m over the hill. So I’ve decided to try a much younger avatar. I’ve suspected some of my followers do that, so I thought I’d try. My helper comes Monday night. Look for an avatar change Monday night, if she comes. (She got a bad thumb cut washing dishes. (That’ll show her!)

My Comeuppance

Published October 21, 2017 by Nan Mykel

Occasionally I do water exercises and there’s a 7-year old boy learning to swim also in the pool with us. The other day he swam up to me and touched my bulging belly and asked “what’s in there?” I asked “what’s in your stomach?” And he said “food.” That’s when it dawned on me that he had expected the word “a baby.”

The Ethics of Biography

Published October 20, 2017 by Nan Mykel

Anyone who spends much time doing family genealogy and even talking to our elders will stumble across aspects of the Dark Side (i.e., The Shadow) sprinkled here and there. Is overlooking those aspects when recording a life lying? (See page on The Shadow for info on this aspect),

What is a life? Where there is naturally some of the good and the bad, is leaving out the bad not misleading the reader? There would be (and is) the family’s wrath to deal with. Is one of the problems that the dark doings overshadow the good? Certainly this is demonstrated in the best-selling news stories. On a personal level, do we really want our personal failings removed from the record of our life experience? Are there not some lessons to learn and perhaps empathy to ripen from our (and others’) lives? Where does the value of truth enter in? How much do we value the truth versus misrepresenting a life? Or valuing the truth versus whitewashing the real struggle of a life?

This is a question I need to resolve soon. Some say secrets destroy a family.Image: Dreamers, 1899. John Brown.

On the same wavelength with Grumpy Gorman today:

lips loosen slowly
guilt purged so plainly
truths, too dark to hear

The Better Man …

Published October 20, 2017 by Nan Mykel

I think I may be reblogging a reblog but that’s fine. Original by Jill Dennison, reblog by Patricia Ruth Susan

Filosofa's Word

It seems to me that it is highly unbecoming, unprofessional and undignified behaviour for a leader of a nation to threaten his political antagonists. But then, ‘professional’ and ‘dignified’ are not words that I have ever heard or considered applied to Donald Trump. Earlier, I posted John McCain’s speech upon acceptance of the Liberty Medal on Monday evening. The day after McCain’s speech, Donald Trump had this to say:

“Yeah, well, I hear it. And people have to be careful because at some point I fight back. I’m being very nice. I’m being very, very nice. But at some point, I fight back, and it won’t be pretty.”

This, my friends, is how the man sitting in the White House, the highest and most revered position in the United States government, speaks of a member of his own party, a man who is a war hero and who just received…

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Global warning – Reblog by Jane Dougherty

Published October 18, 2017 by Nan Mykel

How to explain the many women who voted for a pussy grabber?
I agree with your blog, but maybe it’s a secret that evolution kept up his sleeve.

Jane Dougherty Writes

Call me naïve, but I was struck and dismayed by a string of articles on the social media today. First, a report of the 19^th Chinese Communist Party Congress, and the images of dozens of men in suits…and one woman. Then the protests about said congress by Tibetan nationalists, men in orange togas facing up to men in uniforms, crowd scenes of lots of shouting…men. Then a photo report on Istanbul, crowd scenes of, guess what, men, clumps of black veiled women, cheeky children (boys), more men, more cheeky boys and glimpses of their veiled mothers in the background, but not a single girl child.

In how many countries would you expect to see the same thing, women at home, girls invisible, and all the leaders male, all the protesters in the streets male? Far too many. Women in general have little or no public face and little or…

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The Pitfalls of Aging (Don’t Do It!)

Published October 17, 2017 by Nan Mykel

For some, going around the last bend can be quite disconcerting. It’s natural (and easier) to want to take care of the feelings of the elderly, and so sometimes they are “protected” from the truth. Not telling someone they’e dying has been dealt with definitively, I hope. What I’m talking about is weakening the individual’s hold on reality by ushering them into a world of make-believe. I’m trying to figure out why it is so bothersome. Well, first off it puts the younger person in a one-up position, making decisions for the elderly instead of respecting their ability to withstand the truth. More important, I think, it tends to make the older person into a legitimate paranoid. What is a legitimate paranoid? In my book it’s one who knows some statements are true, but having trouble deciding which are true and which are the “protection.” It kinda turns life into a rotten game, and especially towards the end that is an undesirable state to be in. I guess what it lacks is respect. If you disagree, tell me about it.