Though I’m just your uncle and backward at that, I’m exceedingly fond of my sister’s sweet brat. I hear there’s a biker you’re eager to wed and though I’d suggest a nice banker instead, I’m here not to alienate, but advise (since I am your kin who’s most apt to be wise.)
Instead of a veil you’ll be wearing your patches and learning his lingo by listening to snatches of biker bar gossip and those conversations spawned over road talk and major libations. You’ll be in your flannels and Kevlar-lined denim (I’m sure that no bride ever looked better in ’em.)
You’ll whisper “I do” and then exchange your patches before you head out for a ride down to Natchez. But, first things being first, you have asked me to aid in getting your wedding invitations made. I’ve checked out your spelling. The words are all fine. Only the printing may be out of line.
Though responsible service may not be impossible, are you quite sure that leather is embossable?
I apologize for assuming all readers of this blog are white, but what I want to say primarily applies to whites.
This is NOT becoming a political blog again. Racism–both in the Black Lives Matter and at the southern border–is at a more encompassing, soul-spirit-heart-humane-brotherly love-compassion-yes, love-of-humankind level. Does nothing cut through to the quick of chaos? Is a guilty conscience behind the attack on teaching honest history? Shame?
Prior to writing this brief blog I read more closely into the history of American slavery, and don’t want that to be the topic today. However, I learned that in 1789 a law was passed in the southern province to keep enslaved Africans in “submission and obedience,” by prohibiting them from writing or growing their own food.
“Literacy among enslaved Africans was not always antithetical to slavery in the colonies. It was once permissible for the enslaved to read Bibles, but when colonists realized the skill could be a gateway to liberation, literacy was outlawed.” North Carolina passed a law in 1829 that made it illegal to teach slaves to read and write, saying it “has a tendency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds and to produce insurrection and rebellion to the manifest injury of the citizens of this state.” (Mother Jones, Sep-Oct, p. 9.)
Did the law mean “other” citizens, or were the enslaved not citizens either? They are now, for what it’s worth. –I take that back. I know citizenship for people of color is valued. but…I’ll be quiet now.
Well, okay, that’s not quite true. I probably know more about Afghanistan than most Americans. But that is a perilously low bar, and does not really imply anything worth bragging about, and if the bar is not compared to other Americans but is my knowledge of this country useful or sufficient, well … it ain’t, on either count.
I saw someone suggest on Twitter earlier today that the one thing we could have done to avoid what’s going on right now in Afghanistan would have been to elect Al Gore in 2000, and I have some sympathy for that argument. I saw another that suggested that Biden has simply decided to be the President who takes the hit for a result that was going to be inevitable whenever we decided to leave, and that the main thing the policies of…
SORRY–The following from a questionnaire given to undergraduate students in a philosophy seminar on death is not funny, but I thought interesting. (Shibles, Death, 1974, 16-17)
DYING IS LIKE...A one-way ticket to another place, going to sleep without contemplating awakening, being born again –into a world less confining, nothing ever seen before, humiliation, hush-hush, a play, something I’ve never tried before, cosmic traveling, the ultimate trip, a final orgasm, like nothing else, falling asleep or getting knocked out, falling, entering another world, the end of a mysterious dream, a long sleep, a permanent place, nothing, being trapped in a box, fallen apple rotting in dirt, waiting for the answer, stopping and maybe starting, getting it over with, feeling yourself being the snake you killed as a little boy, letting go, making the last turn, filling the last blank, becoming the 360th degree, [no answer], going beyond, an eternal dream, beginning of the end, an infinite voyage, explosion of a super nova, being born, comma in a sentence, nightmare, ultimate in tranquil meditation, turning off a faucet, finding that the end of the tunnel is a deep dark hole, falling in a void, stone rolling and coming to a stop, bricks falling through air, a child swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills, falling asleep and never waking, leaving this life for another, driving 140 miles per hour into a snowstorm, being in a cement-block room, looking up through a long hole, hell, a nap after eating, a sunset, finding out what it’s really like, walking into a different room alone, letting go of your security blanket, leaving this world for another, not being, I don’t know, coming to the end of an existence, extinguishing a match, unplugging T.V., turning off a light, passing out, stepping off the orange, cutting off the power of a trolley car, closing-night of a theatre, finale, deep sleep, ending of physical senses, nothing you could ever conceive of or experience, walking into a cave and forgetting to come out, screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hearing, dropping a pin into the ocean, finding out that people are laughing at you, jumping off the high dive, a large magnet pulling on a small magnet until all its energy has been drained, trying to advance a genetic strain and failing, death is like almost nothing, feeling embarrassed, turning off a loud radio, having a mental block, getting lost, sleeping, breaking a movie film, taking an old car out on the road not knowing whjat’s going to happen next, waiting to go on a vacation, coming down from amphetamines, watching a blind person fall, dry heaves, listening to the static of an old-time radio and having the plug pulled out….(ibid, 16-17)
OUCH — Freud underwent 33 painful, life saving surgeries for his throat cancer. (Ibid, p 253)
There is no evidence for mind and so minds cannot be “read.” (ibid, p 389)j
OH DEAR–Ecclesiastes 1:18 “For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ibid, p 357) [Hide this from the kids]
Avoid alliterations, even if they’re manna for morons.
Avoid cliches: they’re like death warmed over.
Never generalize.
Hold those quotes. Emerson aptly said, “I hate quotes. Tell me only what you know.”
Don’t write one-word sentences. Ever.
Recognize the difference between the semicolon and the colon: even if it’s hard.
Do you really need rhetorical questions?
Be concise; try expressing your thoughts with the least possible number of words, avoiding long sentences–or sentences interrupted by incidental phrases that always confuse the casual reader–in order to avoid contributing to the general pollution of information, which is surely (particularly when it is uselessly ripe with unnecessary explanations, or at least non indispensable specifications) one of the tragedies of our media-dominated time.
Don’t be emphatic! Be careful with exclamation marks!
I’ve been having troubles with the editing programs, and upon two recent occasions I posted, then briefly took down my posting to add something. In the meantime I got responses, but I couldn’t comment or reply to them because they were no longer connected. I tried to respond but no dice–the post didn’t exist any more. One of these days I’m going to find out how to delete an erroneous photo in Gutenberg. It says “Replace” but unclear which photo it wipes out. I long for the old-fashioned DELETE.
My recent post on memories of grad school brought me to my bookshelf today and left me wondering how it is that solid truths can be forgotten or overlooked or ignored. I became a new parent in 1963 and by 1965 I needed help with the parenting enterprise. I found Dr. Haim G. Ginott’s Between Parent and Child hugely helpful. Although I’m far from perfect and didn’t utilize it as much as I wish I had, if I had another chance I would keep the book under my pillow.
I have a habit of hanging onto important books from my past and present, so found Ginott’s book awaiting my re-perusal on my shelf. I’ll share a few underlined sentences:
The niceties of the art of living cannot be conveyed with a sledgehammer…
It is not helpful to ask a child, “Why did you do it?” He, himself, may not know his motivation, and pressure to tell ‘why’ can only result in another lie.
I’m not sure I spent sufficient time reading Ginott’s section on responding to jealousy among siblings. He writes, Children do not yearn for equal shares of love. They need to be loved uniquely, not uniformly. The emphasis is on quality, not equality.
He learns about his emotional likeness by hearing his feelings reflected by us. It is more important for a child to know what he feels than why he feels it. When he knows clearly what his feelings are, he is less likely to feel “all mixed up inside.”
When a child tells of an event, it is sometimes helpful to respond, not to the event itself, but to the feelings around it.
When a child promises to take care of a pet, he is merely showing good intentions, not proof of ability. A child may need, want and love a pet, but rarely is he able to take care of it properly. The responsibility for the life of an animal cannot be the child’s alone.
And so forth. I really like the one above because I was told I let the parakeet die when in the second grade and haven’t forgotten it….SORRY. I couldn’t get rid of the inappropriate images.
“The goal is to help people,” said Enrique Veiga, the 82-year-old engineer who invented the machine during a harsh drought in southern Spain in the 1990s. “The goal is to get to places like refugee camps that don’t have drinking water.” The devices made by his company, Aquaer, are already delivering clean, safe water to communities in Namibia and a Lebanese refugee camp. “In the villages we visited in Namibia, they were astonished, they didn’t understand, asking where the water came from,” he said.
The machines use electricity to cool air until it condenses into water, harnessing the same effect that causes condensation in air-conditioning units. While other water generators based on similar technology require high ambient humidity and low temperatures to function effectively, Veiga’s machines work in temperatures of up to 40 Celsius (104F) and can handle humidity of between 10% and 15%. A small machine can produce 50-75…
My recent post on memories of grad school brought me to my bookshelf today and left me wondering how it is that solid truths can be forgotten or overlooked or ignored. I became a new parent in 1963 and by 1965 I needed help with the parenting enterprise. I found Dr. Haim G. Ginott’s Between Parent and Child hugely helpful. Although I’m far from perfect and didn’t utilize it as much as I wish I had, if I had another chance I would keep the book under my pillow.
NANMYKEL.COM 