Offering paper towels to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico…
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OH OH! All that’s left in my Media Library
of the photo of other candidates on CNN crossing their heart while the National Anthem
is playing, except Donald Trump. See my blog for September 24, 2017
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Three years ago the following (by me) was published in The Avalon Review:
RELAX — the image is not really me
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Smooth sailing, that’s what it’s like. If you get old enough folks don’t expect much out of you anyway, so take out your hearing aids and get comfy. Finally, you can just ignore the aches and pains that aren’t the real you, and enjoy what’s been bubbling up inside all these years.
Honor yourself and let the creative juices flow. You’re free to mix up the years, even the people if you want. Get out the crayons, the paints, scoot up to a computer and let ‘er rip. You’ve seen a lot, got good stories under your belt. Get them on paper and even if they won’t listen, they can read them some day, or you can sneak them out of the house and tell others.
When you kick the bucket you’ll be the center of attention. O the tears, the lament! They’ll be interested then. They’ll realize they don’t know the stories of their own family. Too late now to ask.
Don’t get bitter. Did you behave any better yourself? Let it all go. Make collages out of pictures in magazines! Try playing with words. You’re a poet and didn’t know it? Now you know.
Have you heard that they’re encouraging folks to get into music, if they haven’t when growing up? They say music keeps you young–if you want to be young. Remember those old-time fiddlers and washboard musicians? And the foot-tapping?
I say “you” when I really mean “me,” or “us.” We’ll write down our dreams and share. Don’t have to tell the young everything! Just in time, they’ve invented flash fiction. It’s the new style and it comes in handy when you start doing things in spurts. Remember it’s not over until the ice man cometh, or some such thing.
Image: artfido.com Johnson Tsang
DISMAY — For two months now China has been enduring a prolonged heat wave. The New Scientist reported that hundreds of places have reported temperatures of more than 40°C (104°F), and many records have been broken. Subway stations have set up rest areas where people can recover from the heat. On 18 August, the temperature in Chongqing in Sichuan province reached 45°C (113°F).
APPRECIATION — Finished reading an enjoyable and exceptionally well-written book, Entwined, by Joyce Wallace Scott, whose Down Syndrome twin sister spent more than three decades in a state institution.
FRUSTRATION — Having spent more than fifty dollars on a new bird feeder, two days have passed and not a single bird has visited to peck at the new, easy-to-reach bird seed.
ENJOYMENT — Spent time at a local thrift store with super wonderful, unusual items, including an illustrated book of myths.
EMBARASSED — to realize that my state of residence is so reactionary, especially in the areas of abortion, gun control, gerrymandering and public schools.
WORRIED — A Trojan virus tried to invade my computer but I knew what to do: unplug the computer immediately. Then I had to wrangle a bit to get my computer and phone working again.
RESOLVED — To continue working on my 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, which I’ve been working on for a good two weeks now.
CHAGRINED — I read the truth about Woodrow Wilson and the extreme censorship he condoned by his segregationist postmaster, the former Rep. Albert Sidney Burleson who, in the era of World War I, declared certain newspapers and other publications “undeliverable,” and confiscated them. A Justice Department special agent seized one periodical from the Wells Fargo Express company. An early version of the Espionage Act allowed Burleson to declare 44 American periodicals entirely “unmailable,” followed later by an additional 30 more. The in-depth article, “The Censor,” is by Adam Hochschild in the current Mother Jones. I had always thought well of Wilson.
First, what’s the story behind the ads selling U.S. postage stamps? I can’t imagine. If it’s a scam, why is it advertising itself? The more I wonder about it the crazier it seems. I’m stubborn and don’t like to Google everything!
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Second is not so much a wondering as it is a sharing. Acording to Mother Jones, Martin Luther King Jr. was refused a gun license despite credible threats to him and his family. The article refrained from pointing out that he was eventually killed by a white man’s gun.
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The following is not so much a wondering as it is an answer to questions tht arise when reading the daily news. I’m educating myself as I share. For instance, what are the recent generations’ definitions? Oh, alright, I used Google: Currently, five generations make up our society.
…
What are the primary generations today?
So what happened after 2015? And who says the Silent Generation is silent? I reckon 2015 to present and beyond might some day be dubbed “End of the World As We Know It.” Or–might 2022 forward be the generation “That Saved the World As We Know It?” I keep on reading…Generation Z (or Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha.
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LOL…I’m never sure what that means. Lots of Luck? Lots of Love? Via Google I learn it also can mean Laughing Out Loud, even “I hear you.”
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I think by now we’ve all learned the meanings of Woke and Cancel Culture
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MAGA – “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s slogan
Antifa – Antifa’ is a shortened version of ‘anti-fascist‘
WASP – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: an older descriptive acronym for a racially prejudiced person
KKK – Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the oldest and most infamous of American hate groups
Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and the Proud Boys are only three of a number of US terrorist groups. Google has an apparent hesitancy in listing many of the paramilitary groups across the US.
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That’s enough for today…
My family thinks I’m paranoid, but I’m thinking I’m Miss Pollyanna and too trusting.
I just put two and two together and got four, instead of five… I never realized that mankind/womankind has tipped the scales so that dark colors are associated with death and dying. And age. The symbolic slur occurs even in gift giving of new clothes. Somehow, folks seem to feel more comfortable easing oldsters out of tbe limelight by relegating them to the dark side.
The first time I realized this (okay, suspected this), was when one of my children warned me not to give my young nieces any jewelry with brown stones in it. (I often gave fossilized jewelry of the darker kind), “because they won’t wear it.”
Then I looked in my closet. Am I molded (thanks, Darwin!) to dressing myself precipitously in the colors of the cold, cold ground? Quoth the raven (and me) “Nevermore!”
(Image is of Granny D, who completed her 3,200 mile walk for campaign finance reform, from California to Washington D.C., arriving in 2000 at the age of ninety. I’m pretty sure she selected her own color in which to march for campaign reform.)
I won’t reblog her post, but you might want to visit Diane Ravitch’s site today, in which she recommends Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
We need to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I’ve been criticized (by my family) for using this blog as though it was Facebook. I reckon that’s justified, because I try not to use either Facebook or Amazon. (It’s a moral kind of thing). So, I’ve been wondering how I’ll know if my Word Press friends have passed on into the great unknown or just gotten lazy…sick, maybe? That’s why I’m suggesting that we ready an obituary to be posted on our blog when we pass away [never say die!] A lucky-to-be-alive person could be appointed (before we die) to post it for us.
I’ve already written mine. It’s complete but for the date. Not that I’m rarin’ to go….
Irreparable harm appears to lie in wait for us if the Republican shenanigans take hold in our country. The situation gets wilder and wilder with the passage of time and the approach of elections. I speak of what is being done to the ragtag of our public schools and the profession of medicine. I don’t refer to the Mir-a-lego combustion. Hopefully that is being attended to elsewhere.
My first concern is the eradication of sex education in the public schools. Why did we ever begin sex education? All those issues will become caustic again. What is this? Along with forbidden abortions we’re not going to warn children? How dark! Not only did unwanted pregnancies cry out for sex education, but also vulnerability to child sexual abuse. “A third of sexually abused children are abused before the age of nine.” (Finkelhor, 1986, p 229). “Stranger danger” wasn’t a joke.
Equally as nervy and destructive is attacking the physician’s time-worn oath to “do no harm.” If recently passed state prohibitions prevail, some states will find themselves with a crippling doctor shortage. (I’m trying not to say, “and it serves them right.”) “If you see a fleeing of providers from states that have severely restricted their ability to practice in line with their moral compass and medical ethics, it will be a huge loss to public and community health,” said Jamila Perritt, an abortion provider in Washington, D.C., and the president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “We don’t have to guess what’s going to happen. We already see the high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in places like Louisiana and Mississippi. But we’ll see much more of that as these bans continue to sweep the country.”
On January 6, 2021 — or the next day– I saw footage on television of our former president and staffers standing around watching the capitol invasion on a telvision screen. The friends and/or staffers appeared to be drinking and unconcerned, if not downright happy. There was no sound, but Eric was talking into a video camera and appeared excited, if not downright happy. I assume it was on CNN but unsure.
Did anyone else see this? I wonder who owns the video tape? I really did see it…I think.
I used to care
When I was young
Innocent, perhaps naïve.
There was a future
To be secured and enriched
For my family
For the world.
I voted, confident it counted,
Marched, protested, and was seen,
Wrote letters, and believed they were read,
Debated, and was heard.
I witnessed change
With civil rights
Clean water and air
The end of an ugly war
Even a ban on assault rifles.
Now?
More extinctions
Extensive clearing of rainforests
More guns
More fossil fuels being burned
More voter suppression
Government dysfunction
Expansive partisan division and violence
More corporate greed
Widening gap between rich and poor
More rights stripped away.
I used to care
When I was young,
Innocent, perhaps naïve.
Now…only tears.
Thank you Thomas Shostak for permossion to share this poem
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