Word Power

 We all know I adore magazines.  At one point in my life, our family subscribed to six magazines.  [Time, Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, Smithsonian, Real Simple, and Texas Monthly]  Can you imagine how many pieces of 'junk mail' landed in our mailbox each week?  I haven't been able to subscribe to ANY magazines since 2010.  I reasoned as long as we had multiple addresses in a year, the magazines would just never catch up with us.  [Turns out I was right.  We actually had a $17 medical bill which never caught up with us, and even the bill collector it was turned over to never found us.  We only found out about the bill when we had a credit report run!]  In the eleven years we traveled around the country, glossy magazines have bitten the dust just like daily newspapers.  Nowadays, most people read magazines on-line.  

Last year, settled into Brooklyn, we got a birthday subscription to The New Yorker which has been a real joy.  In Sun City my magazines are bought used for a quarter apiece.  Since I'm not picky, my $.25 magazines have included but not been limited to fifteen year old Arizona Highways to ten year old Smithsonian Magazines to Cook's Illustrated to last month's Good Housekeeping, which incidentally was first published in May of 1885.  Since I've been living in old people purgatory (Sun City), I've realized elderly people still 'save magazines' some of which, fortunately for me, wind up in thrift stores.  

When I was twelve, I used to collect old paper and re-sell it.  No, I was not a young entrepreneur, my collection efforts were a fundraiser for my youth church group to afford a trip to the newly opened Six Flags Over Texas in Dallas.   We were motivated!  Our group scoured neighborhoods, accompanied by my faithful father and his pick up truck, knocking on doors and asking for old newspapers or magazines.  Since the paper people paid by the pound, finding someone who saved magazines and was willing to part with them was considered a bonanza find.

My first magazine subscription was Reader's Digest.  I started reading it when I was still in elementary school.  The abridged book at the end of each magazine propelled me into adult books.  That magazine led me into a subscription to Reader's Digest Condensed Books, and from there the leap into checking out full length adult books at the library.  My mother refused all pleas for toys, candy, soft drinks, cookies or other junk foods, but she could reliably be wheedled into book purchases and magazine subscriptions.  I was reading my own subscription to Time Magazine cover to cover by the time of was 12.

My favorite section of Reader's Digest was "Word Power".  It was only two pages:  The first page was about 20 vocabulary words each followed by four definitions.  I picked what I thought was the correct definition for each word.  Then, I turned the page where each word was repeated followed by the correct definition.  I thought it was fun to see how many I could correctly define.  The words were usually organized around a theme.  I got better and better at picking the right definition for each word.  Of course, my accuracy improved because I was now reading during most of my free time.  Nothing improves your vocabulary like reading.  It was my favorite activity as a child.  I learned to 'go away' while reading.  It was a way of getting privacy while living in an 1100 square foot house with three other people.  Nowadays, it's rare when I don't get 20 for 20 on "Word Power".

That is until I picked up the May, 2017 magazine....  What a shock to discover out of fifteen words, I was completely unsure of the definitions of eleven of them!  Was it early (ok - not early, but not senile - yet) dementia?  Were the words newfangled slang?  Nope.  They were words taken from the writings of Charles Dickens, arguably the most famous and certainly the most popular English writer of the 19th century.  Most of them are now either archaic, obsolete, or just totally vanished.  It just goes to show how words fade from usage and therefore existence.  Here's the list of the words.  See how you do at picking the definitions.  

1)  sawbones - (noun):  (a) doctor; (b) magician (c)  old nag

2)  catawampus - (adj):  (a) fierce; (b) syrupy; (c) deep and dark

3)  jog-trotty - (adj):  (a) monotonous; (b) nervous; (c) backward

4)  spoony - (adj):  (a) spacious; (b)  pun-filled; (c) love-dovey

5)  rantipole - (noun):  (a) battering ram; (b) fishing rod; (c) ill behaved person

6)  gum-tickler - (noun):  (a) funny remark; (b) strong drink; (c) wishbone

7)  stomachic - (noun):  (a) winter coat; (b) tummy medicine; (c) wind up toy

8)  sassigassity - (noun):  (a) fancy clothes; (b) cheeky attitude; (c) gust of hot wind

9)  comfoozled - (adj):  (a) on fire);  (b) pampered; (c) exhausted

10)  mud lark - (noun):  (a) scavenging child; (b) court judge; (c) ancient scribe

11)  plenipotentiary - (noun):  (a) housewife;  (b) diplomatic agent;  (c) bank vault

12)  toadeater - (noun):  (a) fawning person; (b) habitual liar; (c) gourmet

13)  slangular - (adj):  (a) oblique; (b) using street talk; (c) tight around the neck

14)  marplot - (noun):  (a) flower garden; (b) meddler; (c) fruit jam

15)  heeltap - (noun):  (a) Irish dance step; (b) scoundrel; (c) sip of liquor left in a glass

Now, we are going to discover the real word people.  If you want the definitions, well drop me an electronic line, or enjoy yourself by looking them up on the internet, but be warned, at least one of these words was made up by Dickens!   [The four I knew are: (1), (10), (11), (12).]  Is now the time to tell you I'm also enthralled with etymology?    

50 and Counting

 On Friday, April 9, 1971, unable to withstand the relentless pressure from my family, Drake and I drove to Gainesville, Texas, stood up in front of an enormously fat Justice of the Peace, and BOOM, we were married.  It was the smartest stupid decision I've ever made.  (I think Drake would concur with that analysis.)  I mean, what do you do when you meet the love of your life when you are 17?  On some level I knew I really didn't want to get married at age 20, but I felt trapped in a situation where it was either fish or cut bait.  So, we just did it.  Here we are on the day after our marriage standing in my parents' driveway.  It's my only wedding picture.  We arrived to announce our marriage.  (I'm displaying the $7.50 wedding band which I'm still wearing.)

Our daughter and son-in-law have showered us with gifts for this anniversary, and I truly loved their card which said, "Marriage is hard, but you make it look easy."  I smiled when I read it.  Oh, my.  Having an easy marriage took so much work and mental effort, I marvel at how much of the time we've been able to achieve it.  To put someone else 'first' is easy to say and difficult to do.  It's a mindset which makes married life run smoother, and the "you first" mindset has to be a two way street.  No marriage is 50/50.  No marriage is always easy or even good.  Even the best marriages can falter.

It has always helped our close friends from the early years have always identified us as a couple.  That's one of the benefits of getting married when you are still children.  When our 10th anniversary rolled around, some of those friends gave us a blast of a party.  And, yes, my hair is three feet long and curly.  Notice the 'medal' on Drake's tuxedo:  My 'friends' gave it to him for still being married to me after ten years.  (I resurrected the medal for him for our 50th celebration dinner.)  Over the years, I have to admit he's earned that medal.  (Oh, and I still have the dress - it's in my memory clothes bag.)

We had a second blow out party on our 25th.  Sarah Lynn, aged 10 at the time, and I planned it.  We added more friends, toned down the dress code - no tuxedos this time, and invited the parents and siblings.  The picture below is a recreation of one taken at our 10th anniversary party.  This party turned out to be bittersweet.  By our 30th anniversary, some of these friends had passed and we still grieve them.

At the 50 year mark, I'm not really sure why we succeeded in one of life's biggies.  I can speculate.  Our relationship started with a solid year long friendship before sex was added.  Even at 19, I realized a good husband choice would be someone who I truly liked, and who was so smart I'd never be bored.  Postponing children until the marriage was planted in bedrock helped.  Having a common background and culture helped with conflict resolution.  And speaking of conflict, learning how to FIGHT productively early in the marriage was crucial.  Knowing being yourself would never be disappointing to your spouse was also helpful.  

We try every five years to have a deliberate conversation about what we did right in the previous five years, and what we'd like to change.  Then, we project forward five years and set some joint goals.  This has let each of us grow and change over the years.  Your forty year old persona is NOT your twenty year old persona.  This year was one of those deliberate conversation years:  What we did right?  Traveling, traveling, traveling, so we were ready to step in and nanny our grandson.  What are we going to do differently?  Well, we are stepping back from full time childcare in 2022.  We are going to become A-B people.  (In Sun City terms, that means moving back and forth between only two locations.)  In our case, that will be Arizona and Brooklyn.) 

For me, marriage in my 20's gave me the confidence to step out and be successful at whatever I wanted to try.  We've thought from the very beginning that one of the big advantages of marriage was the other spouse always 'having our back'.  In my 30's a solid marriage let me pause a career, become a stay at home mom, and go back to school in order to start a different career.  For my 40's and most of my 50's I was able to concentrate on teaching.  It turned out to be my calling.  Without Drake's financial support, I wouldn't have been able to pursue a career which was a financial disaster.  (After ten years of teaching, I made less money than an Assistant Manager at Jack in the Box!)  When my health failed in my 50's, my career taken away, and we struggled to deal with death and dementia in my family, Drake was a rock.  He never even suggested bailing out even though our struggles during this period of our lives lasted years.  Our 60's were spent executing our joint vagabonding dream which we both relished and enjoyed to the hilt.

Now, at 70, I've struggled with this anniversary.  Milestones are so important.  If we've learned anything from this past year of horrors, we've realized how much we need our rituals.  Anniversary celebrations are one of those rituals.  This milestone comes on the heels of the death of our last living parent.  We are both deep into grief over Drake's mother dying.  She was a pillar in my life for more than 50 years.  Neither of us wanted a big party (even if COVID-19 wouldn't have interfered).  This golden anniversary seems to have black edges.  Our life is more in the rearview mirror than unspooling in front of us.  Those are the facts.  However, with a little help from our friends, I've been able to feel more celebratory this week.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't all due to the two bottles of excellent wine during our dinner celebration.   

Finally, I have a secret box which contains every greeting card given to me by Drake and me to him over the years.  Knowing they are going to be saved and cherished makes us both try a little harder to deliberately express ourselves with these cards on our milestone days.  As they have accumulated, the cards seem to be an endless ribbon of reminders to me of how very good life is when you have chosen the best husband in the universe.

Happy 50th, Drake.  I love you more than you will ever be able to imagine.  Jan.

     

        

Texas Rangers: Spring Training Report 2021

 For the first time in eight seasons of 'Reports', I really, truly do not know what to write.  Let's start with Spring Training.  First, Drake didn't attend a single Spring Training game.  Even last year we got to attend a couple before we headed to Brooklyn to enjoy a year of COVID-19.  This year, Drake proclaimed 2021 Spring Training  REALLY wasn't baseball.  Here are a few of the Spring Training wrinkles which prompted that opinion:  

(1)  The reappearing pitcher.  You can take out your pitcher, rest him for an inning or so, then reinsert him into the game.  What's up with that?  Rationale is you protect your pitcher's arm since they've also had a year of abnormality.  If he throws too many pitches during an inning, well, you can take him out and bring him back.  

(2)  "Rolling an inning".  If your pitcher has thrown 20 pitches, the manager can choose to end the inning and begin the next half-inning.  It happened five times in a Rangers/White Sox Spring Training game, and boy, the fans booed louder and louder.  

(3)  Some seven inning games; some nine inning game, who ever knew why?  Actually, I do - split squad games were seven innings just as a doubleheader was played last season during the regular games.

(4)  The fans allowed into the park (25% capacity) paid dearly for those tickets:  No walk up sales, and tickets sold on-line in groups of four - period.  Some tickets topped $100 each.  

(5)  Almost no TV games.  The TV commentators as well as the top radio commentator didn't come to Arizona.  There were a few games 'televised'.  The few that were televised consisted of the  commentators watching and calling the game from their Zoom meeting in Arlington.  The TV commentators were noticeably handicapped because they couldn't walk around the club and the work out fields talking to the players.  There was more radio - but it was very hard to follow since there were lots and lots of minor league players - who, incidentally, are desperate to play - they lost an entire season since there was no minor league action last summer.  

So, that all said.....  Here's what I know:  The Rangers have won more games in Spring Training that I can remember in the past few seasons.  They are a run scoring machine.  It's not been uncommon to see (or hear) five plus runs in a game.  I wouldn't call them 'crisp' in the field, but they aren't awful either.  The pitching has been sparkling or dull as dishwater.  Not too much between.

Don't look for Elvis this year unless we are playing the "A's" - he will be in green and gold.  That trade pissed me off terribly.  The clog in the infield is still with us.  Odor hasn't really played any better in Spring Training than he has the past three years.  Disappointing.  A strike-out machine with iffy fielding.  Batting average way, way below the Mendoza line (199).  The only bright news is he won't be playing second base.  That job now belongs to Nick Solak who has played solidly this spring.  Isaiah Kiner-Falefa will be the shortstop, and he just keeps getting better and better.   Third base still isn't decided:  Brock Holt, (age 32, solid player),  Charlie Culberson (31, first round draft choice in 2007 with a solid Spring) or Odor.  Holt deserves the job, and Culberson deserves to be on the team.  Odor doesn't.  However, he's being paid a butt load amount of $$, so who do you think is going to make the team?  It's not rocket science.   And, at first base, a new name:  Nate Lowe, age 25, originally drafted by Tampa Bay in 2016.  This is a breakthrough spring for him.  Guzman will make the team, but as a 1st base back up and sometime outfielder.  He's out of options, and both Drake and I think Guzman is getting ready to break out.  He can't clear waivers without being claimed by another team, and Texas has put a lot into this kid who is an amazing 1st baseman.  Joey Gallo has the right outfield spot nailed down.  He will play in every game.  He's becoming amazing.  He just keeps improving while hitting homeruns at a furious pace.  Another new name:  Leody Taveras.  He will play centerfield.  He's also only 22 years old and fast as greased lightening.  His challenge will be to hit major league pitching.  A lot of talent, but hitting is his Achilles heel.  Left field is up for grabs.  Calhoun is on the IR.  There's been a parade out there, so who knows who will prevail?  There aren't any big name players vying for the job.  

With the squirrely rules this Spring, I can't even name the four starting pitchers.  I do know Lance Lynn and Mike Minor WON'T be in Texas.  Gone, gone, gone.  Our two major bullpen guys are O U T with injuries - LeClerc and Hernandez.  The opportunity to set up and close is up for grabs.  One of the guys I'm rooting for is Matt Bush.  He battles his personal demons - (addiction problems) - and in the past year and a half he's had some serious injuries with drastic measures employed including Tommy John surgery to get him back on the field.  He's a bright prospect for closer.

Designated hitter:  Who knows?  Both Calhoun (groin strain) and Khris Davis (quad strain) [this is the guy we got for Elvis] are both hurt.  David was supposed to be the right hand bat hope.  Didn't see much before he went down hurt.   

Catcher:  Bright spot on the team.  Alex Trevino will be solid behind the plate, and Jonah Heim, age 25, has been known as a solid gloveman, but weak hitter with back him up.  He's turning that around at this Spring Training.  It will be interesting to watch him develop.  He's already been with three teams, and I think if he found a home, he could be a major surprise for the Rangers.  

The bottom line:  A 500 season would be an achievement for the Rangers and well within their grasp.  This team is going to be exciting to watch:  Lots of runs.  I'm looking a final Spring Training game against the Cubs:  It's 12 - 8 Rangers, but the pitchers are struggling in the top of the 9th.  Sigh.  They finally got the Cubs out for a Ranger win.  In Spring Training we've come from behind repeatedly even after giving up runs by the bunches.  They finished up 13 wins and 9 losses.  Respectable.  Let's hope this upcoming season winds up the same way.     

The Unbelievable Year

 I started out with the title "Our Year of Misery", and then, I revised it because I wouldn't want to read a piece with the word misery in it.  And, truthfully, this year has NOT been miserable.  We've been "all in" with a five person 'pod' which includes our only child, our son-in-law, and our only grandchild.  I've been fully engaged in helping a new person find his voice.  I had a bird's eye view watching a magnificent, vibrant city come to a complete standstill, and slowly awaken again.

However, this has been a miserable year in some way for all of us.  Some of us have lost jobs.  Our children have lost whole chunks of school.  We've all experienced real fear which isn't like going through the haunted house and it's over.  Instead, this kind of fear just lasts and lasts and lasts.  We are either afraid of getting sick with the damn virus, or we know someone who's been sick with the damn virus and is now worried about side effects.  Some of us have paid the ultimate price and our loved ones have passed either directly or indirectly because of the damn virus.   

The constant preventative measures of masking and hand washing aren't terrible, but they are annoying.  I don't mind the hand washing so much as the mask which is off-putting.  It can be hot and uncomfortable.  It impedes social interaction because as humans we read so many social clues through facial expressions.  And for us glasses wearers, I'm sick of either steamed up glasses or the 'preparation' of my glasses with fog defender each and every time I go outside.  

I'm thought I was tired of staying home, but now, even though I am vaccinated, I'm finding myself faintly agoraphobic (afraid to leave my house).  I'm nervous around other people, and I just want them to stay away from me.  In New York, I didn't have to tell people to stay away from me.  In Arizona, well, it's a different story.  No one seems to understand why I'm uncomfortable sitting inside a restaurant.  The nurse in one of the doctor's offices wanted to sit right on top of me while chitchatting.  (She wasn't doing a blood pressure check or anything else.)  She actually got offended when I asked her to back away from me.   I know I have very little chance of catching the virus at this point, but I'm still very leery of social interaction.  Part of me wonders if I will every be comfortable with social mingling again.

The litany of business failures is yet to be tallied.  I know we are going to have fewer restaurants, fewer stores, and fewer movie theaters.  I've learned our gigantic TV's can actually replace the 'movie' experience.  I already knew MOST sporting events are better from a recliner than in person.  And, I've always hated the 'mall'.  I will miss restaurants, but I can now order take out like a pro.

As usual in extreme situations, everything is not all bad.  I've learned new skills.  I've expanded on my former hobbies.  I've realized I enjoy 'virtual' bridge (card game) on the computer as much as an in person bridge game.  My on-line shopping skills are now razor sharp.  My appreciation of the small things has reawakened.  (For example, I've enjoyed watching the seasons change by observing the trees around me.)  While I've been cut off from larger outside entertainments, I've been endlessly entertained this past year by a toddler learning to talk, starting 'school' (mommy's day out), and learning how to help him manage all those emotions flooding on-line for him.  Yesterday, a thirty something (here in Arizona) mentioned they now know all their neighbors because it has become a neighborhood ritual to sit outside in the evenings on their front lawns visiting with one another across the lawns while their children run, play and ride their bikes.  Prior to the pandemic, they didn't know a single person on their street.

We have also learned to treasure our rituals.  Suddenly, high school graduations, proms, weddings, showers, birthday parties, Mother's Day, Father's Day, funerals, Trick or Treating, Christmas caroling, Christmas and Thanksgiving family gatherings, and just plain parties turn out to be events we have missed dreadfully.  I don't think we realized how important our cultural rituals really were until they suddenly vanished.  Who knew?

I'm a silver lining person, so I've been trying to think what are the positive aspects of the past year.  I'm not sure these are all positive, but in no particular order, this is what I've observed:  'School' has come out of the closet.  The problems of our public schools can't be out of sight, out of mind anymore.  The great divide most of us in the 'ed' biz have known and fretted about for eons is plain for everyone to see:  If you are poor, you have a poorer education from the get-go, and you fall farther and farther behind.  Even in the cities, internet access is not guaranteed to a child.  In rural America, the access problem is not only to the internet, but also to higher classes in math and science.  Now, this just sounds like one more bad thing, but it's really not.  Parents have had the scales fall from their eyes about how hard teaching actually is.   If nothing else, parents having to acknowledge how hard teachers work has been a wonderful moment for us.  It almost makes up for having to teach remotely.  As if teaching wasn't hard enough before......  

The pandemic has thrown the workplace into a configuration it's never been before.  The virus has proven it is NOT necessary to commute to an office each and every day.  Certainly not in the new economy world where business is done electronically.  While the blurring of work/home is distressing to Boomers, that's not necessarily the case for the X,Y,Z generations that follow us.  Of course, revamping the workplace is a nightmare for the IRS.  The tax returns for 2020 are going to be an exercise in creative accounting, and the tax auditors are going to be working lots and lots of overtime.  It's kind of a giggle to bumfuzzle the IRS.

We've all gotten a much bigger appreciation of how important freedom of movement is.  Even if your vacation time has usually been a trip to see grandma, not being able to get up and go has been a source of depression.  I'm definitely ready to hit the road.  I want to go to a goofy out of the way museum.  I need a State Fair.  Goodness, gracious, I'd even take a Country Fair.  Who knew I'd miss the Home Arts Exposition so much?  Not to mention real art museums, fine dining, the ballet, chamber music and the theater.

My final point is we can see that teeny, tiny pinpoint of light at the end of this year long tunnel.  This past year has been true terror at times, mingled with incredible boredom, but perhaps there's a big takeaway.  This unbelievable year has given us a profound appreciation for what we truly need in our lives.  

   

Words, Words, Words Falling Out Everywhere

A family member sent me a new word this week:  POOTLE.  It's a verb which means to move slowly and with no purpose.   Ironically, well probably not, the person who sent it to me has made pootling into an art form.  It describes her to a T.  One of the things which happened as a result of her offering is it started me thinking how many words float by us of which we don't know the meaning.  Now, granted, there were more of them at age 10 than at age 70, but they still turn up especially when reading.  Fortunately, I may have lost my innate ability to SPELL (so annoying - thank heaven for spellcheck), but I haven't forgotten the meanings of most words I come across.  So, I was thrilled to be presented with a new word, and one which is so useful.  I tend to hurtle through life flinging words behind me as I dash.  

It made me start thinking about what are my favorite words.  Ah, yes, you can have favorite words just like favorite colors (purple and red), favorite seasons (spring), favorite teams (OU anything, Texas Rangers, and Dallas Cowboys).  I think English lends itself to the pastime of collecting words you like because it has incorporated so many words from other languages.  There are 171,000 words in English (plus 47,000 archaic words).  It's very hard to 'count' the number of words in ANY language.  Example:  Do you count the different tenses in a verb as separate words?  The closest you can come to counting the number of words in a language is to count the number of entries in a standard dictionary.  Using that criteria, Korean has over 1 million words and Japanese has 500,000.  The other Romance/Germanic languages come in at about half the number in English.  English is so prevalent in the world today, many languages simply incorporate an English word into their own language especially technical words.  

So, what are some of my favorite words?  Hmmmm.  Here's a non-definitive list of words that just floated to the top of my mind:

Ubiquitous - existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time

Codswallop - nonsense or rubbish (especially works well as a synonym for bullshit)

Onomatopoeia - words that sound like sounds (Examples:  buzz, ding, splat, boom - there are hundreds of these.  A great family game is to try and construct a list of these words.)

Dohickey or Thingamagig  -  words to use when you can't think of the exact name of something (very helpful 'senior' word)  These two refer only to inanimate objects, and actually may be regionalisms.

Persiflage - good natured bantering.  My favorite kind of speech.  

Copacetic - in good order - used with 'everything' as in "Everything is copacetic."  (Aside:  Excellent name for a boat.)

Peripatetic - traveling from place to place (pretty explanatory, right?)

I'm fond of any word that can be used in the place of common profanities.  My first attempt at Lenten sacrifice was to give up profanity for 40 days, and let me tell you if you think giving up every word that's running through your head right now including DAMN and HELL which are so ubiquitous as to be almost non-profane, well you just try it this Lent.  I seldom remove words from my vocabulary, but I've striven to keep these out especially now since we keep a two year old parrot five days a week (AKA 30 pounds of joy, AKA 'the Huckleberry, AKA 'Cedric').

Language and words are a major importance at our house since we've been teaching The Huckleberry how to talk.  There's actually a system which works great at the very beginning of the process.  However, once you're past the beginning, well, it gets really complicated.  Life is a constant stream of 'how to' conversations - usually starting as monologues - then refined when you realize you've used at least four words which need to be defined.  Word play games are very big right now.  I discovered the other day he not only recognizes all the letters of the alphabet, but he knows the sounds of the letters.  One of his games is to substitute the first letter of the words of a song or his name.  (Example:  Who's here today?  "Dedric".)  And, don't get me started on the pronouns ME and YOU.  We are still in a muddle over those two.

I truly can't remember a time when I didn't love words.  The day I discovered there was an entire book of words was utterly thrilling.  In middle school I used to secretly read the dictionary amazed at how many new words I could find.  Learning the SAT vocabulary was not a chore.  Another secret pleasure is archaic words.  [Archaic words are ones which have fallen out of usage.]  Here's a great one:  animalcule - meaning microscopic animals.

So, tell me, do you have favorite words?  Did your mother or father have a favorite word which you can still hear them saying?  This inquiring mind wants to know.  Leave a comment; I'd love to hear from you.

      

  

ENOUGH

I try to keep my posts uplifting especially now when we are all stressed to the max by the pandemic and the tumultuous politics of the last year.  I try to practice tolerance.  I believe people who don't share my views, whether we are talking about politics or religion or whatever controversial topic you name, are not evil doers, but just people with a different viewpoint from whom maybe I can learn something.  

Yesterday's events at the Capitol of the United States of America is where the line is drawn for me.  Everyone who reads me knows that I'm well versed in American history, and I've tended to take the long view of this polarized political climate knowing we have experienced this sort of polarization before in our history and we've weathered it.  The same societal and economic stressors have happened in this country, and we've managed to muddle through except for one notable exception:  The Civil War.  If we learned anything from that terrible war, it's to not let our differences escalate to violent confrontation. 

The last time our nation's capitol was attacked was 1814 when the British, as an act of war, burned the White House and invaded our halls of government.  Yesterday's attack on our chambers of government was insurrection:  It was a violent uprising against the authority of our government.  Law makers (Congressmen and Senators) were certifying the November election, and they were forced to flee a mob intent on stopping that certification by violence.  This was not a 'protest'.  These were not peaceful protesters.  These were insurrectionists determined by storming the Chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives to disrupt the working of government.  This was a wake-up call and a reckoning.

And yes, it was a mob.  And, yes, it was led by extremist factions of Trump supporters.  And, yes, the mob was incited to violence by the Donald Trump, President of the United States.  He has consistently told a blatant lie to the American public over and over trying to convert into truth that the Presidential election was fraudulent and the election process was tainted.  He's not proven that allegation in a single court in the entire nation at every level.  Not a single one.  Many of the judges who've rejected his claims of fraud were Republicans appointed by his administration including those sitting on the Supreme Court.   Votes have been counted and re-counted.  The election officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia are all Republicans.  They have repeatedly told anyone who has asked there was no fraud perpetrated in their states.  The November election was free of widespread fraud.  That is a fact.  Donald Trump was fairly defeated in the election.  That is a fact.     

Yesterday's insurrection at the the national Capitol is what happens when lies are continually repeated over and over again.  It's what happens when people elected to serve do not put patriotism and their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States in front of personal grabs for power.  And, yes, I'm calling out those lawmakers who've continually been silent about the lies endlessly repeated by Donald Trump, and who are starting to deliberately lie about what happened yesterday in the national capitol.  We expect dissent.  We expect differing points of view.  Politics is a rough and tumble game, and it always has been.  This is different.  This is not just politics as usual.  What we and too may of our public servants have allowed to stand and take root is a web of deliberately told lies which has culminated in insurrection.

When a mob invades the Capitol of the United State of America, not a single one of us should stand by.  Instead we should stand up and say NO.  Enough.  No one has the right to do that.  If you think this has been overblown or 'spun' by the talking head of the media, well, turn off the sound and simply look at the photos and pictures of what happened yesterday.  No one needs words in order to understand what happened.  There is no alternative interpretation.  It was wrong.  It was insurrection.  It was mob violence aimed at stopping the workings of government.  

I, for one, will not stand for it.         

My New Year's Resolutions

 Isn't this a strange new year?  We are all praying that 2021 isn't as horrible as 2020.  I certainly don't need to enumerate my reasons for categorizing 2020 as horrible.  You can fill that in for yourself.  I guess the real question is how do we turn our faces to the future when we will have all known so much uncertainty, and fear?  The generations who lived through  World War II could probably tell us a lot about how to cope with so much fear and loss.  The COVID virus deaths are fast approaching the number of Americans killed during World War II, and are projected to surpass that number.  Americans who lived during that war endured many years of loss, sacrifice and uncertainty.

Unfortunately, as a people we have not been able to equate the COVID pandemic with a war.  Instead, as a population there has been a backlash against science and public health recommendations which has made the pandemic even worse. When the last pandemic swept the world: the Spanish Flu of 1918-19, Americans accepted the guidance of public health officials as the country tried to cope with a disease which would kill 2.5% of those who contracted it - 675,000 people.  The reaction to the COVID virus has been tribal rather than national.  Public health agencies have been politicalized.  And, I fear the acceptance of the vaccine is going to be equally tribal and political.  Now, the virus has mutated, and no one knows how this mutation will react to the vaccines soon to be offered.  One more anxiety to cope with as 2020 ends.

The vaccines have been compared as the light at the end of the tunnel of COVID.  It's important to understand the light is a pinpoint in the distance.  There's a long long way to go to turn that pinpoint into a sunrise.  Since there are still some hard times to get through as 2021 begins, I've decided by New Year's resolutions are going to be along the following lines:

1)  Practice kindness. 

2)  Count your blessings when anxiety overwhelms.

3)  Make your 'go to' reaction sympathy rather than anger.

4)  Consider the possibility that people who think differently from me may be deluded rather than enemies.

5)  Confront my own racism.  This is a huge issue in the United States - no matter what your race.

We are all affected by it.  If you think you aren't affected, ask yourself this question:  How many friends do I have that are of a different race than I am?  The smaller that number, the more you need to confront yourself because you've never heard directly from someone you know about how a different race is affected by racism.

6)  Practice tolerance.  Also known as ' Walk a mile in someone else's shoes.'

7)  Donate to a charity - even the smallest amount can make a difference.

8)  Support local culture.  Oh, are these people hurting after 2020, and all they do is make my life richer.

9)  Contact someone who has been isolated by the pandemic.  

10) Smile.

Yes, yes, I know - no one can live up to all those resolutions, but it's not right to not even try. I'm going to give them my best shot.  I invite you to join me or to ponder how your personal resolutions can make you feel better and more hopeful in 2021.