Monday Morning Musings

The beginning of a new week is almost as energizing as the beginning of a new year; a fresh start to all the things for which you have set goals. I'm going to be working a lot at the art center the rest of this month as we prepare for a major fundraiser, and I'm also going to go to another community theatre and audition for a show. This is my time to play on a different stage and not have all the other responsibilities of mounting a show. Even with all that, I am still going to make my goal to write every day.

It's cold and blustery here today, so I am starting my morning with some hot chocolate. You are welcome to join me.

What I'm reading: Actually, I'm reading two books, one for review and one for fun. The first is Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer by Woody Weingarten. This is a book of significant importance, and I will do a review in a few weeks, as well as have Woody as my Wednesday's Guest.

The other book is New Year Island by Paul Draker. I just started reading that one last night and got through the first three chapters without yet getting to the main story. Paul uses the technique of introducing the major players in their own chapter, giving the reader back story on each, so it will be a while before we get to the premise of the story which is what intrigued me about the book when I checked it out - "Ten strangers... marooned on an island for society's amusement. As they're picked off one by one, they realize that they have something in common -- they've each already survived atrocities. But can they live through this twisted mind game?"

If there are seven more chapters before the real story begins, I'm not sure if I will finish the book, as I am not fond of that style at all. Even though each chapter is well written and very dramatic, I prefer to get into the story a lot sooner. What about you?

Celebrating Strong Women: For the new year, I thought I would try something different on Mondays and highlight one woman each week for her significant role, either currently or in history. Today I chose Jane Addams who was born in 1860 and died in 1935. She is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States, and I remember learning that fact when I studied sociology in college. She was also a leader in women's suffrage and promoting world peace, and in 1931 she was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jane was born in Cedarville, Illinois, into a prosperous northern Illinois family. Her father, John Addams was a founding memeber of the Illinois Republican Party. He was a state senator from 1855 to 1870 and was friends with Abraham Lincoln, helping Lincoln in his political campaigns.  Her mother died when Jane was two years old, and John later married again.

Reading was one of Jane's favorite pastimes, and she had a desire for higher education, wanting to study medicine. She thought that would be a good way to fulfill her dream of doing something to help people. She attended Rockford Female Seminary, which is now Rockford University, but was never able to finish her medical training due to ill health and family emergencies.

Finally in 1889 Jane was able to act on her dream of helping others, especially women. Along with her college friend and intimate partner Ellen Gates Starr, she founded the Hull House in Chicago. They rented a mansion that had been built by Charles Hull in 1856, but the building was in disrepair. Using her own money, Jane had the repairs done and eventually a number of other wealthy women started offering financial support. Those donors included Helen Culver, who managed her first cousin Charles Hull's estate. Eventually she allowed them to use the house rent-free. 

The Hull House was a center for research, empirical analysis, study, and debate, as well as a pragmatic center for living in and establishing good relations with the neighborhood. Residents of Hull-house conducted investigations on housing, midwifery, fatigue, tuberculosis, typhoid, garbage collection, cocaine, and truancy. Its facilities included a night school for adults, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a gym, a girls' club, a bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group and a theater.

The focus on arts at Hull House was very important to Jane, wanting to encourage students to think creatively and independently. She challenged the system of industrialized education that focused on training a student for a specific job, and I think that part of her philosophy is still relevant today. We need to challenge the educational system in place today and allow young people more opportunities for creative learning, which is one reason my heart is so entrenched in the Winnsboro Center for the Arts and the programs we offer in all forms of creative expression.

The Eye of the Storm...

.... or The Days Between Holidays

I remember when I was doing my various newspaper columns these few days between Christmas and New Year's Eve were always a little strange. It was too early to do New Year's related material, and Christmas was gone, so... what on earth should we write about?

Nothing has changed, except I am now doing my "column" online. I'm still challenged as to a topic worthy of an entire blog post, so I'll just do my usual Monday thing.

What I'm Reading: The Merry-Go-Round by Donna Fasano. I just started it, but so far it has my attention. Of course, I've always loved a carrousel and one figures prominently in the story.

 What I'm Dismayed About: The great divide between police officers and the general public that is rift with hate and violence. Rioting and looting are not answers to injustice and killing police officers isn't either.

What I'm Happy About: I had a terrific visit with my kids at Christmas. We had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of lasagna, and I had a good time helping my daughter-in-law make it. The lasagna in Taiwan is much different from the American version. After dinner we did a White Elephant gift exchange, which is always great fun. There were threats to life and limb over the sausage balls my son-in-law makes every year.

Other gifts were given, too, and one that I got was a Garmin Vivofit Activity Tracker.  So far today I've walked 6784 steps, 2.89 miles, and burned 1104 calories. I need to walk a lot more to make up for the pumpkin bread I will eat later today.

Some Monday Fun: This cartoon from Shoe was in Sunday's newspapers. Shoe is sitting at his trash-can desk reading a letter to the editor: "Dear Editor, I'm fifty and still live at home with my mother, who cooks, cleans and does my laundry for me.

"Everything was fine, but now she wants to charge me #400 a month for room and board!!

"What should I tell her?"

Shoe puts the letter down, fires up his laptop and writes, "Tell her I'll give her $800 and that I can move in Thursday."

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor: Not really. I just like saying that. However, I do want to mention that my YA novel, Friends Forever, is currently discounted now through Jan 2 for Kindle and Kindle Apps. This is the new edition from White Bird Publishing.

Friendship is a tenuous thing when you're thirteen and everything in your life is changing, especially your best friend.

"4 1/2 Stars! FRIENDS FOREVER beautifully captures the pain and confusion of early adolescence." (Sharpwriter review)

Monday Morning Musings

Freezing rain and sleet here this morning. That does not bode well for the pine trees that are so distressed from drought and pine beetles. Here's hoping that none of them come down on my fences or buildings. 

Since we are heading on toward Thanksgiving, I thought I would reprise my Thanksgiving reflection. Enjoy....

There’s an old traditional Thanksgiving song that starts out, "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go….” When I was a child, my Dad would break into that song as we crossed the Pennsylvania border into West Virginia on our annual pilgrimage from Michigan to celebrate the holiday with his family. "The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, through the white and drifting snow..."

Courtesy of MuralMan

 The closer we got to his childhood home, the heavier his foot rested on the gas pedal as our Chevy station wagon climbed the hills on twisting roads and flew on the downside. His rich baritone voice belted the song, and in my imagination we were on that sleigh behind dapple grays in their rhythmic trot. I could hear the clump of their hooves and feel the blowing snow bite my cheeks as we were carried along.

It was magic, pure and simple. A magic that continued for the few days that we stayed in that other-world.

Today as those memories float pleasantly through my mind, I can almost smell the wonderful aromas of sage dressing, pumpkin pie, and mulled cider that permeated my grandmother's house. And I can hear the bustle of activity accompanied by short bursts of conversation among the women in the kitchen. The front bedroom is where the men gathered and brought out guitars and harmonicas. Their music became another soundtrack.

My brothers, sisters, and I would join other cousins in the back bedroom in between our numerous trips outside. Our biggest challenge was to see who could roll down the hill and retain the most amount of snow, turning ourselves into living snow people. The second biggest challenge came at dinner when we vied to have the honor of receiving one of the drumsticks. They were dolled out on a 'merit' system based loosely on which of us waited the most patiently for the great announcement, "Dinner's Ready."

With memories like that, it was hard for me to face the formidable task of creating Thanksgiving Days that would live in glory for my children.

By the time they were old enough to appreciate the holiday, we were living in Texas, so mountains and snow were out of the question, and my singing never could quite match my father's. I didn't possess even a tenth of the culinary skills of my grandmother and my aunts, so the meal would probably be lacking. And we were more than a thousand miles away from cousins to help distract my children from their impatience.

Despite those limits, however, we managed to muddle through. I was able to prepare a passable dinner, and my husband actually raved about the German dressing. The pies were a major hit, all ten of them, and everyone was willing to eat the broccoli for the promise of a second piece of pie.

After cheering the Dallas Cowboys to another victory, most years, we would all tumble outside for a family game of touch-football. Not the same as rolling down a snow-covered hill, but good enough.

Now, in sifting through all these random recollections I realize that the memory itself is not what is important. What is important is the fact that we have memories and they don't happen by accident. No matter what we do to mark these important occasions, it is vital that we do mark them. Even if our process doesn't live up to a Martha Stewart image or our own fond remembrances of childhood.

So here's to our memories, no matter how we create them.

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving memories?

Monday Morning Musings

On Sunday, Mallard Fillmore, in his inimitable way had this commentary  about the significance of today: "As most of you know tomorrow's Inauguration Day holiday Martin Luther King Day and Squirrel Appreciation Day all fall on the very same day. This phenomenon won't occur again in our lifetime... And it's significance is already being felt by federal employees across the nation."

Then a federal employee chimes in, "Three holidays but only one day off?"

And Mallard signs off with, "More on this as it develops."

When we finished chuckling over the strip, my husband said, "Maybe we can get the squirrels to dance at the inauguration ball."

Photo Courtesy National Geographic

Which made me wonder why we have to have another huge inauguration with all the parties. Why not just have a swearing in ceremony and a nice quiet dinner at the White House? Why do we have to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars for basically an instant replay of four years ago?

Granted, it is important to honor our president, but we don't have to do it to such an extreme. And it is too bad that the media coverage will be such that it will dwarf the other significance of today - honoring one of the great men of history.

Some people don't think any more of Martin Luther King Day than the fact that it is a holiday and a day off work. Thank goodness, there are many more who recognize the importance of what he did and the need to celebrate and honor that.

And thank goodness that we teach our children and grandchildren the legacy that King left us. I was proud to be active in the Civil Rights Movement, and we have made strides in acceptance and equality. Yet prejudice and bigotry still impact our society way too much. Dr. King's mission will not be complete until that no longer happens.

Dr. King left us a lot of memorable quotes and this is one of my favorites, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Wonderful words, but only wonderful if we take them to heart and act on them.

Photo Courtesy of the Nobel Peace Organization