Tis the Season

 

A Doctor Seuss tree. How clever. It lives in a Eugene, Oregon neighborhood where all the houses decorate big time for Christmas.

 

A Revolving Door Weather Trip.

Friday brought with it weather like an entertainment show where you don’t know what’s behind each of the doors presented to you.

Rain at 11 o’clock that morning, with me driving through it to an appointment.

At 12, I had a tailwind so strong my raincoat beat like a pup tent the climbers of Mt Everest were fighting to assemble.

By 1 o’clock, sunshine as I drove to Michael’s—and I ran, comfortable as a ferret in a hammock, into the craft store in a T-shirt. (I’d say I was wearing only a T-shirt, but I was also wearing pants, shoes, and socks.)

It sprinkled outside Hobby Lobby, but leaving the shopping area, driving down Gateway Blvd. squeezed amongst droves of vehicles, B-Bs of miniature ice balls bounced off the hood of my pickup like welders sparks pinging and rolling.  It was hailing! 

The hail lasted about five and ¾  minutes. And driving to World Market the sun came out. Leaving that store brought with it a vision of perfection, a complete arc of a rainbow. I think the weather was breathing a sigh of relief.

As I was creeping out of the parking lot, my head was spinning as I tried to take in all of that monstrous, the highest I had ever seen, complete arc of neon orange, yellow, red, green, blue, and purple. I would have applauded the rainbow God, but I had both hands on the steering wheel. Within a couple of minutes, the southern end faded, and it was only half an arc, but I had seen it. (You know a rainbow would be a complete circle, but the earth obscures half of it.) But I had seen the top half. And it was positively magnificent.

How does science do that?

Rain, shine, sprinkle, hail, wind, and a rainbow, Oregon's weather was so tired after Friday that it turned cold on Saturday, leaving us shivering under a quilt as we watched TV. And my chickens, after a summer of roosting on the roof of their house, haven’t got it that they can go inside; they used to, but now they look like drowned rats.

I guess I will have to put them to bed tonight. I don’t want them to freeze their tail feathers off.

I am writing this on December 21, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. From now on, the days will be getting longer. Yea!

Happy Solstice, and that means Christmas is coming up in a few days. I am wishing you a good one, a Merry one, and a Blessed one.  And remember, the world is brighter because you are in it.💗💗💗💗💗💗

Blog, June 21, 2022

Is this the longest day of the year? It was on the day I married.

On that June 21, it was Sunday, the longest day of the year, Father’s Day, plus my honey's and my wedding, all rolled into one. My father-law said after three sons, he finally got a daughter.

The summer Solstice is today, the day with the longest amount of sunshine.

 

 

Once in a conversation with a young man fresh out of high school, he was complaining about the plans his parents had for him. In the course of the discussion, I used the word "Liberal."

 

He did a slight double-take. I quickly said that the term was not political in meaning. Perhaps "progressive" or "allowing" would be a better word.

 

Since that encounter, I had wondered when the word "Liberal" became a dirty word. 

 

It's a tainted buzz-word like the word "Evolution," which simply means change over time. (I'm not debating that issue.)

 

I remember a young "Liberal" President who inspired an entire generation of young people to go out and make a better world. 

 

Excuse me if I repeat myself, for this encounter is emblazoned on my brain.

 

Once in an encounter group, a young man, a white kid who had grown up in Africa, among tears, told the group how alone he felt. In Africa, he said, the kids ran together. We put our arms around each other and laughed. He missed that free abandon.

 

From the back of the room came a voice in Swahili. We soon learned that it meant, "Hello, Brother."

 

The kid fell apart, and the people in the room jumped to their feet,  hugging the kid, hugging each other, crying. 

 

The man was Bill Fisher, a dear friend, my writing buddy, and now deceased. (Darn.) He was a Kennedy kid and had been in the Peace Corps in Africa and thus learned Swahili.

 

 This is from Kennedy’s “Liberal” speech:

 

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal."

 

"But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I’m proud to say I’m a "Liberal."

John F. Kennedy, Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party NominationSeptember 14, 1960

 

"Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process."-JFK

 

From JFK’s same “Liberal” speech:

 

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities.