Art

 

From a broken dishwasher or art in the eye of the beholder? 

You make the call.

There Is A Stair

Biggie has been hanging out on the stairway lately. Perhaps not the best place to be for us, the humans, in the house, but we're learning to look and be careful. 

Every time I walk over him, I think of another, the one who had the A. A. Milne book of poems. I repeat to  myself the one line of poetry I remember before bungling the rest of it. 

When I shared the photo with others today, I got another memory, not at all as good a one: a falling down those very stairs. Perhaps I should keep that memory with me as I take the two steps over! 

What To Do

Do you want to be heard, hugged or helped? 

Excellent question, and far, far better than jumping in to help without finding out if one wants that. Too often women get the mansplaining when all we want is an ear. And when we say that and decline the aid, we, often, are seen as bitchy, ungrateful women. 

But, to be fair. I've realized I, too, have done the jumping in in the past. Seeing this in the New York Times a few months ago, I am continuing to try to step back and use this as a guide. Last night I was trying to explain the concept to another. Hence, the reviewing of it today.

If people learned to listen first, empathize second and only, if wanted and after asking, gave advice, the world would be a much better and more respectful place.  

Carpe Diem

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a friend about the things I do to keep moving. Some were not, as I said, really a getting up off the couch thing. But. What they were were activities to keep my mind moving. 

I sit for one to two hours in the morning, reading the heavy stuff, or as heavy as I get: New Yorker and The Week.  During the rest of the day until I quit at night, usually around the witching hour of 7:30, I try to keep active, changing from one task to another. Some keep my body in motion and some my mind. 

This article was based on the idea that workers need to take breaks to be better at their jobs. I so very much agree. In life, work or pleasure, we need to know ourselves, our rhythms, and our strengths and weaknesses. We need to plan our day accordingly. 

Too often time manages people instead of us managing time. Carpe diem: seize the day or seize the moment. I say seize the moments and you'll seize your day.

So says the eternal list maker (and breaker. I don't always get through my lists, like dusting. It sits on the list for weeks until I've capitalized the whole word and added three exclamation points to it.) 

If Karma Talks

                                                                   When with (an)other                                                                                                                     together on earth, all that                                                              matters is one's heart

Listen

What We Think We Know

I read Demon Copperhead a while ago from a recommendation of a friend. It was a tough read about a young boy from poverty with an addicted mother. I kept hoping it would get better, but even when it did, I knew that it wouldn't last, and, it didn't. Barbara Kingsolver wrote with clues from the prospective of the boy at an older age, so at least I knew he lived through his hard times. The book's ending, while not being concrete, gave hope. 

It was another read like Hillbilly Elegy, where we are put into a world we really - if we're lucky - know very little about. White trash and rednecks being two other names for hillbilly, I came to see that, like with so many Blacks, what we might project onto others isn't all, or even most, of the story. The racism and discrimination of the past can compound, making it hard for Black people to get ahead. There is so much more.

Whether black or poor 'white trash' or 'rednecks', words Demon had been called throughout his life, it can make for almost insurmountable obstacles for a good life. Working hard and pulling oneself up with one's bootstraps isn't easy when there's no one there to help: no good jobs, no government's understanding, no money saved in the bank, what with each crisis pulling people more and more into debt, and then, worse, others willing to take advantage, like the Sacklers of Purdue Pharma.

Having watched The Bear with family back in the spring, I have been waiting for the second season. Although we don't have the ability to stream it, I know it'll be there to watch sometime. It too is about the hard luck people - this time in Chicago - struggling to work, to make a life to better themselves, but like Demon Copperhead, drugs have taken their toll on some. With friends and people around them who care, they are struggling to make gains, or so I thought at the end of season one.  

Then, in the New York Times David French
wrote about this new season, and how people who are struggling need hope and a place to make that hope. 

Finally, I read another book A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano. This one not about the down and out but about small town life and the lives we live there. Set in a southern town, one of the main characters is Flannery O'Connor, a real life writer....of tough stories with tough plot lines where people go through tough times. 

Another character in the book mentioned to her that it seems many of her books have violence and hard times which left her characters at their lowest points in their lives. The character found that sad. Flannery replied that, to her, thinking of the next step, the potential to come out, that it ended with a chance at grace. 

Interesting. Living through hard times, and going beyond them, we can find grace. Oh, I'm not saying everyone can. Not everyone, in fact most didn't in Demon Copperhead, but some can. Many people at their worst moment do come out the other side. 

Grace. We fall, we go on, and then with luck, effort, friends and family, and love, we rise. The worst doesn't have to be the end. It can be a beginning too. 

On the Internet

 

Catholicism, In Reverse