Green Means Go!

 I am one text away from finishing my Crowhook/Simply Hooked Ancients project. In my Bullet Journal I mark those texts in red both on the day I read them to putting them on  the bookshelf when I finish them. I also read other serious literature and some fun books. Organizing my reading has led to my reading books that were always for “some day.” My “some day” books included A Brief History of Time, the only book you will see marked in green on my charts and shelf. I have wanted to read Stephen Hawking's tour de force for decades, but early prohibitions had gotten in the way. When I finally decided that I can choose my own reading the book gradually left the frozen zone until B&N offered an illustrated version bundled with The Universe in a Nutshell at a very nice price that I wanted enough to pledge my reading time to. 

I have not been disappointed. The illustrations, examples and most of all the humor kept me riding along in a world I don’t know well. It lived up to my expectations which were high for a book so long black-listed. There is nothing revolutionary in there. It’s just our best guess of how things work. What was everyone so worried about? I don’t know, but it’s a great book and lots of fun, well worth breaking my primary colors only plan for.

girl in a sandwich board

 Yes, I am afraid of you.

Yes, I think you’re an asshole.

No, I don’t want to have sex with you.

Yes, you can blame your gender.

Granddad

I had the best grandfathers. They both were so proud of me as is, and they opened doors to new skills and confidence in myself. My dad’s dad always quizzed me on geography. I made sure I knew all the continents and oceans just for him. One time I was visiting for a week, and something didn’t seem right to me. I’ve always felt it is was better to say something about a problem because then you might have a chance of fixing it. It’s my persistent habit. My grandfather listened for a while and then said, “Oy vey, kaboobalavitch.” At least that’s what I thought he said. It became a personal swear word though I didn’t know what it meant. Sometime after my grandfather’s death I met someone who spoke Yiddish. My grandfather was apprenticed to a Jewish family in his teen years. When we kids were around he would swear in Yiddish. I asked my new acquaintance if he could translate what my granddad had said. He thought for a moment then laughed. “Oy vey, can my bubele kvetch,” which means, “Boy can my sweetheart complain.”

It’s so true. If I think something is bad, my first step is to complain. I like to think it is only my first step, and that I will keep going until the problem is solved, but I do complain. It’s just how I work.
 

Shelby Sherritt

 A couple of years ago I fell in love with You Tube. I don’t know why it took me so long, but here I am anyway. I love my You Tubers, and appreciate the way they share pieces of their lives so freely. The people are almost more interesting than the subject matter. I’m even thinking of creating my own You Tube channel as an outlet for my curriculum projects. I’m almost finished with one and another just needs a lick and a promise as my grandmother used to say. 

https://youtu.be/V4HUYtWjdrY

I’ve decided to feature my You Tube favorites occasionally and Shelby Sherritt just had to be first. She is based in Australia, and has her own ceramics studio. She bought more than a hundred old plaster molds off of something called “gumtree”. It’s always a surprise as to what is going to come out of the mold after she pours out the slip. The diversity keeps you watching. Then she bisque fires them in preparation for painting. You never know how she is going to decorate them which is another layer of surprise. Then they are glazed and fired and we either “ooh” and “ahhh” or wince. Even the less successful still have a certain charm, and off we go to the next one. Shelby is a pleasure to watch and listen to. You feel like you’re propped up on a stool painting away with her. It’s all very relaxing. Look her up.

On the Bright Side

 Have I mentioned that I hate feeling cold? Cold is inescapable. You must take it into account or slowly turn into an ice cube. It is also a thief. It steals my office because my office is over the garage and not heated. We have bought space heaters, and they give the illusion of heat until you’ve been working for a couple of hours and you start to shiver. Adjusting to the wonder of having my own office took a while, but we’d gotten into a swing. I’m finishing up and hitting the meat of a few projects and to be beaten back to working on my bed or taking over the dining room table is discouraging. 

Cold means socks, shoes, gloves, bulky sweaters, hyper-engineered coats. I like keeping my articles of clothing to a minimum. As soon as the weather was deemed warm enough I had a deal with my parents that I could run bare foot as long as I didn’t complain. I didn’t complain. I reveled, if bare feet were good enough for Laura Ingalls they were good enough for me. We are officially past the jackets and sweatshirt time in Michigan’s fall and into coat season. I have two hyper-engineered coats. I like them both, but one is for skinny me and the other for the other me. I’ve lost some weight, so I’m hoping I can wear my yellow coat this season. Yellow, for me, is a warning color, an in-case-of-emergency color. I like to think I’m good in an emergency. I stay calm, figure out what needs done, and get it done. When the crisis is over I’m no good for a day or two after, but in the moment I’m steady. When I wear my yellow coat I like to think I’m advertising a source of help. It’s the reason I haven’t given it away.

There is no help for winter. There is hunkering down and enduring. It is so boring. I don’t think I’d miss the change of seasons, but I am not sure I am ready to trade them for alligators.

Men’s Masque

 When I am brilliant 

       You are jealous.

When I speak the truth

       You scold.

When I work for the good

       You are suspicious.

But

When I stand like Colossus

       You offer bonehomie.

Why not love all of me?

The Flip Side or Appalachian Love

 

The sad tale of the enmity between the Hatfields and McCoys stains the strong bonds forged in Appalachian families and between families. I was the fourth living generation of my family and I was carefully trained to choose my friends wisely because you weren’t only committing yourself to a friendship, you were committing the whole family. When I think about that and the way they let me go and make friends and live that out with all its hits and misses I am amazed. I also wish I could give that experience to my children. I can give them the freedom to go find their own friends, but I can’t give them the umbrella of safety of my friendships nor the ratifying comfort of adopting their friends. Life is different here in the midwest. I can see how the looser bonds have the advantage of not pulling people into terrible feuds, but I think the loss of community to our communities might not be worth it. 

Obelisks

 to see without permission

to reach the summit

to be annoyed

So very human being

Wish Book

I grew up on the Sears and J.C.Penney Christmas Wish Books. Every year they would arrive in the mail, and my sister and I would get out different color ink pens and mark what we wanted. The toy section was the only thing interesting at first, but after wearing those pages out it was intriguing to see what adults might want Santa to bring. ToysRUs had a version my kids enjoyed, but recently there has been a void in the catalog tradition. Amazon has brought forth a new version with a new vision.

The beautiful stickers caught my attention on the first flip through. It pointed me back to the happy, little Christmas story about two friends that ties this highly interactive catalog together. Sprinkled throughout the lively pictures of potential presents are games and activities. I don’t have any little ones to share this with, so I’ll be toting around for those moments usually wasted on waiting. If you have one of these in your mail, don’t throw it out. Get it to a kid to enjoy this Christmas.
 

Entrance

I accepted climate change as a reality a long time ago, even as a child it seemed prudent to prepare for the day we run out of fossil fuels. I’m also the sort who doesn’t mind thinking about preparing for when the sun goes black even though it’s a looooong way off. A climate disaster isn’t a long way off if we don’t work together and this is the point of Bill Gates’ book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. This is a big picture book, and by that I don’t mean it is colorfully illustrated and written for the young. I mean that you are guided through the problems and possible solutions by someone who can understand globe-spanning phenomenon and not get lost in any one part. The book is hopeful, fact-filled and compassionate. 

We all need a little sunshine when facing up to the consequences of questionable choices. This book fits the Bill. Carefully laying out what we have and what we need, it focuses on meeting the goal more than surviving the disasters. It is a strategic choice and well done. 

You will learn so much from this book, but not in the brain-crunching, strange vocabulary overwhelmingness way that books can have when they become too technical. Clear and memorable the useful lists and moderate use of details turn you into an informed consumer and advocate for the planet.

Perhaps my favorite of this book’s virtues is his advocacy for developing nations, and his recognition of how unfair it would be to ask them to stop reaching for humane life with the cheapest solution close at hand. It is so easy forget the many burdens of the poor. It was good to find them remembered here.