Black History Month
In honor of Black History Month, I decided to reread Roots, by Alex Haley.
When I first read the book in 1976, I was 21 years old. I remember being totally engrossed and spellbound by the story, but I don’t remember the pain experienced in the reading.
Is it because I am older now–or is it because times have changed in the three decades since I first read it–that I am so sickened by the first chapters that I have to force myself read further?
If I could rewrite history, all of the atrocities that mankind afflicted on his fellow human beings simply because they were a different race or religion. Gone would be slavery, the holocaust, and other genocides. Gone would be the belief that anyone is superior because of their beliefs or more importantly (and more inanely) the color of ones skin. But, alas, I can’t.
You would think us more enlightened now, and yet, as I was curled up reading Roots for the first time in 1976, Pol Pot was busy wiping out 1.7 million people in Cambodia. Why? Ethnic cleansing. In 1994 the mass murder of an estimated 850,000 people occured in the small East African nation of Rwanda.
I am not a racist, though I’m not without prejudice. I am opposed to narrow-mindedness, ignorance, and cruelty, no matter the race, religion, or gender.
Reread Roots.
What’s happened to the holidays?
Today as I was out and about, I heard 3 people tell me that they will be happy when the holidays are over. I went three places. That means that 100% of the people I spoke with today feel the same way. I have to say that these are the people who regularly check out my groceries, fill my prescriptions and the last was my brother. They are three of the nicest, most pleasant people you’d want to meet. So I have to ask myself, “What is it about the holidays that make people wish they were over?”
My brother told me he dislikes the feeling of obligation. “Why, he asks “do I need to feel that I have to give gifts to people I don’t really care about? I spend time wondering what I should do for them…what’s too much, what’s not enough?” We’ve all felt it. “Don’t do it”, I told him. “Like I said, I feel like I have to.”
We are inundated with gift cards, holiday mugs, hot chocolate and other treats. We turn around and reciprocate by giving gift cards, holiday mugs, hot chocolate and other treats. None of which any of us want.
We boomers know what we want and most of us are lucky enough to have the resources to buy it. When we decide to buy a new toaster, iron, or coffee maker, we are going to do our research, find out what fits our needs, and buy it. We don’t need or want someone else doing it for us.
So, it seems the magic of the season has been replaced with the pressure of giving gifts. Wouldn’t it be great if we could go back how we celebrated Christmas when we were young and things were simpler? Families, friends, baking, music and do away with the pressures of giving gifts.
Election Day
Managing Stress
A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, ”How heavy is this glass of water?”
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” He continued, ”And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.” “So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.”
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
- Accept that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.
- Always keep your words soft and sweet just in case you have to eat them.
- Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be “Recalled” by their maker.
- If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
- If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again it was probably worth it.
- It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others always.
- Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
- Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
- When everything’s coming your way you’re in the wrong lane.
- Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
- You may be only one person in the world but you may also be the world to one person.
- Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
- We could learn a lot from crayons… Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
- A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Remember Penny Candy?
Remember penny candy? For those of you too young to remember, penny candy was just that. One penny. You could take a nickel to your neighborhood store and walk away with five pieces of candy! Unless you bought maltballs or Swedish fish. They were two for a penny. There were boxes and boxes to choose from. Oh, and it took a very long time to pick those five pieces. The clerks were so patient while you made those five monumental decisions. Too bad Washington can be that discriminating when spending money. They could learn a lot from the children of the fifties and sixties who bought penny candy.
