2019
February FROM MY PERSPECTIVE
I enjoy reading READER’S DIGEST. The articles are just the right length to
inhale the entire magazine in a few hours.
In the July/August 2018 edition, there was a section called “15 Life’s
Lessons That You Can’t Live Without”.
One really brought back a memory of something I said to another after
she’d miscarried. She was lamenting; I
listened closely. I knew how she hurt,
as I’d miscarried many years before. I
told her of it and added, “It took a while to accept the loss. I got pregnant again many months later, and I
know, if I’d not miscarried the one, I’d never have known the one I have
now. She’s been a blessing since she was
born.” Years later, that gal told me
she’d had another child about a year after our sharing. “Your words stuck with me all through that
pregnancy, Trudy. I have a wonderful son
who is truly a joy to have.”
My friend, who frequents McDonald’s for breakfast, has
experienced mixed-up orders, orders not complete, and just about no order
(imagine that!). On a particular morning
he took a photo of his closed bag of breakfast and cup of drink. He announced, “I am going to play ‘BREAKFAST
ROULETTE’ from McDonald’s this morning.
It’s always a surprise to find what is and isn’t in the bag.”
I’d been looking, on the internet, at things I thought I
needed. While scrolling through my
“wall” on FACEBOOK 2 hours later, I was surprised to see the exact same things
being advertised to purchase. I think
I’ll forgo looking at adult toys except for bubble wrap.
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon.
What we loathe, we graft into our very soul. -Mary Renault, novelist (4 Sep
1905-1983) What we love we graft into our very soul, too. (tjr 1945 - )
Scratch your head moment: There was an article in the newspaper that a
person stole a Bible. They wanted to be
more Christian.
I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are
proud of it. -Edith Sitwell, poet (7 Sep 1887-1964) Oh wow, this statement could be a whole
dissertation from me, especially after all my years of teaching and some of the
parents, students, colleagues, and administrators I’ve dealt with. Some administrators I dealt with had the
thought that since they had a lot of education, they knew more than
others. Stupidity knows no level of
education or the collective degree of degrees.
Thus, I could say, “I’m not patient with those who actually are stupid
and proud of it.” Gods, they just drive
me over the edge. I’m certain some of
you can identify.
It got to be the season for a kettle of greens and ham to go
with buttermilk cornbread; so I made it all.
My daughter, Della, came over and asked if she may take some home to eat
the next day. Of course, I gave her
enough to be two or three meals. She
called me and said, “Mom, I fixed a few eggs to go with what you gave me. I have had greens, eggs, and ham for
breakfast!!” I could not stop laughing
and the Dr. Seuss story will have a different meaning to me, now.
My friend wears dentures.
In a hurry, she left them in a cup beside her bed and rushed to another
location of the house. She came back a
bit later and couldn’t find them. She
went into the living room and there on the couch were her dentures chewed by
her 2 dogs. Evidently they had “tried
them on”, didn’t like them, and chewed them.
When she questioned the dogs while holding the chewed dentures, she
could hardly be stern with them asking them if they’d done the deed. The mental visual of them “trying them on” was
just too much to keep a straight face and be stern.
My friend, Ruth, was telling me about a sandwich she had
eaten recently at a restaurant. She said
she was going to try to find some smoked pork shoulder to make some at
home. While we were together, she put
the phone on “speaker” and called a local meat store and asked if they had any
“smorked poke shoulder”. The man on the
other end said he’d never heard of “smorked poke shoulder”, but they did have
some smoked pork shoulder in the store.
After she got off the phone, I mentioned to her that “smorked poke
shoulder” isn’t known around here in central Illinois. We had a good laugh as her spoonerism.
There is a word in German which describes one’s enjoyable
feeing at another’s misfortune. It is SHADENFRUDEN. Not every one can pronounce that German word
correctly, so I went searching for an English word of the same definition. I found, EPICARICACY. Hmmm, in essence, there seems to be a
challenge to some with both pronunciations.
While stitching the hand of a 75 year old farmer, whose hand
had been caught in the squeeze gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up
a conversation with him. The topic got
around to politicians and their role as our leaders. The farmer said, “Well, as I see it, most
politicians are ‘Post Turtles’.” Not
being familiar with the term, the doc asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was. The wise old rancher said, “When you’re
driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle
balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.”
The farmer saw a puzzled look on the doc’s face, so he explained. “You know he didn’t get up there by himself,
he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he’s up there, and
he’s elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of
dumb arse put him up there to begin with.”
The doc said, “That’s the best explanation of a politician I’ve ever
heard. On a personal level, I can think of some administrators, board members,
parents, and even teacher colleagues I’ve dealt with. I’m sure you can think of others, too.
I went shopping with Aint Daisy then we sat on the park
bench and “people watched”, as she calls it.
“See those young’uns over yonder?
They’ve been fussing with their mama the whole time we’ve been
here. She isn’t doing them any favors by
not making them hush and show respect to her.
Respect doesn’t come automatically, one has to earn it, and the mama
needs to teach it or they’re gonna have a hard life.”
My sweet daughter saw I was being
rather rough on myself as I tried to manage just about every aspect of
something. She said, “Momm, you are a
micro-manager. Back yourself off and
rest!” I told her, “Well, just because I try to organize applesauce and mashed potatoes,
does not a micro-manager make!!!” She
laughed.
I have contact with a lot of my former
students. Most are in their 30s and
early 40s. One “live wire” asked on a
social media site one Friday late afternoon, “What’s everybody doing tonight?” There were expected answers of fun group get
togethers and night club activities. I
replied, “I'm old, so I'm remembering what I
did on Friday nights when I was young. After thinking and remembering for about
30 minutes, I'm exhausted and ready for a nap.”
I called my telephone company and
asked if they had plans to put television cable (fiber optic), telephone, and
internet all together in my area (they are calling it DIGI-MAX), and if so,
would it be here before I die. The young
man said, “We are using the best equipment we have to run the fiber optic and
other lines to your area as fast as we can.
As for it being in your locale before you die, we use fiber optic
cables, not a crystal ball.” I
appreciated his sense of humor and laughed out loud, then thanked him for his
wit.
We had a lot of snow fall the
week-end of Jan. 11-13. A friend in NE
Ohio sent me a picture of her back yard with all its snow. I told her, “We have a lot of snow
here in central Illinois, too. I really don't mind it as it gives proof
that I'm not the only one on this 2-acre plot of land. Deer, rabbits,
wandering dogs, and some coyotes track through the front and back yards.
I've watched the deer nibble on some of the cedar trees in the back, bed down
for a while under the biggest one, and paw at the snow to reveal a morsel
of green grass beneath the white blanket. I think of those in the deep
South, not at how lucky they are to not have all this, but what their reaction
would be if they did.....’Oh my gawd, we're gonna die; it's the end of the
world!!!’ We Northerners are a tough lot, aren't we?”
That’s it for this month.
May you have many smiles and more blessings. Trudy J
