I have stuff. I am a keeper of stuff. I buy plastic boxes because cardboard just doesn’t do it. For me it is memory, saving memories. I have been pretty good at keeping mostly, mostly carrying a lot of weight, stuff that is important to my life and to our life. When we moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina, I cleaned out a lot–not good at yard sales, but rather good at Habitat and Goodwill. I spent the better part of two Christmas seasons after Tom retired cleaning out all the decorations.
Continue readingCategory: Musing (Page 5 of 31)
In North Carolina, like much of the East Coast, there is that slice of the year–days only– that is bereft of humidity or cold or heat. If you don’t pay attention, you miss it in all it’s glory. It’s where the weather is almost not there. You walk outside to a silken breeze and sunshine peeking through leaves. And it always reminds me of the first day of school! Continue reading
“Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness.”
Easter. The celebration of Easter falls on the first Sunday after March 21, the Church’s date of the vernal equinox. Easter. The most amazing liturgical season of the entire calendar.
The next Sunday will be Divine Mercy Sunday. Good Friday is the beginning of the Divine Mercy novena. “Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: ‘Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy’ (Diary, p. 132). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium.” — St. John Paul II, Divine Mercy Sunday Homily, April 22, 2001
Eastertide. The marked by Divine Mercy Sunday, The Ascension of our Lord and The Solemnity of Pentecost, which crowns and fulfills the Easter season, is a good time to pray for a deeper indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Let us rejoice and be glad.
Just because there was no social media in Rome doesn’t mean that it was a simpler life. Read any book on Pax Romana and you read of class warfare, slavery and oppression. Ha! Don’t even get me started on Medieval Times and sadly, from the 1700’s on we have more information on just how gawd-awful life could be.
Human rights are a new thing in the history of the world. There is no such thing as the good old days. For some life was a horror. For others life was drub. For some it was great, but keeping it great was a huge chore.
It’s always interesting how we come to cope with the mess of life, how when we interact, we show our concern and care. It’s not just words that are interesting, it’s how people put them together and how we use the words. I’ve written about the British series LEWIS- the spinoff or sequel to MORSE and the term, What Joy? Or No Joy? Which was an interesting way to say, ‘did you find anything good?’ Or, ‘no, there is nothing to report.’ A very succinct way.
Recently I’ve heard the term Stay Frosty, mostly used as a good bye, instead of ‘see ya’, or ‘take care’. [which are throw-away pro-forma statements.] Stay Frosty has a more thoughtful appeal and please note: I hate cold. I mean I have a deep, down, long-abiding, dreaded and wrenching loathing of cold. I rarely put ice in my drinks. I like tap water. I’ll take a neat whiskey over a cold beer any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
So. I looked it up.
Apparently it started in the military? Instead of Stay Cool, it was Stay Frosty. Keep your emotions in check. Don’t get all hot and bothered. But it is more than that. Cool is thought of as laid back, not involved. But Frosty has more of a stand-up, pay attention, keep alert quality.
So in our complicated life, where it feels like every single day we are bombarded. Where every single day there is a problem to solve and less ways to solve it. Where you know , because of all that has happened in the past decade, we can be less inclined to be charitable, or kind, or sympathetic because we are all bombarded with problems. Where there are those who are lashing out, taking their anger to the streets, and mitigating the structures of a civilization, then we need to be alert, be cool, keep our emotions in check and…
Stay Frosty!
My electric can opener died on Friday afternoon. I was making dinner and needed to open a can of diced tomato. I put the can in the proper place, pushed on the lever and there was a noise like a falling rock, a buzz in the device and the can did not move. I have no idea how long I’ve had that can opener but a long time. No worries, I went onto Amazon, looked up electric can openers, compared several and bought one. It arrived the next day.
Welcome to the Twenty First Century. Well, sort of.
I was eight when Disneyland opened in 1955. And we went. In those days you were likely, even at eight, to be in a dress, shoes and socks and on your best behavior. It was an event. I clearly remember the Home of Tomorrow by Montsanto when it opened in 1957. Long lines, but inside. Well. Wow. There were video phones and ovens that cooked stuff in minutes. It was all very plastic and very bright.
Even back then I was a huge Sci-Fi fan and my mom found me the Lucky Starr series written by Asimov under the name Paul French. 
Asimov writes in a conversational tone, you feel like you’re right there. Lucky wasn’t his real name, it was David or Peter or something, but Lucky he was. And he had all kinds of cool future stuff, a rocket ship, computers, maybe even a robot–after all this was Asimov. At a time we were talking about video phones, and microwave oven and flying cars, Lucky had his tool belt. And the tool belt came with his own personal force field. In one adventure it let him go close to the sun to solve the problem.
So here we are in the twenty first century, twenty years in actually. We can get things we want overnight. If you live in a big city, even that same day. We don’t have flying cars, but we do have video phones and microwaves and computers and rocket ships, even a space station.
I’ve forgotten much of the Lucky Starr story, but that tool belt with the personal force field–that’s my yard stick for when we have made it into the twenty first century. Sadly, we are not there yet.