All it took Saturday morning to flip my stomach was when my iPad flashed that Saturday night was Grandson Ryan’s high school graduation party. Frankly, I had no idea how bad I would feel.
I like going to eat and drink at Charles and Cindy’s house. The food and drink is always great and plentiful to the extent 25 extra very hungry people could attend.
I do not talk a lot. Generally, I sit in one or two comfortable places and wait to see who sits down to visit with me. Just about everyone is happy to bring me whatever I want so I rarely feel ignored.
s Again, I seldom analyze what I like about something until there is a time to think about it. What I really like is just watching my children and grandchildren and their friends interact. I do judge, generally silently, conduct that pleases and displeases me. However, overall, what I think about is how lucky we have been to be able to live long enough to see how people and circumstances have evolved, for better or for worse.
I also think a lot about my parents, particularly my Mother. Had she remained alive and able to spend more time with our children and help teach our grandchildren, everyone’s life would be significantly enhanced. She would not have been quiet as I generally have to be when she thought something was not as it should be. Moreover, she could always get away with it. No one would dare tell her to mind her own business, or resent the admonition. Advice from me is resented more times than not. Advice from my Mother was like advice coming down from the Mount.
My Mother just had a way about her. Everyone was willing to take a lesson (or many) from her. I think everyone listened to her respectfully and was always better off for doing so. I also wish, as I look around these gatherings, that my parents could see what has happened in the family. I am proud of most of it, not all, but I have not given up either. Relationships need to be improved and I am going to try to get that done.
As inarticulate as these thoughts might be, the bottom line is that not being at this celebration for Ryan is a bigger blow than I ever imagined it would be. ———————- I am thinking about the danger all the women in America will be facing and trying to identify the most effective ways of fighting back. One way is two aspirin planted firmly between the knees.
There are lots of groups looking after the rights of women, but it has occurred to me that there are hundreds of sororities and thousands of women who were in them during their college years. I think these sororities need to organize both their alumni, but also their active chapters throughout the country. Women, you cannot take what is happening lying down. In fact, forget lying down and learn to sleep sitting up. I just did. —————————- I posted this separately, but it is worth posting here.
“It didn’t start with gas chambers; it started with one party controlling the media, one party controlling the message, one party deciding what is truth, one party censoring speech and silencing opposition, one party dividing citizens into 'us' and 'them' and calling on their supporters to harass them. It started when good people turned a blind eye and let it happen”.
Please pay attention because the stakes were never higher than they are now.
Begging and pleading will not help. What will help is a grassroots movement throughout our country. No one is more important than anyone else. Talk to everyone you know and ask them to do the same. Knock on doors, post on Facebook, and communicate every possible way that we are in grave danger of our country becoming an autocracy, an illiberal democracy. ————————— I rarely watch judge’s shows on television. Some, such as Judge Judy, are very popular and very lucrative for the judge. My good friend Burton Young’s son David had quite a good show for a while, but went back to being a sitting full-time judge doing a very good job. Of all the “television judges", the one I think is consistently heads and shoulders the best is an 85-year-old judge from Providence, Rhode Island named Frank Caprio. Check him out. —————————— I have spent a lot of time while convalescing listening to and evaluating female country music singers. The male vocalists that are great are so plentiful that, on any given day, a good argument can be made for many.
I do not have nearly the problem with the distaff side. Most of the superstars not only were great performers but writers as well. Many were accomplished on multiple instruments. After careful evaluation, there are three that stand out. They are Patsy Kline, Dolly Parton, and Loretta Lynn. Kline, I think, had the best pure voice but I place her second and Parton third. For me, Loretta Lynn embodies the very essence of country music. She is, therefore, in my view, the most important female performer in the history of the genre.
Go on YouTube and watch Lynn in concert. It is called “You’re Looking At Country” and that says it all. One critic ranking the female singers said the following: "In many ways country music is about a sense of place. When we’re home, we start dreaming about the world beyond our door. But when we leave, we often find ourselves longing for our family home. Growing up in Kentucky’s Butcher Holler, Loretta Lynn did not have to search far for inspiration. She married and had four kids all before she released her first single 'Honky Tonk Girl'. Taking from her own life experience ('Coal Miner’s Daughter', 'Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’) Lynn went on to write some of the best country music songs ever written. From her early studio work …….Loretta Lynn reminds us of our country roots and is the top country female artist of all time “ —————————- Does anyone besides me think Nancy Pelosi is being treated wrongfully by the Catholic Church? She is being denied Communion because of her stand on abortion. Pelosi has had five children. She has been a devout Catholic. When she supports abortion, she is supporting the views of the majority of her constituents. That is her job in a representative form of government. Church and State should not mix. This is wrong. ————————— I have nothing to say about the Marlins. ————————- Go Ukraine
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