The Thinker is thinking thoughts today, and so am I

It is supper time, and I haven't yet posted my thoughts for today.  The Thinker is reminding me to share some thoughts.  Okay.  Sue and I planned to have lunch together, but I decided to go down to our Circle@Crown Cafe early to have my breakfast when they opened at 8:00 a.m.

Alice McC. joined me at my table.  When Sandy M. showed up, I invited her to sit with us because today's her birthday.  Sue arrive a little before 11:00, as she had planned to do, and joined those of us already sitting there.

When I got a call from Sandra H. asking if I'd like to meet her in the Cafe (she lives in the neighborhood near here), I told her I was already in the Cafe, so come join us.  She was coming to the Crown Center for a program that met at 1:00, but she had time to eat with us before it started.

So my friends from here and there just came and went all morning, and I ended up being in the Cafe with various people as they met each other and left for their own activities.  Do you wonder how long I was in the Cafe?  From 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. as those folks chatted and ate together.

When I finally headed home, after walking around the block (going the long way home to get in my steps, in other words), I ran into Dora H. sitting in the lobby and sat down to talk to her awhile.  Other friends stopped to speak to us as they passed by us, like Alyssa with her dog Hazel, and Betty B. who sat down to talk.

I think I got in a good day's worth of socializing:  Alice, Sandy, Sue, Sandra, Dora, Alyssa, Hazel (yes, dogs count), and Betty.  And these don't count the ones we said hello to as they came and went through the lobby.

A borrowed book ~ or two ~ or three ~ actually four

Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats ~ by Courtney Gustafson, 2025, memoir, 256 pages

When Courtney Gustafson moved into a rental house in the Poets Square neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, she didn’t know that the property came with thirty feral cats.  Focused only on her own survival — in a new relationship, during a pandemic, with poor mental health and a job that didn’t pay enough — Courtney was reluctant to spend any of her own time or money caring for the wayward animals.

But the cats — their pleading eyes, their ribs showing, the new kittens born in the driveway — didn’t give her a choice.

She had no idea about the grief and hardship of animal rescue, the staggering size of the problem in neighborhoods across the country.  And she couldn’t have imagined how that struggle — toward an ethics of care, of individuals trying their best amid spectacularly failing systems — would help pierce a personal darkness she’d wrestled with for much of her life.  She also didn’t expect that the TikTok and Instagram accounts she created to share the quirky personalities of the wild but lovable cats, like Monkey, Goldie, Francois, and Sad Boy, would end up saving her home.

Courtney writes toward a vision of connectedness, showing how taking care of the cats reshaped her understanding of empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for some-thing outside yourself.  She takes us from the dark alleys where she feeds feral cats to inside the tragically neglected homes where she climbs over piles of trash, and occasionally animals, and then into her own driveway with the cats she loves and must sometimes let go.  Compelling and tender, Poets Square is as much about cats as it is about the urgency of care, community, and a little bit of dumb hope.

Knowing my love of cats (and books), one of my neighbors called to invite me for a chat.  She wanted to "show" me something.  Actually, she wanted to let me borrow one of the library books she'd just gotten.  This is the book she handed me.  I started it immediately, since she would want to read it herself when she finished the other book (or books) she'd checked out.  That's why I opened it the minute I went back to my apartment.  Thanks, Madeleine.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. My Wednesday post, HERE, was about a book loaned to me by a neighbor who also loves cats.  Thanks, Larry.
2. On Thursday, I didn't mention HERE that a friend from the community met me for lunch in our Café and brought a book she'd just finished, thinking it is one I'd like to read.  Thanks, Sharon.
3. On Friday, I wrote HERE about a book another neighbor let me borrow, one her daughter had given her.  Thanks, Betty.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ in a spacecraft

Beginning

Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene.  Sometimes they dream the same dreams — of fractals and blue spheres and familiar faces engulfed in dark, and of the bright energetic black of space that slams their senses.

Orbital ~ by Samantha Harvey, 202i3, science fiction, 212 pages

This story takes us through one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts — from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan — have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below.  We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communi-cations with family, their photos, and their talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude.  Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet.  Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.

People are sharing library books with me that they enjoyed.  First, Lois handed me one that I wrote about last week HERE.  And I came home on Tuesday to see a book in the box beside my door from my neighbor across the hall.  The post-it note said, "I loved this one — Betty B."  Yes, it was the book I'm sharing with you today.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Reflecting on our Café Conversations

On Monday, I had an annual doctor's appointment.  No big deal, but it takes up time in the middle of the day.  On Tuesday, however, I had invited about 20 people to come to the second meeting of Café Conversations.  A few told me ahead of time that:

• they had other plans or doctor appointments.
• she would be out of town.
• she would put it on her calendar.
• she would be delivering meals at that time.
• she would see me Tuesday, followed later by "oops, can't come."
• she "was assisting a friend in Hospice."
• another said, "Maybe." 
• one said simply, "Thank you" with a smiley face.

Most, however, never replied one way or the other.  So I had no idea how many people would be there or how many tables of people we might fill.  At our mid-August gathering, we had squeezed seven of us around one big table.

Well, here's my report about this month.  See that photo at the top?  We had only five of us on Tuesday, so we moved to one side to let Andrew take this photo of us, sitting over in our corner of the Café:  Myrna, Betty, Bev, Bonnie, and Sue.  We talked a couple of hours.  Risé had desk duty and had to miss it this time.  We are still trying to find the best day and time to have our Café Conversations.

Thoughts about a book and a debate

All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way ~ by Fred C. Trump III, 2024, memoir/biography, 352 pages

With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name.

For the record, Fred Trump never asked for any of this.  The divisive politics.  The endless headlines.  A hijacked last name.  The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real estate scion to gossip column fixture to The Apprentice host to President of the United States.  Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career.  But a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto a center stage that he had never wanted.  And now, at a crucial point for our nation, he is stepping forward again.

In this book, Fred delves into his journey to become a "different kind of Trump," detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family.  From the Trump house to the White House, Fred comes to terms with his own complex legacy and faces some demons head-on.  It’s a story of power, love, money, cruelty, and the unshakable bonds of family, played out underneath a glaring media spotlight.  All in the Family is the inside story, as it’s never been told before.

I loved the look on Kamala's face during the debate on Tuesday, especially after one of Trump's claims.  Fact check:  "There is no state in this country where it’s legal to kill a baby after it’s born."  Wow, that statement floored me!

The next day, a friend met me for lunch in the Café and let me borrow Fred Trump's book (above) that she had gotten from the library and had already finished reading.  I have two weeks to read it before the due date.  She says that it's a quick read.

Let's walk about it ~ I mean, let's talk about walking

Defensive driving is a way of driving that anticipates what another driver might do so you can react accordingly.  It goes beyond road rules and basic driving techniques to help reduce the risk of collisions and improve road safety,

You may wonder why I'm bringing that up, especially since I don't have a car and therefore no longer drive.  My neighbor Betty (the second Betty to move onto our floor) brought it up when we lunch in the Café, and I told her about Café Conversations.  When I mentioned Pamela's suggestion to idea to use a bowl or jar that people could put suggestions in, Betty said, "Walk defensively."

I guess I looked puzzled because she went on to say that we should not only drive defensively, but also WALK defensively.  Huh!  We had already been there awhile, and were ready to leave.  So I went home puzzling over what that would mean.  I think it would give a group a lot to discuss.

I went online and found the illustration above.  If you can't read the small print, I think clicking on the illustration will enlarge it for you.  The last example says a reason to walk defensively (like a penguin) is to avoid icy falls.  Umm, that's not likely with our St. Louis summer temperatures near 100-degrees!

It's a little small to read, but I think you can enlarge it by clicking on it.  The weather has been brutal here this summer.  Is it hot where you are?

 

After ordering lunch in the Cafe recently, I joined a group I knew and noticed one of them was wearing a pink tee with the words "fluent in fowl language."  You know I love word play and had to share those words here on my blog.  I found several versions of it online, and this looks most like what she had on.

I'll leave you with this to ponder.  I posted it two years ago, HERE, and it's still true.  We don't usually think of grocery carts as "vehicles," but when we think of the prices we pay for everything these days, we groan.  Especially our grocery prices, it seems.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Today's the first day of SPRING

Under this photo from The Old Farmer's Almanac are these words:  "When Is the First Day of Spring 2024?  In 2024, the March equinox happens on March 19 at 11:06 P.M. EDT.  This falls on a Tuesday and is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.  If you thought that the spring equinox only ever occurred on March 21, you may be dating yourself.  The civil calendar date of the equinox continues to shift every year."  So today's the day, but not yet.  We have to wait until tonight in my part of the world.

I told you about The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese a couple of days ago, saying "a couple of books worth sharing."  Well, maybe not.  My neighbor Betty knocked on my door, handed me this huge book (736 pages), and said she doesn't want it back.  It has taken her since Christmas to finish it, she said.  I then suggested donating it to the Crown Center's little library, but Betty said our resident librarian Risé had told her large books like this are too heavy for old folks to hold.

Books worth sharing

Today is St. Patrick's Day.  It is a holiday to commemorate Patrick's death.  He's the patron saint of Ireland, and this day was chosen because he died on March 17th around the year 492.

I wish a happy St. Patrick's Day to all of us who are Irish and those who want to be Irish, even if only for this one single day each year.

I'll be wearing GREEN today.  Would you like to join me?  I wish you the luck of the Irish:

May good luck be with you wherever you go, / and your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow. /  May your days be many and your troubles be few. / May all of God's blessings descend upon you. / May peace be within you. / May your heart be strong. / May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.

Did you just now read that in a sing-songy way as I did?  Oh, yeah, I thought you did.

The Night Country ~ by Loren Eisley, 1947, social science (Nebraska), 241 pages

Toward the end of his life, Loren Eiseley reflected on the mystery of life, throwing light on those dark places traversed by himself and centuries of humankind.  The Night Country is a gift of wisdom and beauty from the famed anthropologist.  It describes his needy childhood in Nebraska, reveals his increasing sensitivity to the odd and ordinary in nature, and focuses on a career that turns him inward as he reaches outward for answers in old bones (from the back cover).

The Covenant of Water ~ by Abraham Verghese, 2023, literary fiction (India), 736 pages

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, the story is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction:  in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning — and in Kerala, water is everywhere.  At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.  From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl — and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi — will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today.

My neighbor is reading those two books

Betty, who lives across the hall from me, emailed me about one of them:  "Would love to hand it over to you when I’m finished."  After I read the books, she and I plan to discuss them.

Something Worth Leaving Behind ~ by Brett Beavers and Tom Douglas, introduction by Lee Ann Womack, 2002, inspiration, 66 pages, 10/10

If I will love then I will find

I have touched another life and that's something

Something worth leaving behind

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts the Sunday Salon

What I'm thinking about

1.  On the Crown Center bus ~ Iva, Betty, and Meredith on the left; Bonnie, Esme beside Jerry, and Shannon (in the back) on the right.  This is an old photo, but I'll be on the bus again today when we go to buy groceries.

2.  Another bagful of books ~ Risé invited me to go with her this morning to the last day of the sale of used books at the Jewish Community Center.  That's when we can fill a bag with books for five bucks.  I've written about the books I've stuffed into bags other years, like THIS in 2017, but I haven't been to their sale since I quit driving.  I'll tell you about the books later, probably over several days, a few books at a time.  I set this to post itself while we're book shopping.

3.  Punxsutawney Phil ~ Did you see my earlier post?  Today is Groundhog Day, so go back one post to see what I wrote.

4.  Einstein's cluttered desk ~ The photo on the right was his office on the day he died.  These are the words on the left photo:  "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" — Albert Einstein

5.  Survey about daily life ~ Do you need help...

... with using the telephone?

... with shopping?

... with food preparation?

... with housekeeping?

... with laundry?

... with transportation?

... with your medications?

... with your finances (budgeting, buying, banking, paying bills)?

6.  And then there's quality of life to consider, as Atul Gawande wrote about in his 2014 book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.  I gave that one a 10/10 rating and highly recommend it.  A survey could ask questions about whether you are satisfied with your life, how you feel, whether you are involved in activities or not, whether you feel hopeless or happy.  Think about it.  How alive and involved are you feeling these days?  In answering some of their quality of life questions, I didn't just circle Yes/No as requested.  You know me, right?  I had to throw in a few remarks, as well.

7.  Do you often get bored?  NO, I don't think I've ever been bored, except in some business meetings.  😃

8.  Do you prefer to stay at home, rather than going out and doing new things?  YES, but that's because I'm an INTJ (introvert).

9.  Do you think it is wonderful to be alive now?  YES, but reading news of random rampages is not "wonderful."  (Neither, is reading about wars and violence.)

10.  Do you feel full of energy?  NO, not physical energy.  Mentally I have lots of energy, but my physical energy is slowing down.

11.  An alarming day ~ I set off alarms at the courthouse in my town back in 2009.  Why?  I told people it is because I am held together with baling wire. I actually WAS wired together after quadruple bypass heart surgery earlier that year.  The guard let me pass through after I showed her my scars from surgery.

Beginning ~ by being thrown out of a car

Sometimes in big Hollywood movies they'll have these crazy chase scenes where somebody jumps or gets thrown from a moving car.  The person hits the ground and rolls for a bit.  Then they come to a stop and pop up and dust themselves off, like it was no big deal.  Whenever I see that I think,  That's rubbish.  Getting thrown out of a moving car hurts way worse than that."

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood ~ by Trevor Noah, 2016, memoir (South Africa)

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act:  his birth.  Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison.  Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away.  Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

This is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.  It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother — his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting.  Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty.  His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

Betty Burnett told me about this Trevor Noah memoir, and I got it for my Kindle.  I found this YouTube video (recorded May 29, 2020 by Trevor Noah), which I posted on my Facebook page on June 1st.  It's powerful.  After watching it, I wondered:  "Are we upholding society's contract?  How?  By not looting?  How about by not murdering black men just because you can?"  Here are a couple of quotes I pulled from the 18 minute video:

Trevor Noah says, "There is no contract if law and people in power don't uphold their end of it" (at 11:11 minutes into this 18 minute video).

"If the example law enforcement is setting is that they do not adhere to the laws, then why should the citizens of that society adhere to the laws when, in fact, the law enforcers themselves don't?" (at 11:53-12:03).

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Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts
Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for book beginnings
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Face masks and social distancing

Here's a photo Betty took wearing her mask.  I think she must have had her computer snap this shot.  She sent it to me when I checked to see if she needed one of the masks being made by two of the volunteers in our Circle@Crown Café (when it was open before our stay-at-home orders).  Since the Crown Center is now discouraging visitors in the building, Linda Goldstein had brought about a dozen for me to distribute.  Laurie Dyche tells me, "Linda and I are making face shields next."  Here's what we should know about Coronavirus face masks, according to WebMD.

Click to enlarge the images.

Here are a couple of photos from my sixth floor apartment, showing how people are social distancing themselves by walking to the drive-up pharmacy window at Walgreens across the street.  This shows one person with a cart, standing in line between two cars on Saturday.

There were no cars on Sunday, when two people together walked up to the window.  I also had seen one man waiting in a long line of cars several days earlier, but didn't think to snap a picture.  Apparently he was told to "wait over there," because the car behind him rolled up to be served while he waited patiently over by the parked cars across the lot.  Then he went back up to the window, got his stuff (presumably a prescription), and left.

I found a new meme today, found it on Colleen's blog and followed it to Our World Tuesday.  There I discovered I'm not the only one posting pictures of face masks and social distancing.  Here's one (scroll to the bottom to see him wearing his mask), and here's another who is literally social distancing by carrying a sign that's shows how far apart to stay.  Find others by clicking on the home page of Our World Tuesday, where the goal is "to look at and think about our world as a gift to share with our friends around the world."  I decided to join the 61 others who have already added their blog links.

Books, broken water pipes, and health

BOOK I'M READING

Five Fortunes ~ by Beth Gutcheon, 1998, fiction

A lively octogenarian, a private investigator, a mother and daughter with an unresolved past, and a recently widowed politician's wife share little else except a thirst for new dreams, but after a week at the luxurious health spa known as "Fat Chance" their lives will be intertwined in ways they couldn't have imagined.  Unexpected friendships emerge, reminding us of the close links between the rich and the poor, fortune and misfortune, and the magic of chance.

BROKEN WATER PIPES

During the cold snap, a major pipe burst in our building, and we were without water for a day.  I keep water in my fridge, but other people were ready to use bottled water to brush their teeth.  I had plenty to drink and enough to wash my hands, and all of us could go over to the other building (connected on the ground floor), if necessary, where we have the Circle@Crown Café and other amenities.  I got out of the way for Tim, Ron, and the other maintenance men dashing from place to place.  Scott's shirt was wet, and he just shook his head and smiled at me as he hurried off after Tim.

When the problem was fixed, it still took time for the water pipes to fill on all ten floors.  The next morning, I had water from only the HOT faucet in the bathroom, both tub and sink — but the water was not warm, much less hot.  In the kitchen, water was coming from both sides, equally lukewarm. When the water situation was back to normal after a couple of days, I ran into Donna on the elevator and she said, "There's nothing better than a nice warm shower!"

BOOK I'M STUDYING

Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne ~ by Wilda C. Gafney, 2017, theology

Alyssa, Betty, Donna, Evelyn, Sheila, Risé, and I are going through this book in small bites.  Wilda Gafney has shown me things in the Hebrew scriptures that I've never noticed before.  We're ready to look at Deuteronomy next Saturday, which will complete Part I about "Women of the Torah."  Then we'll start on Part II about "Women of the Throne."

Click here to see what I wrote earlier about this book.

HEALTH

My blood pressure is high, and my doctor upped the dose of blood pressure medicine I'm taking.  I think I'll go out later and buy a BP monitor so I can check it at home.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Friday Five ~ five things that are new in my life

Mary Beth brings us today's Friday Five:

"So, no matter what the weather’s doing where you live, this time of year brings the beginning of school for most people.  Unless you are in year round school, or homeschooling, or something else.  Many folks I know say the beginning of school makes them feel like a new beginning, even if they are not in school themselves or have kids there.  In fact, I did a little math at the beginning of the week and determined that, based on my career in higher education and when I entered first grade, I am entering the 44th Grade this year.  So, for beginnings:  Tell us five things that are new in your life, or that you would LIKE to have be new in your life.  If that doesn’t work, how about things that you are ready to shed ... to make room for new things?  Opening your hands to release, to see what God might put into them?  So, go!"

Five things that are new in my life:

1.  New home

In June, I moved to St. Louis from my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  It's been a great adventure so far, as I settle into my new home and ... (ta-da!) ... make new friends!

2.  New friends

Evelyn, Betty, Sheila, Judy, Tomoko, Nancy, and Marilyn eat at my table at our "senior living" apartments.  I've attended all sorts of activities so I'd get to know my new neighbors in the building.  I've taken road trips with them and gone to all three "birthday bashes" in the three months I've lived here.  And I've participated in resident council meetings.  We didn't have anything like that where I used to live.  These people are very active and involved, and I'm loving it!

3.  New study buddies

My way of continuing to learn and "be in school" is to gather a group of my new friends — and one old friend — into a book discussion and "teach" each other.  We are currently studying Brian McLaren's 2014 book We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation,Reorientation, and Activation.

4.  New stole

Because I'm in St. Louis and live only six or eight miles from Ferguson, I learned on the 20th of a call for clergy in vestments to gather in solidarity for prayer and witness.  Local and statewide clergy would march to the county's Justice Center for a brief demonstration and prayer, and then the group would "caravan to Ferguson and consecrate the area with prayer and oil" so that our presence, prayers, and prophetic witness would make a difference.  Oops!  I just moved.  I had kept one stole when I retired, a tapestry stole showing children of the world, but which box was it in?  I got the invitation the day of the gathering and I didn't have time to search through boxes, so I went out and bought a new stole.  It's tapestry, similar in color to the one of the children that I have, somewhere, not yet unpacked.  And I did get it in time to march with the others, wearing my new clergy stole.

5.  New church

When I moved into my new home, in a new state, hundreds of miles from my last church, I set out to find a new church home.  University United Methodist Church is only two and a half miles from home, has a clergywoman as new to St. Louis as I am, and (as an added plus) both she and her husband graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta -- just as I did.  He teaches at Eden Seminary.  The Rev. Diane Kenaston is wearing the white robe and stole in the top photo, and her husband Adam Ployd is the bearded man behind her.  I was there, but only my left hand made it into the photo.  I was just to the left of the picture, beside the man wearing the white shirt.