Embracing my inner sloth

 

This sloth sentiment is dedicated to Donna, Miriam, Gail, Sandy M, and Marie.  These friends played Bananagrams together and soon discovered an "ai" is a three-toed sloth.  Knowing it's a legitimate word is valuable when playing their game, so they adopted a sloth as their spirit animal.  I hope this shirt will encourage my friends to embrace their inner sloth in what's left of 2020, since they can no longer get together every weekend in the Circle@Crown Café.

This design is perfect for this season.  There's a Christmas tree on the left for my Christian friends which is also an eight-branched menorah for Hanukkah for my Jewish friends when turned around.

This poster from Cool People Care is like a to-do list of ways we can make the world a better place for all of us.  My motto has long been Embrace Kindness and Practice Compassion, both right there in the middle.  And I talk to strangers.  One of my friends said I can make a new friend during an elevator ride.  I can't do that in 2020, though.  Since it's impossible to socially distance in an elevator, we have been told to ride our elevators at the Crown Center one person at a time, except for those who are family or have caregivers.  We all need to stand up for justice and offer hope to those around us during this life-altering time of COVID-19.

Beginning ~ three times

#1 Prologue

My calendar is full of dead people.

#2 Land/Egypt

My mother, who lived and died by superstitions, used to make us say together before we went on a trip:  We're not going anywhere.  It was meant to trick the Devil.  I can't say I believe in that kind of thing, but then again, I didn't say it before I left home, and look at where that got me.

#3 Water/Boston

When I get home, Brian is waiting.  He stares at me as if I am a hallucination, and then he approaches me cautiously — the way you would move toward a feral animal or someone whose world has gone to pieces around her.

The Book of Two Ways ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2020, fiction (Egypt and Boston, Massachusetts)

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein.  She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement:  Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind.  The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago:  Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised.  She has led a good life.  Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened.  And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go.  The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path:  return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways — the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them.  Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked:  What does a life well lived look like?  When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind?  Do we make choices . . . or do our choices make us?  And who would you be if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?

An illustration from the book

This is the wavy map of the Egyptian Book of Two Ways (pp. 259-260).  When I borrowed this book from my friend Donna, I was in the middle of reading Jacqueline Winspear's The Mapping of Love and Death: A Maisie Dobbs Novel (2010).  Both books are about maps and death.  That's eerie.  Maurice, who is Maisie's mentor, said in an earlier book in the series that "coincidence is a messenger sent by truth" (p. 50 in Birds of a Feather, 2004).  Is this one of Maisie's "coincidences"?  And look at this Amazon comment:

"To have a book dropped wordlessly in the night into your Kindle in a night you are climbing out of recovery for Stage 4 cancer treatment, and to have the book be this one, this spiritual agnostic acknowledges, again, that there are forces in our world at work that we cannot explain.  To say I couldn't put this down is clichéd, and I did.  I had to sleep.  But I didn't stop thinking. I have never ran a complete parallel conversation in my brain as I did with this one.  I will need to re-read to capture all the Egyptology details, and confirm what time spinning I believe took place.  I can't imagine the brilliance of how to weave quantum physics, Egyptian pathways, and death doulas into a love story for a daughter, a mother, a brother, a lover and a husband — and maybe even a little growing love for self and all that is sacrificed in living life and all that we fear when faced with dying.  Thank you, Jodi.  It's the book I wanted to read before I died."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click the blue link for more book beginnings.

One candle lit

One candle has been lit on the menorah to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah today.  This one is at the Link Desk between our two high-rise buildings here at the Crown Center.  Darlene was the person on duty when I went down to pick up my prescriptions and check the mail.

Word of the Day #1

me·nor·ah / məˈnôrə / noun = a candelabrum used in Jewish worship, especially one with eight branches and a central socket used at Hanukkah.

Word of the Day #2

Ha·nuk·kah / ˈhänəkə, ˈKHänəkə / noun = a lesser Jewish festival, lasting eight days from the 25th day of Kislev (in December) and commemorating the rededication of the Temple in 165 BC by the Maccabees after its desecration by the Syrians.  It is marked by the successive kindling of eight lights.

Mistakes and malapropisms

Would you accept $500?  (No, sorry.  Current offer on the table is $675.)  Table?  I'm interested in the washer and dryer

The grenade is just a mazel tov cocktail

Ain't had time to play on my phone because I work 24/7 5 days a week

well how long would the pregnancy take if she had twins  9+9 = 19 months

I cuted my hair an it went back to curly  (Don't you mean cut?)  hah it's past tents

Somebody born in 2020 will see the year 3000 when they're 80.  That's wild.

Is there any sort of book subscription for kids that exists where you order books and once you read them you return them and get more?  (It's called a library.)

When I was 6 My sister was half my age Now i'm 70 how old's my sister ?

Idk guys. What if like...what if The Office is just a meaty okra show?

If wireless PC's existed, we could literally take them anywhere and use them to be even more productive than having to plug it in into a socket all the time.  (You mean, a laptop?)  I think I said PC's very clearly

Has anyone ever gotten salmon vanilla from chicken that's not fully cooked?

a woman gave birth to you.  (I was adopted but ok)

Death row inmates of reddit, what was your last meal?  (Just.... let him figure it out)

What is an all tomato?  (Do you mean ultimatum?  Use it in a sentence)  Give them an all tomato

If you smoke marinara, feel free to unfriend me  (I only smoke mozzarella)

There is just no winning in this life.  I accept the feet.

Oy vey

I can only shake my head at these mistakes and malapropisms.  Finding these funny (or depressing) must mean I have been "corn teened" too long — yes, that's another malapropism that was among the ones above.  Click this blue link if you want to read the rest of them.  Did you also notice these people don't use punctuation or capital letters with any sort of consistency?  And they can't spell ("thot" instead of "thought") or even do simple arithmetic (9 + 9 = 19).  Now let's define a couple of the words I've used.

    

• oy vey / oi ˌvā / = a Yiddish phrase expressing dismay or exasperation.
• mal·a·prop·ism/ ˈmaləˌpräpˌizəm / noun = the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, "dance a flamingo" (instead of dance a flamenco).

Two cats in two beds, two dogs, two bookshelves, and two more cats

Click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the 27 book titles in order.  Here, I'll help you out:

• The English Patient
• Had
• Caught
• It
• On the Beach
• I Should Have Stayed Home
• She Said
• Now
• She Was
• In Quarantine
• In the Dark
• House of Splendid Isolation
• Still
• Hope Springs Eternal
• With a Little Bit of Luck
• Common Sense
• And
• Personal Hygiene
• The Corona Book of Horror Stories
• Must End Soon
• Always Remember
• Clean Hands Save Lives
• And
• When in Doubt
• Don't
• Go
• Out!

Caring for self on a day of sad remembrance

Self-Care Bingo

Back in March, a couple of weeks after our lockdown began, I posted this Self-Care Bingo card.  This seems like a good time to post it again.  Click on the image to enlarge the words, if you can't read them.

• Drink another glass of water (twice; we need to stay hydrated)
• Create something
• Listen to a favorite song
• Cultivate gratitude (5 times; feeling grateful lifts my spirits)
• Read a poem
• Cook something sustaining
• Offer to help someone
• Inhale/exhale
• Connect with someone (3 times; especially important if you live alone or with only a pet for company)
• Clean up a messy spot
• Look at something beautiful
• Go to bed
• Turn off the news (twice)
• Eat something tasty
• Relax and do nothing
• Watch something that makes you laugh

Did I miss any suggestions on the Bingo card?  How many of these have you been doing?

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

A blogger I've never visited before began her post today:  "Most of my fellow American readers, followers, and lurkers are too young to have remembered the attack on Pearl Harbor.  In fact, most of us weren't born yet..."  She reminded me it's the anniversary of the deadly day in 1941 that got the United States into the Second World War.  I was too young to remember the event, having been born the year before.  I do remember the day my Daddy went off to war three years later, when I was four-and-a-half.  He was drafted even though he had two children and a third on the way.

Day 266 since lockdown = 38 weeks

This is actually a doormat.  My daughter Sandra had a photo from the mid-1960s of me and my three children put on a doormat for me.  We were at Signal Point that day, overlooking the Tennessee River.  The city of Chattanooga is off to the left behind me.  This surprise arrived in the mail yesterday.

Gotta brag a little

My daughter shared her painting of a Christmas tree on Facebook today.  Click to enlarge it and see details better.

I love her Christmas tree!  Her black phone on the wall around the corner is a vintage phone like the ones I blogged about on Thursday.

Exploring the world

The only way I have traveled since March this year is online.  In July, I discovered WindowSwap and have clicked on it occasionally ever since, jumping to random windows all over the world.  Recently, I learned about View from My Window on Facebook, where over 200,000 of us share a view from our own windows, limited to one post a day per person.  I've only posted once so far, sharing a photo of Clawdia in her favorite window.  Click on my blue links to see for yourself.

Another way I get around is to Google the places where I used to live.  Today, I went back to take a look at the first house we bought just before the twins were born sixty years ago.  The house looks pretty much the same, but the trees in the front yard are different and they've added a deck that we didn't have.  Over the years, I have walked the neighborhood where I grew up, looked at my old school buildings, and visited a friend in the Netherlands whom I've never met.  I've never been in her country, either, except via Google maps.  It's fun; try it.

Face masks

Vincent van Gogh would have a problem in our masked world of 2020.  I hope you are still wearing a mask and staying socially distanced when you go out.  To make your face mask fit better, watch the tutorial video at the end of this short article.

Bookish things

I haven't read much this week, but I did borrow The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult from my friend Donna.  I am still reading a Maisie Dobbs book right now, but I'll share more about this latest book by Jodi Picoult in a Book Beginnings on Friday post.

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