Monday Mindfulness ~ some thoughts

 

I don't understand the urge to follow people who haven't accomplished anything, but are famous because they are well-known, and who are well-know because we talk about them.  And we celebrate that?  Why?  I'm a reader, so "authors are the kind of celebrities I love."  And then only when they have written something that interests me.  Back in 2010, I wrote about a few authors I have met:

• Masha Hamilton
• Fannie Flagg
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• Christopher Paul Curtis
• Avi
• Marcus Borg
• John Dominic Crossan
• Theda Perdue
• Madeleine L'Engle
• Robert Hicks
• Susan Gregg Gilmore
• Paul Von Ward
• Janisse Ray
• E. L. Konigsburg

Since moving to St. Louis, I've also met Reza Aslan, as you can see in this photo.  That day, he signed my copy of his book  Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (2013) that had just been published.

Today, I'm also pondering an event that happened a year and a half before I was born.  My parents were married on October 16, 1938.  My dad had turned 20 exactly one week earlier, and my mom was still 20 until exactly one week later.  That was important to him, that they were the same age, that she was not a year older.  Next Monday, I'll be thinking about her birthday, a century after it occurred.

Caturday ~ pumpkins

One of Bonnie's great-grandchildren has a picture of me on her shirt!

Compare it to a photo of me from a couple of years ago.

Clawdia, 'til next time   >^. .^<

Wednesday Words ~ jibe and jib

The word "jibe" (jibed; jibing) is an intransitive verb that means:

1.  to be in accord 
2.  agree — which is usually used with the word "with."

Example:  a story that doesn't jibe with the facts.  According to Merriam-Webster, the first known usage is from 1813.  A recent example from the web from the AP in Washington:  "President Donald Trump’s new communications aide is deleting old tweets that didn’t jibe with his boss’ views."

I looked it up after using it in a private message to a friend on Facebook.

"The woman gave me directions which jibed with the google map."

When I looked up "jibe," I also discovered it's an alternate spelling for "jib," one of the sails on a sailboat.  In 1968, we bought a sailboat and named it Blue Streak, because we talked a "blue streak" before deciding to buy it and because it was a 19-foot Lightning class sailboat.  (I found this labeled photo at Brit Word of the Day.)

Here's the difference in pronunciation:  "jib" rhymes with "rib," and "jibe" rhymes with "tribe."  Since I use both words, I'll stick with the two different spellings.

Daddy's day ~ William Elmer Setliffe, Jr.

My father was born on October 9th, 1918.  That's 99 years ago!  This photo is from World War Two, probably about 1945.  He died in traffic in 1964 when he was only 45 years old.  He was excited about the Interstate Highway being built through Chattanooga that year, but he never got to drive on it.  He met only the first six of a dozen grandchildren.

This family photo shows him with my mother (who died in 2004), me, and my brother Bill (who died in April).

 

Two more photos of him, with Billy and me.

This day is his.  It's the day he was born, but also the day he is remembered by fewer and fewer family members because we are dying off; only two of his four children are still alive.  My three children met him, but the twins were barely four and my son was not yet a year old when a drunk driver ran a stop sign and slammed into the truck he was riding in.  They don't remember him, even though one of the girls said at the time, "Grandpa got died."  They both called National Cemetery "flower land" when they visited his grave with me after the funeral.

Others in the U.S. may be celebrating Indigenous People's Day (or perhaps they still call it Columbus Day), but for me, it's Daddy's Day.
I love you, Dad.

Caturday ~ Clawdia's view

Here I am, comfortably gazing out the window with my elbows on the windowsill.  I've been watching birds ... and bugs ... and people walking ... and cars coming and going ... and workmen tuckpointing the building across over there.  Yes, that's what it says on their sign:  tuckpointing.  Thanks to Bonnie for taking the photo, even if she didn't include the men at work or any of the other activities I keep track of.

Clawdia, 'til next time   >^. .^<

Mailbox Monday ~ on Thursday

A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community ~ by John Pavlovitz, 2017

No one likes to eat alone; to approach a table filled with people, only to be told that despite the open chairs there isn’t room for you.  The rejection stings.  It leaves a mark.  Yet this is exactly what the church has been saying to far too many people for far too long:  "You're not welcome here.  Find someplace else to sit.”  How can we extend unconditional welcome and acceptance in a world increasingly marked by bigotry, fear, and exclusion?  Pastor John Pavlovitz invites readers to join him on the journey to find — or build — a church that is big enough for everyone.  He speaks clearly into the heart of the issues the Christian community has been earnestly wrestling with:  LGBT inclusion, gender equality, racial tensions, and global concerns.  He asks if organized Christianity can find a new way of faithfully continuing the work Jesus began two thousand years ago, where everyone gets a seat.  Pavlovitz shares moving personal stories and his careful observations as a pastor to set the table for a new, more loving conversation on these and other important matters of faith.  He invites us to build the bigger table Jesus imagined, practicing radical hospitality, total authenticity, messy diversity, and agenda-free community.

Donna surprised me today.  After our "Life Transitions" group meeting, I followed her into the office where she picked up a package that had been delivered earlier.  In it were TWO copies of this book, one for herself and one for me, so we could read and discuss it together.  Thanks, Donna!

Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to other participants.

A is for Activist ~ by Innosanto Nagara

A is for Activist ~ by Innosanto Nagara, 2013,  children's, 9/10

Playful images and tongue-twisting rhymes show a world of justice and equal rights.  A is for Activist is a rhyming, alliterative, word-rich wonder, introducing concepts of justice, respect, activism, diversity, LGBT rights, workers' and environmental rights and everything else that activists believe in and fight for.  It's full of hope for the future, and calls children and parents to action.

Click on the illustrations to enlarge them

There's a cat on each page, like on the cover above, and even adults can have fun looking for the cat.  It's more obvious in the earlier pages, and a bit more difficult in some of the later pages.  My favorite "hidden" cat page was the one with the eyes, probably because I was convinced during several readings of the book that no cat was on this page.  Do you see it?  No, not the black cat in the top left of the "J" page with the Jay (blue jay) at the top right.  If you don't find it, I'll leave a clue in the comments on this post.  Can someone help me out and tell me what that prominent hand is holding on the red "J" page above?

Oh, by the way, do you see the iguana on the "I" page?  I didn't see it at first.  Many pages have unmentioned animals and things that start with that letter.  Nothing is lost if you fail to notice them, but it's such fun to think, "Oh!  There's a feather on the "F" page and a grasshopper on the "G" page, a horse in the distance and people using hoes in the background of the "H" page, a mouse on the "M" page far from the black cat in the crowd of people.  Only once are TWO cats shown together; they're on the "L" page, and I decided they represent Love.

My friend Donna pointed out this "N" page, where the cat's sign is partially hidden.  She thinks it probably says, "NO DOGS."  I see "No Justice No Peace" and "No War," but my favorite "NO" sign isn't in the book:  NO H8.  I've put the photo of the "Pea-Pea-Peace March" and the "Question coercion" pages on my list of books I've read in 2017.  Click on the link and scroll down to #73.