Sunday Salon ~ bookaholic edition

Here's a cat made of rock for Caturday, one day late.  Time doesn't seem to work for me the way it did before the mid-March lockdown.

You may be a bookaholic ... if you know what a TBR stack is.  My stack is MUCH higher than this one, so I should quit adding books.  Nope.  I was at Donna's last night to use her magnifying thingy to read the tiny print on something I had ordered from Amazon (no, not a book).  The book on her coffee table relates to the destructive events at the Capitol this week, so I said I would like to read it when she finished.  Donna said, "Take it."  This one had not grabbed her attention, though her sister Jane liked it.  Here 'tis:

Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union ~ by Richard Kreitner, 2020, history, 487 pp.

The fiery thesis of this book is simple:  The United States has never lived up to its name — and never will.  The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but the seduction of secession wasn’t limited to the South or the nineteenth century.  It was there at our founding and has never gone away.  Kreitner takes readers on a revolutionary journey through American history, revealing the persistence and power of disunion movements in every era and every region.  The divisions that threaten to tear America apart today have centuries-old roots in the earliest days of our Republic.  Break It Up will help readers make fresh sense of our fractured age.

• Each New England town after Plymouth was a secession from another.
• The thirteen colonies viewed their Union as a means to the end of securing independence, not an end in itself.
• George Washington feared separatism west of the Alleghenies.
• Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison denounced the Constitution as a pro-slavery pact with the devil.
• Aaron Burr schemed to set up a new empire.
• John Quincy Adams brought a Massachusetts town’s petition for dissolving the United States to the floor of Congress.

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

Beginning ~ with a definition

pastrix (pas·triks) noun

1). A term of insult used by unimaginative sections of the church to define female pastors.
2). Female ecclesiastical superhero:  Trinity from The Matrix in a clerical collar.
"What on earth was that noise?"
"A pastrix just drop-kicked a demon into the seventh circle of hell." 3). Cranky, beautiful faith of a Sinner and Saint.

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint ~ by Nadia Bolz-Weber, 2013, memoir

Heavily tattooed and loud-mouthed, Nadia, a former stand-up comic, sure as hell didn't consider herself to be religious leader material — until the day she ended up leading a friend's funeral in a smoky downtown comedy club.  Surrounded by fellow alcoholics, depressives, and cynics, she realized:  These were her people.  Maybe she was meant to be their pastor.

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

Insurrection at the Capitol

"To storm the Capitol, to smash windows, to occupy offices, and to threaten the safety of duly elected officials is not protest.  It is insurrection," Joe Biden wrote in an email at 5:36 pm Central Time that I received from Biden.com.  Biden had spoken to the nation even before the President bothered to offer a short "go home" message where he reiterated the very thing that had incited them in the first place, that the election was stolen from him.  Twitter has blocked the President's tweets — and may ban him completely.  "Domestic terrorism" is also being thrown around by what I'm seeing online.

Word of the Day #1

in·sur·rec·tion / ˌinsəˈrekSH(ə)n / noun = a violent uprising against an authority or government.  Example:  "The President's tweets incited insurrection among supporters."

I first saw the words "attempted coup" used by CBS.  That's when I started watching what was going on today in Washington, DC.

Word of the Day #2

coup / ko͞o / noun = a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.  Example:  "Was this action by Trump followers today an attempted coup in Washington?"

Joe Biden will become President of the United States at noon two weeks from today.

Happier January

This Happier January Calendar is from the folks at Action for Happiness, who say:

How can we start this new year happier? Things have certainly not been easy over the last year, and we are still in difficult and uncertain times. The best way to try to handle our difficult emotions and experiences is by focusing on what we can control. This month, we're encouraging everyone to focus on small steps to try to boost happiness - for ourselves and others around us - to spread kindness and hopefully inspire others to do the same.

January 1

~ Find three things to look forward to this year.

January 2

~ Make time today to do something kind for yourself.

January 3

~ Do a kind act for someone else to help to brighten their day.

January 4

~ Write a list of things you feel grateful for in life and why.

January 5

~ Look for the good in others and notice their strengths.

January 6

~ Take five minutes to sit still and just breathe.

January 7

~ Learn something new and share it with others.

January 8

~ Say positive things to the people you meet today.

January 9

~ Get moving.  Do something physically active (ideally outdoors).

January 10

~ Thank someone you're grateful to and tell them why.

January 11

~Switch off all your tech two hours before bedtime.

January 12

~ Connect with someone near you — share a smile or chat.

January 13

~ Be gentle with yourself when you make mistakes.

January 14

~ Take a different route today and see what you notice.

January 15

~ Eat healthy food which really nourishes you today.

January 16

~ Get outside and notice five things that are beautiful.

January 17

~ Contribute positively to a good cause or your community.

January 18

~ Focus on what's good, even if today feels tough.

January 19

~ Get back in contact with an old friend you miss.

January 20

~ Go to bed in good time and give yourself time to recharge.

January 21

~ Take a small step towards an important goal.

January 22

~ Try out something new to get out of your comfort zone.

January 23

~ Plan something fun and invite others to join you.

January 24

~ Put away digital devices and focus on being in the moment.

January 25

~ Decide to lift people up rather than put them down.

January 26

~ Say hello to a neighbor and get to know them better.

January 27

~ Challenge your negative thoughts and look for the upside.

January 28

~ Ask other people about things they've enjoyed recently.

January 29

~ Use one of your personal strengths in a new way.

January 30

~ Count how many people you can smile at today.

January 31

~ Write down your hopes or plans for the future.

"Happiness is when what you think, what you

say, and what you do are in harmony." ~ Gandhi

Curled up kitty on a cushion

What better way to start the new year of Caturdays than with a picture of Clawdia, all curled up, and a bit of alliteration.  She is quite aware that I'm aiming my camera at her.  Yep, eyes slightly open, watching me.

#MeetMyPetChallenge

I found something on Facebook called #MeetMyPetChallenge. with about 87,000 members.  It allows cats to answer several introductory questions, so here are Clawdia's very own answers.  She already told our blog readers most of these things months ago (yes, she blogs).

• My legal name is:  Clawdia
• My nickname is:  Pretty Girl
• My breed is:  I'm a CAT.  Somebody said domestic shorthair cat
• My age is:  about 11 years old
• My favorite human is:  either Bonnie or Donna or Sharon
• My biggest fear:  someone knocking on our apartment door
• My favorite things are:  visiting with my human friends who pet me, and chasing red dots and reflections
• What I hate the most:  being picked up
• Where do I sleep?  I'm not telling you my hiding places! ***
• Do I snore?  sometimes

*** Bonnie, answering for her:  Clawdia sleeps on the bed, in patches of sunshine, under the easy chair, in her blue carrier, behind my desk, in a box, in her own cat bed, on the soft back of the sofa.  She snuggles down by me when I go to bed, but when I relax, she figures she's gotten me to sleep after a few minutes and leaves.  She was catnapping in the full clothes hamper in the back of the closet in this photo.  Being black, she can hide in plain sight.  By the way, when Clawdia blogs, this is her signature:

Clawdia, 'til next time    >^. .^<

New Year's Day ~ spinach and black-eyed peas

When I was growing up, my family would eat spinach and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day.  I was in the mood for some black-eyed peas when I ordered groceries recently, so I have a can of them on my shelf.  I happen to have spinach, too, so I know what I'll eat on New Year's Day.  And I'll smile as I remember my parents and siblings around the table.

Why did we eat those two things on New Year's Day?  It was supposed to be lucky because the green of spinach represents dollars and the black-eyed peas are the color of pennies.  Do I believe that stuff?  No, but reading Mae's Food Blog on Tuesday made me smile:  What to Eat for New Year's Good Luck.  I remembered my family's tradition and went looking for an image to use here, though we never combined the two as they did in this picture.

If you want to know more about lucky foods, Woman's Day published an article three weeks ago about 20 New Year's Food Traditions That'll Bring You Good Luck in 2021.  Greens are #15, and black-eyed peas are #20.

Beginning ~ on her 49th birthday

"On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life was hopeless, and I would eat myself to death. ... However, after a second cup of coffee, I realized that I couldn't kill myself that morning — not because it was my birthday but because I'd promised to get arrested the next day."

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith ~ by Anne Lamott, 2005, memoir

With Anne Lamott's trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty, Plan B is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in our increasingly fraught times.

The opening sentences got my attention, and I will keep reading to see what happens next.  An Amazon reviewer used this book as a morning devotional and said, "This book is refreshing in its humanity.  Its stories of real, broken, and amazing people helped me see the broken and amazing people in my own life."

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