Month: March 2019

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Beacon?

Let’s get this straight right now. NOBODY NEEDS THEIR PHONES. NOTHING IS THAT IMPORTANT. Even if someone close to you is dying or just died, there is absolutely NOTHING you can do about it. & checking your phone every few minutes isn’t a solution to grief. Nor is it a way to manage your life & get anything done. The best thing to do is to focus on THE WORK AT HAND.

But in this 21st-century world where “feelings” matter more than logical thought or disciplined emotional response, I am not surprised that this is happening. Expect more of this.

hughcurtler

On one of my favorite shows on ESPN recently there was a discussion around the table about the new football coach at the Arizona Cardinals who has announced that he will take a break every so often in team meetings to allow the players to check with their phones. There were about a half-dozen people around the table and all of them, except for the main man (a graduate of Northwestern University I am ashamed to say), pilloried the coach calling the move “childish,” or “foolish,” and simply stupid –an attempt to prove his coaching methods are “cutting edge,” an attempt to draw attention to himself, perhaps.

The main man at the table (whom I generally agree with) disagreed heartily with the entire group saying that the younger generation are wedded to their phones and coaches generally need to tailor their approach to the generation they are dealing with. These…

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Where have all the bloggers gone?

The other day, Scottie over at Scottie’s Toy Box, a WordPress blog that is one of my favorites,  (link here: scottiestoybox.com), mentioned that he is not seeing all the blogs that he used to see.  In the comments, I wrote,

“I noticed a while ago that I have to go to Managed blogs every so often & reset my email listings. WordPress seems to reset my settings or maybe it’s Microsoft. Who knows. But it’s usually every other month. It’s not every blog but quite a few.”

This morning, I went & checked every single blog that I follow on WordPress.  Not only are my settings intact but I am receiving my email notifications just the way I am supposed to be – instantly.

What I did notice was this – many of the blogs that I have been following have not had a posting in weeks, months, even years.   According to WordPress, I follow 229 blogs, but I don’t think more than a third of them are currently active.

There are many reasons for this.  I think it comes down to these basic three:

  1. Most of us start blogs when we have some “extra time” or at least enough time to maintain the blog on a daily basis & after a few months or years, our lives change & we no longer have time to keep up the blog.  This is true in my case, although I am desperately trying to reboot my daily life so I have more time to write.
  2. Many of the blogs I have been following are political blogs & there is no denying that we are at a place where many of us are burned out, bummed out & beyond our ability to endure much more of the daily shit-show that has been shoved down our throats since November, 2016 – if not much longer than that.  When the outrage becomes too much to bear, the voice becomes silenced.
  3. Many bloggers HATE the new Gutenberg editor layout & have left WordPress for that reason alone.  I am seeing many new blogs on Blogger, Wix, Weebly & a score of others.

I could list more reasons but these are really enough.

I have also thought of leaving WordPress for greener pastures.  I already have a presence at Blogger but I haven’t blogged there in several years.  My problem is time & time management.   Honestly – that’s always been my problem.  But that’s another subject for another blog post.

For now, I’m here at WordPress if you’re looking for me.

 

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Persephone’s Return and the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries by Deanne Quarrie

The story of Demeter & Persephone & Hecate. Looking out at the the snow on the ground this spring morning, I am reminded that Persephone’s journey back from Hades did not happen within one day. Spring is a journey from winter to summer. We are all traveling with the Goddess. Blessed Be!

Deanne QuarrieMany of us are quite familiar with the story of Persephone and Demeter, the Greek myth behind the changing of seasons each year.

“The story basically goes that Zeus arranges a marriage for Hades, the God of the Underworld and the Dead. Zeus gives Persephone to him. Persephone is gathering flowers in a field when she is tempted by the sight of a narcissus. The flower, however, is a trap set by Gaia, acting on the instructions of Zeus, and when Persephone picks the flower the earth opens and the god of the underworld, Hades, also known as Pluto, kidnaps her and rapes her. Only Hecate, a daughter of Rhea, and Helios, the sun god, hear Persephone’s cries.

For nine days, Demeter wanders throughout the world searching for her daughter, carrying blazing torches and neither eating, drinking or washing. No one, god or mortal, comes to aid her.

On the…

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“We do not Foolishly Suppose that Victory on the Battlefield will Gaurentee Democracy at Home: Rabbi Roland Gittlesohn’s Sermon at the Dedication of the Cemetery on Iwo Jima

If you don’t read this, you will certainly miss out in more ways than one.

The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

39GittelsonIwoJima2Rabbi Roland Gittelson, Chaplain Corps U.S. Navy

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

I have been serving in the military for almost 38 years between the Army and the Navy, and I have been a chaplain for almost 27 of those years. Over six of those years as a Navy Chaplain were spent serving with the Marine Corps. During that time I have gotten to know, respect, and become with Jewish Rabbis serving in the Chaplan Corps. There are not many of them currently serving, and like so much of American religion, they are divided into different denominations, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed. Like all current military personnel they are volunteers. The Rabbis I have served with are primarily Reformed or Conservative, and all have done what they could to care for the spiritual needs of all who come to them. They serve in the highest tradition of the Chaplain Corps, and…

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Dear Aunt Jean

March 16, 2019.

Dear Aunt Jean,

We are pretty well settled in the new apartment.  I still have quite a lot to do but the major unpacking is done.  Yesterday I hung pictures in the living room.  I also hung my 8-point.  Today I plan to clean up the desk area in the dining room & organize my books in the room James calls “the office”.   I am thinking about a whole new way of organizing my books but that will be covered in another blog post.

Since you died, I have missed you with a passion.  I miss talking with you on the phone.  A dozen times a week, I see something on the street or hear something on the TV that I want to share with you & you are no longer here.   So many things … the new Dash’s, Kosta’s remodeling, this lovely apartment in which I now live, James’ upcoming graduation, the memorial service being planned for you.

So I decided to start blogging to you.  You were so vitally interested in everything & everyone.  I want to take that interest & build on it.

Anyway, I have lots to do today.  I’ll chat again with you in a day or two.

Much love,

Polly

 

 

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practice reading

Which is why you read books more than once.

Peedeel's Blog

But the problem with readers, the idea we’re given of reading is that the model of a reader is the person watching a film, or watching television. So the greatest principle is, “I should sit here and I should be entertained.” And the more classical model, which has been completely taken away, is the idea of a reader as an amateur musician. An amateur musician who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don’t know, who they probably couldn’t comprehend entirely, and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music.  The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you. That’s the incredibly unfashionable idea of reading.  And yet when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put…

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Abortion is not a dirty word and Planned Parenthood isn’t a McDonald’s and the GOP can go F**K itself

Usually a post like this would go to Aunt Polly’s Rants but I want a greater audience to read it. Helen nails this issue with a capital F. THANK YOU!

Margaret and Helen

Margaret honey, nothing pisses me off more than when a man has an opinion about something he knows nothing about. And one thing for damn sure a man knows nothing about is what’s in a woman’s mind and heart when she is making a decision about whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. It’s called an abortion. It’s not a dirty word. It’s legal. It’s a woman’s right. It’s personal. A woman can choose to have one or not. And damn it, there is no such thing as a post-birth abortion unless you’re talking about the death penalty (which is a whole nother GOP lie).

The fact that the GOP has a talking point about post-birth abortions tells you all you need to know about how stupid the GOP is and how stupid they think voters are. If you can’t make your case with the truth then do…

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Trump’s new budget would kill IMLS—the main federal funder of libraries

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Donald Trump hasn’t much use for books—except a precious few such as Trump: The Art of the Deal and other ghosted masterpieces.

He converted the walnut-paneled library room in the old Marjorie Merriweather Post mansion at Mar-a-Lago into a bar with his portrait. Perhaps this was just part of the transition to a club, but Trump must have enjoyed his kind of book-proofing. I doubt he’s the planet’s biggest fan of other aspects of libraries, either.

So it’s no shocker that for the third year in a row, the Trump Administration is trying to kill the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the main source of federal funds for libraries.

The Trump people have not been the only one to try. Paul Ryan, the former speaker of the house, also gave it a shot. And conservative think tanks are still at it?

Push back. Don’t take IMLS for granted at…

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