Past Blogs

As the year draws to an end, the list makers go into overdrive. The various media are awash with lists of the bests…….movies, TV shows, albums, books, video games, tech gadgets and restaurants to name but a few of the categories.

I would like to add a new list to the annual “best of” binge. I am calling my list “The Best Quotations I Have Stumbled Upon In 2014.”

• Define the universe and give three examples.
  Anonymous Graffiti

 

• The human mind is at its inventive best when misinterpreting data to support a specific hope.
  Randy Wayne White

 

• Though the situation is hopeless, it should not prevent us from doing our best.
  Aldo Leopold

 

• But remember, the oligarchs want us at each other’s throats. Divide and rule is the goal. Don’t fall for it.
  Jon Talton

 

• You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.
  Proverb

 

• Free your mind and the rest will follow.
  Seen in France on the front of a woman’s Tee shirt

 

• True religion consists in establishing the relationship of each of us to the infinite life that surrounds us, the life that unites us to the infinite, and guides us in all our acts.
  Leo Tolstoy

For any of us in search of a New Year’s resolution, the following words of Pope Francis will more than suffice.

• We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

Amen and Happy New Year.

For those of us riding on the top half of the planet, our annual trip back into the light has begun.

Every December for twenty-eight years I have been invited into schools and libraries to do my holiday program, Festivals of Light. Throughout these years, I have met thousands of children, parents and grandparents who come up to me after the program to share family stories and traditions. Their stories have given me more material than I can ever use in an hour long program, but I am always delighted to hear more.

Some feelings are universal, and lighting up the darkness is one of them. People all over the globe find reasons to light special lights when the days grow short and the nights long. Something in us needs to believe that at the end of the darkness there will be light.

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, begins the season. Small clay dishes called diyas or dipas are filled with oil and a wick. Hundreds of these tiny lights outline roofs, windowsills, paths and parks.

Go to New Mexico on Christmas Eve night, and the adobe houses resemble a Diwali display. But here the lights are candles and they are anchored in sand inside of paper bags. Northern New Mexicans call these little lanterns farolitos and the bonfires they light luminarios.

Some holiday lights are ancient; others are new. Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of lights, dates back two millennia. Candles are lighted in a menorah for eight consecutive nights. In contrast, one man, Dr. Maulana Karenga, created a new tradition of lights for African Americans in 1966. Based on harvest celebrations in Africa, Kwaanza lasts for seven nights. On each night a candle is lighted in a kinara or candle holder and a different African cultural value is discussed. Kwaanza is not a religious holiday and is not meant to replace Christmas. This year an estimated eighteen million people will be lighting Kwaanza lights.

Many of us do a bizarre thing at holiday time:  we chop down a tree and haul it into our living rooms. The tree is covered with lights and shiny decorations to celebrate Christmas. Many of us light up the outside of our houses as well.

New Year celebrations are the finales to the holiday season and the skies are lighted. The Chinese New Year fireworks are legendary, but in many other cultures pyrotechnics welcome in the new year as well.

May we all light up our hearts with love, tolerance and peace. Happy holidays to all……and I choose these words purposefully….no matter what you are celebrating.

“I’m letting you know right now that I won’t share this.” These are my words to my husband every time a box or bowl of popcorn is in my vicinity.

We almost always share dinner entrees in restaurants and many lunches as well. In fact, we share most everything in life without rancor or arguments.

But popcorn is my nemesis, my Achille’s heel, and my favorite snack. And I know I cannot be gracious and rational if buttered popcorn is in range. My husband has to get his own or fight for every kernel of mine.

Since childhood, I have been smitten with popcorn, always choosing it over cake or a sundae. Countless allowances were spent at our downtown five and dime, an establishment known for its freshly popped, greasy popcorn.

How anyone could choose Raisenettes or Milk Duds at the movies is unfathomable to me. But I fully understand how the nightmare of supersizing in America began with a marketing ploy at the movies. Marketers figured out that people felt guilty about buying two boxes of popcorn but would fork over lots of cash to buy one box……one enormous box that was bigger than two normal size ones put together.

I am also a popcorn purist. The first time I tried kettle corn I was aghast. Popcorn should not be sprayed with sugar. Popcorn, butter and salt are the only necessary ingredients.

One time my aunt in Albuquerque sent me to a popcorn store with instructions to buy big tins of popcorn as Christmas gifts for her caregivers. The shop looked like a rainbow had exploded on the premises. Bins of neon colored popcorn lined the walls of the tiny store. More flavors were offered than at a Baskin Robbins. Needless to say, I did not buy blueberry, cinnamon, green apple, licorice or any other of the adulterated versions of popcorn. I bought her employees the real thing. Some things in life can’t be compromised.

Glitter and glitz are sprinkling down unchecked in America at the moment. And all that glitters is decidedly not gold…..it’s Chinese made glitter, sequins and faux jewels.

In every grade school classroom I visit, the majority of little girls are decked out in glittery, bejeweled teeshirts. Many of these shirts proclaim the wearer to be a princess. The poorer the school district, the more glittery the girls. I wish the sparkle could be in these children’s eyes as opposed to their chests.

Plants are not immune to the glitter craze, either. A huge display of Christmas poinsettias dyed purple and blue and profusely sprayed in glitter greets me every time I’m in the produce department of my grocery store. I’m guessing that Mother Nature is not pleased with these “improvements” on her creations.

Jewelry that seeks to replicate the size and carat count of the royal jewels routinely fills the jewelry cases in stores like Target now. While picking up a prescription and some toothpaste, I can also equip myself for a coronation or Cinderella’s ball.

I did not expect to find bling, however, at a Chicago highway oasis. But as I walked in to buy a cup of coffee, I was greeted with a shop overflowing with oversized  jewelry covered in gaudy fake jewels. Apparently among a traveler’s need for caffeine, fast food, pretzels, cinnamon buns and bathrooms, we have added a jewelry fix. Can jewelry drive thru windows be far behind?

I fear that Americans are secretly yearning to have a jewel encrusted monarchy and are regretting a decision made in 1776 to try an experiment in democracy. Or perhaps we all just want to be kings and queens.

Pulling into the car wash the other day, I was behind an Armada. No, not a fleet of mercenary Spanish warships, this Armada was a towering vehicle with one occupant.

The Armada had the super, deluxe, extra car wash which meant that I had plenty of time to think about the names car models are given, names which pander to our various desires. None of these desires are even remotely automotive.

For those seeking to dazzle the world with their wealth and exclusivity, the industry offers the Regal, Enclave, Legacy, Impreza and Escalade. The later, no doubt, helps the buyer escalate to even higher levels of status.

The auto makers also market to environmentalists. Tree huggers get vehicles with short, often literal names. So head for a Spark, Volt, Cube or Leaf if you are feeling green.

Folks who have an inner cowboy or John Wayne complex are in luck as well.  They can take their pick from the Colorado, Tucson, Santa Fe, Tahoe or Sedona. These metal beasts are perfect for hauling home a few steers from the local grocery store.

My husband comes from a Ford loving family and we have had our share of Henry’s cars. The Ford marketers try to brand their customers by throwing a flurry of “F’s” around…….Flex, Fiesta, Festiva, Focus, Fusion, Fairlane and Falcon. Note that I did not marry my husband because he was driving a white Fairlane convertible the night I meet him.

Our personal car history also includes my husband’s two most beautiful cars with the two most idiotic names, a Chevy Beretta and a Ford Probe.

I drive Rabbits, Accents and cars with small numbers like my Mazda 323. These are practical, unassuming cars with absolutely no cachet. Everything preys on a rabbit.

I’ve saved my all time favorite ridiculous car name for last. The first time I was driving behind a car that proclaimed itself to be a Juke, I blurted out to my husband, “How could anyone be paid a jillion dollars to come up with a name that rhymes with “puke”?