Ground Hogs Day

 If there were ever a silly holiday, it is Ground Hogs Day.  The ground hog sees his shadow and we have 6 more weeks of winter.  Who invented such a day? It appears to be some of my ancestors, the Dutch people in America.  They looked at the ground hog (or badger in Europe) and if the weather was clear on Candlemas then there would be 6 more weeks of winter.

You don't hear a lot about Candlemas on Ground Hogs Day. Candlemas is the celebration of the presentation of Jesus at the temple and the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I remember being at Mass once and receiving candles that were blessed for my home.  It seems a big reach to think about ground hogs and weather.

Still, this is Ground Hogs Day and I will be looking to see if the skies are clear today.  And maybe I will light a candle when I pray this morning.

MLK Day

 Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  I think it is a holiday that has looked for a purpose.  I have heard advice to do something positive in one's community to honor Dr. King and that sounds about right.  While I can't claim any knowledge of Dr. King except what I have read or heard, I suspect that he would smile at that idea.  He seemed like a pretty good man.

It is cold and we are in the middle of a pandemic, so I am not sure what I can do for my community, but I will think of something.  Just imagine if everybody did a little bit of good.  That would be a lot of goodness.

Black Friday

 I don't shop black Friday.  I am not the kind of person who plans it out to get the bargain.  I probably hardly know what I am giving anyone while it is still November. I do have things put aside for the grandchildren already.  I am not their main gift-giver.  I give what I want them to have.  Someday that won't make me the popular gifting grandma, and I am okay with that.

This year I am not sure what to get the big people on my list.  I am never really sure about that. Big people are harder for me. But, regardless, I won't be shopping on black Friday.  I have a date to play with the grandchildren.  That will be more fun than any shopping could ever be.

Day of the Veterans

 There is no mail today.  It is the 11th day, the 11th month and the end of World War I. Hardly anyone is alive today who remembers that war.  My grandfather was drafted for that war.  But he stayed in the States and helped take care of soldiers with Spanish Flu.  He didn't catch it, which was a good thing.

My dad served in WWII.  He didn't fight, he landed airplanes in England.  After the end of the War he drove motor pool for the mop up crew all over Germany. But there were bombs over England so he wasn't without risk.  I am thankful he didn't have terrible experiences during the War.

My brother did a career in the Army.  He was a ROTC guy.  It was a good service in many far away places.  He didn't go to war.  My former spouse was in the Navy and we moved all over the world. Most of the generations of my family have had military people.

In the current generation, there are few enlisted or officers.  I have one nephew in the Coast Guard.  That is about it.  But, today we will honor all the veterans and people who serve to protect democracy.

Good Bye, Columbus

There is an effort to remove Columbus from our collective memory.  I am not sure how I feel about it.  I never thought that Columbus was a role model.  I know there are a lot of feelings about the damage brought about by the explorers.  The age of discovery caused a terrible toll on indigenous populations.  Columbus by all accounts was not a great guy.  Most of those daredevils who risked their lives doing dangerous things probably weren't all that nice.  Think of today's daredevils, motorcycle gangs, drug dealers, and the like. Columbus is not someone to hold up to the light and expect to find a saint.

But, there are people who were saints and nobody knows them and maybe nobody should.  They lived lives full of quiet responsibility and duty and kindness.  The risky things they did like immigrating across the world is only known and revered by their families.  I think of my great grandma Mathilda who I never met (she died in the 1920s). She is legendary for being the driving force behind moving her family (husband, daughter from her first marriage, one year old son and her sister and her family) across the world from Poland to the Midwest in the late 1800s.  She went to church and had among her descendants a priest and a religious sister or two and many faithful Catholics who do the lay work in their churches.

So, there is a town (village) near where Mathilda and her husband farmed, raised their family and went to church named Columbus.  Maybe we should name the village Mathilda.  But, I am sure families of other people who lived the same kind of good lives would have other suggestions. The town has been Columbus for over 100 years.  Changing the name would confuse everything. Even though Mathilda would be a great name and I dare anyone to find a spot on her character, I suggest we just leave the name Columbus.  I acknowledge that it is good that we are thinking of such things, but in the long run, I am not sure what I think would be accomplished by changing the name. 

Accepting the Things I Cannot Change

 My trash didn't get picked up Labor Day Week.  That led to a week of flies being born in the trash container which led to flies in my house.  It made me mad.  But, I have learned this thing--let it go.  I couldn't really do anything about it.  They wouldn't come get the trash on Sunday.  I wasn't even the only house skipped.  I could see other cans up and down the street.  But, getting angry and staying angry could not change the situation.

So, I got some fly paper.  I put the trash cans out early on Thursday the next week. I let it go.  It was only a temporary problem.  I have learned this--weigh how long lasting and permanent the problem is.  Weigh whether there is any useful thing to do about the situation.  Accept that sometimes stuff happens.  This too shall pass.

But, I am not a fan of the flies.

The Day of Laborers

 By tomorrow school will start or have started around this country. Labor Day is the last holiday of summer.  I remember the first year I started teaching in public schools in Missouri my first day with kids was the day after Labor Day.  That changed by the very next year and school started earlier and earlier in August.  But something about Labor Day invokes in me the desire to get my notebooks and pens ready.  I sadly admit that even now when I have been retired for a few years I still bought some pens from the back to school displays.  It is in my blood, I guess.

But, Labor Day is supposed to be a day to honor workers.  It honors the people who work with their hands and their minds.  It was started by the labor union movement.  I think that most of America has forgotten about how things were for people before labor unionized.

In my own family, my grandfather was injured on the job working for Otis Elevator I was told.  He couldn't do the job anymore, so he was fired.  No unemployment, no safety net, no Social Security. He really wasn't able to work the rest of his life.  He had surgery to try to repair the hernia caused by the accident and shaking palsy or Parkinson's Disease started in earnest after that.  My dad's family was poor, not just because of the Depression.  There were no injury lawsuits.  There was no disability income. My grandma worked hard the rest of her life at doing people's laundry and babysitting.  She could squeak a dime, as they said.

My mom lost her first teaching job because one of the school board members' daughters graduated and wanted it.  Back in the one room school days there was no tenure. It wasn't a scandal or unexpected.  It was the way things were done back in the day.  This was a one room school house and there was only room for one teacher in the neighborhood. Mom easily found a job at another one room school in the neighborhood.

Working for other people, being a laborer has always had its risks. But honest work for honest pay should be rewarded. It is the right thing to do.  Working is something to celebrate.

Independence Day

 The Fourth of July is not my favorite holiday.  Back in the olden days when I was young, we went out to see the fireworks.  At our house in Rockford, IL when I was really little, we could see the fireworks from our house way in the distance.  I liked seeing the professional fireworks shows.  We had picnics and ate watermelon.  That was a holiday I could get my head around.

But, more and more through the years, people have to buy their own fireworks displays, not just set off a few firecrackers and roman candles, but displays that last and last.  These displays are illegal, but what is legal if there is no enforcement?

I worry about people getting hurt.  I worry about these people setting houses (like my own house) on fire.  I saw a house burn to the ground from fireworks when we lived in Hawaii. I don't really enjoy the noise.  I don't feel like it is safe,  So, I hunker down in my house while the wars rage around me.

I could do without so many fireworks on the Fourth of July.  I really could.  

Veteran's Day

 On the eleventh day, eleventh hour, eleventh month, World War I was over.  For most of the people alive today that was an ancient event, before memory.  World War I is like that for me.  One of my grandfather's was drafted and served at the end of WWI in Kentucky caring for service members with the Spanish flu.  As far as I know, he didn't get it. WWI seems so far past.

But, my dad was a soldier who spent the WWII in Europe, most of the time in central England and then on the mop up crew in Germany after the war.  He came home on the Queen Mary.  When I was in Long Beach I very badly wanted to see the Queen Mary, but my companion preferred to spend time at an aquarium, so I only saw it from the outside.

People today don't seem to know much about the World Wars.  They don't think such a thing could happen again.  They don't see danger in unchecked power and tribalism. They don't seem to relate to things in the past.  I suppose that is why history repeats itself.  We never learn.

This day is not just about honoring those who served.  It is about remembering and understanding the past so that we don't fall right back into the same old patterns. War is bad.  It is to be avoided. But, for a just and right cause it is to be fought with valor and courage.

Here's To the Discoverers

 In Hawaii Columbus Day is called Discoverers' Day.  That makes sense because Columbus had nothing to do with Hawaii, but there were discoverers.  It would make sense to adopt that title for the whole country now that Columbus has fallen out of favor.  The thing about Columbus is that nobody was calling him St. Columbus. But, he did do some discovery.  He wasn't the first, but he was the beginning of the big migration from Europe.

I am rather disposed to be pro Native Peoples and so from that standpoint I dislike the whole European invasion of the Americas. My biggest disappointment in doing a DNA test was to discover that I am nearly entirely European in origin.  I had hoped for some native American DNA, but alas, I have 3% Jewish ancestry and the rest is mainly British and German, with a tad of Finland thrown into the mix. My people were part of the invasion of the Americas.

But, all of us are somewhere because somebody ahead of us went there, if that makes any sense.  The Europe that my ancestors left was not working out for them. Economics and religion seemed to be the main reason that my people came over here.  They were not explorers.  They were not profiteers. They were looking to improve their lot in life.

But, there are certain people who have it in their blood to be discoverers.  They leave the safe and known behind and go off in search of new things.  They are risk takers.  They are explorers.  We need some people like that.  We can't all be like that.  It would be a crazy world if we all were risk takers to that degree.  But, perhaps a day off work or with no mail to celebrate those people isn't a bad idea. Here's to the discoverers!  I am happy to have a day off work for them.