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 |   Thoughts destined to be washed away by the tides of life. |
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I've been studying my cover photo for a while now, and it seems to me that it is more than just a photo of what is there that can be seen, more than just three white rocks stacked on a beach. It contains an important question about the future, about what happens long after the photographer has gone. What will happen to our pile of stones when the tide comes in? Will it topple or has the architect built this structure at a safe distance? I don't know what will happen to these words that I stack here on the sand. They may prove safely distant, or they may be swallowed up by a rush of self-doubt. They may be here for a season. They may lose their balance and be scattered by the shoreline, or be hidden away under shifting sands. Perhaps someday, the tides of life will reclaim them. Or maybe that's just a bunch of poetic, romantic nonsense. After all, this is just a blog. |
| Do you ever look at your Facebook memories? That page where Facebook shows you what you were doing or thinking on this date through the years? Are you ever surprised? I am often taken aback by my own status updates. Some seem to be from a wittier me, some from a more caustic me and others are just the obligatory reporting of what I cooked or ate that day. Now and again, my memory is missing. It’s not enough, apparently, that I forget my own memories, Facebook is actually forgetting some for me. I haven’t removed posts or links or content, which means Facebook did. I assume this is back before Zuckerberg got scared and revealed that the government told him what to censor. Before they admitted that they didn’t just censor what they deemed to be “disinformation” or “misinformation” but also “malinformation” - that is, information that is factual and true but they don’t want you to mention it. Apparently, he’s changed his ways. Right. Not too long ago, someone on WDC asked if anyone was afraid to post on social media? No, I am not worried about what I write. I am more worried about the posts they won’t let you read. I want my memories back. |
This song is bound to become THE wedding song of the year. It touts traditional fidelity and optimism about the married state. The line about not being afraid to say “I do” is going to be very popular with about-to-be brides as they plan the music for the big day. Of course, the culture has told us for years that men fear marriage, but I am not sure that is true. After all, for every woman who marries a man, there’s a man willingly marrying a woman. The title “Carry You Home” and the sentiment behind it says everything about a relationship. “I will carry you home”. Home becomes where you are together. Home is now a place you find in your partner. Home is in your love's eyes. Home is the way your hand reaches for your spouse’s hand in the middle of the night for that brief moment when you both wake slightly, then finding comfort in each other’s presence, fall back into a secure rest. There’s one line in this song though that says more than all the others. “I choose us every time”. There are lots of people and influences that can divide loyalties in a marriage - parents, kids, culture, careers - but the successful couples put the marriage first. It’s going to sound really unreasonable in this age of self-love, self-sufficiency and selfies, but it means preferring your spouse above everything, including yourself. I hear you say “Wait a minute! What about my needs? “. Here’s the crazy thing - if both partners are putting the best interests of the other person above their own in love and honor and respect, then both partners have a strong ally and all their needs met. Choose each other, every time. |
| I find it very disappointing each day when I gulp down a cup of black coffee so I may bring my consciousness into focus, only to realize that the world has gone mad and a clearer understanding of this is not going to improve my morning. Time for a second cup, I discovered this morning that Agatha Christie was my sixth cousin. I really had no idea. We share a fifth great grandmother. I remember when I bought my very first Agatha Christie book. I got a couple of them at a church rummage sale. One of them was "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". I am not sure how old I was, probably eleven or twelve, that kind of age (I now imagine David Mitchell quipping “a numerical age,that kind, rather than iron or bronze”). I had read all the books on our shelves at home and was thrilled to discover some new characters that I could obsess over. At that time I was more of a Miss Marple fan and I didn't really like the fussy little Belgian detective. But in later years, David Suchet changed my mind about him with his brilliant portrayal in the television series "Poirot". I am a bit picky about my choice of Jane Marple portrayals, and though I love both Julia McKenzie and Geraldine McEwan, I am most definitely a Joan Hickson’s Marple fan. She’s so right for the part in every way. Besides, I really dislike the updating that is done on the stories to make all the situations and characters seem more modern. I want the stories just as Christie wrote them. When you’re dead, they’re likely to do anything to your writing and you can't stop them. Thank goodness, I am in no danger of being published. Well, that’s enough blog for today. |
| On This Day in History On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the congressional act that made The Star Spangled Banner the official national anthem of the United States of America. Since then it’s been the cause of many a case of vocal strain, laryngitis, earache and broken glass. All kidding aside, I love The Star Spangled Banner. I tear up whenever it is played and sing along. Considering I have absolutely no revolutionary patriots in my ancestry - only loyalists - and my parents were Canadian and Canadian-adjacent, I am a staunchly patriotic American citizen. Worse than that, I am proud of it and resist efforts to shame me for it. Oh yes, I do love The Star Spangled Banner. It makes me wish I had more of a vocal range, but perhaps it wouldn't be so special and meaningful if I didn't have to put in an effort to sing it. It's a sacrifice that I and those within earshot of me make for our country. |
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