YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE --- CAREFUL, THIS ONE'S DEEEEP

A beautiful quote:

"Did you know that on the 21st of June your shadow is shorter than Dec. 21st when it is a lot longer.  There maybe a point in what you are saying.  We and the whole universe are so connected, I do not know why many times we think we are the center of the universe.  Is our ego bigger than ourself?"
Wisdom from the sage of Micronesia, Justa Kubarii.  [Put your Google on "Image" and enter "Palau" for an insight on where Justa grew up.]


You are reading this on the day marked as the Summer Solstice.  The longest day of the year.  For us here on the 38th parallel it won't be as spectacular nor as protracted as it is for those of you on the 43rd or 45th.  But don't begrudge Mother Nature the extra two minutes.  Also don't begrudge her the short shadow.  Kiss her good morning after you pick yourself up off the floor and thank her for letting you sleep in an extra bit.  Sometime during the day, go out and give her a big hug for letting you see your shadow for one more day.  Nothing wrong with that, is there?  
Like Justa said, we have this conviction so often that we are the center of the universe.  There used to be a saying in English about "...thinking that the sun rises and sets on me..."  Remember that?  If that thought, or that sentiment ever crossed your mind, don't feel sorry for it, but go out today and look at the short shadows on the ground to prove to yourself that there is more than one shadow out  there.  I know that every now and then I ask myself, "Where'd that come from?  So, I'm going to check it out later today too.  
Furthermore, as time goes by, let's all notice that we don't have any power whatsoever to decide what length shadow we are going to throw.  All we can do is to make do with the one Mother Nature gives us for a given time on a given day.  As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things that she lets us do with the shadow we have.  We can get the glare out of someone's eyes; we can make a child laugh by changing the angle of our shadow into some strange shapes; we can even amuse ourselves with the same antic; we can use our shadow to calculate the height of our favorite tree; we can use our shadow to help us guess the time so that we don't keep our date waiting; we can use our shadow to remind us to pray, v.g. "...

8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; 

hide me in the shadow of your wings..."[Psalm 17;8].  

  

Finally, our shadow reminds us that all shadows are equal, everyone has one under equal conditions and the conditions that change mine are the same conditions that change yours.  I have no authority over the shape of your shadow.  All I can do is to sweet talk you into changing position and hope that you will enjoy the result. Therefore, get out there today and reflect on the great, gratuitous gift of the shadow and remember that it is the heat of the loving child of Mother Nature, our brother Sun who is in charge.  Today is the threshold of his decline, let's get out there and enjoy the extra two minutes of his presence.


Thanks for the thought, Justa.

IS IT NEWS? IS IT TRUE? WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

I have to talk about this because it is both humorous and serious.  I actually think about this rather often.  When the war ended in Europe, there was no big hoopla because we were still slugging it out against the Japanese.  Oh, we talked about it, but we were just little kids, I was only 8.  I remember I was at Dicky's house (Beauregard) on Smith Street and of course we were not talking politics or anything like that.  But we did get the news but it didn't stir us.  I do remember that it made me feel good because I had several uncles in Belgium and England and I had the feeling that they would be safer now.  When my father came home from work that night, he too was feeling better because his brothers would now be safer than before.

Something greater than that as far as causing an impact on my feelings was the death of FDR.  The picture on the right is a fair representation of the one that appeared in the local Holyoke Daily Transcript Telegram.  The picture of the president was transparent and the honor roll (Holyoke's honor roll, of course) was legible through the picture.  Like I said, I was only eight, but somehow this man's death impressed me.  I guess it could only be that he is the first president that I came to know growing up.  The other thing is that I was living in the middle of a community of dyed-in-the-wool democrats.  I didn't know what that meant either.  I know now, but it was still a mystery then.  I do remember that there was a somber mood all around me for a while, but it didn't really disturb me.  Not anywhere near as much as the death of my aunt Cécile a couple of years earlier.  But that is another story...the two Céciles in my life...and the Basilica in my favorite part of Rome.  Oh, boy!

Anyway, that's the thought until now.  So forward to the final point.

So now I am eight.  It is August.  My father and I go fishing very early in the morning.  It was an hour that my father always said was for crazy people.  So it was early.  We put the canoe on the car and drove off into the early morning dark, heading for a small lake where we knew there would be fish.  It was secluded, so it was nice.  We drifted and fished.  He for pickerel, I for pan fish.  He caught a couple of very nice ones.  He threw back at least three "small" ones. He was too proud to bring home anything less than 18 inches.  These two were all of that and more.  I had some pretty good sized pan fish too.  We had those for breakfast after sun-up.  We cleaned the breakfast site, packed the gear in the car and went back for a couple of hours of drifting, knowing that as the day wore on, we were out there purely for the relaxation of it.  Oh, we fished, but we knew that fish don't eat after 8:00 AM
It was therefore about noon or so when we put the canoe up and got on the road for the one hour trip back to the house.  A little after we got underway we went through a small residential area and there were people all over their yards and in the street, talking, laughing.  My father made a smart Aleck comment that I don't remember and he turned on the car radio.  It was but a few seconds before it became clear what had happened.  The Japanese had surrendered.  The war was over.  No wonder people were dancing in the streets.
The dancing in the streets became more intense as we approached more densely populated areas.  When we got to our town, the streets were full of adults and children beating on pots and pans, yelling, shouting and generally letting the Japanese know what had happened to them in no uncertain terms.  Those of you who have attained a "certain age" will notice that I am caving in to the proprieties of 21st century language when I talk about the J...'s!  There are those who know that in those days there were two "N" words.  You bet!
Anyway, that was quite a day, and of course, I will never forget it.  What I will never forget is what happened about one week later.  As the news of the wars slowly faded from the front pages of the newspaper, I announced to my father, "I don't think we will have any newspaper in September now that the wars are over."
My father looked at me and simply said, "Oh, I think they'll find something to write about."  I was amazed, but I trusted him.  He was right. Many times I wish that he had not been right.  Many times I think that we would be better off without the "papers."  We don't even need them to wrap fish any more, what with the plastics and all.  So now all I have to say is, we kicked their ass with guns and bombs, but they are kicking our ass in so many other ways.  They melted all their "Zeroes" into cars that have been sinking ours for years.  Turn about is fair play.  Hai'! Dozo...