Monday Musing: Election Day

 

 

Lifting Off, by Kenneth Cole Schneider

 

One Vote

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

 

After reading a letter from his mother, Harry T. Burn cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution

 

My parents are from countries

where mangoes grow wild and bold

and eagles cry the sky in arcs and dips.

America loved this bird too and made

it clutch olives and arrows. Some think

if an eaglet falls, the mother will swoop

down to catch it. It won't. The eagle must fly

on its own accord by first testing the air-slide

over each pinfeather. Even in a letter of wind,

a mother holds so much power. After the pipping

of the egg, after the branching—an eagle is on

its own. Must make the choice on its own

          Read the rest HERE.

If you haven't already, please vote tomorrow. Your voice really does matter.

Monday Musing: Indigenous Peoples' Day

 

 

"Salmon Spirit in Blue" by Roger Fernandes, Lower Elwha Tribe

 

Invisible Fish

     by Joy Harjo

 

Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sand, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. . . .

 

          Read the rest HERE.

 

 

To date, 14 states (Alabama, Alaska, Hawai'i, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and growing numbers of school districts celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of or in addition to Columbus Day. Here are five ideas for celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Monday Musing: World Teachers' Day

 

 

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

 

 

I never teach my pupils; 

I only attempt to provide the conditions 

in which they can learn.

                                        

                                        – Albert Einstein (unsourced)

 

 

According to the UNESCO website, World Teachers’ Day has been held annually since 1994 "to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This Recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. . . In 2020, World Teachers’ Day will celebrate teachers with the theme Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future. The day provides the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, take stock of achievements, and draw attention to the voices of teachers, who are at the heart of efforts to attain the global education target of leaving no one behind."

 

 

Monday Musing: World Peace Day

"Angel" by Roger Young

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, 

we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

                                      – Anton Chekhov

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 21 September to be the International Day of Peace—"a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire." This year's theme is "Shaping Peace Together." We are invited to "celebrate the day by spreading compassion, kindness and hope in the face of the pandemic. Stand together with the UN against attempts to use the virus to promote discrimination or hatred. Join us so that we can shape peace together."

Monday Musing: Presidents' Day

President Barack Obama greets a young visitor in the Oval Office,
Feb. 5, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Associate yourself with men of good quality 

if you esteem your own reputation; 

for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

– George Washington

Monday Musing: Just-In-Time Poetry

Blackbirds fill the sky at Lake Anna State Park, Virginia

On Wednesday I will be turning 53 years old.

Although I have not spent the better part of my life out-of-doors, this poem arrived in a Writer's Almanac newsletter last week and was just what I needed to hear.


Blackbirds

by Julie Cadwallader Staub

I am 52 years old, and have spent

truly the better part

of my life out-of-doors

but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head

a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air

and when I turned my face upward

I saw a flock of blackbirds

rounding a curve I didn’t know was there

and the sound was simply all those wings,

all those feathers against air, against gravity

and such a beautiful winning:

the whole flock taking a long, wide turn

as if of one body and one mind.

How do they do that?

Read the ending HERE.

Monday Musing: Singing Out

"Joy" by Martin Talbot

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

 

– Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens

Ever since I heard Karen Boss's ditty challenge to write a poem to a kid or kids about something that you think is important for them to know, I can't get this song out of my head! Two videos for your amusement—I couldn't choose because I love them both!

The classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha3Rm4MSX-g 

Or this one, with scenes from Harold and Maude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGxYlQudOA

Did you know Yusuf/Cat Stevens is back in the business of making music? Visit his website or follow him on Facebook.

Read last Friday's interview with Karen Boss HERE and leave your advice poem on our June 2019 padlet.

Monday Musing: Election Season

All your life, you will be faced with a choice.

You can choose love or hate. 

I choose love.

                                                                         – Johnny Cash

I've never disliked politics more than I do right now, so this election season I'm letting my voice be heard in my own way.  

Yard sign designed by Panhandle Slim. 
(Google "Panhandle Slim Artist" and click on "images" to view more of his work.)

A message from the children of Johnny Cash.

Monday Musing: Labor Day

Boss waving his fist at a sweatshop worker.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 3, 1888

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,  
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,  
but because it never forgot what it could do.

– Naomi Shihab Nye, from "Famous"

Monday Musing: Solar Eclipse

Habbal/NASA

How then does light return to the world after the eclipse of the sun? Miraculously. Frailly. In thin stripes. It hangs like a glass cage. It is a hoop to be fractured by a tiny jar. There is a spark there. Next moment a flush of dun. Then a vapour as if earth were breathing in and out, once, twice, for the first time. Then under the dullness someone walks with a green light. Then off twists a white wraith. The woods throb blue and green, and gradually the fields drink in red, gold, brown. Suddenly a river snatches a blue light. The earth absorbs colour like a sponge slowly drinking water. It puts on weight; rounds itself; hangs pendent; settles and swings beneath our feet.

                                                                       – Virginia Woolf, from The Waves

For more information about the photograph, visit Goddard Space Flight Center.

Monday Musing: Memorial Day

U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kim Browne, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

        

– Washington Irving

Monday Musing: Halloween

Waiting – London Session, 2010 by Davide Gabino

My Halloween costume is Godot. I'm not showing up at the party, 

just texting the host every 10 minutes that I'm on my way.

– Wynne McLaughlin

Monday Musing: Dr. Seuss' Birthday

"My Funny Valentine" by Lotus Carroll

Today you are You, that is truer than true.

There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

~ Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Visit www.seussville.com for activities and events.

Monday Musing: Presidents' Day

Magic Book by caffeinesoup

"The things I want to know are in books; 

my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."

~ Abraham Lincoln

Monday Musing: MLK, Jr. Day

Photo: Grec Halac

Only in the darkness can you see the stars. 

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday Musing: Memorial Day

Arlington National Cemetery    Photo: Andrew Bossi, Wikimedia Commons

 

              With the tears a Land hath shed

           Their graves should ever be green.

 

                                                             ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Monday Musing: St. Patrick's Day

1907 Portrait of William Butler Yeats, by John Butler Yeats

A Drinking Song

          by William Butler Yeats

  

Wine comes in at the mouth  
And love comes in at the eye;  
That’s all we shall know for truth  
Before we grow old and die.  
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

Monday Musing: Presidents' Day

Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters as published in the NY Daily News

  

It is amazing what you can accomplish

if you do not care who gets the credit.

-Harry S. Truman

Monday Musing: MLK, Jr. Day

 

 

Faith is taking the first step 

even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday Musing: Veteran's Day

 

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother what was war?" 

-Eve Merriam

With thanks to those who have served and sacrificed with honor.

           -MHB