Five Thoughts for Thursday

This blank page is wearing me out. I have nothing to say. Rather, I have lots of things to say, but they’re all of a whiny nature & they wear me out. Well, I’ll just start writing anyway. And since you’re reading this I must have decided to hit “publish post.” Sorry!

I’m sitting at my desk at work (having worked very hard this morning if you must know) watching the flags flying outside. I can see our flags (US, Ohio & the company flag – really? The company needs a flag? It’s not our company – it’s the one that owns the building) and I can see the flags of the building next door – same drill, except they have a different company flag. The sky is really blue. The trees in the parking lot haven’t changed colors yet.

I can smell the banana on my desk (a bad sign – it’s one whiff away from being too ripe for me to enjoy it).

I can hear…silence & then tapping keys. My office is really quiet, which I guess would drive some people crazy, but I like it. I don’t even want music playing most of the time – too much constant ear traffic tends to roar in my brain & I can’t hear myself think. And, really, I need all the help I can get in that department.

I can taste the pasta I had for lunch – pretty yummy, but that was 2 hours ago. Hmm – perhaps a Listerine breath strip is in order. Yes, that’s better – not yummy, but not leftover lunch either.

I can feel that twinge in my hip that will cause me to walk like an old woman for the first few minutes when I get up from my chair. Lately I’ve been having intense flashes of pain down my thigh that make me wonder if I can walk at all. Not all the time – maybe once per day – but goodness that’s disturbing. And I know what people will say – and they will be right – EXERCISE. Well maybe I will. After I eat the banana.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey through my five senses. What are you seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting & feeling today? And do you have any extra senses? Mine is the ability to pick the most expensive item out the choices available.

Summer’s Gone – One Shot Wednesday

Summer's Gone

She drives in darkness
Down the road
The headlights
Alight with autumn glow
Summer's gone

Crops are dormant
Nothing grows
The corn is only
Good for crows
Summer's gone

The world is smaller
The sky so low
She catches her breath
And lets it go
Summer's gone


This is a One Shot Wednesday Poem. Please go here to enjoy other One-Shots!

A Date with the Symphony

I went to the symphony for the first time last Thursday night. Or if not the first time, then the first time that I can remember. Although I used to listen to Rachmaninoff while doing my homework in high school (sometimes I switched it up with our Captain & Tennille 8 track tape), I've never been a huge classical music fan. I like music I can sing to. And, as my mom always said, it's scary – all quiet & lulls you into a drowse & then suddenly "boom!" there go the horns or the drums. It's a lot of work to listen to a classical piece of music, in my opinion.

I went with some ladies from church – they needed a chauffeur & had a free ticket for me. It was the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, with a guest violinist, Vadim Gluzman. Here's a list of what they played:

BEETHOVEN Fidelio Overture
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto (with Mr. Gluzman – a total teddy bear cutie, if you want my honest opinion)
DEBUSSY La mer
BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture #3

And here are my thoughts on the experience:

• We sang the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning! I thought that was great fun – although had I known in advance I might have limbered my voice up a little more.
• I loved the first piece, the Beethoven. That's what I think a symphony should sound like! Although I couldn't get Dudley Moore as the conductor in Foul Play out of my head. So I was probably smiling inappropriately. Or maybe people thought I was really a fan.
• The Sibelius with the guest "fiddler" reminded me of a series of an interminable number of some arpeggios. Up and down the scale, all random, with "interesting" syncopation. Really, he was playing the heck out of that violin & he was a joy to watch – so into the music & looking like he might burst with it before he finished. But. I couldn't really find the tune, you know? And apparently that matters to me. So I mostly just watched him & the rest of the orchestra, which was actually quite fascinating.
• The Debussy, I was astounded to find, reminded me of the warm-up the orchestra did between each number (I had no idea that instruments needed to be tuned every 20 minutes). At the end there was some very satisfactory percussion & double bass playing (I want to play an instrument bigger than me!), but most of the time I was people watching rather than enjoying the music. I was astounded because for some reason I assumed I would like Debussy.
• And then we were back to Beethoven & I was so excited because I thought I would like it. Not so much. However, there was a small section that reminded me of the song from Oklahoma that Will and Ado Annie sing – "With me, it's all or nuthin!" So I left the symphony with that running through my head, which was great fun.

So, did I have a good time? Absolutely. Would I go again? You betcha! Just people watching was fabulous – especially the brass section (they didn't have too much to do with this performance, other than a few blasts to wake up the crowd, or is that not what the composer intended?). I loved watching the faces & body language of the musicians. And I got to sing the Star Spangled Banner and that's not something you get to do every day. So, score!

Weekly Wordzzle

I'm back with the Weekly Wordzzle! I know you're as excited as I am. I haven't quite solved the mystery of the last mini (you can read it here), but at least I think I know what's in the envelope now. We'll see what next week's words reveal.

Go to Raven's blog here to read the other stories – we have some excellent writers participating (and, you know, you too could be one of those writers – you know you want to, & it's addicting!)

All right, here we go!

Words for the mini: drab, dutiful, dusty, delicatessen, dart board

Phyllis massaged her pinky finger while she sat in the drab little bar watching Bill fling missiles (badly) in the general direction of a dusty dart board. A dutiful girlfriend to the end. Sigh. She was being a coward, she knew, postponing the inevitable. She thought of the envelope in her purse & the new life it promised. She had gone past fear to excitement. It was time to move on. "Bill honey, let's go to that delicatessen down the street. I'm starving - & I have something important to tell you."


Words for this week's 10-word challenge: English, edible, eagerly, elves, eulogy, estimable, entrance, education, extra-special, Energizer Bunny

(Ok, this is the point where I realized that all the words start with the same letter. Apparently all the "d"s didn't make me suspicious. Heh.)

Theresa English had been told many times that she reminded people of the Energizer Bunny – she kept going & going, but no one knew exactly where she was going. Well, today she felt confident that she was going to put aside all of their concerns about her lack of direction. When her eulogy was read after her estimable career in education all these naysayers would be swallowing their words. She would make sure that the funeral home served extra-special sauce to make those words more edible. She eagerly rushed toward her adviser's office. He was going to be so impressed by her new thesis: The Entrance of the Elves into Middle Earth. All she needed to do was get access to Tolkien's primary sources. She wondered if she'd need a translator, or, yes! She would just learn the language herself! She could hardly wait to see the look on Dr. M's face. And to think, she had always thought that history was boring…

Project 365 – Week Thirty-Nine

Sunday, September 19^th
On Sunday Dr. M took a picture of our tomato ripening factory – still going strong!

  

Monday, September 20^th

On Monday Dr. M took pictures of some squirrels on his campus. I'm fascinated by how they're able to cling to the sides of trees like that.

And here's a cool picture of the almost full moon.

Tuesday, September 21^st

The birds are still enjoying our feeders. Here's one relaxing after dinner. Except I don't really think birds ever relax, do they?

Wednesday, September 22^nd

We got rain!

And then that evening Dr. M gave a lecture on the Underground Railroad in Ohio. He was good! I know in my head that he's good at what he does, but I don't often get to witness him in action. This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Thursday, September 23^rd
Thursday was a banner picture day – all taken by Dr. M. The first one is a picture of the leftover Capri Suns from his lecture refreshments. Like all good southerners he always prepares to feed an army. And while the lecture was well-attended, there wasn't an army. Fortunately he's taking them on his school's road trip to Ripley, Ohio & the Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

When you live in a farming community you might have to drive behind one of these behemoths. There's no way to pass – just sit back, relax, and take a picture LOL.

Here is a groundhog at Dr. M's school. I'm amazed at how he just sat there for his portrait.

We still have flowers blooming at our house. This one has been great!

It's time to put the Topsy Turvy away, but we can't because it's been held hostage by the cypress. Guess we'll have to wait until the first frost to take care of that bit of outdoor maintenance.

Friday, September 24^th
Dr. M took this picture of the moon on his way to school. I'm so glad he did because I saw it on my way to work too but was just too lazy to get the camera out to take a picture.

Here are some deer on his campus – love the electric eyes. Tis the season to be watching out for deer around here. There's a small herd that I've seen a few times on my way to work.

That evening we got a little rain & then this little nubbin of a rainbow appeared.

Saturday, September 25^th
Dr. M is on his bus trip today. I'm supposed to be doing a lot of housework, but I'm working on this post instead. Heh. Hey, I'm doing laundry & I got groceries! And I went out to a farmer's market that I pass on the way to work every day. They've had this field of sunflowers (? I've never seen any that orange color before). The flowers are looking a little ragged, but I've so enjoyed them. Thought I would share them with you guys.

Go here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants.

The Poetry Bus is Headed to the Alps

Shh – I’m not really here. Okay okay, maybe I really am here, just a day early. But I wanted to get on the Poetry Bus & I have my ticket ready! Rachel at More About the Song is driving this week & she’s asked us to remember a character from our childhood – from a book, movie, comic, etc. And for whatever reason, this is the one that popped into my head.

Heidi

I tiptoe
into the room
that’s no
longer there.
White chenille
on the bed –
don’t touch!
When did you last
wash your hands
little girl?
But in that careful
room that’s no
longer there
lived books
that I could touch
all I liked.
My Friend Flika.
Black Beauty.
And my favorite –
Heidi. Oh!
Keep your horses Mimi
and give me the Alps
and a goatherd
and a happy ending!


This room was in my grandparent’s house which was torn down last year (there’s a blog post in all those feelings I had at the time – I was surprised by regret). It was my favorite room even though I wasn’t allowed on the bed. I’m not entirely sure which books were actually on those shelves, or which of my aunts had left these books behind – probably all four, although the aunt I called Mimi was the horse nut – but to me it was a treasure trove. I’m pretty sure that’s where I found Heidi, and lost myself in her world. If I felt especially brave I might even read the book in the slanted roof room!*

*The slanted roof room was an addition built on the house where the ceiling slanted so steeply that I couldn’t stand at one end of the room. It seemed ominous to me & I always felt very brave when I spent any time there – it was my version of a haunted house!

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

It’s not that I don’t love you – I do. I just don’t love you that way right now. And it’s not you, it’s me. So I think we should take a little break. Don’t get excited – it’s just until Saturday. I’ll come back with all kinds of pictures to show you.

No, I’m not cheating on you – if I do any writing you’ll be the first to know – really.

Sincerely, Love,

The Bug

The Poetry Bus Attends a Wedding

Don't Feed the Pixies is driving the bus this week, along with his trusty side-kick Argent (please go to her site to check out other wedding poems – you never know, you might find something you can read as a wedding toast). DFTP has told us to write a non-religious poem to be read at a wedding. Well, I just happen to have such a poem – written five years ago for a cousin's wedding (it was for a scrapbook for her - I was glad to contribute since I couldn't attend the wedding). I did update it slightly (because, you know, it's five years later).


I wish for you what we have…

One word, one look
And there we are –
Together in that place
In that time
Where we first
Knew love and each other

It's not ESP
But it's close – that reading
Of that other mind
So different yet so
In tune…

Harmony, dissonance
That invisible connection
Forged by 20 years
Of words and looks
It is unbreakable

Please note: this is a different cousin's wedding - she's the one who made the scrapbook for the other cousin. I know  - it's complicated!

Project 365 – Week Thirty-Eight

Sunday, September 12^th
On Sunday Dr. M took some pictures of the birds in our back yard. This one is my favorite.

Monday, September 13^th
On Monday Dr. M took this picture of a herd of deer on his campus.

Later that day he had to travel to the Piatt Castles for a meeting. He took pictures of both castles while he was out there.

Tuesday, September 14^th
On Tuesday I took a picture of our fall flag.

And Dr. M made some oven-baked green tomatoes. And I discovered that I don't really like them – too tart! But the breading was really good.

Wednesday, September 15^th
On Wednesday Dr. M took a picture of the sunflower field he passes every day. It's looking very droopy since we haven't had any rain to speak of. I love this one – it looks cantankerous.

And I took a picture of what I thought was a mysterious blue flower growing by our back door. Yes, that is indeed dryer lint. It was twilight – I couldn't really see! Heh.

Thursday, September 16^th
After missing a few Tax Time Pig outfits I had to stop to get a picture of this one – too funny! That is a seriously ginormous bear!

And Dr. M captured this picture of a bird landing on the bird bath.

Friday, September 17^th
My dad's birthday! But since I'm not there, this picture has nothing to do with that. It's a picture of the low lying fog which was pretty amazing Friday morning. Dr. M took this one.

Saturday, September 18^th
Today we went up to Dr. M's school so that he could provide some interpretation of an exhibit of pictures of underground railroad sites in their county.

The photo exhibit was held in conjunction with a barn quilt tour and they had an exhibit of over 100 quilts that had been made by members of the county quilting club. I took a ton of pictures – here are just a few.

This is the one they're raffling off. You can bet I bought a ticket!

Go here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants.

A Birthday Magpie

Today's Magpie is a tribute to my father, who turns 70 years old tomorrow (thanks Willow for the timely prompt!). He is the youngest 70 year old I know. Happy birthday Daddy!

 

When you were born
a great war raged
although your grandmother
wasn't yet a 7 star mother.
Two uncles gone
in the war to end all wars.

Of course, I didn't
know you then.

When I was born
you slept in the
waiting room.
You had been up
since dawn 'cause
cows don't wait
for milking.

But I don't
remember that.

I remember a brown

uniform & packed lunches

and company turkeys

and bedtime stories

and breakfasts of champions

and how selflessly you cared

for my dying mother.

Now there's your new love
and a big garden
and golf on bad greens,
and grandchildren
and choir practice
and a turn on the stage.

Seventy turns
around the sun –
by my count
you aren't even
nearly done.

To participate in Magpie Tales, or to read other entries (you won't be sorry!), just click here.

Where in the World is Ann T. Hathaway?

Living in community is hard. It's joyful & hilarious & comforting & all kinds of uplifting too. But life is not all happy happy joy joy and sometimes it hurts to have friends. I've done a fairly good job of being distant from my in real life friends all these years – literally & figuratively. You won't get a random call from me (unless it's your birthday - & even then it's iffy – sorry KJ!). It's not that I don't want to know what's happening – it's that maybe I'll have to be with you in your misery as well as your joy. I'm not really very good at that – and I tend to anesthetize my feelings with food or mindless computer games. Add the stresses of my own life and you have the recipe for a coronary.

And now I have an online community, & bloggers have a way of not letting you keep your distance. It's all this intimate reading of each other's thoughts & feelings. I find myself having to be with these folks in their misery & joy too. And of course, it's a little easier to do that over the interwebs. I can write a nice comment and feel like I've "been" with the person. Most of the time that doesn't let me off the hook – I still feel for the person even if I've moved on to the next blog.

But when it's really hard, and what's making my heart hurt these days, is when they go away. Sometimes we know why. Barry left us and his wife Linda told us about it. We're still mourning his loss – and there are certain posts where I still wonder what he would say about what I wrote. Goldenrod left us, and her daughter Polimom told us about it. I can't believe that force of nature with whom I just had a great phone conversation in July, is now lost to us. And there have been bloggers who just decided that it was time for them to close their blogs. And they told us they were leaving, so we could say goodbye if we needed to (or maybe I stalked them tracked them down so I could say goodbye).

And now Ann T. Hathway is missing entirely. Her blog is still there, with no portent of doom. The last post is a happy one. But she hasn't posted since before Labor Day. And she doesn't respond to email. And she apparently doesn't answer the phone (another blogger (thanks Gia!) has tried to call and had the police do a well-being check). And I'm so desperately afraid for this woman I've never met. Maybe she needed a break, but I'm pretty sure she would have told us.

So I'm left imagining the worst and hoping she'll read this post & be embarrassed and mad about it. I really want her to be mad at me.

In fact, I'm praying for it.


P.S. Almost immediately after I finished writing this I felt as though a weight had lifted from my shoulders. Writing my pain helped dissapate it. And that reminds me of why I blog in the first place - to get all that emotion out there for the world to see so that it can help carry the load. Thanks!

I'm a Versatile Blogger!

Don’t Feed the Pixies has given me an award! Well, I think I got it by default. But since I really enjoy talking about myself I’ll play along. I’m supposed to tell seven things about myself & then pass along the award to seven people. As I’m typing this I’m fairly certain I will be skipping the second part, but we’ll see after all that nice talking about myself.


1. I used to carry my lunch when I was in high school. I didn’t want to figure out what table to sit at. I’m not sure I was afraid of rejection, exactly, but I WANTED TO BE LEFT ALONE TO READ MY BOOK IN PEACE. I always had the same thing (or at least I did my senior year) – a livermush sandwich. Wonder what I took to drink? I certainly never touched the everclear the yearbook photographer (another senior – not an adult!) would bring in for his lunch.

2. I once worked as an admin for an agency that provided services to rape & domestic abuse survivors. And I was a square peg in a round hole in that place – it is very hard working with a lot of touchy feely women if you’re a non touchy feely woman. I was forever offending someone. That said – these were some of the best people I ever worked with. They used their energy & empathy to help other women, so they didn’t have any left to combat me.

3. My mother is forever invading my dreams. Sometimes it’s just ordinary stuff & other times I wonder what in the world my subconscious is trying to tell me. Just over the weekend I dreamed that she was sort of Joan Crawford-ish & she spoke in that fake British accent that people seemed to have back then. Ya’ll, my mom was from North Carolina. And she was probably the opposite of Mommy Dearest. Very odd.

4. My dream home would have a living room large enough to hold a table for a jigsaw puzzle. I would quit blogging & just work puzzles every evening.

5. I am working really hard to embrace fall this year. I try thinking thoughts like, “surely everyone is tired of pictures of hummingbirds and finches,” and, “aren’t these cooler days fabulous?” But, really, what’s playing in the back of my head is dark commutes on the way to & from work, having to wear my coat, and driving in the snow. Sigh.

6. Aren’t we to seven yet? I’m counting this question as revealing something about myself.

7. Just now I was looking at the Ohio flag flying outside my office window & remembering all the brouhaha about how Obama had created his own flag for his Obamanation – and the picture they showed was of the Ohio state flag. Oh I laughed for many days about that one.

Well, as I suspected, I am not going to pass this award along. Although, frankly there are a number of you about which that I would enjoy reading more. So, feel free to take this award & run with it if you’re so inclined.

Chill

Yes, this is the ceiling of our bedroom. The other night while I was waiting on Dr. M to finish playing Farmville, I was lying in bed staring up at it thinking about all of our problems. I can't really talk about all of them, and I don't want this post to be a list of "issues" (but if you must know I am about tired of my arthritis, shoulder & tail bone hurting, among other things).

I just wanted to point out that, looking up at the ceiling, thinking about all my many concerns big and small, the spackled ridges appeared to recede so that instead of seeing all these random mountain ranges I was now looking at oddly shaped plateaus. It's a trick of the eyes similar to those 3-D pictures that were all the rage about 20 years ago. And no, there were no "medications" involved (unless you count Kroger Big K Diet Citrus Drop).

The eye trick doesn't happen when I'm staring fixedly at the ceiling. I have to relax my eyes and let them cross & wander a bit. I started thinking about perspective and how these plateaus seemed a little gentler than all those ridges.

And here is my big takeaway from the incident: I should just relax and stop staring so fixedly at my problems. Some of them won't go away if I ignore them, but I don't need to keep my laser focus on them at all times. Just chill every now & then & enjoy the plateau before tackling the mountain again.

Weekly Wordzzle

Whew! I wasn't sure I'd get to a Wordzzle this week – I had a really busy weekend! But I wrote the mini while getting the oil changed in my car, and just finished the 10-worder. I think I'll skip the mega this week – I want to write a regular post (no poem!) for tomorrow.


Words for the mini: lawn mower, sheets and towels, smashed, bookcase, pinky finger


The sound of a lawn mower in the yard next door awakened Phyllis from a light doze. Why was she sleeping in the middle of the day? Groggily she looked at the basket of neatly folded sheets & towels on the chair beside the sofa. Oh yeah, she had smashed her pinky finger carrying the basket back to the linen closet. The story of her life - a task she had done a million times turned perilous without warning. It was just too much so she flopped on the couch to sulk. She must have fallen asleep. Rolling onto her back she glanced toward the bookcase and the envelope propped against her Dick Francis collection. Perhaps the throbbing finger wasn't the real reason she had decided to check out for a while. There were decisions to be made about the contents of that envelope. Sighing, she closed her eyes again and listened to the mower next door making neat rows out of ragged grass.


Words for this week's 10-word challenge were: charm, judge, flowers, mixed nuts, earthquake, politics, sugar and spice, bricks and mortar, neurosurgeon, blinking lights, plastic bag

"His family has all the charm of bricks and mortar," said Karen as she arranged flowers in a vase, conveniently forgetting that the flowers were a "welcome to the family" gift from her fiancé's mother. "I was on my best sugar and spice behavior and they just sat there staring at me and started talking about politics again. At least they'd dropped the earthquake topic. Booorrring!" There was no one in the room – Karen just liked to talk to herself. No one else was as interesting as she was.

She was excited to be engaged to a neurosurgeon, but did he always have to be so serious? She had mentioned once that his family didn't have to be sober as a judge all the time – and Rodney said that his father was a judge. Sigh. Perhaps she'd best call the whole thing off.

______

"Her family has all the intelligence of a plastic bag," Rodney said as he carefully selected cashews out of a can of mixed nuts, conveniently forgetting that the nuts were a "welcome to the family" gift from Karen's mother. "They don't give a fig about politics and had never even heard of the earthquake we were discussing!" There was no one in the room – Rodney just liked hearing the sound of his own voice.

He thought Karen was beautiful and charming, and hadn't really noticed before that she didn't have an opinion on anything – except shoes. And her family was just like her! Although her dad didn't care about shoes – his opinions were all about football. Sigh. Perhaps he'd best call the whole thing off.

______ 

The next day Rodney called Karen and got her answering machine. He left a brief message asking for his ring back. Karen called Rodney and got his answering machine, leaving a long rambling discourse about how they just weren't right for each other so she wanted to break it off. She didn't mention the ring.

That night they both saw the blinking lights as soon as they walked in the door. Each of them decided that they didn't want to hear the other begging so they ignored the lights & headed for the shower.

______ 

The Bug threw the book down in disgust. Just check your blankety blank messages! Maybe there's one from your mother. Didja think of that? Huh? Huh?

The Bug has no patience for romance characters who don't communicate.


You should go to Raven's blog to read the other Wordzzle participants. And join in – it can be addictive!

Project 365 – Week Thirty-Seven

Sunday, September 5^th
On Sunday Dr. M & I decided to take a little ramble. We had a nice time driving around. I don't know the significance of this carving, but we thought it was really neat - & with the sun shining on it I decided that it was a sign that I needed to get a picture of it. It's actually two-sided – the angel carving is on the back.

We had an adolescent humor moment & had to get a picture of this sign.

And we found sheep! Imagine that!

Monday, September 6^th
I guess it's appropriate that all of our Labor Day pictures are of produce. This first picture is of the tomatoes that we're hoping will ripen off the vine. It's just been too cool in the evenings. I don't remember - was it Rita? - but yes, I'd love if you'd send me your fried green tomato recipe!

Next is a picture of the squash vine – it's still producing quite well. Must like the cooler weather.

And here are a couple pictures of part of our supper – tomatoes, the refrigerator pickles Dr. M made with our cucumbers, and squash & zucchini (the zucchini was from someone else's garden). We had sweet potatoes, grilled chicken & steak with this.

Tuesday, September 7^th
On Tuesday Dr. M took a picture of some of our squash.

And I took a picture of a science experiment. The sweet potato we ate last night was growing so Dr. M put a chunk in some water to see what it would do.

Wednesday, September 8^th
We still have some lovely flowers around here.

Thursday, September 9^th
On Thursday I took a picture of the fog on my way to work. This doesn't really do it justice – it's just so pretty & fluffy over all the fields in the mornings.

The sunflower field on Dr. M's way to work is just gorgeous.

Friday, September 10^th
On Friday Dr. M got some pictures of, guess what? Birds! I love how the finch looks so self-important - & I love the reflection of the birds in the water.

That night Dr. M & I worked my church's booth at a local festival - selling rootbeer floats. This was dinner – BBQ pulled pork nachos. Yum!

Saturday, September 11^th
Today we went to the first home football game of the season at Dr. M's university. And they won! It was a great game.

This is a picture of the band – yes, they call their area is called The Pit of Despair. The band is really good this year – we were impressed, especially since they only have about 27 members.

And here is a picture of our booth at the festival – yes we worked another shift today.

I love this poster that one of our folks created for our booth. Especially on this day we should remember that we are called to love, not hate. Just because other people thrive on hate doesn't mean that we have to join in. Am I less of an American because I don't hate innocent Muslims? Am I less of an American because I think that more killing isn't an answer? Frankly, I'm not sure I even care about that – What Would Jesus Do? That's the question I care about.

Go here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants.