2020 Project 365 – Week Twenty-seven

Blogger has updated its interface and I am NOT AMUSED. The spacing is weird, I have to add pictures one at a dang time (I used to upload them all, and then just insert them where I wanted), and I can’t just type in the labels anymore – I have to scroll through the whole list to find the ones I want. I have a jillion labels. Labels might be a thing of the past (I mostly use the search feature when I’m trying to find a post anyway). Okay, rant over. For now.

Sunday, June 28^th                                                             

Dr. M spent some time with his dad & the hydrangeas that are from his mother’s funeral. 

I spent some time with my dad and Sue, and picked some blueberries. When I commented that the thing on the right was NOT a blueberry, my dad yanked it up & sent it home with me (garlic – yum!).

Monday, June 29^th                            

The moon! 

Tuesday, June 30^th                                                                 

Another day, another mask situation. 

Our neighbor’s daylilies are lovely! 

Wednesday, July 1^st                                                         

I posted this about being glad my new curling iron came with that warning, and then things took a bawdy turn – especially after I read the instructions. And all I can say about that is OUCH.

 

Thursday, July 2^nd       

One of my coworkers’ husbands brought us patriotic donuts. Yum! 

That evening we had a visitation from the blissed out Roy. 

Friday, July 3^rd                                                                     

I had the day off from work – woo hoo! I finished up this project – another non-sock item made from sock yarn that I’d had for about 5 years. I actually mostly finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I was POSITIVE I had another skein of the yarn in the house somewhere. I did another pretty exhaustive search on this day & had no luck. It’s fine – this is supposed to be a scarf, not a shawl anyway. Photo shoot to come after it dries. 

Saturday, July 4^th                

We spent part of the day with Dr. M’s dad. We had bbq & baked beans with fried okra (I don’t know why the only picture I took of that was the okra). And then we had cupcakes, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Dr. M spent some time talking with his dad & I spent some time picking blueberries. I think it’s fitting that I began and ended the week with blueberries! 

I often have a lot of conflicting feelings about this day, but this year it was more troubling than usual. I’ll let Frederick Douglass explain (and my goodness, I read an alternate opinion of him this week & now I’m giving him side eye!). 

I’ve had a lovely long weekend, but I don’t mind going back to work (at least I won’t mind once I’m up and out of the shower – pre-shower I will be a little salty about it). When I’m out of my routine I can spiral down into complete lethargy with a touch of depression. I did get some housework done, so I feel good about that, and I finished a couple of books and started on THREE more. But I’ll bet my screen time was through the roof! What did you do with your down time? (If you had some – and I don’t want to hear it from my retired people – I’m looking at you Daddy.)

 

2020 Project 365 – Week Twenty-four

I’ve got nothing. (If you’re reading this it’s because I wrote the rest of the post and I still have nothing to say here.)

Sunday, June 7^th                                                            

I think they liked it! 

Monday, June 8^th                          

Flora 

Fauna 

Some of both. 

Tuesday, June 9^th                                                                

The only Boys of Summer that we’re getting these days. 

Wednesday, June 10^th                                                        

I’m not sure what’s going on here.  A before picture that I can use if I ever go to get my hair done? 

Thursday, June 11^th       

This isn’t my photo – it’s a street in Charlotte. I love the art and the message! For my “all lives matter” people, here is an article that might help you understand why that response comes across as racist. Here is a quote: “Black lives matter” is about focus, not exclusion," Johnson says. "It reminds us to recognize and confront racism and racial violence."  

On my way home from work I saw this small demonstration. 

I was dreadmilling & hadn’t remembered to pull my hair back so I used a headphone cord. It was only somewhat effective. 

Friday, June 12^th                                                                    

Wildflowers! 

And here are my two wildflower boxes. We’re finally getting a little action. 

Saturday, June 13^th                 

Breakfast: steel cut oats, fried eggs, roasted green beans, tomato & cucumber salad, and parm. Yum! 

Our “ditch lilies” are winding down – next up will be the double orange. 

I have no caption here either. Why don’t you tell me something instead?

They Just Want to Live

I was going to write a post about the George Floyd, but this video and these words from the interim pastor of my church say everything that I'm feeling. Dr. M has also been very eloquent - maybe I'll do another post later with some of his thoughts.

Howard Thurman asks us a damning question in his book “Jesus and the Disinherited: “Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin?” 
 
We have personalized racism saying “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” when it is a systemic problem far more than a personal attitude.  When Social Security was called for by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he bent to the will of the South who wanted their farm laborers and domestic help to remain exempt from the program so those in power (uniformly white people) could save money at the expense of their black servants and laborers. Blacks returning from WW2 could not always get the same GI bill housing benefits and colleges were still allowed to refuse admittance to African Americans so an advanced education was again often denied. We see the ongoing segregation in our all too unequal schools.
 
White people have systemically had their foot on the necks of African Americans.  When a police officer in Minneapolis kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nine long minutes as he choked to death, it is no surprise that anger and violence has erupted. From afar, both physically and experientially, we white folk are put off by the vandalism and destruction that has followed and wonder why the anger is so intense.

Frederick Douglass offered this explanation in 1886:
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
 
The black citizens of Minneapolis (and Charlotte and Hickory and Los Angeles) have seen the failure of our policing system one more time when all four officers ignore the pleading of a dying man and a crowd of witnesses.  They doubt the justice system will serve them any better.
 
This week we celebrate Pentecost Sunday and read from Acts 2 which celebrates a diverse gathering of people from around the world. The Spirit offers us a greater challenge than we have typically embraced. Our personal behavior always matters.  But what matters even more in the search for justice is that we overturn the temple tables and begin to rebuild our societal and political structures so that “the least of these” are no longer trampled underfoot.

~ breathing in sorrow,
Nancy