Posted on June 10, 2004
I don’t quite understand all the hoopla surrounding former President Ronald Reagan’s death. I do understand that, as a former chief executive of our country, he is eligible for a state funeral; but does that entitle him to wall-to-wall coverage on television when he left the office over 15 years ago?
Two thoughts bother me most. First, if this is what we do for a former president, what is there left to do for a sitting president who might die or be assassinated in office? Second, could it be that the airtime given to the former president’s passing is being manipulated so as to keep campaign news of the current presidential election off the air?
I don’t have the answer to either question, but I would like to meet someone who does.
I was much younger when Reagan was in office and also much more preoccupied with simply getting by than I am now. So I cannot really say what his contribution to world peace or tearing down the Berlin Wall or dismantling the former Soviet Union really is.
What I remember most is a folk song sung by the long defunct Chad Mitchell Trio which was semi-popular when Reagan was running for the office of Governor of California prior to running for national office. The lyrics are priceless and refer to how this country needs another movie star. It goes on to refer to Reagan’s B-movie performances and his subsequent television western, Death Valley Days. Specifically, those lyrics are: “‘Cause Bonny Ronnie Reagan knows experience pays, so California better get set for Death Valley Days.” Little did the Chad Mitchell Trio know it was prophesizing the future beyond California.
Whether I agreed with his politics or not, I respect any president at the time of his passing; but I do think the media coverage is more than enough. As my next door neighbor. the widow of a man who was in the real Stalag 17 during World War II, said: “I loved my husband just as much as Nancy loved hers, but because he was never president he didn’t get to have such recognition.”
See more 10 Minutes in category Politics, Things to Ponder
|
Posted on June 9, 2004
It’s Wednesday morning. The last two guests from the weekend birthday bash left about an hour ago, and the house seems eerily quiet. In a few minutes, I’ll start stripping beds and washing towels, picking up things that have moved from their usual places, and slowly resume my normal routine. By tomorrow, one would never guess we have been partying for the past four days.
I’m not particularly a party person. Rather I prefer small gatherings, even just getting together with one other friend. But I would not have traded these past few days with friends and family all piled in together, roaming the house and sharing company.
Our refrigerator has the last vestiges of the various meals we ate: lasagna, egg casserole, baked beans, sausages, English muffins, watermelon, chicken, chocolate dessert. I hasten to add we didn’t eat all these things at the same meal, although Earl and I probably will this evening. And as I enjoy the leftovers, I’ll be thinking of how special it was to take time to party, party, party.
See more 10 Minutes in category Dining/Food, Special Events
|
Posted on June 8, 2004
Things I’ve learned in the past 24 hours:
1. That our own houseguests can fend for themselves while I throw a picnic at our real estate office.
2. That mosquitoes are relentless, especially when you are entertaining company.
3. That picnics are an easy way of gathering people together; add a little catsup or mustard to anything and it becomes gourmet fare.
4. That flowers bloom best when they are appreciated. At the same time, the blooming part is also dependent on being watered at regular intervals, on fertilizing, on mulching, and on coaxing. So the act of appreciation is only the final step in encouraging flowers to show their colors.
5. That men don’t like frou-frou salads. That beer is best served cold, while wine can really go either way. That most men who earn their living in real estate in southwestern Michigan don’t like quiche. In fact, most men who earn their living in real estate in southwestern Michigan don’t even know about quiche.
That the company picnic held this evening was really enjoyed by all. And that means this is the time to say “Amen.”
See more 10 Minutes in category Dining/Food, Special Events
|
Posted on June 6, 2004
Today my three long-time friends — Carol, Noreen, and Judi — met each other for the first time. Together the years I’ve known these women totals 120; yet, because each friend lives in a different part of the Midwest, this was their first meeting.
Carol and I met in sixth grade when we were both the new kids who came to the school in the middle of the year, when friendships had already been blooming since September. Noreen and I became friends in our early twenties, originally because the men we married were friends. But our relationship has long outlasted that of the men. Judi and I struggled through early marriage together, each of us being women who might have made a greater mark in the business world in another time or place. At one point, she and I even owned a graphics business together.
What these women have in common is that they are all smart, witty, capable, organized, honest, dependable, and sympathetic — not necessarily in that order. Yet, each is as unique as the proverbial grain of sand or scarlet sunset.
I am an only child. And while that statement makes obvious that I never had an older or younger sister to help with the transition to a new school or to motherhood, what it also means is that I’ve acquired three wonderful surrogate sisters along the way.
See more 10 Minutes in category Me/Family, Special Events
|
Posted on June 4, 2004
It is Friday, June 4, 2004, and we are heading into the weekend. But not just any weekend; it is my birthday weekend. Mine and the birthday of the invasion of Normandy, which occurred on June 6, 1944, within hours of my birth in the early morning hours of June 7.
All through my life, D-Day and my birthday have coincided. When I was little my Mother often said, as my birthday approached, “You were born the day after D-Day,” as if this were some special recognition.
Even my father, whom I did not meet until I was forty-eight, told me that he and my Mother sat up all night listening to the radio and learning of the invastion on June 6. The next day, they were coping with their own invasion.
Early on, I didn’t see the connection, but as time passed I began to reevaluate what it means to have a birthday on the day after D-Day. Not just a birthday on the anniversary of the day after D-Day, but the actual event.
A few years back, my Aunt Alice found and sent me a copy of the front page of the New York Times for June 7, 2004. It contained the first reports of what happened on those beaches and in those important beach towns. The main headline reads: “Hitler’s Sea Wall is Breached, Invaders Fighting Way Inland; New Allied Landings are Made.” Not surprisingly, there was no mention of my birth.
Currently this newspaper is framed and hangs in my office to remind me that, while I love birthdays more than Valentine’s Day or Christmas, men lay dying while I was being born. There is a connection here after all.
This particular year D-Day and I both turn sixty. I’m pleased that much is being made of the remaining veterans from that conflict, who are dying at the rate of approximately one thousand a day. I’m also pleased that Earl, his daughter, and son-in-law have gone to great lengths to hold a party in my honor. I feel grateful that all of us — ancient soldiers and an aging woman — are all being remembered together.
See more 10 Minutes in category Nostalgia
|
Posted on June 2, 2004
Advance press releases on the Internet report that President Bush gives the commencement address at the U. S. Air Force Academy this afternoon. In his speech, he plans to compare the War on Terrorism in the Middle East to World War II in Europe. I won’t spend time repeating what will be tonight’s evening news, but I do have some thoughts on the matter.
Fatalities are always tragic, whether one life or many are lost. But the comparison Bush wishes to make in this regard is lopsided. The United States lost almost half a million men and women during World War II. Almost a thousand members of our Armed Forces have died since Bush declared war on Iraq last year.
The real axis of evil — Germany, Italy, and Japan — were sovereign countries we knew and recognized. And we fought the Germans, Italians, and Japanese. Iraq is a country we know, but Bush says we are not fighting the Iraqis; rather we are fighting to ‘free’ them. It sounds as if we are on the same side, but the past year suggests our ideas about freedom, religion, and government do not necessarily agree with theirs.If terror were a country, its citizens could be called terrorists. And President Bush could wage war on the appropriate target of his anger. He could draw better comparisons too. Until then, however, it isn’t a good idea to substitute one war with another or to interchange the concepts of country and ideology.
See more 10 Minutes in category 2004 Election, Nostalgia, Things to Ponder
|
Posted on June 1, 2004
Plot eludes me, which is why I may end up being relegated to the role of a personal memoirist for the rest of my life. I write effectively and even emotionally, but I cannot string a story together.
What should one do when one wants to write a best seller? Hire a ghost writer? Take seminars on writing novels? Work harder on one’s own? I don’t know, except to say that I have, at least, discovered the problem. The issue now is how to resolve it.
As I understand it, plot is how the story first evolves and then resolves. It is what makes readers go from chapter to chapter without a bathroom break. It is the heart of the matter, to repeat an already coined phrase.
But how does one do it? I’m so used to the short form of the essay that to write a story where there is an actual beginning, middle, and end is intimidating. How do I know where the beginning ends and the middle begins? What makes the end an end?
I only know I write from the heart, sending it out there, without regard for form or structure. I think that is the best way to do it; otherwise, one’s silent ‘editor’ takes over, telling the writer what should and should not be on the printed page.
At the same time, this approach has stunted my plot growth. So perhaps there are lessons to study, exercises to do, tests to pass that would help me create a real story, rather than a memoir, one that would catapult me to the top of the NY Times Best Seller List.
The NY Times Best Seller List is the penultimate achievement in my eyes, regardless of whether we’re talking real literary quality here or merely dribble in the wind. It doesn’t matter. To be on that list would be wonderful.
Which makes me wonder how to acquire more expertise in the area of plot. Won’t somebody tell me? Will somebody come and stand by my side? I know I could do it with a little guidance. Contact me if you know how to do it.
See more 10 Minutes in category Personal Pleas, Writing
|
Posted on May 31, 2004
Willie Mc Cord was a private from Arkansas who fought for the North in the Civil War. Somehow, when the war was over, he ended up in Michigan. Maybe he met someone and fell in love; perhaps he wanted a more northern climate; or possibly work led him here.
Regardless, when he died in 1917, Willie was buried in Crystal Springs Cemetery in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Fast forward to the year 2004, Memorial Day. I doubt any of Willie’s descendants still visit his grave at Crystal Springs. Even worse, perhaps he is not remembered any more anywhere. Except that Earl and I chose to remember him this Memorial Day.
Why? The reason is simple. Memorial Day was originally created to remember fallen comrades from those wars that enabled us to maintain our democratic freedom. And, about eight years ago, Earl and I decided to create a new tradition (if there ever was such an oxymoron) of visiting cemeteries and spending a few moments at the grave of some soldier who had served his (or her) country well.
Today, families are far flung, with parents, children, siblings, cousins, etc. living in different parts of the United States. The tradition of visiting graves on Memorial Day causes great expense and time, if family members take it seriously and gather at the local cemetery.
But why couldn’t others, like Earl and me, represent such families by visiting graves of those who served in the armed forces and spending a few minutes thinking about their lives, as unknowable as they may be?
Willie Mc Cord, I wlll never know more about you than what is on your tombstone, but you enhanced my life with the brief description of your own. I hope you had joy more than sorrow, laughter more than tears, success more than failure. But if not, know that one person in the twenty-first century still stopped by your grave to say ‘Hello.’ And thanks.
See more 10 Minutes in category Nostalgia
|
Posted on May 30, 2004
Today, for the first Sunday in many weeks, I read the Herald Palladium from front to back, with the exception of the classifieds and the advertising inserts. Neither Earl nor I ventured forth from the house to buy the Chicago Tribune, our usual Sunday fare; so I settled for what passes as news in southwestern Michigan.
The lead story on the front page was about the prevalence of methamphetamines in this area. It featured a sidebar on a woman who became addicted to meth and spent time in jail, drying out while doing time.
Given that there was extensive news of terrorist activities on the radio and television these past 24 hours, I was surprised that the lead was so localized. I realize the Herald Palladium is a local newspaper, but wouldn’t it want its readers to have a sense of the world beyond their doors?
I scoured the paper for national and international news, and finally found it in other sections. I read the editorial, which excoriated Amnesty International for chastising America and its war on terror. Obviously, the editorial was written by a conservative who feels that we have a monopoly on being victimized and nobody, but nobody, should criticize us.
It wasn’t news to me that I’ve chosen to live in a very conservative part of our country. And, to give the paper its due, the political cartoons were more to my liberal liking. But, reading the local newspaper so closely made me wonder if other Michiganders view it as the gospel truth. If so, I’m sorry.
Places like southwestern Michigan are important for maintaining a semblance of stability across the fabric of American life. At the same time, changes that occur that benefit minorities of any kind do not occur here. Equal pay for women, gay marriage, sex outside of wedlock, living together without being married, you name it. It starts elsewhere before the Herald Palladium ever learns of it.
After thinking about it, the meth story as lead article was pretty revolutionary.
See more 10 Minutes in category Politics, Small Town Life
|
Posted on May 29, 2004
I am becoming obsessed with the deck that covers the entire back of our house. I was told it is the equivalent of 900 square feet, which is larger than the apartment we had when I was first married. But its size isn’t what controls me. Rather, it’s cleaning the surface.
I have learned that decks need to be washed and sealed to preserve not only their wood but also their beauty. But since I have worked two jobs for the past two years, our deck has been neglected on both the washing and sealing fronts.
This year is different. Being a lady of relative leisure, I decided that I would hand-wash our deck before setting out the summer furniture. I began in early May, thinking this was a job for one day or two. But today is May 29, and I am still at it. There are several reasons for this.
First, the weather has been uncooperative, sending rain that has caused power outages, muddy fields, and lost opportunities for spring deck cleaning.
Second, never having cleaned a deck before, I used the wrong solution, actually the wrong proportion of bleach to water solution, so that I had to retrace my swabbing steps and redo the part that I had considered finished early in the month.
What can I say, except that most household things take longer, are more expensive, and require more knowledge than I have at any given moment. Which is to say I’ll keep trying, but I’ll also not put myself on a deadline that is unrealistic, given the ineptitude of the deck cleaner person.
See more 10 Minutes in category Changing Scene, Me/Family
|
