88 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-27-20”

  3. Happy Birthday! Cheryl
    QoD
    1. Say I live in Minneapolis. I drive 55 mph down a 25 speed limit street. I hit a car and total it.
    What happens?

    2. I return home and find someone has entered my house and stolen some things.
    Who do I call?

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  5. I’m sure there are no statues to Sherman in Atlanta. But I suspect that if there were, the people of Atlanta would not destroy it.
    Such little people making so much of so little.
    Another QoD. What will they do when they run out of things to be against?

    (It just occurred to me, that I may be on the wrong thread this Saturday morning. But it’s done now.

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  7. Chas QoD 1&2: You call the Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, of course. Don’t ask what they’ll do. Probably give hugs and a calming speech. Actually, I you lived in Minneapolis you’d be packing your things and moving right now while you can still get a decent price for your property.

    QoD 3- Yes, the world is upside down. 2020 does not describe the vision of society at this time. As a whole, people have tunnel vision. They see racism at every turn and tear down anything that represents white superiority, whether it be a statue of a Confederate general or one of a white abolitionist. They don’t care because they don’t think to research who these people were.

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  10. There used to be a saying in K W. Don’t listen to your drunk monkey. They changed it a year ago to monkey mind which is a Buddhist saying. Last week all hell broke loose over it being racist. Where does it end. I don’t know a whole lot about Buddhism but I’m pretty sure they didn’t have slavery in mind when they came up with a description of controlling your racing, scattered thoughts.
    I’m thinking I may have to drop my maiden name what with being white and all.

    And to answer your question Chas – yes the world has turned upside down. It probably started 25 plus years ago. Maybe longer.

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  12. Actually, the world turned a few thousand years ago (if you are a young creationist) in a beautiful garden where God walked with them in the evening.

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  14. Thank you, everyone!

    My husband asked what I wanted for my birthday. Since we aren’t going out shopping ourselves and I haven’t restocked my chocolate supply, I told him just Mounds and Ghiardelli dark chocolate raspberry. A week or so ago, we were discussing the new furniture we are ordering, and I opened a door in his Ikea unit to explain something I was saying, and there were two bags of the Ghiardelli. I said, “Oh, I didn’t realize we had any of these left” and then realized, “Wait, that’s part of my birthday gift.” We both laughed. Today he explained the Mounds were in a different cabinet, and that the order came one day when I was out for a walk.

    But my husband painted me a card (a tiger swallowtail butterfly), the cake he baked is cooling, and he’s going to cook steak for lunch. And we are going to go out for a walk before the predicted thunderstorm that will hopefully bring us much-needed rain. One of my brothers has called; usually about half my siblings do so, but it isn’t the same ones from one year to the next. My mother-in-law calls too, and often my sister-in-law, and the girls might or might not. But my phone’s charge got to near zero, so it’s charging.

    Liked by 5 people

  18. My husband and I had a lovely summer walk. I’ve long said God is the only one who can make orange (and have it look good). I don’t like orange in anything manmade (clothing, etc.), but God saves it for summer and uses it sparingly then, and it’s exquisite. Think orioles (I have yet to see a male Baltimore oriole this summer, though, even though I have seen both male and female orchard orioles and a female Baltimore oriole a couple of times). Orange flowers don’t bloom till summer, and very few species are orange even in summer.

    So, on my birthday walk I got to see first-of-the-season butterfly weed and my first adult monarch of the season posed very nicely for me on another milkweed. (I have seen two large monarch caterpillars, and an orange butterfly off in the distance that might or might not have been a monarch, and I’ve seen a viceroy. But the monarchs decided to wait and do it right, give me a lovely first sighting on my birthday.) Swamp milkweed just started to bloom today, too, and I hadn’t noticed even the plants or buds of the pink one (swamp) or the orange one (butterfly weed). I knew they’d be blooming soon, and I love both of them, but I hadn’t seen them yet.

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  19. Happy Birthday, Cheryl. I love those candies, Mounds and Dark Chocolate Raspberry. I also love Almond Joy. My other favorite is Heath Bar. I think I remember you like peanut butter on rye which I also enjoy. Vintage taste buds.

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  22. I have just gotten off a Zoom call with my Word Weavers group. I am so pleased that we have continued meeting.

    My brother is working outside in the yard. I need to go see what he has done. I have been concerned about that Sahara dust in the air but he said he’d be okay.

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  26. Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

    Do you like Mounds rather than Almond Joy because you don’t like nuts in things? That is my reason.

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  28. Kizzie… “sometimes you feel like a nut…sometimes you don’t…Almond Joys have nuts…Mounds don’t”….we sing that jingle around here a lot! Those are our favorite candy bars 😂

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  32. Bye bye, John Wayne.

    For the record, my parents (not Christians) did not approve of John Wayne or Johnnie Cash. Too much alcohol and such.

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  34. I used to say my dad was John Wayne. There were some other descriptive in that statement and I believe you all know of my adoration of Johnny Cash

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  35. Kizzie, I’m OK with nuts in things, and sometimes cover nuts with chocolate myself. I add walnuts or pecans to brownies and sometimes to chocolate chip cookies. However, Mounds bars have dark chocolate and Almond Joy have milk, and that makes a huge difference in those candies.

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  38. They could just not fly through it. Isn’t that how they tell us to respond to pornography–don’t like it, don’t look?

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  39. True.

    So, if anybody is still up. We just got a call from twenty three who was driving home from work to get baby to go back to town to house sit. She overcorrected when a deer crossed the road and rolled her vehicle. The one she just bought from her brother, put seven hundred dollars of repairs in, had the starter go out, had another brother replace the starter today. It is no longer a vehicle but she is fine. Husband is off to go rescue her. Again. This girl needs to stop driving. At least that way I would not be concerned she is going to leave baby in an overheated car.
    Prayers of gratitude for safety, and wisdom for how to deal with her.

    Liked by 4 people

  40. Still waiting for husband to return with daughter. I suspect the deputies have to take their time getting information correct so decisions can be made. Baby is awake.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. The dust from the Sahara is both good and bad: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/saharan-dust-storms-giving-earth-life/613441/

    In the dry season in West Africa, Saharan dust blew through regularly, coating everything with a thick layer of dust, sifting through open windows and the cracks under doors. By the end of the day, the floors would be covered with it. Cleaning was an unending job. Thankfully, it did not bother me then, although I do not know how I would react to it now that I have been so sensitized to environmental triggers.

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  43. So? What happens when the Sahara runs out of dust?
    Can’t do that, you say?
    No. On second thought, it creates it’s own dust. I could delete this, but I won’t.

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  44. But I’m approaching 90, and this is the first time I recall a worry about Sahara dust.
    But other than the fact that there is a statue of Andrew Jackson still standing, what else do we have to worry about.

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  45. So sorry to hear that, mumsee. Praying for her and you etc. Thanking the Lord they are safe.

    In my reading of the last of Matthew today it occurred to me that we would not realize that one of the robbers crucified with Jesus was saved. The last we hear of them is in Matthew 27:24 and the bible just tells us that the robbers crucified with Jesus was also mocking him. It is only when reading elsewhere that we know one will join Jesus in paradise that very day. It should give us hope for those we know who have died and did not seem to know the Lord. We have no idea what could have happened in those last moments. Those two robbers had no idea how significant they would be to people a couple of thousand years after they were dead. What does that tell us about our significance in God’s scheme of things? So much in scripture to ponder and meditate on. Why in the world would we ‘clear’ our minds and meditate on nothing?

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  46. So much agree with you on that, Kathaleena. Ever so thankful for God’s word. He could have left us clueless, but in His love He gave us the Bible to help us, but it is all wasted if people don’t read it.

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  47. It’s time to just rename everything after Obama, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Then the BLM would be happy. [/sarcasm]

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  48. My online Bible study group will dig into Romans tomorrow. I will be digesting spiritual meat although I am on the mostly vegan diet.

    I told Art that one day he may arrive home and find I have turned into a bean since the common logic says, “You are what you eat.” Black beans and rice for lunch, and kidney bean salad for dinner makes me wonder what color bean I would be? If I ate Boston Baked or Great Northern White would I be a Yankee bean?

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  49. Yes, Peter, I was thinking along the same lines. Who gets the say so about when enough change has been made? Everyone has their own personal opinion. They don’t realize that God needs to be our common denominator for upward and overcoming movement. So sad for those who are greatly disillusioned as to what will give them satistaction.

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  50. Good Sunday morning wanderers….it is a beautiful morning in this forest. The tall pines filtering the sunlight as the shadows fall upon the forest floor. It is still and quiet…just as we must be before Him even as our world would appear to swirl out of control…He is in control and I will take comfort in the knowing ❤️

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  51. Interesting times. A friend recommended I listen to Andrew Klavan’s podcast. I listened to part of it this morning on my walk until it stopped and I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see a message that my iPhone had been disabled. Supposedly it will shut down like that if you enter your passcode incorrectly too many times.

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  52. Watched the sermon this morning, on Acts 2:41-47. The pastor mentioned the shrinking numbers of those attended church, and the growing industry of how-to-grow-your-church books and programs, and then pointed out that church growth is not something we do (v.47). He suggested, citing what Jesus said about pruning the vine branches, that the shrinking church numbers in our country, was part of God’s plan. It was encouraging hearing a sermon preached on the early church in the current context, and to hear a pastor being confident that God was fully in control.

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  53. Roscuro, our Pastor frequently includes comments, in the context of what he’s preaching on, that The Church is not about numbers and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

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  54. Airport trivia. I flew into the John Wayne airport a couple of times a few years ago and was enlightened by the natives that 1) it has the shortest runways of any airport in the U.S.; 2) due to noise abatement legislation commercial departures are not allowed between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. and no arrivals between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.; and 3) there are ten “noise monitoring” stations in the area to make sure none exceed some acceptable decibel level, the level of which I don’t remember.
    DJ probably knows more about this and may even be who told me some of it.

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  55. Linda, from the other day, Borning Cry is a tear-jerker for me, too. At the memorial service Thursday, that was the one song that was sung by a soloist rather than the congregation. I wouldn’t have been able to sing it either way, I was so choked up during it.

    Likewise, I couldn’t sing It Is Well With My Soul at church today; the lyrics so moved me at this time following Karen’s passing, contemplating her eternal joy now.

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  56. I have a new piano student starting after the 4th of July holiday. It has been an interesting challenge for me to put together a plan for her first lesson, as she’s got a unique background.

    She is 14 and going into high school in the fall, and has never studied piano formally, though she has done some self-teaching on both piano and guitar.

    She’s studied flute for 3 years, and has also taken voice lessons. Loved middle school show choir, and has been acting in plays since grade school.

    My guess is she’s stronger in her treble clef reading skills because of her vocal and flute background, but may have little experience reading bass clef.

    She spends her babysitting money buying Broadway show tunes music books. 🙂

    I am trying to anticipate what will be the most relevant resources to take with me to her first lesson, as she enrolled at the studio where I work, rather than at my home studio.

    A few weeks ago, before I’d “met” this family — met by email is the extent of our meeting so far — I had examined a new-to-me music curriculum that takes a faster, more streamlined approach. I appreciated that it still uses solid pedagogy, and especially liked that it didn’t use pictures on the pages. (Young kids enjoy the pictures, but in most methods, the images are too juvenile for older beginners.)

    Alfred Publishing out of Van Nuys had a teacher-discount sale running from January to June, so I ordered several of the Express books I described in the previous paragraph, thinking they might come in handy for an older beginner who needed a faster approach.

    After I ordered, along comes this new student! I am hoping — and I think I’m correct, if I do say so myself — that one of the levels in that series will be a good place to start her. To fill in any gaps in her piano knowledge while hopefully keeping things moving forward with her strengths, too.

    I have my tote that I take to the studio packed with resources at several levels for her so I’m ready with some appropriate music to loan her for her first week of study while I finalize her study plan after I’ve seen/heard her play.

    Looking forward to meeting her and her mom, who is super nice, and teaching the girl. I just love how all my students are so unique!

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  57. Our pastor sometimes jokes about his failure in the popular “church growth” schemes, noting our church is just about the same size it was 30 years ago.

    Seeing the church grow is a good thing, but we also don’t put much stock in “just” numbers. The faithfulness of the church is the true measuring stick. Better to have a small, faithful church than large crowds eager for the perks of morning coffee and an ear-tickling sermon.

    We had a surprise of light rain this morning, my yard and Charlie Brown at least got some moisture, though not much. Still, very welcome.

    Liked by 4 people

  58. I am so grateful for solid Bible teaching. Our pastor is going through Acts now – we just finished Judges (THAT was interesting!).

    One good thing that has come out of COVID restrictions is that our church is now going to continue to livestream even though we can now attend (in smaller numbers). This means, when I wake up with a migraine but feel better by church time, I can still participate and not have to drive and in summer when I work Sundays, I will still be able to ‘go’ to church. This makes me happy.

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  59. 6 – that sounds like a challenge, but that you are up to it!

    ‘We’re’ having Di Di twins – which means they each have their own amniotic sac and their own placenta. This is the ‘safest’ type of twins. They will most likely be fraternal although they could be identical.

    I’m learning a lot about twin stuff! 🙂

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  60. Kare, I was driving in town the other day and saw a young woman pushing a double stroller with toddler twins in it. I immediately thought of you. 🙂

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  61. This morning I saw a news piece about wanting to rename the John Wayne Airport. I was disappointed to read of some of his words from an interview he did in 1971:

    “He said, “I believe in white supremacy until the Blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”

    Wayne also said that although he didn’t condone slavery, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.”

    The actor said he felt no remorse in the subjugation of Native Americans.

    “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. … (O)ur so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival,” he said. “There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”

    Wayne also called movies such as “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy” perverted, and used a gay slur to refer to the two main characters of the latter film.”

    https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/democrats-want-john-waynes-name-statue-taken-off-airport/2294712/?_osource=newsletter_news_WVIT

    I guess it could be said that he was merely expressing what a lot of older men at that time might have thought, but I can see where people today find his words offensive.

    Really, I think we need to stop naming buildings and such after people, and just name them for the area. People are always going to turn out to be imperfect. Some imperfections will offend one group, while other imperfections will offend another group. We’re never going to please everyone.

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  62. Roscuro – Re: shrinking numbers in church. A friend had a post about something like that, and of course, some were commenting as if that means that fewer people are believers. My comment was that churches used to be filled with people who were “cultural Christians” but not “real” believers, but these days there is no longer the societal pressure to be a “good, church-going Christian”. So what we are seeing in the drop in numbers may not indicate fewer true believers at all.

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  63. Remember Cameron from the old WMB? She and TJ have twin girls (as well as their older daughter). The girls are supposedly fraternal, but look like they could be identical.

    I have (had – one has since passed away) identical twin cousins (male). They would sometimes take tests for each other in classes where one did better than the other.

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  64. Kizzie, John Wayne’s first quote: I can understand that people will find it horrible, but in truth, is it? Having kept people uneducated, it makes sense they would not be in positions of authority. But once they were educated (to some level) they were to be treated as responsible leadership potential. Educated to be able to understand our laws? To be able to read and comprehend? To know something of our history? Those are all useful in guiding a country. I do not see him saying one group is better than the other so much as saying we need to educate people so they can be their best. Of course it was said in old fuddy duddy speak.

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  65. Kizzie, J W’s second quote: why should people of today feel guilty for what our ancestors did? We are not our ancestors and do not agree with many of the things they did and would not be brave enough to do a lot of what they did. Actually, we are all responsible for our own actions. Abusing slaves was wrong, both as owners and sellers. Stealing people from their home was wrong, even if it was just the neighbor down the road and you wanted his garden area. But most Americans did not have slaves, ever. I have no idea if mine did but most probably came from Massachusetts area or the poor folk in Louisiana.

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  66. Mumsee – The first quote supposes that in 1971 Blacks were not educated. But there were plenty of educated and professional Blacks even at that time. And I think his use of the term “white supremacy” is what people find especially offensive there.

    I agree with you that we do not have to feel guilty about something that was done over which we had no control, and were not even around for. Feel bad about it, yes, but not guilty.

    What did you think about his remark that the Indians were selfish for wanting to keep their land?

    Btw, I am a John Wayne fan. I know that he was quite conservative and sometimes said things that sound harsh to our ears today (and probably did to some back then, too), but I don’t think that makes him a horrible person.

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  67. Kizzie, we still had a long way to go in the early early seventies. People had been kept apart for a hundred years since the War.. Separate education. I thought he was referring to that. I got the impression he considered everybody equal but uneducated people were being held back by their lack of education. I was not a John Wayne fan, raised to think he was a drunken actor. Since then, I have come to appreciate him.

    The Indian thing he could have said better, of course. Yes, people were looking to expand, but it has never been considered selfish to want to maintain your lifestyle. Though now that I think about it, the US gets denigrated a lot for that very thing. We are told we are selfish to not have open borders .

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  68. Kizzie, there are many educated and professionals of all sorts now as well, but people still say we are keeping them down. I think we did, back in the day (well, not me personally as I was only twelve or so at the time), but now I think it is more a mind set that is keeping people down.

    The other day, Roscuro mentioned it was poverty that made her progress so slow but in this country, people in poverty are encouraged to attend with many scholarships and financial assistance to make it happen. But your family has to be poor enough for those to kick in.

    I do think our public schools are a big part of the problem.

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  69. Perhaps we understood better in the past that people were fallen and imperfect.

    Today’s standard seems to be impossible to meet — never having thought, said or believed anything amiss (but according to the particular political/cultural standards held up by those in ascendency in the current time).

    I see corporations are boycotting FB until FB agrees to police “hate speech” on its site.

    But who determines hate speech? The group in political or cultural power, essentially.

    Tables can be turned.

    That’s why free speech, with all its downfalls and offenses and ugliness at times, needs to remain protected and unfettered. Trying to restrain and restrict speech is a bad road to travel.

    This is a discouraging time in our culture, to put it mildly, a “dark” time as one commentator put it today.

    I believe John Wayne lived in OC so he also was a prominent citizen. I’ve never flown out of there but have driven by it. They’ve talked about renaming it before.

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  73. Lizards. I used to have a few in the house from time to time, thanks to Annie.

    Hanging on the shower curtain, on a jacket in the closet, sitting next to me one night on the sofa as I watched a Christmas movie …

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  75. I understand that the original name of the airport was the Orange County Airport, and that is what is being proposed to return to.

    I have been rereading the Little House books, of course and reflecting on the views expressed by various adults who Laura overhears. At one point, Laura’s father, who is more sympathetic to Native Americans than other adults, tells Laura that the Indians were not doing anything with the land, and that is why the settlers have the right to take it. That argument was patently untrue, as the Native Americans did farm the land in their own way – the buffalo herds were actively tended by the Plains tribes, while many other tribes were actually farmers, such as the Iroquois. Laura still thinks it is unfair to the Indians, even though her father had reasoned arguments and her mother had an intense dislike of them. Laura’s sympathetic attitude in the face of surrounding prejudice was instrumental in shaping my childhood attitudes to the First Nations, seeing them as people with an historical right to the land instead of obstacles in the way of European progress. Now that I have had the opportunity of meeting and listening to First Nations and Inuit, I realize their requests to the newcomers are not unreasonable. They know we cannot turn back time, but they want to be treated as equals, according to the terms originally agreed upon when we came to their lands. In other words, they expect us to keep our word. It is a strong argument against a nation ever having been Christian when that nation has regularly broken it’s word. The devil is the Father of lies, and a broken promise is a lie.

    It sounds as though Wayne was reading the part of the old southern aristocrat in the 1967 film ‘In the Heat of the Night’, who tells Sidney Poitier’s police detective that Africans are like plants needing cultivation. So, even in that day and age Wayne’s words were seen by his Hollywood peers as a specious argument.

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  77. I may have to leave this page if we are going tohave pictures of skinks. They look too much like snakes and they scare me almost as much. They are disgusting.

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  78. The new header: I grew up around lizards but have seen very, very few in Indiana. This skink was only the second one. Two were on the same tree, and I was alerted to their presence because one was making a noise that sounded like a frog. Looking for the frog, I found a lizard instead.

    Interestingly, I saw another one a couple miles away a few days later, so I went in one week from having seen one lizard in Indiana to having seen four. I was pleased to get this really good view of it. It didn’t seem to like that I had seen it, but also didn’t seem to quite know what to do about it. That made me think it’s a young one (that and the blue tail), because older creatures seem far more aware of the need to seek cover when you know you have been seen.

    PS Kim, sorry you don’t like them. Between the people who don’t like deer, spiders, snakes, and insects, there isn’t much left. My best friend doesn’t like birds. I’m not a big fan of cats, but they sometimes show up here, too.

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  80. I was sitting out on the front porch reading a while ago when a humming bird started flitting around one of my hanging flower baskets. My flowers out there are really bursting forth, it’s so pretty and peaceful out there.

    I think the knee is improving — last week I was relying on an old walking stick to get around — as of Friday, I only recently realized, that’s been left behind, though I see it’s leaning up against the dining table; guess that’s where I left it last, I haven’t thought about it which is a good sign.

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  85. I have photos of deer…and hail…and snow…and they were all taken in the month of June 😊 (lizards and snakes give me the creeps. First time I ever saw a salamander we lived in FL…I whacked it with a broom…the end of it’s tail snapped off and kept wiggling…I screamed. 😱)

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  86. I grew up around snakes and lizards, and even rattlesnakes don’t creep me out as long as I see them. (I don’t want to hear one without seeing it.) I thought I’d be creeped out by watersnakes, but I’ve seen two this spring and have found out I’m not. Black widows creep me out (hearing it without seeing it is one reason), but other spiders don’t. Roaches do, and the idea of rats in the house does.

    Alligators actually creep me out a bit, but when Kim told me she was going to take me to find an alligator so I could get a picture of it, I didn’t even tell her that. And yes, I got its photo when we found one.

    But for the most part, I was the kid looking for insects while the other children were playing, and I’m still that child now, only now I also take pictures of them.

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  87. True story-
    My aunt was deathly afraid of spiders. One day she called and asked (begged?) my sister to stop by her house on the way to school. When my sister arrived, aunt was standing on a chair in one corner of the living room yelling (screaming?) and pointing at the opposite corner, where there was a daddy-long-leg. My sister picked it up by a leg and carried it out of the house. I think she proceeded to pull its legs off as she went.

    Like

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