A Look Back

As I watch my grandkids join the readers of the world, I find myself taking a bit of a look back to the time when I became a part of that special "club".  As I remember it now, I at first spent a great deal of time with Raggedy Ann and Andy.  Then came the Dick and Jane books at school followed by series of adventures with Nan and Bert Bobbsey and of course -- the mystery solving Nancy Drew. Oh how I loved to read.  Still do, actually.  

The thing is... although I come from a family of readers, I think that I began to truly cherish books when I was a young, knobby kneed eight-year-old who was just starting third grade in a school new to me at that time.  I was finding my way through all the changes and the making of new friends, etc. when I heard about a teacher on the other side of the building who would loan you a book to read. I heard that she had an entire shelf of books set aside just for kids to borrow.  Imagine that.  Eventually I found my way to that side of the building and worked up enough courage to knock on her classroom door after school one day and the relationship began.  She taught me to treasure books.  I remember her kindness so well. She would help me select just the right book and I would watch her carefully place it in a large manila envelope that she would then fold around the book to protect it even more. (There were no paperbacks in that day.) Then after a brief conversation about caring for the book and enjoying it, I was on my way.  I made the trip to her room many times over the next three years.  

Funny that I never made the connection before this exact moment....  But... when I was a teacher at the senior high school level, I had students build me shelving that was attached to the wall underneath the chalk boards in the front of my homeroom. I kept the shelves stocked with books to lend -- to students and teachers as well.  It wasn't that we didn't have a wonderful library in the school, but there is something about borrowing a book from from a reading shelf that is special. I often found that if a students found one book to like, they would come back for another and then another. A non-reader would painlessly become a reader. It was a world of words that I wanted to share. A lot of the time, books would leave and not come back -- I would hear later that everyone in a family had read the book and then it turned up missing or something to that effect.  I stopped keeping track of who had what book.  It didn't matter.  What mattered to me is that someone was reading -- maybe even joining the readers of the world - that special club. Sometimes students even brought in books to place on that shelf to share with others. The shelf took on a life of its own. 

When I retired, I left the book shelves full.  Hope the "stock" continues to rotate.   

There's a time and a place....

Daylight Savings Time began on Sunday, March 13th,  and in spite of reminding myself repeatedly that the change was a comin', guess who forgot to set her clocks ahead before she went to bed?  Guess who overslept?  Good thing that most of my clocks set themselves or I probably would still be thinking an hour earlier than it is.  A good friend told me that she heard on the news that it can take up to three weeks for a body to adjust to the time change and she was comforted by that -- sort of a message that you are not alone in this.  It's always nice to think that there are others out there who "get it".  

So anyway -- if that news report was correct I have another week to go. That is something to hang onto,  but -- considering that the change was almost two weeks ago now, and I am still time confused, quite frankly I am concerned. Never one to adapt well to any change -- this time issue gets me flummoxed every single time it happens. Actually I am not sure that I ever completely successfully adapt to a time change -- I just hover around in a limbo of trying to get used to what time it is and figuring out what time is used to be until I realize that is stupid and stop doing it  ... until the time changes yet again and then I start all over again.  It'a a loop. It's one of those things. It is a part of who I am.  I don't find it to be a good thing.

I do, however, muddle through even if I almost always forget to change the time on my thermostat that controls the temperature of my house throughout the day. I just got up and checked -- the thermostat has been on Daylight Savings time all winter. I don't even care what this meant as far as my house getting colder earlier than it was supposed to -- or did it cool down later?  I get all confused as to what it all means.  Inside my head I just keep repeating, "Fall back; Spring ahead". 

As I write all of this, I wonder if my Jeep has the correct time displayed.  I hope so, because I don't know how to change the time on that clock.  I have only had that vehicle one year now.  How many time changes should that have been if I bought it in March of 2015?  Well -- that clock has been right, part of the time for sure, so there is that. Right?  Maybe it is even correct now.  That would  be a plus for sure. 

I wonder if this time issue is why I hardly ever wear a watch?  In fact -- although I have a few inexpensive fun watches, I don't think any of them has a functioning battery at this time, but that is another whole issue.  There's a time and a place....  Right?

       

Spring has almost Sprung...

Note to those of you in the snow country of Northwest Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas who have been in relative hibernation (I know you are out there)...

The official start of Spring is Sunday, the 20th of March. That's just three days from now.  It's time. You should have already been through all your gardening books and catalogs by now. You should have set out your mud boots and light weight gloves.  You should be ready to join those who have already found their way outside.  If Punxsutawney Phil can stick his nose out of his cozy lair, so can you.

Now is the time to knock down those "man-eating spider webs" you have been watching grow all winter.

Now is the time to put away the "why bother bras" and put on proper attire for a reentry into the world of no long unders or sweatshirts needed.

It's soon to be officially Spring!  So -- put on your mud boots and get some fresh air. Put the screens back in your windows. Take a deep breath with no fear of freezing lung tissue. (Actually -- check the temperature first just in case the weather hasn't checked the calendar.)  Anyway -- smile -- we are almost there.

We survived another one.   Yes, we did!       Oh -- Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Is is kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?

I can hear her voice inside my head as I type... It is the voice of my best growing up friend's Mom saying, "Girls....  Before you speak, ask yourself, Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? "  I remember at that time thinking, and probably saying out loud, that if I always remembered to ask myself those three questions, I would never speak.  The thing is though -- all kidding aside ---- that is wise advice. 

Okay -- you probably know what I was going to talk about, but... here's the dilemma -- I can't say what I was going to say because what I was going to say doesn't pass the three question test... well... not completely. It is true and it is necessary.  I just can't figure out how to say it kindly.  So -- let me just say this.  How long until we are done with all the hoopla in preparation for the next presidential election?  I have to say.... I am sick of the smack talking.   Nasty, nasty, nasty.... Trash talk is not kind, is often not true, and is not necessary... and ...  it doesn't look nice on people in suits who want to be president.  It is not a good fit with things presidential.

It doesn't matter to me that there have been office seekers all over the world and in all times who have acted like this.  It's still hard to take. So -- I will meet you out there where people know and act like they know that nice matters. Nice does matter, Right? There is a place like that somewhere out there. Right? 

Please say that there is. 

That's a whole other can of worms...

There are words and phrases that appear to mean the same thing, but when you stop and think about it, they don't.  For example, you might say something like:

• It's not my problem.
• It's out of my hands.
• It's not my job.

But -- if you say, "Not my circus, not my monkeys..",  it's different - in serious ways.  For one thing it is funny -- at least to me it is. I would wear a T-shirt with that printed on the front  Think about it though. It goes beyond what the other, bulleted phrases above say.  It says that not only is the situation not your problem, but it also says that you are somehow above it and over it.  You are removed -- at least a species away. What, for example, does it imply about the people involved in the fray?  Does that make it even funnier?  Maybe, maybe not. I think it does.  

It's semantics, and semantics do count. Words can mean basically the same thing, but they bring forth different reactions, different emotions.  It's like the difference between the words "house" and "home" -- the first is without the attachment of feelings really and the second is warm --  a "home" is something you make, something that brings a good feeling -- hopefully. Remember Dionne Warwick's "A House Is Not a Home" from the early 60's?  (Is that song now running through your head?)

Words are tricky.  I know this.  I work with them all the time.  So do you. Whenever we attempt to put an idea into words, we are at least two steps away from what it really is.  How many times have you said or heard ..."there are no words to express..." or "words cannot express...".  The words you know are simply not good enough for every occasion. That can be a problem in several different ways, and that is why I spent a large portion of my life trying to get young people to read -- because that is the way that you find the words that will work best for you to get your ideas across.  A person doesn't deeply learn the right word from memorizing lists or from checking a thesaurus, it's more in seeing a word used and then in using it yourself -- making it your own, making the word work for you. It's a process, and to make matters even worse -- words qualify and limit as well.  If you don't know the word to describe exactly what you want to say and you use a less effective choice of words, you qualify and limit -- you are unable to convey exactly what you want to say. It's difficult.  No wonder people get tongue-tied in difficult situations.   It's frustrating. We simply don't have the words that we want or need. I know that I often find myself in that place.

I hesitate to mention this on top of everything else, but it sort of fits --- there is the whole punctuation issue to complicate the communication process even more -- that's a whole other can of worms. Think about what that expression is really saying about language. At least I didn't say that the punctuation issue was a nest of vipers.  Argh....  I guess we just do the best we can...  I am thinking that we all try.