It's Saturday. Probably the most longed for day on our calendar. For most people, Monday through Friday are the days of the week that comprise our work week or school week. We like Saturday. We like it so much we begin our celebrating on Friday. Just look at the Twitter tweets and Facebook status updates on Friday. Definitely TGIF. Casual clothes allowed at work on Fridays....getting us ready for Saturday.
Saturday...named after the planet Saturn. According to ISO 8601, it is the 6th day of the week. For the three Abrahamic religions, based on their original languages, Saturday is considered the 7th day of the week. Sunday is generally considered the beginning of the new week. All I know is that it's the start of the weekend! (that does sound a bit oxymoronic...if that's even a word)
What do you think about when you consider..Saturday? For me, it means the only day of the week when I usually don't set my alarm clock. A relaxing cup (or two) of coffee and reading the newspaper. When Jessica and Michael were young, it was the morning sound of cartoons or Disney programs on TV. Afternoon matinee at the movie theater, bike rides, lawn mowed/raked/edged, oil changed, the bulk of the laundry done, honey-do list whittled down, visit out-of-town friends or relatives, swimming at the lake/pool/ocean/creek/river (well, maybe when it warms up), wash the car, afternoon baseball games, camping, get the dogs' nails trimmed, cook something on the grill/smoker/Big Green Egg, parties, weddings... (and for my Augusta, GA friends...it means a worship service under a bridge)
Do you have any Saturday traditions? Is there any kind of routine for you on Saturday or is every Saturday different from the one before? We pack a lot of stuff into Saturday. Saturday has some big shoulders. It can handle a lot of chores, a lot of fun, ...and sometimes, a lot of nothing... except maybe a good book and the sound of the wind chimes outside the window.
Saturdays even have their own special smells....the smell of cut grass....leaves burning, laundry detergent, Pine-Sol, bread baking, meat on the grill, dog shampoo... Saturday.
Saturday is a big deal in our culture...we have the Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Fever, Saturday in the Park (Chicago), Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John). Like I said, we like Saturday.
OK, now it's your turn...add your comments about what you love about Saturdays (and you know you do.)
(For the record, I'm a bigger fan of Sunday...but that is a different blog for later)
...he's going to ask for glass of milk. This 1985 children's book carries a humorous, yet powerful message of the nature of mice. Or maybe it is really talking about something else.
If you asked me for a Top 10 list of Best Foods Ever Created, the Oreo cookie would definitely be on that list. There is nothing particularly fancy about the Oreo. It is a pretty simple little cookie with 2 chocolate wafers with icing in between. But they are perfect. Not too sweet wafers with a delectable sweetness in the middle. Others have tried in vain to copy them. Did your parents ever buy Hydrox cookies and try to pawn them off as Oreos? Who did they think they were fooling? Counterfeit cookies.
On the other hand, I don't think Oreos are especially good for you but, I don't think that is the intent for their existence. The ingredient list is as follows:
The list starts with...SUGAR. That means it is the main ingredient. I'm OK with that. The Nutrition Facts on the package state that the "Serving Size" for all the statistics is 34 grams. I think this is 2 cookies. That almost made me laugh out loud. That would be like eating one potato chip. Those 34 grams of Oreos harness 7g of total fat, 10g of saturated fat, 160mg of sodium, 25g of total carbohydrates, 1g of dietary fiber, 14g of sugars and 1g of protein. Clearly, the Oreo is not a staple of a health food diet. But they are good and we enjoy eating them (OK maybe "enjoy" is not a strong enough word but, we'll stick with enjoy for now.)
But don't you dare pack any Oreos in your kid's lunchbox. I seriously doubt that the Oreo meets the USDA standards for what can be a part of a "healthy lunch." There was a news report on Feb 14th about a 4-year old pre-schooler in North Carolina that had her home packed lunch deemed nutritionally unacceptable by "the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes" and was given the cafeteria meal to eat instead (she ended up eating only 3 chicken nuggets.) Her mother had packed her a turkey and cheese sandwich on white wheat bread, a banana, potato chips and apple juice. My gosh, what was her Mom thinking? She might just as well packed her some Slim Jims, a stick of margarine, six pieces of bacon, candy corn, a Budweiser and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
So, there really is a governmental department that has the authority to inspect your kid's lunchbox and determine whether you are a fit enough parent to prepare your child an acceptable lunch. If you fail, the cafeteria Nazis will just tell your child he or she must eat the government's gruel.
We want our government to solve our problems. Sure, there is a need for government agencies but, whenever we give them authority over parts of our lives, that authority is ALWAYS going to move in the direction of assuming more and more say. There are always people out there (and many are government employees) that are absolutely sure that they know so much more of what is in your best interest. They can't stand people making choices or behaving in such a way that they disagree with. So, they overstep what is probably already too much authority.
I doubt the USDA intends for their henchmen to do things like what occurred in North Carolina. But that is what happens. It is the nature of power and authority.
It's like that mouse in the story. You give him a cookie and he is going to ransack your lunchbox to see if there are any more Oreos in there.
We've all watched the Cold War era movies showing armed guards approaching ordinary citizens and demanding to see their "papers." The "security forces" were there checking paperwork to make sure everything was in order. In the US, American (legal) citizens scoff at the thought of that sort of thing happening here since we don't have to answer to government authorities as we move about and enjoy our day-to-day life. Oh, sure we have our driver's licenses, other forms of identification and that Social Security card we have locked away back home but, we rarely have to show them to anybody. Our government respects our freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom to move about and freedom to live the way we like so long as we do not harm others in the process. Of course, that would never change, right?
There are at least three areas where we seem more and more willing to cede our freedoms for "the greater good":
Our health
Our "safety"
Our environment
At least three major efforts have been underway for some time now by the government limiting our freedoms in the name of saving us from ourselves, saving us from terrorists/ other general bad guys and saving the environment. They all sound altruistic..after all, the government is providing salvation and that must always be a good thing. We hear phrases like "it is for your own good" as if we really don't need any say in the matter. We're told, "we are doing this to protect you." And finally, "we are doing this to keep you from harming the planet" (or harming some little obscure amphibian that isn't winning the survival-of-the-fittest-contest.) Our government feels obligated to provide us more and more protection and security...
The Dept of Health and Human Services...FDA...Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare)
The Department of Homeland Security...Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
The Environmental Protection Agency
Sure, we need reasonable regulations and government oversight to prevent abuses and unnecessary dangers. It is not unreasonable to ask people when voting to show that they are registered voters. Certainly there are times when showing an ID is reasonable. But what is happening to our freedoms? TSA agents rifle through our belongings and grope our children and senior citizens to make absolutely sure that no terrorist gets on an airplane. There must be lots of dastardly 80 year-old Lutheran women from Wisconsin that have been hijacking airplanes in recent years so we better X-ray them or pat them down in case one is wearing an explosive girdle. We are prodded along like mindless goats in the gate area line and, admit it, you feel like you are under suspicion simply because you purchased an airline ticket. I keep waiting to hear "show me ze papers."
I also can't be trusted to not buy / eat food that meets some government expert's opinion of what is "unhealthy for me." I used to eat eggs because my grandmother said they were good for me but then the experts said that eggs were bad for me so I stopped eating them as much but then the experts changed their minds and said it was OK for me to eat eggs again but just don't eat 12 at a time. Darn, I love eating that 12-egg cheese omelet four times a week. I wait on pins and needles for the next food alert that will keep me from dying before I can collect my Social Security check. If the government can't convince me to change my eating habits, they just turn around and pound the food providers into submission and make them remove all those nasty ingredients that will do me harm. Hey McDonalds, you want to put those toys in the Happy meal bags? Well, you better change your recipes to conform with what McGovernment says. When bacon makes it onto the banned list, I'm personally marching on Washington. You'll see what a million man march looks like for sure. And Obamacare? Since when did you think you had a choice about your health insurance?
The big government groupies gush and clap and say, "Oh, look how the government (Republican or Democrat government...doesn't really matter) is watching out for us!"
If we could only find that guy that invented the internal combustion engine we could drag him into a Senate oversight hearing and ask him where did he get the crazy notion that he could invent something that was going to use up all that dead dinosaur goop that is buried beneath the ocean floor and under those Polar bears up in the frozen Palin land. Didn't he also know that all the exhaust gas from those engines was going to cause more problems for the ozone layer than even those volcanic eruptions and methane filled cow farts? If the government could just figure out how to eliminate all that bovine flatulence then we could go back to using our Homelite weed whackers. But no...those cows are sacred and deserve to be treated without prejudice. They have as much right to pass gas as you do. And don't even get me started on the environmental and social impact of "BS", while we are on the topic of the southbound output of a northbound boy cow.
Hey, I've got an idea... let's just take the corn crop...you know the stuff we used to grow to feed animals, make grits and to make Orville Redenbacher's 300 flavors of popcorn and now use it to put in our automobile fuel tanks. We can just feed the additional starving people all that crude oil we are no longer turning into gasoline. Sure, food prices will skyrocket but we will feel good about how ethanol is going to keep the ice caps from melting and changing that movie "The Day After Tomorrow" from a riveting action film into a real life prophetic documentary. Whew, saving the planet is hard work. But we sleep well at night knowing that the government has it under control. Oh, and these are the people that brought you the US Postal Service, Freddie and Fannie and dozens of other government success stories.
Our Declaration of Independence (oh, by the way those old guys in bad wigs were trying to break free from an overbearing government that trampled on freedoms) says that I am endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable Rights that, among them, are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. My Constitution spells out all the ways that my federal government has NO SAY over my life and liberties.
Do you feel safer, healthier, more secure and more protected? What liberties are you willing to give up for that? Whatever the government decides? If we stay on this course, the storm troopers at the checkpoints will be asking to see your papers. After all, you might be one of those weed-whacking, bacon eating, SUV driving troublemakers. You wanna see my papers? They are on display at the Library of Congress.
The English language is chock full of interesting words derived from many different languages. It has always interested me how certain French words have been incorporated as-is into the English language with little or no attempt to "English-ize" them (OK, I know that isn't a real word.) Say what you want about the French language, it certainly is beautiful, as are the other Latin languages.
Naivete. Definitely a French word. Without considering the definition, the very sound of the word is so....appealing. But, this isn't a trait you would want to be described as possessing. Being naive, while understood to be something limited to the young and innocent, certainly is not exclusive to that demographic. Being naive regarding some things can be relatively harmless. We usually believe that, in time, that naivete will eventually be replaced by some base level of wisdom and worldliness.
I can accept the naivete of young boys and girls as something to almost expect. But, I have a real problem when it is possessed by the president of our country or other high ranking governmental leaders. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not desirous of leaders that are full of cynicism, pessimism or unwillingness to trust. I would however, hope for a pragmatic, non-ideologue, experienced person with an acute leadership acumen.
In 1976, we elected Jimmy Carter, a former Georgia governor, as president. I understand that his victory was, in large part, a backlash to the corrupted Nixon/ Watergate, scandalous years. My impression, however, of Jimmy Carter was based on his years as governor and his rhetoric throughout his presidential campaign. I believed him to be a naive ideologue (nowadays he just seems to be a mean-spirited, petty, ideologue.) That impression was proven to be true based on his performance in almost all facets of his presidency, especially his economic and foreign policy. His lack of understanding of the real world or his belief that his leadership could cause that world to stop behaving the way it had predictably behaved was a significant problem. The "why can't we all just get along" sentiment while impressively optimistic, was dangerously naive.
Fast forward to today. I believe that the current president suffers from similar attributes as Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama believed (and maybe still believes) that if America had a leader that would extend the olive branch to other world leaders/countries that had historically demonstrated a hatred of America, that they would realize the error of their ways and embrace him and our country as a friend. Naive.
Beginning in December of 2010, uprisings began in several Arab countries. The people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya overthrew their dictatorial regimes in the so-called Arab Spring. Because of overtures communicated even before he was elected, I think Barack Obama believed that these and other countries would embrace the US and implement western style democracies when the opportunity presented itself. Why? Because he believed that by pulling US troops out of Iraq and saying the "right" things like he did in his Cairo speech, these nations would change their anti-American sentiment. At the end of the day, these nations are becoming more unfriendly to the US.
In Syria, for nearly a year now, the regime of Bashar al-Assad has been slaughtering its own people by the thousands. Just this week, the US Embassy in Damascus was ordered closed by the State Department because of the violence. In the UN, the US has twice been unable to get a resolution passed against Syria by the Security Council because of vetoes by Russia and China. And I believe that the Obama administration was surprised by that...both times.
In Egypt, 19 Americans working with pro-democracy groups are being threatened with prosecution and may be ordered to stand trial. All the while Obama's administration is reeling because of the rapidly deteriorating relationship between our two countries. One of the affected Americans is the son of Republican Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The administration has grossly miscalculated these very complex world affairs.
Granted, these are incredibly explosive times right now. We need a president and leadership team that can quickly outgrow whatever naivete that they may have possessed. There is just too much at stake.
Music is an incredibly powerful thing. Every culture has music traditions and, just in my lifetime, I have witnessed the way that music can influence the world around us. Yesterday, we heard that Don Cornelius had died, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. For those of us that grew up during the 60's and 70's, we will forever remember Don Cornelius as the creator of the TV show "Soul Train."
Soul Train was certainly not the first nationwide TV show focused on music. Other shows existed in the earlier days of television. We had shows like "Name that tune", "Sing along with Mitch", and the "Lawrence Welk Show" but they catered mainly to the over-40 crowd. Shows like "American Bandstand", "Shindig!", and "Hullabaloo" were geared more towards the younger folks and, in addition to musical acts, featured dancers showing off the latest dance steps. Later we had MTV and VH1. Now we have Glee, American Idol and several others. Music in America is a big deal.
But Soul Train was the first prime-time TV show that featured, almost exclusively, African-American musical artists. Modeled after the very popular "American Bandstand", which featured predominantly white artists and dancers, Soul Train became a favorite of many young Americans, black and white.
The segregated American society that made up a large part of the 20th century is an historical fact, painful though it is to be reminded of. But there has been one thing that seems to have transcended the racial divide that existed and, in some ways, still exists today...and that is music. From the white, Celtic-influenced Appalachian music that birthed bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music....to the gospel music sung in rural churches, to the black, rhythm and blues music from the Delta, Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit...the combination of all which birthed what we call Rock and Roll music. The soul music sound of African-American Detroit artists, on Barry Gordy's Motown Records kept the dance halls rocking and swaying to some incredible music and vocal harmonies.
The older, white generation didn't embrace much of this music...sometimes because it was just so different from the music they enjoyed but also because of racial prejudice. Sadly, many included the "N-word" in describing this new music. But for the younger Baby Boomer generation, I believe the blending of these musical genres and the appreciation for and enjoyment of these new musical sounds went a long way in bridging the racial divide.
As a white kid that loved the likes of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers; I also loved the sounds of the Coasters, the Drifters, Sam and Dave, Ray Charles, James Brown, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Wilson Pickett, and Marvin Gaye. And just when rock and roll seemed to be losing its way, along came the mid-60's British invasion of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, The Animals, The Kinks and dozens of others that had listened to all that America had blended together musically, and reintroduced it to us.
Then in 1971, Don Cornelius' Soul Train was syndicated and white (and black) teenagers not only heard some great music but also were able to see some of the dance moves that were sometimes only popular in the cities where it was filmed. Soon enough, those dance moves went viral across the country (at least in the areas where it was broadcast.)
In many ways, Don Cornelius did as much to bring folks of all colors together as anyone in those decades. And it was done through the power of music.
In the words of the New Seeker's song popularized by Coca-Cola's famous 1971 commercial:
"I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony...." I think Don Cornelius helped us do that.
