Shame on you

Don't know why I am enjoying some of these shaming pictures....

I get the frustration but don't quite know who should be ashamed.

what a tree-t

should stop being so elfish but I can't help myself

Christmas food

yummy ideas

more Christmas decorating ideas

gratitude week 11

Some one who inspires you.

Listening to a podcast the other day I was introduced to the story of a freedom of speech pioneer.
Found this on the web that tells a little bit about Frank Kameny. Someone who was told to be a difficult person to be a friend with. But glad to know a little bit of his story.

Jonathan Rauch writes about free speech. American freedom of speech and the fact that it is not always what people think it is. He thinks that every voice should be allowed to be heard. Even bigoted, stupid and hateful voices. And he tells about some of the difficulties in talking about freedom of speech.

What happened was this. In 1957, the U.S. Army Map Service fired an astronomer named Franklin Kameny after learning he was gay. Kameny, unlike so many others, did not go quietly. He demanded reinstatement from the U.S. Civil Service Commission and the Congress. When he got nowhere, he filed a Supreme Court brief. "In World War II," he told the Court, "petitioner did not hesitate to fight the Germans, with bullets, in order to help preserve his rights and freedoms and liberties, and those of others. In 1960, it is ironically necessary that he fight the Americans, with words, in order to preserve, against a tyrannical government, some of those same rights, freedoms and liberties, for himself and others."

In 1965, Kameny led dignified gay-rights demonstrations, the first of their kind, in front of the White House and Philadelphia's Independence Hall. (Signs said: "Denial of equality of opportunity is immoral." "We demand that our government confer with us." "Private consenting sexual conduct by adults is NOT the government's concern.")

In ones and twos at first, then in streams and eventually cascades, gays talked. They argued. They explained. They showed. They confronted. If the pervasiveness of bigotry was supposed to silence them, as hate-speech allegedly does, Frank Kameny missed the memo. "If society and I differ on something," he said in 1972, "I'm willing to give the matter a second look. If we still differ, then I am right and society is wrong; and society can go its way so long as it does not get in my way. But, if it does, there's going to be a fight. And I'm not going to be the one who backs down."

Kameny and others confronted the psychiatric profession about its irrational pathologizing of homosexuality, bombarded the U.S. Civil Service Commission with demands that it end the ban on gay government employment, and confronted Christians with their hardly Christ-like conduct. "If your god condemns people like me for the crime of loving," Kameny would say, "then your god is a false and bigoted god." In the 1980s and early 1990s, a few visionaries-Andrew Sullivan, Evan Wolfson-argued that gay couples should be allowed to marry, a cause seemingly so hopeless that even many gay people hesitated to endorse it.

Frank Kameny lost every appeal to get his job back; the Supreme Court refused to hear his case. In 1963, he launched a campaign to repeal the District of Columbia's sodomy law and lost (that effort would take three decades). He ran for Congress in 1971 and lost. But at every stage he fired moral imaginations. He and others saw Jerry Falwell and Anita Bryant not as threats to hide from but as opportunities to be seized: opportunities to rally gays, educate straights, and draw sharp moral comparisons. "Is that what you think this country is all about? Really?"

To appeal to a country's conscience, you need an antagonist. Suppression of anti-gay speech and thought, had it been conceivable at the time, would have slowed the country's moral development, not speeded it. It would have given the illusion that the job was finished when, in fact, the job was only beginning. It would have condescended to a people fighting for respect.

I am not naive about the bravery it took for Kameny and others of his generation to step forward. They were hammered. They suffered severely. Kameny lived long enough to be honored by President Obama and, in 2009, to receive an official government apology from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which by then was headed by an openly gay man. But most of us are not Kamenys.

Apparently, years and years later, he got a formal apology for his firing
(and he asked for his back pay)

A remarkable story.
It makes me want to be a better person.

Decorating the tree

On Friday night I had E and M over so we decorated the tree.

I thought there would be lopsided results that 

I would want to fix once they were gone 

but they did a pretty good job. 

 They knew where to find the bunkies and they had at it.

They got a big kick out of putting a Christmas tree ornament on a Christmas tree.

E stops to play with a pony. 

Each grandkid has an ornament that they will put on once they come over.

Had to make one for Susannah as she wasn't born yet last Christmas.

I am looking forward to it.

Lucky there is no elf on my shelf or I would be tempted.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We once had one of those peek-a-boo dolls that hid in the corner.

Similar to these ones

My children used to torture poor Eric (named by Andrew)

They left chocolate on the floor and made it look like Eric wasn't potty trained.

They put his hands down his pants.

They removed his pants.

The crowning event was when they strung poor Eric up by the neck to the chandelier.

A note attached expressed Eric's reason to end it all.

I wish I had saved the note. but I think it said something along the lines that

life was not worth living because

we wouldn't let him pee in the toilet like a real boy.

I interrupt all this gratitude because I am feeling Christmas-y

Why? it is December and I am in the mood.
Not that I will plan or make any of the following come to life in my home.
Just to look at the pictures is good enough.

gratitude week 10

List five things you like about you.

Uggh.
Not good at listing things like that.

Thing 1
I am good at listing certain things.
Not like these things
But other things.
When I can get around to it.
Soon

Thing 2
I am a low maintenance in the beauty department.
Simplest of hairstyles,
hardly any jewelry or accessories,
no makeup, no fussing.

Thing 3
A wickedly good sense of humor.
Can see humour almost anywhere.
I do appreciate a funny story.

Thing 4
Can see the grey in almost anything.
Always two (or more) sides to the story.
So I think of myself as becoming less judgmental as the years go by.
Still a ways to go but think my caboose is on the right track.

Thing 5
My calves are in great shape.
The rest of me is more akin to a bowl of jelly.
And my tummy looks like Darth Vader's head after he took the helmet off.
But my calves are solid.

gratitude week 9

How did you do and feel?

Sent the letters earlier this week.
Got the first two off on Monday
and had to wait for an address for the last one.
Now it is winging it's way across the ocean.

How did I do?
A touch of regret.
I should have taken a picture of the letter before I mailed it.
That is a wise thing to do.
In case you want to send another letter and wish to recall what you had written in the previous letter. Good idea thought of too late.

Also got a Facebook thankyou already. That was cool.
Can't complain about the slow air mail. Less than five days.

How did it make me feel?

It is great to stay in touch and wish that I would do it more.

gratitude week 8

Express gratitude to 3 ppl
and I assume that that means people.
Now does that mean in person
or do I just leave a message? write a letter?

Think I will pick write a letter because I just did that yesterday.

People 1
Sent a letter and some pictures thanking my brother
and his family for having us over when we were travelling around Europe.

People 2
Sent a letter and some pictures thanking my cousin Klaas and his wife
for having us over when we were travelling around Europe.
They fed us. Provided a bed, Drove us around. They opened their home and hearts to us.
They hosted us marvellously.
So much so that Martin says that he could happily live in Smilde (where they live).

People 3
Sent a letter and a picture thanking my cousin Ruurd and his wife for having us over for a visit.
It was really nice to get to know them better.
Chatting during group events usually leads to a specific type of 'small talk'.

The last letter I haven't sent yet because I got the address just last night.

Now to a mailbox.

gratitude week 7

A friend 1

A long lost friend who is still lost.

One of my oldest friends was a girl named Dagmar.

 In front of her house in Caistor Center

We were in gradeschool together, must have been grade 4 to grade 6.

She had broken her leg and was allowed to stay in at recess with a friend.
I hated recess and was very happy that she often selected me to stay in for recess with her
(I think to play with Barbies)

We maintained a friendship even after I moved.
I don't remember her being at my place but I do remember going there.

I remember being on the boat. 

Her sister Astrid was likely a couple of years younger.

Her parents were Doris and Arnold. Both have since passed away.

I remember her mother's cooking. She showed us how to make scrambled eggs.

This was a New Years Eve picture from 1976

We lost touch and I have tried using the internet to find her.
But women's last names often change.
I thought I remember that she worked in the tourism industry.

Wish I could thank her now for being my friend then.

gratitude week 6

The city you live in.

I live in Hamilton and it is a city.
Except for a brief spell in Caistor Center as a child
and in Hannon when we were first married
I have always lived in Hamlton.

And it is a city.

I had a chance to look at some European cities a couple of months ago.
The Europe that I saw was pretty clean and pleasant to be in.
Some of where we went was touristy but other places were not.
I felt most comfortable in the little town (maybe a village by our standards)
where my father was born and grew up.
I had a big tug and feeling of comfortableness
despite the fact that I do not speak the native language.
I did also like the village that my brother lives in.

But I have come to the conclusion that home has very little to do with
the geography of a place. It is the people.
Plain and simple.
My home is where my family is.

I suppose that I could imagine myself living in some of those other places but
I certainly am not longing to be any where but in Hamilton.

Hamilton is home.

another idea

tomorrow is Halloween

and pretty much ... so what about that

Well, it is fun to dress up sometimes

and pumpkins are a mighty fine vegetable (or are they a fruit?)

but I am not really into decorating for Halloween

but I do like some of the ideas

and pictures that are bantered about at this time of year.

some will enjoy

decorating the house

some with enjoy

decorating the in

                                                          others will like decorating the out

                                                           
                                                                 some may even
                                                             decorate their chin

he speaks truth

Happy Halloween