😂😂😂
Mostly politicians these days – and people at the grocery store. 😂
One Liner Wednesday is brought to us each week by Linda Hill. Click over to her site to read the rules and enjoy reading the posts of others.
Yesterday I marveled at a man I follow on Instagram who posts the most amazing macro photographs. His most recent subjects were macro photos of ants at work. The shots were amazing especially if you are interested in the mechanics of photography:
https://www.instagram.com/stonekettle/?hl=en
I started thinking about how we use language to desensitize subjects that might be uncomfortable.
Let’s start with meats. We differentiate cow from beef, pork from pig, venison from deer, and mutton from sheep. The etymology of these words comes with quite a history lesson. I will not repeat all of it here, but this link gives you a little of the origin history (And no, I did not verify the historical references. I will leave that to you dear reader.) https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/why-pig-meat-called-pork
What I will say is that it makes it more comfortable when you go into the grocery store and see meats fully dressed and called by its gastronomic name.
Thinking about war and the constant conflict in our world, we use words like troops and forces. We rarely read about the humans on the ground fighting in these conflicts. We know all the military and political leaders by name but those fighting are rarely seen as individuals.
One of the most offensive phrases introduced in business to me was ‘human capital’. Ugh.
But back to the ants. We call animals and insects we want to remove from our lives pests. We know they are living creatures, but if we can classify them in a way that leaves them undesirable we can justify their removal. Of course, ants like all members of the ecosystem serve their purpose. The harm comes more when invasive species are introduced to a non-native environment.
Okay, this has become a stream of consciousness post and perhaps it is best to spare you any further rambling on my part. But before I go I must ask.
Yesterday was a wash for me. I started a couple of posts, but I think I was experiencing bloggers block if there is such a thing. What I wrote lacked authenticity. I do not know whose voice my attempts were written in, but it was not mine. Those posts are now steeping in my drafts folder.
On a positive (at least for me) note the first day of spring is only 27 days away so let’s pocket that good news and get started.
How about you? How are things in your part of the world? Are you looking forward to spring? When do you think you will feel safe to travel again?
Welcome back to Throwback Thursday. This week Lauren is asking us to remember back to those family summer vacations. Head over to her blog to get the details, and then join in!
This week’s prompt is: Vacations and Holidays
My post follows.
When we did not live near our family, we spent our time off trying to be near them. Any vacation time that coincided with my parents having time off meant we hit the road and headed “home”.
Both sets of my grandparents parents lived in the same vicinity so it was easy to see them all. We would not have known any different or wanted it any differently. Home was truly where we wanted to be.
When we moved to Florida, our road trip there was an adventure. This was back when Florida was truly the Sunshine State and you could find roadside stands that served fresh squeezed orange juice. I was amazed. Our vending machines at school also dispensed orange juice.
We only lived there for a short while but spent many of our weekends at the beach or fishing off a bridge somewhere. I remember limbo parties on the beach. We would park two cars on the beach (back when that was legal) and stretch Army blankets between the doors to create shade. I still got sunburns – the days before sunscreen!
When we moved to Ohio we spent a number of our summers at a local campground. I have written about this before – here and here. But there was one Fourth of July worth retelling.
It was another summer we spent camping in our tent at Hickory Hills. My dad had purchased a roomy three room tent. We set up camp one 4th of July and all was going well. We cooked hot dogs over the fire, made smores, and sat around singing around the campfire. All was well.
One evening it started to rain. We were all secure in the tent except it was raining pretty hard. Not to worry though, our tent was waterproof – well, unless you touched the inside of the tent surface. As the rain came down, the water built up. Mom, not thinking, pushed her hand against the roof where the water was pooling to dump the excess water off. That spot on the roof turned into a spigot.
It wasn’t long before everything was getting soaked. Mom and Dad were commuting to work so they left us (one sister, my brother, and myself – all teens) and went home to shower and sleep so they could go to work. The three of us curled up in one corner of the tent in sleeping bags which was on ground just high enough to keep us out of the water.
The next morning, my parents came to our rescue. We pulled everything out of the tent. Mom decided we should take all the wet clothes and wet sleeping bags to a laundromat to dry them. A very prim and proper lady continued to stare at us, pulling damp clothes out of these garbage bags and putting them into the dryer.
My mom being straight up country winked at me, smiled and said (rather loudly) “If we had the money, we would wash these clothes first.” The very prim and proper lady was shocked and did not spend any more time starting at us.
We did take a road trip to Niagra Falls one summer, but it was just over a long weekend. By the time we were in high school, marching band took up most of our summer vacations.
My children’s vacations were much the same. Most trips home to see family and they loved it. We did take a vacation to Hawaii once and to Washington, D.C. when we lived in Alaska, but sadly my ex made both trips unenjoyable for everyone.
Hubby and I have taken a few vacations over the years. We made it to Portugal, Switzerland, and Venice. We also traveled in the states some – to California, New Mexico, and Arizona. Many of our vacations were also spent going to see family.
I took a couple of mental health days which for me meant no blogging and very little reading of blogs. Sometimes I need to cocoon and sort out my thoughts. Linda’s SoCS prompt is often a good way to dip my toe back in the water. If you are curious what SoCS is all about, check out Linda’s post for all the details.
Today’s prompt is as follows:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “whatever.” Use the word “whatever” any way you’d like. Bonus points if you start your post with it. Have fun!
“Whatever will be, will be”
This is the phrase, sung by Doris Day of course, that has taken up residence in my head this morning.
Yesterday would have been my sister’s 73rd birthday. I miss her terribly. Yesterday was also the day my daughter’s family made the difficult decision to say goodbye to their cat who was suffering from cancer.
When you live in a close family, you also develop a bond with your family’s pets. To be so far away and watch them go through this and try to help a four-year-old come to terms with this loss has been heartbreaking.
So many worries this week with people I love and care about. It’s harder when everything is out of our control. But that is life, isn’t it? We can go about our days feeling in control of everything, but then, one day, we realize we can only control so much.
Today I will spend my day drawing a picture of a beloved cat to help heal my little girl’s broken heart.
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