Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Paula Deen Mystery



Well, I'm going to have to do this post.  I wouldn't feel right if I didn't because I've written about all the important news as it happens to us through the years as a blogger.  It may not be the politically correct thing to do, and of course, there is always the possibility I'm wrong about nearly everything.  But I have to write about the fall from favor of Paula Deen.

I will say that I'm always loyal to the celebrities I prefer.  I usually defend  my favorites because I actually don't have very many.  It takes a lot for me to accept a celebrity as a person instead of just a name..  Naturally because of her hard won success and home values, I have loved Paula.  Due to Food Network's hard sell, we watched her get engaged, we traveled with her to Paris, and we cried when she was surprised by her family. We were cordially invited and attended her wedding, we watched her have Christmas, holidays, and we basically went with her on all kinds of vacations and adventures.

Then comes the shock of this week and the tears, trauma, and near total destruction of her world...  And any part of ours we had allowed her to enter.  I'm a hard sell when it comes to seeing a person the object of an onslaught of half truth, deliberate semantic wording, and obvious discrimination.  I was at first shocked, curious, a little indignant.  As more and more dropped her I became truly sad, confused, actually outraged.  Words do not make racists.  I have heard both sides, and I have investigated and read diatribes both in her favor and against her....

The truth is...  She admitted a part of her past, and then something sinister, wild, and unstoppable took the reins to make a statement.  Can one human being be culpable for all the racism, bitterness, and resentment of two races of Americans?  Unbelievably, it seems both white and black America are having a go at that.  More than 50 years have passed since the dissident 60's.  Of course, another hundred before that was the slavery....   I'm not black.  But I, myself, nor my parents or grandparents refused to serve a black person...  Nor did we hold slaves...  And I don't think I'm responsible for the past.   You know what?  Neither is Paula.

Parties have been held in all manner of theme...  We have Marie Antoinette on a pedestal these days.  Homes have been decorated in Antebellum style by myriads of homeowners...  Our Prom was Gone With the Wind...  Somewhere, unscathed, IS that restaurant with the infamous back staff....  But the news slant pierces her reputation with " slave theme parties".   I was recently reminded of all the other groups of people who were enslaved....  All these periods of slavery throughout recorded history are examples  of man's inhumanity to man.  

We romanticize the wars, the struggles, and the misfortunes of any eras..  Really, we are all here as a result of some distinct, merciful blessings mixed with some cursed, regrettable atrocities...  I would hate for the groups associated with the history behind my parties, plans, and conversations to judge me by one or two comments or fleeting thoughts.

Bottom line.  I don't know who or what ------ but something big is behind this.  Vulnerable due to her private family enterprise, not syndicated, not headed up by groups of shareholders, the Paula Deen enterprise was a sure target for a takeover of sorts...  A destruction...  And/or a message, a lesson to anyone who is alive today.

We fans can vainly point out the ironies...  Truly racist movies, books, CDs, and products sit on the shelves of all the corporations that have dumped her.  I'm to believe that no CEO or boss in the world EVER said that word...  I'm also supposed to fall into the belief that one word is more hurtful to the Black race than other words to other people ...

It's too much for my brain, but I continue to search for a hidden agenda, the secret conspiracy.  If something is just too bizarre to be true, it probably isn't.   This Paula Deen thing is NOT about a word uttered to her husband in her private kitchen 30! years ago...  It is not about a fleeting thought for a wedding reception.  What is it then?  Possibly money.  Maybe a lesson to her for some code of corporate marketing...  Maybe a slur to her age and gender...  Maybe a distraction for the real news...  All I can believe for sure....  It ain't all about a word and a discarded idea for a party...  It won't happen to the CEO of Coca-Cola, or Kraft, or even Martha Stewart....

I have been a teacher long enough to know bullying when it happens.  This whole debacle is bullying...  Discriminatory and just plain weirdly cruel.  I'm sad.  I'm Shocked....And I am so very curious.  I want to know who " they" are...  I'm not sure America can stand the truth.  But I'd love to expose it.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Beautiful Day!

We are off to enjoy a beautiful Saturday!  Today is both my mother's and my birthdays...  We are going for some grocery shopping, a little lunch taken at the lake, and then my son will be coming over after work for a little indoor picnic!  Have a fun day!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Opening of the garden party.

Today my dear friend held her annual opening of the garden party....  Yes, she also closes her pretty Italian garden each autumn, usually with a large pot of Italian vegetable soup...   I spent a long afternoon of visiting, laughing, and enjoying myself.




Sunday, June 23, 2013

Rumbles in the air...

Today finds us with deep, dark cloud cover, some heavy rains, and nobody to cook for...  My son came over last night because his Sunday work schedule was a no-no to our usual get-together...  It's a quiet, lovely reflective day...

So, of course, I lit candles, made luncheon club sandwiches for Mama and I, and then made a little one egg cake for later.  I made a chocolate pecan variation today!  And you can see how little is left of the cocoanut vanilla one from Thursday....  I got the recipe HERE.




Have a good day...and don't forget to look for the moon tonight if you can...   I'm thinking ours may be behind a cloud!  I'm inspired to create a little jewelry vignette in my bedroom...  Stay tuned!



Friday, June 21, 2013

Flowers...

This week a dear friend gave us a beautiful rose bouquet for our birthdays...  (Mom and I both celebrate the same day of birth!). We loved the bouquet as a floral arrangement a couple of days, but then I decided to break it apart and use my new Heritage Collection of Ball jars.  I ordered mine from Amazon, and I think they are available at Ace Hardwares, Home Goods... Lots of places.  I used a gift certificate from my Sweetie because I'd seen them here and there in Blogland and had fallen in love wth the deep blue color of the jar...  Insulator blue, my daddy would have called it, I'm thinking.



Three roses are that indescribable apricot...  Deep and vintage peach.  I love them.  Their three Ssters are the new rainbow rose...  A mystery to all who see her, this beauty seems supremely delicate and puzzling...  I haven't discovered how she is created...  One didn't make the transition and shattered into myriad petals of red, yellow, green, purple and blue... A color wheel splayed out on the kitchen floor.

We drove through Amish country this hot day...  I couldn't take the photo due to respect, but imagine this!  A couple of kids were driving a large pony hitched to a manual lawnmower....  I told Mama it was a one-horse riding mower!


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Have you ever...?

June, beautiful Summer...  Friday brings the longest day, the shortest night...  Midsummer...  Even though it is the first day?  I might have that wrong...  I'll sure check that out.

Have you ever frolicked in the woods after dark?  Any form of hunting DOES NOT count....  I'm thinking I never really did that.  I once walked my country gravel road alone super late...  The coyotes howled, and quite possibly wolves...  I know I walked faster and faster and was relieved to see the lights of my house...  I don't guess that was a frolic.  My own home was built very close to a grove of trees coming out of the woods.  So many nights I sat alone, yet completely radiantly happy on my deck...  I could light my chiminea, drink a huge iced tea...  And watch the shadows of those same coyotes, wolves, even maybe a bobcat...  Their cries softened as they went by my house, then once past, reverberated with even more confidence into the clear moonlight...

Long ago when he was very young, my son was the ultimate fan of Batman...  Hot and sweaty, happy with a full day of play, he sometimes sat with me watching our favorite heavenly object...  The huge and glorious moon.  I could sense him, softly leaning in to gaze in my eyes, a little giggle forming around his mouth....  "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?" ( the Joker's famous line)...  We tried to keep straight faces, but soon laughter and little boy and mama giggles  had us...

Oh, yeah...  I love summer...

Monday, June 17, 2013

Sparkling Red, White, and Blue

It's looking like the Fourth of July around here...   Little touches of color, flags tucked in everywhere, and patriotic centerpieces...  Only a little over two weeks until the holiday!  With all our cool rain and the late Spring, I'm a little off guard.  It's time for some homemade ice cream, some grilling, some watermelon!  

Yesterday my son helped me finish stashing the last box or so...( or so is a stretch ). Of my school stuff...  As I stuffed in yet another bag full of glitters, he called me a hoarder!  Moi?   Well...  On glitter I am... Cheap jars of dime store...  My treasured Martha Stewart's jewel tones...  German glass glitter...  Glitter glue...  I'm the crazy cat lady of this stuff... 

Well, let's all get ready for Independence Day and sparkle on!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Happy to Help... That was Daddy...


This is Father's Day weekend.  We have no living fathers, grandfathers, uncles in our family, so we have no one to spoil or pamper...  The holiday looms quite sad because it brings the memory of better times...  However, I am so grateful to have been a part of the lives of my daddy, uncles, grandfathers...

I have been dreaming about Daddy since I retired...  Dreaming more anyway because I am more rested...  I absolutely adore to dream about him or Gramma...  Or anyone like that who has gone on...  I awaken in a sweet, grateful reverence to have been allowed a "little visit" with a loved one now apart...

I have posted often about Daddy...  I was thinking this morning about his servant heart..  My father adored helping people.  It made him joyful to be able to do things for others...  Not just family, but neighbors, strangers, friends...  And especially me, of course!  ;-)

No one died in the circle of family or friends or neighbors that Daddy didn't go sod the grave...  A lost art, perhaps, because ironically we couldn't find anyone who knew how to do that for his.  He loved to show up early the day of a sale and help carry out things for a farm or estate auction.  Visiting rest homes with a little sack of Casey's doughnuts or cookies made him smile all over...  He happily awoke every winter morning I can remember to drive up to my house, shovel me a path to my car and clean off the windows before starting my vehicle to warm.   Then he'd disappear before his oh, so spoiled daughter managed to slither out to go to school... He never once sighed with resignation at the thought of taking his Amish friends to the doctor, or on errands to other communities...  He was happy to do things for others... Not waiting for paybacks or accepting payment...  I don't recall that he ever complained or even noticed if someone decided to kind of take advantage of his kindness.... Reciprocation was never his goal...  Or praise...  It just made him feel good.

I used to be like that...  For probably forty years, I enjoyed that very same thing...   And then I got burned at school. Criticized for a volunteer job...  Warned about being a fool for giving away my work...  Publicly bawled out a time or two for something I had been doing for free that could have gone better... Cheated out of some compensation given to others for doing the same job I did.....  I began to believe I was being used, taken advantage of...  disrespected, even...  It got easier to just avoid helping very many people...  Then I grew bitter...  I forgot the joy...  I started to count tit for tat in the work world, and I started to feel I came up short time after time.....  I grew to be on the ever-constant guard for criticism...  I lost the happiness...

In honor of my dad, I want to work toward reclaiming that servant heart so blessed in scriptures...  Not looking to be rewarded, thanked, noticed...  Just joyful to do it...

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my grandfathers, and to all your sweet daddies everywhere...

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Blue Hour


In the pure, quiet, magic of pre-dawn, the blue hour creeps around the periphery of our house.  Visible more through a camera lens than the naked eye, it colors the landscapes just beginning to assimilate from their night time of obscurity.  The world awaits my dreamer soul.  Blue, my long-lost favorite color, reigns for its moments of shy glory at the beginning and ending of each day.



We swim back into ourselves, leaving our nests of warm, drowsy comfort, drawing our minds into alertness, into the persona we must assume for that day...  It is a time almost too late to sit and decipher that momentous question.  Of course, wondering girl, we are indeed ourselves...  But for some, that essential core creature remains a bit of a mystery.

I have never had the thought of so many days without boundaries.  What must comprise each 24 hour span?  How can I best reach something worth attaining?  In a lifetime of either structure or exhaustion, there has been little room for searching for authenticity.  Teachers are warm, honest, oh, so positive, even genuine...  But not always authentic...  The truth that was each student...  Equaled much more importance than my own...  Kind of like mothering, mentoring, or modeling, my life took on a shape suited for the one in charge....

I was up for the challenge of being in charge of others....  But it is vitally different to take control over myself, for myself...  I imagine myself woefully behind the mark in this department.  What happened at eighteen for many has tarried thirty more years for me.     So, in the wee still hours of the blue times...  I'm thinking, thinking, thinking...  It does not show to the naked eye...only through the magical lens of prayer.

No school for one whole, delicious month...  And none in the horizon...  Like the clouds curling, receding away from the dawn....  My past is melting away through the blue wash of transition to the new....


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Late or Early.....

Just settling in for the night...  My candle burning at both ends, as they say...  I think Mom is up for the day...

I overheard her whispering to my son, "Your M.oTHER is ORGANIZING!"  It didn't sound too positive...  I don't think she likes her marshmallows in a Rubbermaid snap top.....

Our posies looked happy in the twilight...  Good night....






Friday, June 7, 2013

A Ride Before the Rain....

Today was clear, fluffs white and grey accumulating until now it is quite overcast...  Since tomorrow isn't going to work, Mom and I decided to take a little drive through industrious Amish country...  We had lunch at our favorite Crossroads Restaurant and then meandered through the back roads.  We easily saw 20 teams of horses working the ground...



 I had a "first.."  A horse and buggy peeled out in front of me...  It really did!  When we passed it later, Mom said the driver looked about nine years old!   Ooooh, he'd better be careful...  Sometimes people aren't looking, and NOBODY expects to see a horse and buggy whip out of a side road...

When I got home, some delightful Mrs. Meyer Radish scented cleaner was waiting from a FedEx delivery....  It is To. Die. For!   The kitchen sink was my first mission...  Sparkle On!



Lakeside Dining

Pretty tempting.    A flash sale, nationwide, for Pizza Hut's 55th Anniversary, Until next Week.....   $5.50 for large one topping pizza....

Mom and I went to the lake and enjoyed an impromptu evening picnic...  Leftovers tomorrow!








Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Getting my mind in motion...

I have many, too many, projects blurring my brain... It doesn't show yet... I'm spinning my wheels... imagination
woman yellow pictures

Monday, June 3, 2013

Monday, Monday

Cool today, temps in the low sixties...  These are the brisk days that bring ultimate joy.  Sunshine on the flowers, a musical contest among my favored old black crows (not  Mom's choice...), a few quail, and the wind chimes on the front porch...  I planted a few flowers and enjoyed this lovely lunch...  Mom stirred this up while I was shopping online for some upcoming birthdays, weddings, and such...  Mom's potato soup..  Delicious.  She makes the very best little "rivels" in her soup...  She crumbles them in the boiling soup with her fingers...  Kind of like filtering the soil when you plant a garden...

Dice two large Irish potatoes, a half onion, and one rib celery, salt, pepper, and parsely.  Boil in four cups water until potatoes are tender.... Make rivels with one egg and a scant cup of flour.  Work those together with a fork until they form little dumpling-like crumbles.  Add to boiling soup and stir continuously, cook for fifteen minutes more.  Add a half cup butter and a cup of milk....  Fit for a queen...

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Good Dreams...

 How low, cool, and deliciously melancholy, these past weeks of summer.  Each night brings new storms, rains pelting the rhythm in dreams, vanishing and then doubling back to claim the day.  Each day I vow to completely open the boxes from school...  And each night, instead, I warm and cozy myself under the covers and watch reruns on the television or read blogs, chat on Facebook.
This needs to be a busier week!