Mandela

SORRY FOLKS! I’m too busy in re-certification classes to write, but I can still read at study breaks. I found this simple statement breathtaking.

Donal

A few days ago, Eric L Wattree, a regular on dagblog, posted about why he thought Barack Obama will be remembered as a great president. In the comments there ensued a discussion of who were the greatest presidents, whether Obama, Clinton, Reagan, or Carter will be remembered as great or ordinary, and what determines greatness in office.

With the death of Nelson Mandela, I couldn’t help wondering what an American president would have had to endure and accomplish to be considered in the same breath with Mandela.

Suppose Frederick Douglass, after escaping torture by the slavebreaker at Mt Misery, didn’t safely escape to the North in 1838. Suppose he had non-violently protested against the slavery condoned by the US government, then later organized attacks on US government targets. Suppose instead of being executed he had been imprisoned for almost three decades. Suppose he had led the antislavery movement from within…

View original post 58 more words

Deep River

The Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1877

The musical song form known as spirituals began as a beautiful union between American slaves’ desire for freedom, their identification with Old Testament stories, and a post Civil War embrace of European choral harmonization in Black colleges like Fisk University.

Carpe Deum

“The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between this profusion of matter and the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.”

— Andre Malraux, from Les Noyers de l’Altenburg

The Grid

In the past five weeks I’ve helped assist five people in their conversion from one form of energy into another.  All of them were dear to me, and each was unique and interesting.  Because I did not meet them until they entered dementia care in the last chapter of their lives, I knew them in simplified form compared to their former selves.

Technical Difficulties

The world’s most famous television test pattern was introduced by RCA in 1939 and was still in use until the 1970s.

Sisyphus and Me

One of my favorite authors I have not written about in this space is Albert Camus (1913-1960), a Nobel laureate (1957) who was both a superb novelist and an influential philosophic essayist.  In Camus’ view, life is an unsolvable situation which we (being what we are) will nonetheless die trying to solve.  This is not a condition which must lead to despair.

Have a Nice B.M.

The Bristol Stool Scale

Today’s focus is on B.M.  Did you know there’s a scientific chart for that?  It was developed in the 1990s during studies at the University of Bristol.  Types 3 and 4 are the good ones.

Connect, Disconnect, Reconnect

This is a ferry dock.  I made a connection here.

We are born connected to our mothers.  When we are infants, being separate from them hurts.  It’s a searing agony.  If we are apart too long, the disconnection will scar us.  In loving arms, at a welcoming breast, in blessed relief we reconnect.