What’s in a name?  This is one thing I was thing about today.  People’s names.  What they mean.  And….  how it is that certain names became shorty names.

For instance.  And there are many instances.  But let’s take old “Richard.”  How did it translate to Dick?

What about “Margaret”?  I can understand Marge.  OR Marg.  But Peggy?  Maggie?  What the heck?

Some I understand.  Deborah is Deb.  Fred comes from Alfred.  Or Al.  But looky there.  Al could also be Albert. Or Alan.

This is getting complicated.  Whack-A-Doodle-Doo.

Now three that come to mind right now are Bob and Bill and Bud.  Robert and William and Budweiser.

Here is the why of it.  Bill W. And Dr. Bob founded Alcoholics Anonymous on this very date… in 1935.  Of all places… in Akron, Ohio.  Yep.  Those guys put together that little program which has helped so many people overcome alcoholic addiction since that June 10th, so long ago.

Bill wrote out the 12 Steps.  It took him quite some time.  And once he laid out the main outline, he had to run it by the other members of AA.  It was quite a stir back then.  But finally, they all agreed on what it has become today.  The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Both their wives were Saints…. I am pretty sure.   Lois and Ann.  Their names aren’t short for anything.  They were born Lois, and Ann.  But they put up with a LOT while their husbands were drinking.  And then, in the early days of AA… they did more for the program than many other of the early integrals.

Little did they know that those 12 Steps would be utilized for everything from Over Eating…. to Quitting Smoking… to… well… just about quitting anything.

And the anonymous thing… they only go by their first names in that program.  Shorty names and all.

So…yes….  back to the names.  There you have it.  What is in a name?  Apparently.  A lot.

And to all the people in AA… Happy Anniversary.  A different kind of Bud is for You.  The kind that opens, and grows….  and with a little care and love… becomes something very much alive… and filled with beauty.

“Grow where you are planted.” – Proverb

A friend made a comment today about decency.  The long and short of it…. we could use some decency in the world these days.

Common Decency.

This was a phrase you would hear quite often.  Yep.  But, I don’t come across it so much any more. It seems we have become a world filled with the fast and the furious.   Our society covets the quicker and easier way.

Decency takes time.  It takes thought.  Caring and Compassion.  Decency takes character.

Yet.  When I look over the past few days, I can think of many little examples of such.

Yesterday, I was at a dinner in a public eatery.  A teenage girl got up from her table and knocked over a chair at the table behind her.  She looked at the chair, laying there on the floor, and walked a way.  Her little brother, sitting on the other side of the table, saw no one was watching… and got up from his place.  He picked up the chair, and righted it… back to its original position.  Decency.

Tonight I shopped at a Mega-Krogers.  It was teeming with people.  As I tried to maneuver my cart through the crowded deli area, I nearly bumped into a woman, 20 years my senior.  I apologized.  “I am so sorry Miss.”  She smiled graciously and touched my arm in a reassuring manner.  And she quietly said, “You are quite alright.”  Decency.

We’ve all seen the video of the Girls’ State Track Meet this week in Ohio.  In the 3200 meter, a young lady stops her race… to help a fellow athlete (who had fallen on the track)…. get to the finish line, and cross.  Valiant. Decent.

Yes.  It still exists.  It is alive… in little candlelight-flickers all throughout the sometimes dimmer days.

You see.It is okay to be wrong, and promptly admit it.  It is okay to say “I’m Sorry.”  We are all human.  It is okay to show compassion, and kindness, tenderness, and mercy.  And forgiveness.

In fact…. it is not only okay.  It is all…. quite decent.

“Morals are private. Decency is public.” – Rita Mae Brown

It was a Tuesday afternoon, at 4:18 p.m.

Suddenly, for the first time in his entire life……  Melvin realized…..

He didn’t know his butt from a hole in the ground.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

Most every day has something good.  Somewhere in it.  Ways to fly.

I had a lot of good things today.

The sky was beautiful.  Simply beautiful.  I was able to see it with my very own eyes.

Our little dog put her paw on my leg.  She wanted my attention.  She looked at me like I was the best human in the world.

I visited with my Mom & Dad today. My sister was there too. We ate Marion’s Pizza. Lots of delicious Marion’s Pizza.  My sister kept stealing all the green olives…. and that was all good.

We watched a squirrel stuff itself at the bird feeder, hanging outside my folks Living Room window.  I asked my Mom what the squirrel’s name was.  She immediately responded, “Upside-Down Charlie.”  She said it like she had known that little squirrel for years.  We laughed and laughed at Upside-Down Charlie.

Today, there was an abundance of clean water, there for my every need.  I drank it.  I used it to do dishes.  I had a hot shower in it.  Lots of fresh water here.

I cleaned out closets.

My favorite color today is blue.  Or green.  I like orange too.

I ate fresh fruit.

There was a deer, with her newborn fawn… walking through the creek in front of our home.  It was an amazing site to see.  Once again… with my very own eyes.

I was able think of some good puns today.   Thankfully, I don’t suffer from an irony deficiency.

I found a cool rock in our yard.  It was hard.  But I found it.

So many times on this day….I felt loved….. by some very incredible people in this world.

There are hundreds, and hundreds of other good things that happened from morning to night.  And that is merely in my little corner of this little ball of earth we live on.

Something good.  This way comes.

“True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.” – “Right-Side-Up” Albert Einstein

Oh.  Baseball.  The National Pastime.  Some people absolutely love it.  Other folks would rather watch paint dry…. or cars go round and round and round in circles.  I just say…  take me out to the ball game.  Take me out with the crowd.
Peanuts.
Cracker Jacks.
(You know the drill…. as the old song goes….)
I don’t care if I never get back.

The Majors are really something these days.  Players wear their pants down to their ankles…  nobody stays on the same team very long, it seems.  A hot dog costs six bucks. Yep.  It all keeps changing.

Seems it all started a long time ago.  The earliest known mention of baseball in the United States was a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts Ordinance.  It banned the playing of the game within 80 yards  of the town meeting house.  Not going to break those windows.  No way.  No how.

In 1903, the British sportswriter Henry Chadwick published an article speculating that baseball derived from a British game called Rounders, which Chadwick had played as a boy in England.

But some big dudes in baseball got wind of this.  They said Chadwick had it ALL wrong.   Baseball was All-American, for crying out loud.  They formed a committee.  They voted… and crowned Abner Doubleday the Father of the Game.

Abner had no idea.  He had been dead nearly 15 years.  No idea.
Nor could old Abner ever had guessed the game would be played as it is today.  By 5-year-olds.  On dirt ball fields.  In small towns.  All across America.

They lie down in the dirt and make Sand Angels behind 2nd base.  They dance. And talk to themselves.   Run the wrong way around the bases and such.

I think…. it is the sport of baseball… at its very best.   Hot dogs are cheaper too.

So its root, root, root for the home team.  If they don’t win its a shame.  For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
…..at the old ball game.

“Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” – Yogi Berra

I believe in time travel.  I do.

I think this would explain a lot.  There are many scientists today, who agree that time travel may be possible in the forward direction, but not in the aft.  I am no smart scientist.  That is for sure.  But I think the labcoats should reconsider this one.

With the multitude of possibilities which are presented within The Theory of Relativity, I propose that both time directions are possible.  What goes up, must come down.  The String Theory supports this notion.  The Big Continuum.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  And such.

Back to “time travel” explaining a lot.  Take Easter Island.  I am fascinated with Easter Island.  (If it weren’t such an arduous journey to get there, I would like to visit. But heck, if I figure out this time travel thing, I could just visit lickety-split and be back again.)

But the tremendous stone Megaliths on the island weigh 10 tons each.  They are many.  They are massive.  How were they made?  How were they moved?  I suggest that people from the future…. came back and gave a hand.  Not aliens.  But humans.  From earth.

Yep.  It goes like this. Sometime in the future, as we damage the planet, more and more…. the humans of earth… will figure out a way to leave here.  They will move to another habitat, far, far away.  And earth will eventually be destroyed.

They will figure out the whole time travel deal… and come back here from time to time.    To the past.  They return to put things on earth… like the big heads on Easter Island.   Those wacky Pyramids.   Wild and crazy Stonehenge.  And on.  They will do things like this to try to warn us about things to come.   To try to urge us to protect our resources.

But we don’t pay attention.  No.  We just scratch our heads…. and wonder how these weird things happened… so long ago.  Nope.  We don’t see the signs.  Not even the ones that are happening today.

But that’s just me thinking out loud.  I could be way off base.  Who knows.  But….  Every time I go to change the batteries in the wall clock… I start thinking about those hands of time.  And then the whole Time Travel thing gets moving in my head…   And before you know it… I’ve sat here for hours… yammering.  And I  forget to fix the clock.

No mind.  I think time is relative, after all.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein

Garden at the "far away"....

Garden at the "up close"....

Some friends of mine have beautiful, beautiful gardens at their home.  They are quite talented in that way I will tell you.  All the flowers, and plants… work so nicely together.  The colors of the life are quite majestic.

I have a few other loved ones in my life who also have this talent.  This is something I’m not very good at…. and know very little about…. this business of The Green Thumb.

I wonder why they call it a Green Thumb, really.  I mean, my friends who raise amazing gardens have dirty brown thumbs, and fingers, after they have worked their hands through the soil.  They are not green at all.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, it probably comes from one of two sources:
1. It could go all the way way way back to the reign (not rain) of King Edward I of England.  The Royal Dude loved fresh green peas.  So much in fact…. that he had several servants working to keep him supplied in pea-dom.  They got a prize for having the greenest thumb… which meant they had shelled the most peas. (Or washed their hands the least….. you choose.)
2.  OR it comes from the fact that repeatedly handling clay pots encrusted with algae will stain a gardener’s thumb green.

I’m running with the Pea Story… although I have also heard it results from a master gardener always pinching out buds…. they call it dead-heading or something.  At any rate… they say it will turn one’s thumb green.    Green like peas.

Gardens are amazing though.  And the plant there in.

To me… it is representational of life… in so many different ways.  All of the cycles.  All of the parts working together… or existing completely apart. Needs. Beauty. Dangers. Life. Death.  And back to life again.

And on the outside… from a distance….. it looks completely different than it does up close.  Just as it is a unique actuality above the soil… and an entirely different entity in the root system at its base.

Such a wonder.  Such a mystery.  Such a glorious thing.

Thank you, good gardeners…. for bringing such beauty to this life.  With nature’s help… of course.

“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go” – Mary Oliver

Today I was invited to a Horse Show.  A Horse Show!  Of course I wanted to go.  I had been to all sorts of other kinds of shows, and I loved them.  Broadway Shows.  Talent Shows.  The Today Show.    But  had never, ever, been to a Horse Show.

It wasn’t what I expected.  I thought there would be horses…. singing and dancing and such.  You know.  Sort of like American Idol, or America’s Got Talent.  But there was not a single musical number.  No catchy tunes.  No River Dancing… or Ballet.

Now that would be neat.  Horse Dancing.  “Dancing with the Horse Stars.”    I think if they wanted to dance… they could.  They have shoes, after all.   I saw the kind of shoes they wore today.  I imagine they would be great for Tap Dancing… or Clogging.

But… it was pretty neat… nonetheless.  People rode their horses in a ring.  They didn’t go very fast…. so I am not sure why the people riding the horses had to wear helmets.   They didn’t ram into one another either…. no head butts.  But they wore neat helmets with chin straps.  (Just for the record… I think helmets are a good idea for anyone… ESPECIALLY you people on motorcycles… but I’ll bet off my high horse for now.)  The riders sported fancy clothes too.  Coats with tails.  I guess to match the horses with tails.

There were judges with ribbons.  It was all a big deal.. although I must admit…. I didn’t know what was going on most of the time.  I clapped at all the wrong times.  The equines knew what was happening though.  The Champion Horses smiled when they received their ribbons.

At one point, a bunch of little kids got out into the arena…. with stick horses.  They raced.  Now THOSE kids needed the helmets I’ll tell you.  Clumsy children with long sticks between their legs doesn’t seem like a great idea to me… but the kids seemed to be having fun at it.

Overall, it was a red-letter day.  I think horses are neat.  Even though they didn’t sing and dance.  They are important…. I mean… they have their own flies, radishes, whips, play, sense, and headless guys.  That’s a lot.

Because you see……. A horse is a horse.  Of course, of course.

And I got THAT right from the horse’s mouth.

…. And soon there will be corn.

On the cobs.  For us to eat.  With Butter dripping off.
And cheeseburgers.

In honor of all THE Children of the  Corn……

Some corn reflections.  Because I am a flake.

Do you know what the ear of corn was arrested for? …… Stalking.

We have a corn-growing-farmer just down the road.  He rose through the ranks of the International Corn Growers association, eventually becoming a kernel.

Not all corn can be perfect you know.   Funny looking corn grows on a laughing stalk.

Now… down south we have a long tradition of Pirates in our town.  Even Blackbeard hung out there.  I am told that…..Old Pirates retire and grow corn for a buck an ear.

I got pretty fired up the other night.  We went out to dinner.  I ordered the Grilled Corn on the Cob.  When the waiter told me they were out of corn I said, ‘That really shucks.’

Well… I hope you are smiling from ear to ear.

Signing off,
The Queen of Corn
Polly KORNenberger

What is reality anyway?

As defined by the Little Fellas behind the typewriters at the Dictionary Factory…. it goes like this.

=====
reality |rēˈalətē|
noun ( pl. realities )
1. the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them
• a thing that is actually experienced or seen, esp. when this is grim or problematic
• a thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one’s mind
2. the state or quality of having existence or substance
======

When it comes down to it… we all have our own different realities.  There isn’t such a thing as a TRUE reality…. I don’t think.  Who is to say just what it is.

Even if we watch a recording of something that has transpired, all of our past experiences influence our perception of what we are seeing…. and how we are reacting to it.  On all levels.  Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Sure.  The things we think we know..  Take my Mom for example.  Some times… she contends it is 1948.  Other times…. she sees a guy outside of their bathroom window… fishing for his supper.  Most people would agree that those things aren’t really happening, right here and right now.

But for my Mom… they are.  As sure as Jack climbed the beanstalk, I’ll tell you.

The human mind is a perplexing and complicated thing.  My little brain perplexes the heck out of me.  At least I think it does.  Here we go again.

A myriad of great thinkers have contemplated “reality”….  here are merely a few.

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“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” – John Lennon

“Human kind cannot bear very much reality.” – T.S. Elliot

“Reality is the ultimate illusion.”  – Mal Hancock

“Reality is not about facts, but about the relationship of facts to one another.” – Ronald Steel

“What is reality anyway!  It’s nothing but a collective hunch.” – Jane Wagner
====

And there you have it.

I’ve made the topic of reality very clear tonight.  As clear as…. mud.

Mud.

To you it may be dirt unified with water.  To a hut maker… it is mortar.  And to a pig… it is glorious.  Yes.   Just one simple thing… three realities.

And such… is a little thing we all call life.  Well…. most of us call it that.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein