The Times they are a changing!

Get with it, Jane Stacy.   This has been a week of news about change.  This morning they announced on Reliable Sources that the most visited city in the world is now Bangkok  --first time Asian city has come to forefront.  What happened to London and/or Paris!  But what happened to people making their vacation choices!  What made the touristas want to go to Bangkok!  It is a major change!

So look at major change stories of this week.   The news media has had a field day.   But have they presented both sides of stories?  And do we allow the minority to have their say in private conversation, on social media and in news media!   Because there Are two sides to every story at least!  And one of them is not mine!

The Supreme Court started off this week with its ruling on Voting Rights and Defense of Marriage.  Wow, talk about conversation starters!  I agree with the commentator I heard this morning that DOM view was completely slanted in the news media.  And it was, even though I agreed with the ruling.   There are many people, good people, who think that marriage is between a man and a woman and they are entitled to believe that way!    But then consider all the other stories going on:  Egypt is on edge and is ready to boil over;  Ed Snowden is in Moscow wanting someone, anyone, to extradict him,   And Paula Deen--c'mon do I think that she said an expletive 20 years ago  --something is not believable about this.  She is either losing money for her sponsors or someone has the goods on her in a lawsuit.   It just goes on and on. 

I need to get with it and decide what I believe by listening and

learning about every issue.   But world, take care of yourself this week.   Ed Snowden can stay in Moscow till he rots, Paula Deen can stay in her restaurant and add more butter in every recipe and gay couples can get gloriously married in 13 states.  But I am concentrating on the wedding of my grandson, Colin Dyer, and Adrienne Mary this week in Cincinnati.   Oh, yeah, courts in Sanford, Florida can decide if there is a "creepy ass cracker" in their midst.

Saturday, feeling bad, and two people who are coming to work

I felt bad last night, like I am waiting for a deluge of diahrrea, and I still am waiting.  But I have to get up, get ready for Kathleen and Heather who are coming to work and make out their lists of things.  So I have been up for one hour and am feeling better.   I am getting stuff done, whether I feel like it or not.  Maybe that is the secret.   Make out lists.    Jennie, my sister, is a stroke victim, on hospice, and she gets up every morning in a manic stage trying to get things done.  Maybe it is in our blood!

I am trying to get ready to leave for Cincinnati for Colin's wedding and get ready for my birthday party and for my special assignment for Development Office for Monday meeting.  I am way behind on that.   So I will press on today and knowing that progress is possible. Even if I stay in bathroom all day.

And Colin, I need to be thinking and praying for you this week as it is your big week.   Go get them, Colin and Adrienne and be happy!

Sunday school teacher ordinary!

Yesterday I went to reception on campus for Debbie Fulton and ran into two of the physical plant guys, Tom lee and John Haney, both were in my Sunday School couples class at lst baptist!   (John and Peggy Haney are pictured).

Tom regaled all who would listen about my teaching methods!  He said that his favorite story about me was about forgiveness and that someone in the class said that the culprit would get his just rewards in the end.  My comment as an ordinary teacher was, "Yeah, but I like to be around to see him get in the neck."  What a loving philosophy I had.    Every Easter, I handed out a blank sheet of paper and they knew that they were going to have to write the seven last words in order from the cross sayings.  Tom said that he took a cheat sheet and wrote them down and I caught him.   He actually repeated some of the words for Juan Crites and Ann Hayes, who were in stitches laughing.

I wish I could say I miss teaching.   I do miss seeing the couples and being there for them.   I did grow to love each of them and I still do.    And that is what teaching is -- building trust in relationships and knowledge!

The Baylor Bears Re-visited

I went out to lunch yesterday with Chuck and Mary Ellen Sharp!  We talked about the Supreme Court issues, their Baptist days at Baylor, the past History faculty and where they were now, and what kind of free pie we were getting at OCharlies since it was Wednesday!  And we talked about singing!  

It is a whole new way of life that has evolved and we agreed that it was exciting to be a witness!   Sometimes off-putting!    It was good to hear familiar names mentioned!  It sounds like we have a good group in Springfield.

I told them that my favorite history prof was Harold Dugger who took pity on an old student with three children who came back to finish her degree!

Hugs and more hugs

HI had a wonderful afternoon and evening yesterday.  Yes, I was feeling "poorly" as Mama would say, and yes, the heat and walking were not special, but I made it in good stead!   Wouldn't take nothing for the experience!!   First, I went to Joyce Penny retirement party at the Show Me Center and my old custodial crew came in first thing and came over with open arms which I ran into--literally!  I was so happy to see each one of them and they made all kinds of cracks about not having to work as hard since I retired!  Boosters came from everywhere and staff members and my memory held--not as good as it used to be!   But I laughed until my sides were hurting and they commented that they had not heard that awful laugh of mine for years and they even missed that!   They didn't mean it as a compliment, perhaps, but you can take hardly everything as a compliment if your mind is muted in that way.

Then, like a fool, Barb (Kinsey) and I set out for the Alumni Center, free food and to watch the Great Race.   When you see 54 old cars, you have seen them all, in my opinion!  We left, sweating, after the first hour.  Some people were there with cameras clicking away for all 96 cars.  Big crowd there too and so many people I have not seen in years.   My old stomping grounds for Parades.....

I came home and hit the bathtub.   I was completely hugged out but memories invaded my psyche as I tried to grasp sleep.   So many wonderful experiences with people I have had along the way.  In a true sense, my university family became family to me --I was so surprised at the things people brought up to me--my hearty laugh which I didn't know I had, my love for clothes which I did know I had and QVC continues to know it, my laughing off stuff that, in my words, "didn't amount to a hill of beans"  --(those were Mama's words, however;  I just borrowed them and adopted them as my own.)

Lord, I thank you for days like this;   when I recover, I will thank you exceedingly---yes, they reminded me that I tend to go overboard on all things!

And now, a glimpse at Joyce Penny's reception yesterday!

Retirement Parties

 I am going to a retirement party today for Joyce Penny, athletics!  Worked in ticket office for 32 years and ran concessions!  She will be missed; they have no idea how she will be missed!  That's what Susan Burton said about me, "I never knew how much I was going to miss you!"

I try never to miss a retirement party!  I want to say thank u in person!  The university runs on persons implementing programs!   It runs on the people who will go the second and third mile and never bitch about it.  Enjoy it, Joyce, you have earned it!

I remember my retirement party!  My friends came and my family came! Warren came and announced to the crowd that he called me Dirty Neck.  So many people still remember that who had never met him.  I love him for making that effort.   He was too sick to come but, in spite of our bad words to each other, we were a mutual admiration society!    And I love Ron Hahs for going to the President and demanding that I be hired for another year part-time.   He is pictured reading the citation.

I love retirement!

Doing something stupid for the right reasons!

Okay, Daddy, you taught me overly well!   How many times I have seen you take money out of your un-bulging wallet to buy a soda for a tramp in the Shell Service Station and you stood as tall as I could make you....and still do.  I write this blog, not for me, exactly, but so the kids and grandkids will know how I felt about things.   Memories of Daddy are rare in the minds of his grandkids and they certainly don't remember the Daddy I had....No one remembers in the same way as others!

But you taught me to not to be stingy!  You taught me to share the last piece of bread on the table!  You taught me that kindness comes back to you, and even when it smacks you in the face, it is worth the doing!  I learned some of those lessons.

So today, I go to realtor's office and I sell (hopefully) my rental property on 1803 Bloomfield.  Yes, everyone said I was stupid to buy it on my retirement salary and yes, I knew that.   But Greg Lowry and Jordan Lowry needed a place to live.  His lawyer thought he would get on disability (which never happened) and then I could recoup my money and Greg could fix up the place.   So I am selling it-and while everyone says "I told you so", I respond : "I do not regret it at all -- I took a chance and I gave Greg and Jordan a place to live for ten months rent-free and utilities-free."   No, nothing worked out like we wanted it to but, Daddy, you are the only one in this world who would cheer me on for my stupid, right decision!  I am proud to be your daughter!  They thought you were stupidly, blindly generous, to a fault!   So what!

Family Secrets Non-Preserved

In a small town, they say there are no secrets!   That is a bunch of bull, first;  people just protect those secrets in selected spreadings.   And that was especially true, when your father was a Baptist preacher in a small town.  I grew up protecting family secrets.   My oldest brother came home from Ouachita Baptist University and it wasn't long until we knew that he had a problem with the bottle---so the three "little kids" were told to say nothing about his being home or that he had lost his job or anything else.  This was a little difficult for me since I was the baby and everyone who suspected something would ask me about it thinking that I was a chatterbox and would give them an answer.   They would not have thought of asking my parents such a question!   So I made up stories.  Like about his job in Lepanto, Arkansas which he didn't have.   One time, I even heard one of the biddies say to her biddie partner, "I guess it isn't true.   Janie doesn't know anything about it."

You think not, Miss Biddy.   I lived in it.   Most of my siblings had their own homes and they didn't have to stay in it.  I did.   And I wanted to announce it to the world and tell them to "Buzz off" or to remind them of their own closeted skeletons --some that were not closeted.  But I grinned and skipped off.  And I played their game.   I still do--when I choose!

A big word today is "transparency".  I can't decide if it is good or bad, in the end.   Do I want to know all the facts about spying or the next possible war or how many terrorists are out there waiting to happen?  Would it have helped anything, in the end, for Daddy to go to the pulpit and announce that his son was an alcoholic or this or that about another child?   Not a bit.   Some secrets don't need to be spread around;  some need to be forgotten,  all in the name of semi-transparency or time limited transparency.

I prefer to remember the fun times.....and I have had plenty of those good times!  I will deal with the secrets in my own, sometimes un-transparent way!   It is called "Managed Secrets".

Memories of Jim Cooper

 Sam Duncan (pictured) came by house to give me report of southeast hospital gift in memory of Jim!  I think it will be wonderful to see it on the wall of Surgery wing!  This gift will also allow the hospital to prepare a hybrid cath lab to serve the region.  This gift has fostered new energy and encouragement throughout the cardiovascular team in their quest to provide higher quality heart-care for the people of our region.

Lst showing is on aug 8  and the party is at Celebrations from 6-8.  If you would like to attend, let me know or let Sam Duncan know.

Day in St. Louis revisited

Recovering from day in st Louis and exhausted after day!  Thirteen of us went up on bus and went to Rigazzis for lunch, Urzis market for chocolate turtle wine and DiGregorias to watch sausage being made!  Loved it all but long day!  So glad to be home!

Today I have breakfast with Lucas Presson and Heather is here to work!

A day on the Hill in st Louis

Thirteen of us spent the day on the hill at markets , rigazzis, soap factories etc!  Long, fun day!

Barb Kinsey , friend for life

I had lunch with Barb Kinsey today!  I started working with her when she was in  Sports Information with Ron Hines and we continue to talk about old and new times!  There are people like Barb Kinsey who bear impossible loads for years and everyone knows what load they carry and what they don't get paid for the load they carry!

I think of all the unsung heroes at the University like Barb and Susan Burton and on and on!   Thanks for carrying way more than your share of the load all these years!

My brother, Jim, lives on!

My brother, Jim, had no children.   It bothered me that his name would gradually be forgotten and it must have bothered him.  He set up a scholarship at Southeast Missouri State University.   This astounded me but he said, " I am a Southeast Missouri boy.  My two sisters worked here and my nephew, who is a doctor, went here."   I have no idea if he ever did anything at Baylor Medical or at DePaul Foundation but I know that he had a thought (more than a thought) of helping students become doctors.

And I have continued to help him realize his dream.   Last year, Eric Miller, of Jackson, Missouri received the James F. Cooper Scholarship at the University and he was recently awarded it again for this year.  

Yesterday, I received word from the Missouri Delta Foundation that the first recipient of the Dr. James F. Cooper Educational Foundation Scholarship would be East Prairie native, Trevin Mayabb who will be in family practice at East Prairie once he completes his residency.  He will practice at the Ferguson Clinic in East Prairie with Dr. Steven Douglas.

So Jim, you do have a legacy of lives and professional lives!   I guarantee you that both of these young men, Eric and Trevin, will always remember your name and the impact you have made on their lives.  And so will their families.  I believe in scholarships  --I am so happy to have had a part in making your dream a reality!  Two Southeast Missouri boys are one step closer and one dollar closer to their dream!

Daddy and Momma would be so happy that the lives of their children continue to help others!

Life is full of friends!

Nothing can beat the joy of sitting down with a friend!   Especially one who has worked with u for years and years.   That would be Susan Burton and me!  We know where the bodies are buried and who hates who!  I know when I get in the car that we are going to El Torero to get Speedy Gonzalez' and it will never change!

We like the same people and we live to talk about where people are!   It gives me a lift to go with her!   We miss each other!

Weaving and going gray

Never thought it would be easy going gray but here I am at beauty shop getting an experiential weave!  This whole process takes two hours and makes me look like I am from outer space but what else can you do when you want to go gray!   Forget natural graying!

Give the father his due...

I think of my dad immediately when I think of Father's Day and I should.  I only have one father and I am so lucky to have had him in my life.   But this morning, out of the blue, I thought about my children's father!   And he was a good father to his children!   He disciplined them and he took care of them and he provided for them.   He did not have a great role model for fathering since his own father died when he was young but he learned instinctively what you should do to raise children.

He taught them things I could not have ever taught them:

Love for sports, how to ride a bicycle, how to drive a car, how to go to museum after museum, how to love your grandparents and how to show kindness to people.  He also taught how to camp out in a camper, how to drive across the US without much money and how to enjoy being a family.   These were wonderful lessons and I thank him for being a good father.   And yes, Mark, you can tell him that I said that!

Happy Father's Day to all!

Father's Day and pics

 

Standing out in front of our old house in Charleston with my wonderful parents - Rev. and Mrs. A.B. Cooper - Daddy said of his father every year in his sermon "My dad never failed to bring me candy - in fact, he never failed me in anything!" Well, Daddy, I can truly say the same about you!

Fun Day Yesterday

Went out to lunch with my college roommate, Sue Lemar Mayo and her husband, Jim, to a brand new place in Cape and enjoyed it thoroughly.   Across from the River Campus called West Bank.   Saw all kinds of people I hadn't seen recently.   Then went to a party last night at Jim and Karen Hendrickson's for a fundraiser for Music Department.   Heather and I went to wine shop and I ran into Laurel Adkisson and I added our picture on FaceBook.  Tom Harte says it is the most read column in Cape!   So be it!

I think I have made progress on Jim's estate and doing what I think he wanted done.  I am so happy that he gave me a clue to his thinking when he sat up his own scholarship.  I would never have believed that.   I have heard some rumblings about the Sikeston deal but I have given them my word already and I won't back down on that!   I have never had anyone back down but I have seen people do it to others and people lose all respect for the person who does it.  I am not that person.   I might not have known all the facts at the time I made the commitment but I knew other facts that were relevant to the decision.  And, in the end, a student will be helped along the way!  

So I am going to spend the rest of my day with Tammy, who is coming in to clean house, and she is a Master cleaner.  I'm lucky to get her today.   I visited with Tammy Baldwin this morning outside in the yard and she is married to Henry Sessoms (both English Dept.)   Tammy's mother just went through Hospice and Tammy offered to help.   She says that no one really understands how hard it is.   People are really wanting to help Jennie and me and Annie but sometimes there is nothing they can do.  Except it's wonderful that they offer!

Nicknames

My dad was the dean of nicknames.   He was the oldest boy in his family and he had names for all his brothers and that is what he called them all of the time.   Ewell was "Witt",  Jeff was "Labs"  (we thought that was long for lbs. since Jeff was heavy, and Marvin was "Skeet".  That name stuck so well that no one remembers that his name was really Marvin.   I think they called Daddy "Bud" but since he was always the primary user of nicknames, that didn't stick either.

Then he came to his own children (Mama never called any of us by any of these names and she did not call Daddy's brothers by his chosen nickname.  And I mean never).

Autry was Unc;  Velna was Bolny; Julia was Bait;   Betty was Peaches;   Jennie was Ticky Wicky;  I don't know what Jim was...yes, he was Parson  --Rose Marie was Pug and I was Shag.   What made me think of this was I could not remember what the long term was and finally I remembered.   It was "The Constabulated Shag".   I don't know what any of this means.  Neither did he.   But he liked nicknames and he carried them forward to his grandchildren:   Harry was "Man", and Susan was "Mouse".   That would set Velna off on a tirade but Daddy did not notice or care about tirades from his children.

I just don't want these names to die completely.  I don't want anyone else to call me by my nickname;  I just want someone to remember this strange fact about Daddy.

Vegetables on the stove

I went out to the  open air market in front of Schnucks today and cleaned them out!  I was starving for fresh green beans and new potatoes!   I wanted to get some fresh carrots to cook for Jennie!   I came home, made cornbread and I havegouged on the feast!   Mama, u are here still and wish I had one of your lemon pies,   Can't do those.  Now I feel better!    Talked to my sister, Betty, this morning and told her about the Baptist preacher coming to see Jennie today and how she told him off!   He is probably going into isolation right now!   Welcome home, Brother someone,  try living in this on a steady basis!

Bear Ye One Another's Burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ!

We are a preacher's family!   My dad and mother spent their lives going into the country communities bearing and lifting burdens of the people and giving them hope.  My dad believed in this verse about what we were supposed to do.  He was not as easy about his own family because that cost him something emotionally deep down.  In fact, he ran to the sanctity of his bedroom and the Cardinal ballgame to get away from all the drama that came with raising a huge family of independent people.   I know because I was the kid he talked to when he said something!   And he was old when I was a teenager!

My mother listened but she did not refrain from taking any of her children on.   There is not one of the eight that I have not heard her blister with her comments to their face.   And they took it without question.   The one thing that held us together was love for Mama Cooper -- not love for each other (We have proved that we were short of that.  Why, I don't know!   Frankly, doesn't matter!)   I heard Mama say one time that the Burkes were in our same category and she said that she thought that it just happened with big families!   They were always fighting amongst themselves.    It really worried Mama that we were not her idea of what a true family should be but she didn't have a model to learn from.  

She would be beside herself now.  If she was upset when she was alive, just look at us now!   There is plenty of blame to go around everywhere and I, for one, feel the shame of it all, knowing that everyone knows and laughs at this family which has had everything good happen to it, goes ballistic when the real part of life hits it in the face.  I am the chief of sinners!

In spite of the fact that I have great children and great grandchildren who are wonderful to me, and I have a host of friends who are the best in the world and I adore, I want the feeling I used to have when we were on top of the world and stood for something good!  Anger, resentment, old age, sickness, accidents, death, no longer needed feelings have piled in and on us.   Little hurts---and not so little hurts--have made us all put up barriers so that no family member can hurt us anymore!   Well, it takes courage to love....because you always run the risk of losing!   The problem is that I don't know what, if anything, I can do about it!

In truth, somedays I don't even want to try!

Two tomatoes

I went outside on this rainy morning to view the pot of vegetables Sara did for me when she was here and there were two big green tomatoes!   I am a true gardener by no ones stretch of imagination!    But it shows life and it means we are in the growing game!

Don't count me out yet!   I am not a soul lover like my parents!   But I have two green tomatoes!

Dr. Jeff Long's column of today!

I put it on Facebook.  I will try to get it on this blog.

 http://www.semissourian.com/story/1976384.html

Jeff Long wrote this column and I like his work.  It talks about the mistake he made in an early church of trying to get two women to get along.  He says the word "grudge" comes from a German word meaning :to howl".   Hurt is at the heart of grudge-holding.   It becomes your protection and your fuel.

A family that is wrenched in keeping individuals safe when there are problems hovering everywhere need to realize that each one of the people need to do what is right in dealing with others and that is a good start.   In our case, the family is way too far gone to ever be put back together but we can treat each other with dignity and courtesy.  Maybe along the way, some of the grudges can be a bit lifted.    When someone dies, the game is over and there is no more time!  (My dad is pictured.)

And each of us have choices....

Yesterday, the children of my sister, Jennie, did the best they could to deal with her choices.   She had earlier decided that she would take no more of her medicine and she refused it.  She knew the consequences but she was making that decision, in spite of the consequences.  The other side of the issue had consequences also.   So she came back to her home on hospice.  And there she is!

To those of you who have been through this, you will know the ramifications and the pain that go

from the person who makes the decision to all the chickens who play in the chicken yard.   So that is where we are!  It was the decision that she wanted made, and she was given the dignity, in the final decision, of making it!

I guess I grieve for those around her who have to go on with their lives and watch this play out.  She loved her grandchildren dearly, especially Jordan.   Lord, give him strength to deal with this at such a young age!  (Pictured is Annie Finnegan, Jennie's daughter).

Hate is conquering the world!

It is conquering the world and there does seems to be no defense.   The political parties spill out their venom religiously and the conservatives of religion spew the same muck.   It seems now that parties and group can give us a list of who we are supposed to hate.  This morning I read such a list from religious conservatives.   First, take Starbucks off your coffee list because they give to groups that support gays--not traditional marriage.   Managed thinking all the way.  Why have schools to teach thinking?   Just go to the house, when a baby is born and give the parents the list of how the kid is supposed to think!  And we used to hate the communists for such indoctrination!

No thank you, any of you.  I will choose what I believe and it evolves without your help.   But these are the things that I truly believe:

l.  God is not in the mix when one preacher or one party denounces the segment of society and calls names that are filthy mean.
2.  My God is not in the mix when social courtesies are thrown into the trash to make room for some man's hierarchy of his own belief without any accommodation to those who might think otherwise.
3.  My God is not in the mix when individual dignity and courtesy are thrown out with the bath water, leaving only the scum behind.
4.   My religion is not in the mix when it involves tearing down, not building up those around us.

So, run with your hate.   You can't catch me and you can't make me change!  I'm the gingerbread man and I won't be a part of your preaching or your party anymore.   You are way off the mark I chose for myself many years ago!

Waiting for a decision!

We are on pins and needles!  Waiting here at home watching the case unfold on streaming tape on Southeast Missourian at 3:30.   The body of Jackie Waller was found this week after two years of not knowing where she was although everyone knew that her ex-husband killed her.  Today Clay Waller is going to plead guilty and be sentenced.   You cannot even get close to the Jackson Court House.   I went out to lunch with Cheryl Mothes, my Edward Jones person, and we got home in time to see this.   So I'm waiting along with everyone else.   I actually did not know either one of them but she was good friends with Joan Gohn's daughter and I have been drawn to the case.

So we will wait.   If I think I am tired of waiting, what about these two families!  How terrible for each of them!

 So we will wait and see and pray that justice is done for this woman who leaves behind a set of triplets!   And can they ever deal with this terrible loss to their lives!  They will, technically, lose both parents!   Just waiting!

OKAY!   HE JUST PLEADED GUILTY!   NO CAMERAS IN THE COURTROOM.  WAITING FOR THE PRESS CONFERENCE AT 3:30!       Fat is hitting the fan already -- he got 20 years.  It seems that he finally told them where to find the body.  Said he got mad, lost his temper and suffocated her!    

Another day and I feel a bit unsteady!

Don't like this feeling.   Just seems like I slept too hard and can't get it worked out of my system.   Maybe it is just getting old and I don't want to deal with it.   Anyway, I will sit here and deal with it today and try to think of something else useful I can do.     So I got out and walked around the yard!  It helps the soul and the body!

I Voted Today!

I went to the polls this morning at 7:05 with Meleia and voted in the Congressional race.   Laughed when I walked into Westminister --knew all the judges:  Wendell Wyatt, Carolyn Goodin, Edna Ruth Fischer, on and on.   That's why I like a small town.    This is a called Congressional election and Steve Hodges from East Prairie is running.  This is replacement for Jo Ann Emerson's seat!   I have a feeling that the Democrats will not gain the seat but I wanted to vote anyway and do my part.

Gloria came today and gave me a report about Jennie Cooper's condition.  She goes out there twice a week.  She says that Jennie won't take her medicine anymore and the Doctor says that they could take her home and call in hospice.  Who knows if this is true because it always is managed news or filtered?   She did have Gloria call Rose Marie Cooper Jordan this week.   I have a gut feeling that Jennie is checking out and I don't blame her --but you don't get to name your time unless you throw yourself under the bus!   I am way past wanting to get any further involved --believe me, after I paid $1300 a month for all of them out of my pocket, I am ready to pass on that gift to them and let some other fool pay it.  But no one steps up to that responsibility.

I got an email today from Joyce Penny, athletics, saying she was retiring after 31 years at Houck.   I know this is not an easy transition.  I wrote her a note back saying, "They will never know what hit them." and they won't.   Good luck, Joyce.  It is way bad when you work past the point that people take you and your work for granted!   You even said that in your email.  But that is the nature of the beast.

The rest of the day is easy.   Gloria is here cleaning the house and Kathleen is here helping me with invitations, work.  Then lunch with Tom Harte and dinner with Joan Gohn.   I will enjoy the day and look forward to dealing with sanity.
  

What happened to my mind?

Bierk, bill Prost and I went out for dinner tonight at Bella and we got into a discussion about what coach in basketball was successful but had a drinking problem and left!   I was blank and that makes me so mad!   I got up and looked all around the restaurant for someone who had instant recall!

I went. Outside and ran into Greg Deimund who googled it!  Yes!  Charles parsley!   Success, mentally!

Monday morning

Just can't get it together!  Had to have a confrontation again with Annie to get the junk heAp moved out of the garage at rent house and I hate to have these kind of discussions!  But I have no other choice!    Maybe the day will get better!  I hope so!  Maybe my back is acting up!

The last of the grandchildren graduates!

Yesterday, Nathaniel Colin Dyer graduated from the Savannah College of Design.

It is a mosaic of his life and footprint.   I'm proud of him.   He has stuck to his course of action and prepared for the rest of life to come.   I could not help but think of that little boy who came to visit every Saturday morning and we watched Sword and the Stone together in the big maroon chair.   I still know every line of that movie.    Way to go, Colin.  Life is out there waiting for you!

The Burning of Joan of Arc

Yesterday we celebrated a day in the life of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, 1412-1431.  It was the day that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen.

 Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl who claimed divine guidance directly from God and led the troops during battle in the Hundred Years' War to success and several important victories.   She was captured, burned at the stake for heresy when she was 19 years old.   25 years later the trial was declared a mistrial and she was named a saint by the Catholic church.   We still remember her today because of her devotion, her faith and her dreams.   She had courage.   She kept going to the forces, telling them that she heard the voices of three Saints -- Michael, Catherine and Margaret--and she could lead the forces.   Finally, someone either thought she was nuts but willing, she was nuts but she might not really be, or she might have divine guidance on her side.  In either case, how could they lose by listening.  So they gave her a small force and dressed her in men's clothing and off she went.

And she lived up to her word.   For a few years, or months, she gave hope to troups who were embattled, she gave hope to people who felt that God had nothing left for them and that the saints were silent, and she gave courage to the men around her who watched her go to that stake because she believed.   Needless to say, she gave strength to women who had seen little strength in women around them.   And, more than anything, she obeyed her inner conscience and paid dearly for the listening.

So, we remember May 31 and Joan of Arc   It's not just a date -- a French Ground Hog Day or July 4!  It's a day when a teenager in France was willing to give her life for something that she considered to be more important!  The flames remain!