Random Reflections on Three Topics
Facebook
Facebook is getting ugly. I was just talking to a friend who said he's only been on FB for about a year and he just uses it to wish people well on their special days. I like that. I think my friend is onto to something.
In the last couple of weeks, we've become grandparents and a good friend has been diagnosed with lymphoma. "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." I like that I can click one of these for my friends:
And then there's all the daily Donald Trump posts... Need I say more? Maybe we should start calling Facebook, Hatebook.
Politics and Ken Follett
I'm currently reading Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity -- it's historical fiction set mostly during the cold war. I'm amazed at the similarity between the political hot button topics of the 1960s and today's. The emotional, strongly held -- sometimes violent -- convictions regarding Civil Rights in the 60s is not much different than how people feel about immigration and all things LGBTQ today. In fact, if you were to substitute "civil rights" for "immigration" in Follett's novel, you'd think that some of the things he writes could easily be posts on Facebook.
Here are a few quotes from the book. Do they feel familiar?
"The greater their ignorance, the stronger their opinions.”
"We have never made a gain, in civil rights, without pressure...”
"Our great stumbling block, in our stride toward freedom, is not the White Citizens’ Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner. It’s the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who constantly says, like Bobby Kennedy: ‘I agree with the goal you seek, but I cannot condone your methods.”
"We will have to repent, in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good,’ ...”
"All men make mistakes,’ said the ancient Greek Sophocles. ‘But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride.”
My observation/question is: in the end, we know how the Civil Rights movement ended -- and how history judged those on either side of the issue. I wonder how history will judge those of us on either side of our current sociopolitical hot button topics?
Cancer
I found out just yesterday that a dear friend was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She told me that after she let her friends and family know, she soon received a message from a friend who said, "Don't let me be a shit, if I'm being a shit, call me on it. I want to be a good friend to you during this time in your life."
I totally resonate with this because I've had a few friends and people I barely know who have been quite frankly shitty to me. I had a neighbour who was walking his dog tell me -- after finding out about my diagnosis -- that chemo was somehow wrapped up in some kind of cold war conspiracy (this, just before I was about to start chemo) and that all I needed to do was eat alfalfa. Alfalfa? Yup. Alfalfa.
Then there was the dude who said -- with me, a doctor and a nurse in the room -- that a) chemo, drugs, medicine, etc. were a colossal pharmaceutical, money-making scam. And that b) if he were diagnosed with cancer that that would be "the Big Guy's" way of telling him that it was time to go.
Advice to all of you who have loved ones who have cancer: Think hard before you say anything. It's better to say nothing than to say something shitty. Trust me. I know.
Grand-Parenting
And to end on a feel-good note. Grand-parenting. You've heard all the clichés. You've seen new grandparents who've lost their minds. You've had to look at hundreds of pictures that Nonna/Oma/Grandma/G-Ma...
okay, here are a few more monikers for grandmother and grandfather:
Be patient with these obsessed, lost, in love souls :)
And for those of you who will soon be there. All the good stuff people say and feel? It's all true :)
Facebook is getting ugly. I was just talking to a friend who said he's only been on FB for about a year and he just uses it to wish people well on their special days. I like that. I think my friend is onto to something.
In the last couple of weeks, we've become grandparents and a good friend has been diagnosed with lymphoma. "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." I like that I can click one of these for my friends:
And then there's all the daily Donald Trump posts... Need I say more? Maybe we should start calling Facebook, Hatebook.
Politics and Ken Follett
I'm currently reading Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity -- it's historical fiction set mostly during the cold war. I'm amazed at the similarity between the political hot button topics of the 1960s and today's. The emotional, strongly held -- sometimes violent -- convictions regarding Civil Rights in the 60s is not much different than how people feel about immigration and all things LGBTQ today. In fact, if you were to substitute "civil rights" for "immigration" in Follett's novel, you'd think that some of the things he writes could easily be posts on Facebook.
Here are a few quotes from the book. Do they feel familiar?
"The greater their ignorance, the stronger their opinions.”
"We have never made a gain, in civil rights, without pressure...”
"Our great stumbling block, in our stride toward freedom, is not the White Citizens’ Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner. It’s the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who constantly says, like Bobby Kennedy: ‘I agree with the goal you seek, but I cannot condone your methods.”
"We will have to repent, in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good,’ ...”
"All men make mistakes,’ said the ancient Greek Sophocles. ‘But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride.”
My observation/question is: in the end, we know how the Civil Rights movement ended -- and how history judged those on either side of the issue. I wonder how history will judge those of us on either side of our current sociopolitical hot button topics?
Cancer
I found out just yesterday that a dear friend was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She told me that after she let her friends and family know, she soon received a message from a friend who said, "Don't let me be a shit, if I'm being a shit, call me on it. I want to be a good friend to you during this time in your life."
I totally resonate with this because I've had a few friends and people I barely know who have been quite frankly shitty to me. I had a neighbour who was walking his dog tell me -- after finding out about my diagnosis -- that chemo was somehow wrapped up in some kind of cold war conspiracy (this, just before I was about to start chemo) and that all I needed to do was eat alfalfa. Alfalfa? Yup. Alfalfa.
Then there was the dude who said -- with me, a doctor and a nurse in the room -- that a) chemo, drugs, medicine, etc. were a colossal pharmaceutical, money-making scam. And that b) if he were diagnosed with cancer that that would be "the Big Guy's" way of telling him that it was time to go.
Advice to all of you who have loved ones who have cancer: Think hard before you say anything. It's better to say nothing than to say something shitty. Trust me. I know.
Grand-Parenting
And to end on a feel-good note. Grand-parenting. You've heard all the clichés. You've seen new grandparents who've lost their minds. You've had to look at hundreds of pictures that Nonna/Oma/Grandma/G-Ma...
okay, here are a few more monikers for grandmother and grandfather:
- Tutu (Hawaiian)
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| Our granddaughter: Grace Violet |
- Nai Nai (Chinese)
- Oba-Chan (Japanese)
- Halmoni (Korean)
- Lola (Filipino)
- Yaya (Greek)
- Nonna (Italian)
- Abuela (Spanish)
- Mor Mor (Swedish for mother's mother)
- Mor Phar (Swedish for mother's father)
- Grandmère (French)
- Mémé (French Canadian)
- Babushka (Russian)
- Mica (Serbian)
- Vovo (Portuguese)
- Zeidy (Yiddish)
And for those of you who will soon be there. All the good stuff people say and feel? It's all true :)
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