RECAFFEINATED MONDAYS: That was just a month?

Today is National Hot Chocolate Day
Photo by Anuja Mary Tilj on Unsplash

“Writing a novel is the closest thing a male writer will ever get to the experience of childbirth.”

American journalist and author, Norman Mailer, was born on this day in 1923 (d. 2007)

Just a mere thirty-one days ago, we were all watching 2021 die a slow, painful death. Sure I said even then that there was nothing magical about the turn of the calendar page. But I refuse to accept the gift of prophecy.

I won’t want to bore you with all of my trials and tribulations, even if I did always hope that I’d be an apostle. If you know, you know.

But a simple recap of the last four and a half weeks. My job at the amusement park was shut down due to cast members having COVID. That was a loss of income. While I escaped, two family members tested positive for COVID. My Mother fell and broke her leg and continues in rehab. Before I could go visit here I had to spend nearly a thousand dollars to get my truck to pass inspection. And, an old shoulder injury decided it would be a good time to come back for a visit.

If I’m reading the memes correctly, many of you have had similar months.

So what do we do?

We keep going.

I review, once again, My Three Words for 2022: Recover, Read, Rise.

I’ve accepted the fact that I’m not attaining those goals over night, or even over a month. I just have to keep moving in the right direction.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Some good things have happened.

I’ve almost got the Christmas decorations down. Don’t @ me Karen. It’s been a challenge. And I still keep thinking they’ll only be back up in nine months.

I’m back as a contributing partner at Bearing Drift. That feels good.

I sort of straightened my home office out. It will require another purge and revamp before much longer, but

The Write Side Shop

I’ve recovered from the Christmas wrapping and receipts.

And, we spent this weekend honoring the man who has led the Music and Fine Arts ministry for forty years at our former church. We were blessed to be a part of that for over half of that time. It was there, in fact, that I first donned the red suit. I didn’t care for it at the time, but now I realize it was the beginning of what I understand to be a calling to spread the joy of Christmas.

Pretty significant.

So, sure, much of January has been sucky. And I didn’t even mention the weather.

But some good things are happening, and even when they don’t week keep going.

It’s a new week. Tomorrow we get a new month.

And in just eleven more months we get a whole brand new year.

There’s nothing wrong with looking to the future, as long as we don’t forget to make today count.

We only get one chance.

ONE MORE THING:

The picture above notes that it’s National Hot Chocolate Day. ?If you’re looking for a way to make your cup of cocoa a little more special. Check out the recipe from Ned Flanders.

EDITOR’S NOTE: You’ve probably noticed that there are now ads appearing on this site. I know they’re annoying, but until Publishers Clearinghouse shows up with that big darn check, someone has to pay the rent.

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

School Removes ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ From Reading List
Todd Starnes

‘Ghost Ship Full of Treasure’: The Financial Records for Black Lives Matter Are a Total Shipwreck
Townhall

Unbearable Suffering: Not What You Think It Means
Bill Wichterman at Oakton Foundation

Trump Holds ‘Save America Rally’ In Texas, Slams Biden’s Foreign Policy, ‘Rigged’ Elections
Daily Caller

AG Jason Miyares: a New Sheriff in Virginia
Governing

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1797 – Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1828)

1872 – Zane Grey, American author (d. 1939)

1892 – Eddie Cantor, American singer-songwriter, actor, and dancer (d. 1964)

1902 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)

1919 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1972)

1921 – Carol Channing, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2019)

1929 – Jean Simmons, English-American actress (d. 2010)

1937 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)

1941 – Jessica Walter, American actress (d. 2021)

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

You know where you were.

By NASA – Kennedy Space Center Photo Archive, Public Domain

Thirty-six years ago this morning, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart moments after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board. That included New Hampshire teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to become the first teacher in space.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of school children tuned in from their classrooms as triumph exploded into horror.

The Challenger Disaster was one of those lifetime events about which you can always answer the question of “do you remember what you were doing?” One of those rare, but significant events ?like the assassination of President Kennedy, or his brother Bobby or Dr. King, the attacks of 9/11, the Virginia Tech Massacre.

You know where you were.

In January of 1986 I was between jobs, also known as unemployed. Having finished working on an unsuccessful campaign in Virginia, I was looking for my next opportunity. Two weeks later I moved to DC where I lived and worked for the next eight years. That’s another post.

I had the television on. I wasn’t watching the launch but the news broke in to whatever program was on at the time. Like most of America in those pre-Internet days, I spent the rest of the day glued to the television set.

The shuttle Challenger flight STS-51L crew members who died January 28, 1986. In the back row, from left, mission specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Teacher in Space Participant Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis and Mission specialist Judy Resnik. In the front row, from left, Pilot Mike Smith, Commander Dick Scobee, and Mission specialist Ron McNair.

President Reagan was scheduled to deliver the State of the Union that evening. Instead he spoke to us from the Oval Office, comforting the nation as only he could do.

I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: “Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.”

There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

Throughout the course of our history, Presidents have spoken eloquently at those times of our greatest need. Lincoln at Gettysburg. FDR on Pearl Harbor. George W. Bush on 9/11.

How did we get from “touching the face of God” to “you stupid son of a bitch?”

On Monday, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked the President “Do you think inflation is a political liability going into the midterms?”

Biden muttered sarcastically, “No, it’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”

It’s unclear whether Biden knew that his mic was on. To his credit, he did call Doocy and apologize.

Mugshots
(click the pic)

While that was the right thing to do and appreciated, given the less than impressive first year of the Biden presidency – I am being kind – a simple “Sorry, Pal” doesn’t make me feel better about the state of our union.

Sure, this wasn’t the first time that a politician was caught saying something not designed for public consumption. This is not just a Joe Biden problem.

Certainly, Donald Trump spent four years (or longer) excelling at an adversarial relationship with the media. They hated him. He hated them.

That being said, Trump did have a way of controlling the news cycle. If bad news was coming down the pike, a simple tweet or two would derail the news headlines for days. The media never seemed to catch on.

At least his distractions never led us to war.

Too soon?

Nay, my friend, pray that it is not far too late.

But that’s another post better written by someone else.

I’m not naïve , politics is hardball. It always has been. If the Founding Fathers had insisted on civility, we’d all be speaking English today.

I’m not tilting at windmills in some sort of righteous crusade.

While the Challenger disaster and Reagan’s response showed us the best of what we are as Americans, I’m certainly not advocating for another crisis just to hear some lofty rhetoric.

In today’s political climate, there’s always room for a good “gosh darn it.”

But there’s also a chance to do better.

SHORT STORY FRIDAY will return next week.

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Virginia AG blasts Jim Acosta’s ‘Soviet-style police state’ assertion: ‘Take some history classes’
FOXNews

Justice Kamala Harris Will Never Happen
Charles C.W. Cooke in National Review

The New Yorker Lies Again In Hit On Clarence Thomas And Wife That Falsely Claims He Attended A DC Event
The Federalist

“It’s very well typed”
Steven Pressfield on Writer’s Wednesday

BORN ON THIS DAY

1457 – Henry VII, king of England (d. 1509)

1936 – Alan Alda, American actor, director, and writer

1950 – Barbi Benton, American actress, singer and model

1952 – Richard Glatzer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)

1954 – Rick Warren, American pastor and author

1972 – Amy Coney Barrett, American jurist, academic, attorney, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Cross-posted at Bearing Drift