Category: Life

November 2 – In a world gone nuts

In a world gone nuts
A Grand Daughter turns seven
Perspective, Hope, Love

On a cool November morning seven years ago, I drove to the hospital to meet Azaria Janae Hoffman for the first time.

Life has not been the same in some unexpected ways.

I cannot say that these feelings are unique to me, but maybe unique to Grand Parents.

But Grand Children really do put things in perspective.

Faith, Hope and Love.

The Book says the greatest of these is love.

That doesn’t mean to discount or diminish faith.

And hope?

When I held that baby girl in my arms and looked in her eyes for the first time, and when I sing, in the most awful way today, Happy Birthday to that same baby girl, I can have nothing but hope for the future.

November 1 – the eyes of your heart

the eyes of your heart
may open, see, know the hope
far above all rule

Inspired by Paul’s letter to the people of the city of Ephesus.

Paul writes, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1 18-21 (NIV)

October 31 – defining moments

defining moments
those times, make break, history
this week, it’s house vote

Headline in today’s printed USA Today stated, “A Defining Moment Could Come Today.”

The online version read, “House to make first vote of formal Trump impeachment inquiry, resolution sets rules for public hearings.”

Chicken or egg fashion, I have long tried to determine which came first, the printed word or the online word.

You would think online, but then consider that the print version has to be posted pretty early in the day to make it to ‘paste up’, printed and distributed.

During this time, the writer has a cushion to review and revise what was sent to the printer.

On the other hand, I once caught a copy/paste typo in an online story in USAToday where a quote was hopelessly garbled.

When I got my hands on a printed version, the quote had been corrected.

The goofy thing is that the online version was never corrected.

But I digress.

Defining moments?

Who defines defining moments.

Is not the definition of a defining moment dependent on the moment it defines and it is of that moment?

Take for example the phrase, “Trial of the Century”.

For the 20th Century, without benefit of Google, I can come up with:

  • The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping Trial
  • The Scopes Trial
  • The OJ Simpson Trial

Wikipedia lists:

Trial of Leon Czolgosz for the assassination of United States President William McKinley (1901)
Trial of Harry Thaw for the murder of Stanford White (1906)
Trial of Bill Haywood for murder (1907)
Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial (1920–1927)
Leopold and Loeb murder trial (1924)
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)
Gloria Vanderbilt custody trial (1934)
Lindbergh kidnapping trial (1935)
Nuremberg trials (1945–1946)
Hiss-Chambers (Hiss Case, Hiss Affair) (1948–1950)
Adolf Eichmann trial (1961)
Charles Manson and Manson “family” for the Tate/LaBianca murders (1970)
Ted Bundy Chi Omega Trial (1979)
Claus von Bülow trials (1982–1985)
Klaus Barbie trial (1987)
Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu (1989)
Trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez (1990)
Vizconde massacre (1991)
O. J. Simpson murder case trial (1995)
Trial of Yolanda Saldívar (1995)
Impeachment of Bill Clinton (1999)

The defining moment for today is the vote in the US House of Representatives on Impeachment Procedures.

When all is said and done, I am hoping more that rather than a defining moment, this turns out to be a speed bump in history.

Not a moment that defined us but a footnote to history.

Like the Harding administration.

When I was in college and after I graduated, I worked in chain bookstore named WaldenBooks.

It was a bookstore.

But it was a mall, retail bookstore.

I loved the bookstore part but the retail store was a huge stone in my shoe.

Still I worked there for almost 12 years.

I would tell people that when the time came for someone to write my biography (at the time I knew that someday, someone would write my biography) there would be the sentence, “In 1979, Hoffman went to work for Waldenbooks. Then in 1991 …”

I want to move on so bad from this current state of affairs.

October 30 – got the blue cat blues

got the blue cat blues
woke up grumpy, where to find
magic sunglasses?

Up too late.

Did not want to get up.

Got up.

Got up too early.

Headachy.

Grumpy.

It is raining.

Got the Blue Cat Blues.

Pete the Cat has magic sunglasses!

With the sunglasses, Pete sings:

“TOO COOL!
The birds are singing.
The sky is bright.
The sun is shining.
We’re feeling alright!”

Where do I get these magic sunglasses?

Do I need them?

Wise Old Owl tells Pete: “‘… you don’t need magic sunglasses to see things in a new way. Just remember to look for the good in every day.”

There IS good in every day, just sometimes it is harder to find.