What miracles we are!

When reading on a Kindle or the Kindle app on an iPad, it is easy and quick to mark statements of interest, “highlights”.  The Kindle technology makes saving or sending a file of the highlights I make from a book convenient.  When our book group discussed D. Eagleman’s “Incognito”, I looked over my highlights for it.  As I asked myself what I had taken away from that book, it seemed my basic reaction is what miracles we are.  

We don’t understand our bodies or minds.  Not completely.  Only a few centuries back, some Europeans were accusing others of being in league with the devil.  To see what we are up to today, take a look at “Replaceable You” by Mary Roach.

Events from a divorce

My parents divorced when I was in the 4th grade.  I was too young then to question or praise them as I would now.  I am grateful for the education and experiences they gave me but I never really told either of them that, especially not the way I could now. 

I don’t feel I know much about how they met each other, what got them paired.  I have one sibling and she might have knowledge or insight into them.  I think the divorce was prompted much by the low income they had.  My mother sought boarders to supplement her income and one of them eventually became my stepdad.  He was a very different sort of person from my father and I benefitted from his stepdadding.

Influences

I just participated in a discussion of the book by David Eagleman entitled “Incognito”.  It basically mentions parts of us that are unconscious but important in our lives.  Americans like to emphasize that we have minds of our own and can make up those minds about issues, questions and decisions that come up.  To a large extent, that seems to be true: we can believe and do what we want.  But and it is a big but, parents, siblings, neighbors, officials, teachers, partners, and others have important influences on us.  That doesn’t mention that we change, from birth to child to adolescent to young adult to older adult to old adult.  It is a wonder we manage to do as well as we do!

Is the 23rd Psalm ok?

I have said the 23rd psalm many times.  The 2nd line says “I shall not want”.  In modern language, that translates into “I will definitely not want”.  But, you know that we moderns depend on want.  Not want in the old sense of needing things I don’t have, but in the modern merchandise sense of desire for a new improved product that vastly outshines the older dusty version of yesterminute.

Understanding a phone message

Voice mail messages are recordings of someone speaking.  The voice may be a high one, the words may be spoken quickly.  Too high, too quick and I cannot understand what was said.  Luckily, my wife is willing to listen to the recording and tell me in a way I understand what the message is.

Columbus and Indigenous Peoples Days

Today is officially both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.  I am grateful for my life in the US but I am sorry for gunpowder, diseases and other burdens that came to people already living in the hemisphere with the Italian explorer backed by the Spanish royal government

"Anne with an E" again

Last night, Lynn suggested we choose “Anne with an E” again to watch.  We did.  I think it is really a fine piece of acting.  I have read several times the story is based on “Anne of Green Gables” (1934) by L. Montgomery.  I haven’t read that book but as I watched last night, I was very impressed with the storyline.  I knew that the story was set in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island but I didn’t remember the delicious balance of characters in the story.  

Watching the first episode, I was put in mind of a girl I had as a student when I taught the 5th grade.  My class was her first experience of public school after spending years in Catholic school.  Unlike Anne, she was reticent but very sharp, on top of everything all the time.  

That first episode shows a brother and sister of some age who are unwittingly exposed to a young woman of very high verbal skills and imagination.  The two farmers don’t know what to make of a child so dominated by ideas and so talkative.

I posted https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Anne+with+an+E%22#:~:text=Laughter%20for%20all

after watching “Anne with an E” the first time.

"When it rains, it pours"

You may have heard an expression “When it rains, it pours”.  I thought of that expression while watching the movie “Ordinary Angels”, based on actual events in Louisville, Kentucky in 1994.  A three year old girl needs a liver transplant NOW. Will a suitable one be found?  Can she be brought to a hospital capable of the operation with the narrow time limits ?  Yes, when we need something, many things can go wrong - many!

I will post tomorrow

It is a bit late now.

The word "doctor"

My friend has a story of his son knowing that the boy’s father is somehow a “doctor” but “not the kind that helps people.” My friends take a bit of offense!  Of course, we “help” people!  What about all those lessons we taught?  Huh?  Huh?  What about that?

I understand that the title ‘doctor’ was invented as the third level in advanced learning, much like the three levels in a guild of “apprentice, journeyman and master”, as in master carpenter or master plumber.  The three levels of “graduate, master and doctor” are often used to indicate levels of learning in colleges and universities.  We still have the word “physician” to mean specifically a person having knowledge and skills (hopefully) to assist people with problems with their bodies.  If you fall and break some bones, you may want help from a physician, not a doctor of Spanish literature.