This year the annual birthday celebration for our country on the Fourth of July has been muted by the corona virus. Yet though it is important to be patriotic and to celebrate, it may be that one day is not enough to show our patriotism. Parades are wonderful, fireworks are lots of fun to watch, and of course backyard barbecues are almost mandatory, however what is most meaningful is to celebrate our patriotism all the year round.
To be patriotic is to demonstrate our love for our country. To my way of thinking one of the best ways we can do that is by showing respect for as well as taking care of the environment. Some can do more than others yet everyone can do a little. Recycling is important, as is reducing waste. Bringing our own bags into stores once we are allowed to do so again is another. Conservation of resources is vital to the health of the planet, as is avoiding leaving our waste around.
Most people pick up after their dogs when they are out walking. This is very important. Once no one even thought about this. Earlier yet, people threw the contents of their chamber pots into the streets. Many died from illnesses that were pollution born. Today there are people who throw their plastic bags and other plastic and unrecyclable products down when and wherever they use them. This often results in harm to wildlife, as well as to the woods or beaches where it accumulates.
Some ways to care for the environment come naturally to me. Because I was brought up to be tidy, it’s easy for me not to litter. I’d no more throw trash away on the sidewalk or worse, in the woods, than I would throw it on my living room floor. Like me, those who see the earth as their home tend to treat her differently than those who do not. They treat her and her resources with respect and gratitude. They treat her like the home she is.
Those people are setting an example for others. I believe that is one of the best things we can do to be of help in the world. Teaching by example is an extremely important way to prompt others to improve their behavior. Often what people are told goes in one ear and out the other; what they have observed and experienced is more powerfully remembered. It is important to show our patriotism on an everyday basis. One simple way is to turn off the water faucet when it is running unnecessarily.
I thought about this one day recently while I was brushing my teeth. I try to remember to shut off the water after I have wet my toothbrush and filled the little cup I use for rinsing. I also try to shut off the kitchen faucet at intervals as I wash dishes: between pots, for instance, or when I am drying anything. There is a true story called the Hundredth Monkey of how monkeys on an island washed their food. Somehow the habit spread between islands that had no contact. This occurred when the critical number of food washing monkeys had been reached. Perhaps if we all contribute to the consciousness of conservation, one day everyone will take care with our precious environment, and the earth will truly thrive.
My great Aunt Alice, pictured on the far left, was a “maiden” aunt. Never having marred, she lived with her mother, and then by herself in the grand home built by her late father. It was set amid the lawns and gardens of an estate on the outskirts of a small seaside town. We lived in a smaller house that had been built for the full-time gardener. A lifelong sportswoman, she had a collection of trophies from horseback riding, as well as her tennis matches. A vigorous woman I remember her saying she always parked her car at a distance from the store she was going to, so she’d get more exercise. I also found her intriguing because she wore socks over her nylons, and never wore trousers.
Were I learning to read today I feel sure my picture books would include children of all skin colors and ethnicity. The closest books about anything outside my everyday experiences of white America that I can remember, was a series about twins of various countries. However, these were not living in my town or even my country. My history lessons were primarily about Europe and even the myths I studied were Greek, Roman or Norse, and all the gods and goddesses had white skin. Black culture or history was not included in my grade school or even High school studies. This in and of itself forms a kind of prejudice against non-whit, non-Europeans.
How about a nice tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer day? If you make up some sugar syrup ahead of time, you can make some for yourself any time you wish. Simple syrup in your fridge, fresh lemons close at hand, ice cubes and a tall glass and you’re good to go. Mix half to a whole squeezed lemon into a glass or perhaps a frosty mug, add simple syrup you make yourself, to sweeten, stir well and add ice.
When I was a young wife in the fifties, my father helped us buy a house in the small town where I had grown up. Just outside my kitchen door was a garbage pail sunk into the ground. I would step on the lid, dump in my orange peels, potato peelings, stale food, etc. and once a week a man would come by with a big truck, pull out the bucket, empty it into his truck, and along with all the other garbage he had collected, take it to feed his pigs.
My brother and his wife just moved to Illinois, leaving behind the home we both grew up in on the North Shore In the next town, there is a square dedicated to our grandfather who died in World War One. Every year the parade stops in the street by the square. His name is on a pole in front of the fire station there, and they put a wreath on it each year in his memory. When I was a child my grandmother used to bring a big bunch of carnations to place inside the wreath. In later years my brother always attended the ceremony and participated. Now he will no longer be able to do so. Still he will have many years of memories, dating back to his boyhood.
Do you take satisfaction in what you may have accomplished? Or do you tell yourself you could have done whatever it was better, or done more? Most of us have a critical voice inside that will not let us be satisfied with what we may have done, even though we may well deserve it. That critical voice can originate early in life from a parent, a teacher, or a boss. Now it has become a part of us as adults, and it robs us of the joy we might take from our satisfaction. To be satisfied may actually take courage, the courage to admit we have done something worthwhile.
When I was growing up it was my responsibility to care for the chickens. In the winter what that meant was carrying a heavy bucket of water from our house the thirty or more yards to their coop. The spring I was twelve the wetlands near the coop flooded and there was plenty of water right there. I took advantage of it. However, something then happened to the chickens. They began dying. Apparently, they had somehow caught a disease.
Pujakins 