TUESDAY TUNES is literally taking me across the big pond today...and reminded me I should have started working on my Italian months ago... Grazie to my Jazzercise instructor for playing this great tune with Annalisa giving more confidence than I deserve.
Now, if I could feel the same about understanding Irish brogue which would be more useful to me right now ...
I don't know why but I answered it, and lo and behold, a voice I haven't heard since Denver in the early 80's...
This buddy had been on my Holiday catch-up mailing list for longer but after five years of silence got dropped. This was someone I befriended through college friends of my parents no less. We met my freshmen year in Iowa. She was a townie going to Goucher College and after Jewish geography, happened to know someone with whom I was a camp counselor. Small world.
It turned out her Mom, a University Russian teacher, had an office close to my Chinese classes and I probably saw her Mom more than I did Julia during my college days...
Then fate had our paths cross living in Denver like a decade later. Her address in California lasted longer than anywhere else I lived even with her hopping across oceans and back again. We lost track of each other.
Until yesterday when Julia called and said "We are in Bentonville and heading down to Little Rock today, are you busy?" She had heard from another acquaintance I had moved back. "OMG "I said in surprise, I just saw your name on a FaceBook post for the first time in ages this week. What do you mean "WE"? I asked." Dave. I have been with him for 30 years and with 2 homes on 2 coasts we are taking a 4 month road trip to avoid the heat in Florida. "
Not MIA any longer.
TBT: 2018 and these gals knew I had a syllabus to write so they escaped from the pasture and decided the woodpile should be their climbing equipment.
MONDAY'S MUSINGS spoke of incarceration and today as it would have been Natureman's 76th birthday I find myself musing how he would have loved the Netflix program entitled Daughters. You see one of his legacies was leading a men's therapy group in La Crosse's county jail.
Instead of idle time sitting in cells, prisoners could be involved in healing discussions to help them cope better in relationships when they were released. Many prisoners have children who need their father yet many of these men may not have even had a father role model.
Netflix's documentary Daughters is about a program where inmates's daughters get permission to have a Father -Daughter dance at their Dads' prison.
Children in person visits were nonexistent yet these girls missed their daddies terribly and the Dads also needed to connect with them. Inmates could volunteer to be involved in a group to work on how to be a father to their daughters who were growing up without them.
Monies were provided to provide dress clothes for both the fathers and daughters and it was a sight to see them being reunited. Tear jerker alert. The men had been well coached not just what to talk about but even some dance steps...
The emotions were high for both the men and their offspring. In a time where the rate of repeated offenses is common, the men who participated in this program had a 95% success rate surviving back home.
Natureman would have loved this...
Do yourself a favor and watch this documentary. It is heart-rending.
Here's a clip of a trailer re:
Besides my Coolinary experiences for the week, I also had the opportunity to visit some new museum exhibits. There was a reciprocity of museums. Hopefully many took advantage of visiting as many as possible. The thought-provoking exhibit on incarceration was powerful and heartwrenching as the the stench of truth made even a Snow Ball in the August heat less desirable.
This truth should never be taken lightly. The verbiage below is not mine but the exhibit's.
"Since the founding of Louisiana and New Orleans by French colonists, people in power have held others captive as a means of punishment, control, and exploitation. Black Louisianians in particular have been subjugated and forced to labor against their will through chattel slavery and systems of incarceration for more than 300 years.
In the colonial years (1682-1803), the government created systems of enslavement and social caste based on race through legislation, policing, imprisonment, and physical violence. These systems matured during the first half of the 19th century, when New Orleans became the primary hub of the domestic slave trade.
The United States Congress abolished most forms of slavery when it passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, but it created an exception for the enslavement of people convicted of a crime. This allowed Louisiana to continue a practice begun in 1844 of leasing incarcerated individuals to private citizens and entities for labor on plantations and public-infrastructure projects. Many were forced to work at a place known as Angola, a property that included several plantations previously owned by one of the largest slave traders in the country. At the turn of the 20th century, the site became the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where to this day incarcerated people are forced to labor for little or no pay in the same fields once worked by enslaved people.
State laws established at the dawn of Jim Crow combined with the "tough-on-crime" policies of more recent decades caused Louisiana's incarcerated population to explode in the late 20th century. Tougher sentencing has led to more people serving life without parole - meaning more people aging and dying behind bars.
Louisiana's notoriety as a world leader in incarceration today is the consequence of decisions made by people in power here for more than three centuries. As the human and financial costs continue to mount, even in the face of declining crime rates, Louisiana itself is held captive by this history."
What I want to know is how can we in this century let this system continue?
Shame on us.
Tell me truthfully does my headdress make my arms look long?
A Birthday Queen definitely needs a strong neck for this job.
After landing back in Little Rock today, my brother drove us to go visit our Dad and wish him a Happy Birthday. Had he not passed away this past December, he would have been 99 today.
Our Father, an only child, almost always got his way, stubborn as all get out, right 99% of the time which was not easy on us kids. He was a man who lived life the way he wanted and died with few regrets.
Happy 99 Dad!
Everyone has tsuris but some kids have very terrible conditions at home. Amy Grant handed this hit song back to its composer. Take a listen and even watch the 2018 movie of the same name on Netflix. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE...
The internet doesn't mention that the museum was taken over by the displaced City Hall ...SO the museum is closed.
Lafitte's namesake was the notorious pirate Lafitte and look what washed ashore...
TBT: On August 6th, 1976 there was a bridesmaid luncheon before I became betrothed the next day. How fast does time fly?
Birthdays tend to lend themselves to musing and at this special decade bday it's about the 'stuff'. You know the stuff we tend to accumulate and becomes fixtures on our walls/shelves- evoking special memories. It could be made by our kids/friends/strangers/ maybe even us.
So at a time I need time to make room for grandkids's projects, the appeal of adding more schatzkes is waning. Please remind me I said that...
Someone new flew all the way from California last week. Her name is Caramela and I met her in a gallery in Carmel. We have a lot in common as we both like colors and chickens. She asked me to photograph her best side. Cute , isn't she?
My latest binge has affected this week's song choice from the series of Damages with Glenn Close and Rose Byrne.
I lost my discussion partner. If you ever want to discuss Damages and strong women, you know where to find me...
Movie's track: Keep on Walking.
For Jem's entire version...Jem's Keep on Walking
Followed by the newest version of a current local musical comedy called Electile Dysfunction 2024 at the Joint in Argenta where "a Little Rock family is very divided when it comes to the election, and when Spy Eye News covers their story, they become local celebrities. laughs on both sides of the aisle. And it offers a third opinion -- an independent candidate who's ready to throw everybody out of Washington!"
We did laugh a lot as the three actors performed multiple comic characters playing multiple musical instruments and singing- the Fertle family with Arkansas satire."
Then Saturday, I joined family to be enthralled with Broadway's Musical Play Come From Away, the remarkable true story of 9/11 when ~7000 passengers' plane travels were diverted to Canada's Gander, New Foundland almost doubling their population. Locals hosted the unexpected international guests and the best of humanity 'reared its beautiful head. '
Music and a good story does the body 'good' and after all this great entertainment this 70 year old's soul is content and looking forward to many more musical opportunities ...
Thank you to Ginger, Sue, Laura and Terri for thinking of me!
TBT: Seven years ago I was standing in a field of lavender thanks to my buddy Sally who asked me to join her navigate France, one country that was not on my radar. Being an art teacher Sally gladly shared all types of art throughout our journey and indulged my desire to spend my birthday in Provence.
This year my Master Gardener mentor and buddy added a small sachet of lavender to my bday gift from her spring trip to France. Wafts of that sachet brought back the visit to this day on the lavender farm in 2017... Memorable as an unseasonably warm summer in France.
