Random Thoughts on a Wayward World, Part 2

Clearly, the following pic should have been part of last week's blog, but it just popped up this morning.

Also hot off the press . . . Wednesday, the 10th, was the first day of school in Florida.

 

Cassidy, off to the first day of her Junior year

 

[Hard to believe this is the same girl we saw last week, 

all stiff & proper in her Police Explorers' Drill Team uniform]

~ * ~

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A WAYWARD WORLD, PART 2

I would again like to emphasize that I am merely tossing out random thoughts on how we've ended up in a world gone so awry. One would need a whole library of books to elaborate on the many ways we have strayed so far from the ideals of our religions, our ethics, and the dreams of the founding fathers of our country. But based on what I scribbled on a yellow pad a few weeks ago . . .

The Privilege Problem

Although this problem has been recognized in schools for some time, as discipline in the classroom became more and more difficult, Covid seems to have pushed it into prominence. Certain groups of parents, claiming their alleged "rights," screamed: "No masks for MY child!" And some governors, like Trump-sycophant Ron DeSantis of Florida, took up the cry, their so-called "Call for Freedom" becoming more important than saving lives. 

Advocating the right to die? How weird is that?

Which set me thinking about all the other "privilege" problems:

No hardships for MY child! No challenges, no bad grades - poor John or Jane might have their feelings hurt.

No learning to "tough things out." No sense of duty, no sense of responsibility for others. Just "gimmee, gimmee, gimmee"! (One example: the dramatic increase in the number of Hit & Run accidents.)

How on earth can an "entitled" upbringing result in responsible citizens?

The Increase in Violence

This topic has been debated for umpteen years, but I'd still like to add my two cents.

I listened to some pretty violent and scary stuff on the radio when I was little, and I am quite sure it had no negative effect beyond an occasional nighttime shiver. Admittedly, in the era of television, one cannot deny that old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words. Yet I am still inclined to think the increased violence in our country is due to other factors, such as

1.  Easy availability of guns, particularly automatic weapons

2.  Racial resentment (on both sides)

3.  Class resentment (on both sides)*

4.  Too much emphasis on "saving" criminals, too little on jailing the truly dangerous, from con artists to murderers. (Yes, there really are people who are "born bad.")

* #3 above includes that "privilege" thing we were talking about above. There is a group of people who are convinced they were born to rule the world, and they will do absolutely anything to keep interlopers out - be they black, brown, yellow, or the middle and lower class of any shade under the sun.

 

The Problem of Indifference - the inability to stand up & say, "Enough!"

The sad thing is, I am personally acquainted with people who have lived in comfort all their lives and who are simply unable to accept the fact that our way of life is plunging into chaos as much through our indifference as through the efforts of the arrogant, the schemers, the violent, the ignorant, and the hate-mongers. Someone has to stand up and say, "Enough!" Many, many someones. You, me, our next door neighbors, our state governments, our federal government. We have to stop screaming for the kind of Freedoms that were never included in the Constitution: the "freedom" to be selfish, the "freedom" to take but never give. The "freedom" to dislike someone solely because of the color of his/her skin. The "freedom" to dislike someone because they don't live in the same kind of neighborhood, drive the same kind of car; because they go to the "wrong" church. And then there's that supposed God-given "freedom" to hate. Etc., etc., etcetera. 

And, oh yes, the "freedom" to shoot somebody for all the reasons above, or "just because."

 

The Contrast

I think what hurts me most is that I grew up in the darkness of World War II, in a time when our entire society was dedicated to keeping aggressive nations like Germany and Japan from imposing their will on others. Patriotism and a sense of responsibility to the world drove us on, but it was only after we saw the newsreels of the emaciated survivors emerging from internment camps that we fully realized we were also fighting the horror of anti-Semetism and White Supremacy espoused by Hitler and the Nazi Party. 

And to any who would offer up the "hard times" of the wars we've fought since then - believe me, you have NO idea. WWII was total war. Every man under 40 in uniform, women out of the house and into the factories. There were towering wire mesh enclosures in the center of every town, gathering donations of old rubber tires and aluminum pots and pans. My mother did a weekly stint in our town's Command HQ. My father spent one night a week in a too-cold or too-hot shack on a hill, spotting airplanes in case some of them weren't friendly. (I recall helping him learn the airplane silhouettes.) We had regular Air Raid Drills in school, and once a week we brought money to buy War Bonds:  25¢ toward a $25 bond; 50¢ toward a $50 bond. There were white satin hangings in almost everyone's front window: with a blue star for a family member in the service; silver for Missing in Action; and gold for the ultimate sacrifice.

To repeat, it was TOTAL war. We did not sit back and go about our regular lives, our only involvement watching the war on TV. (There was not, of course, any TV at the time. We got our news on the radio, augmented by Newsreels when we went to the movies on the weekend.) And when the Allies finally won, we were jubilant. We'd done it! Put down Nazism forever and ever.

Point made. 😢

So now I'm going to get down off my soap box and shut up. I'm too old for active protest through anything but words, but I urge you to stand up and fight for: Respect for all; for Duty, Responsibility, and Forethought. And never forget that Hatred, Greed, and just plain Heedlessness will kill us as fast Climate Change. Nuclear War, even faster. I sometimes fear the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are increasing speed, bearing down on the 21st century at a gallop. And then I recall how many truly good people I know; how resilient the human spirit is, when put to the test; how many times we've risen from the ashes (of war, flood, fire, and famine) to become something better than we were. Well, now's the time to do it again - before there's nothing left to build with.

~ * ~

 For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

Gallery - Groans & Laughs for English-lovers

[Part 2 of "Random Thoughts on a Wayward World" - August 13, 2022]

 

I've been accumulating "Mangles" or "Funnies" on the English language for awhile now, and they seemed a good punctuation for my serious thoughts about "How has our world plunged so low?" Happily, I found a Cat Pic to add warmth - and a challenge - at the end. (As well as a surprise posted to Facebook only minutes before I sat down to write this blog.)

 

GALLERY - Groans & Laughs for English-lovers

 

 

 

At first glance, the box below looks like it's full of maybe four cats. But if you count the heads - carefully - I believe you'll find considerably more.

Hint: I almost stopped counting at seven.

 And . . . HUGE surprise:

Evidently, Mike & Riley got tired of Susie spending so much time diving for fossils, so while she was in Tampa this weekend, guess what? They got their diving certificates. (Cassidy already has hers.)

 

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

Random Thoughts on a Wayward World

I chose to illustrate this week's post with a photo taken behind the vacation home my daughter and her husband once owned on the Suwanee River (just south of the Florida/Georgia line). (This spider is but one of many that stretched their webs from tree to tree in the woods between the house and the river.) Why a spider illustration? Because there seem to be so many strands of aberrant-thinking, hatred, and downright evil spreading their webs through the Great American Society that this whopper of a spider and its giant habitat truly seemed the best choice. 

  

Grace note:  I've been thinking about the following post for several months, but I had to work up to it. How very much easier it is to "slide by" in this world rather than tackle difficult issues head on. But my conscience wouldn't let me rest, so here are some thoughts from a person who has been around for more years than most.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A WAYWARD WORLD, Part 1

 As someone who can remember Pearl Harbor—okay, I was young enough I thought it was an island off the New England coast (i.e., close to where we lived), because my parents, hoping to shelter me, did not explain what I was hearing on the radio. (That's right, readers, RADIO. TV did not come along until I was in college!) Which means, I have seen and endured a great many things over umpteen years, and I have to tell you, as one whose earliest strong memories are of World War II, that we are not doing well. In fact, despite all our modern inventions, we seem to be moving backward into an abyss as dark as the Dark Ages. Into an age of fear and ignorance. Of dog-eat-dog aggression, with little thought for the poor peasants fighting their lords' battles or being ground under the heel of "I don't give a damn what happens to anybody but me!"

We all scoff at Conspiracy Theories, right? Well, perhaps not. I have to admit I never fell for the tale that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. And I'm nearly positive something alien hit the ground in Roswell. (I even know someone who was stationed in Area 51 and reported that "the proof is there.") And after events of the past decade, it comes as no surprise to anyone that those of us who thought WWII ended Nazism were wrong. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there seems to be a group of people so progressive that they have turned their backs on the concept of law enforcement and punishment for one's crimes. Surely, just as damaging as the concept of White Supremacy.

How did we get ourselves into such a fix? Our lives were supposed to be better than those of our parents, our children's lives better than ours. Yet here we are, still controlled by a Grand Conspiracy of the Entitled—the Oligarchs, Big Business, and our so-called "law makers" who bow down to the lobbyists for both wealthy factions—and going down hill fast.

As an example of how how our modern age has adversely affected its citizens, here's a story I was told at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, when a group of authors toured the facility:

The FBI speaker complained that it was getting harder and harder to find recruits with "street smarts." It seems modern young men and women spend so much time on their phones and at their computers that they do not get out into the real world and discover life as it really is.

To take that concept down to a personal level. My children were free to roam our neighborhood, play with their friends; they laid pennies on the railroad tracks for trains to flatten; they walked a narrow board across a swamp to cross to a neighboring shoreline community that had a candy store. We had a mounted bell from an old steam train in our front yard, and when it was time for supper, I simply rang that bell, and all the neighborhood kids scattered to their respective homes. I should add that I had the same freedom to play as a child, though not as many children in the neighborhood as my children enjoyed. 

And then came my grandchildren's time to grow up. No freedom to roam. Nursery schools, scheduled play-dates, supervised visits to the park. No opportunity to develop independence, to be forced to problem-solve, to learn to interact with others when no adult is watching. Sigh. A loss, a definite loss.

And school . . .

My father was a high school principal, followed by many years as a Superintendent of Schools in two different towns in Connecticut. He was a graduate of the University of Nebraska, with a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard. I can just picture his outrage if some group of parents tried to tell him what should be taught or what books should be in the school library. Did he exercise censorship? Yes, he did. I distinctly recall speaking enthusiastically about a book called Timur and His Gang. The next thing I heard, it was off the shelf, gone because it was "Communist Propaganda." I recall the incident so vividly because I was in elementary school during WWII when the Russians were our allies, and I was totally surprised by my father's negative reaction. (I should add that this happened a few years before the McCarthy era.*) Nonetheless, I ended up with such a good education that the Dean of my Ivy League college called me in to discuss how someone with a public school education was getting better grades than the private-school graduates who predominated in my classes.

*If "McCarthy era" means nothing, I suggest you look it up. In a nutshell, "McCarthyism" became another term for "Witch hunt."

The moral of the story above:  

Education should be left to the professionals. 

Teachers should be allowed to teach a balanced curriculum (including Civics!), not spend their time "teaching to the tests" that certain ignorant  or arrogant (just want to throw their weight around) state legislatures inflict on their school systems. (Florida, where I live, being one of the most guilty of this atrocity against a good education.)

Certainly, parents have a right to question, but School Boards should be unwavering in upholding STUDENTS' rights to a comprehensive education that will prepare them for their lives to come, whether it's college, technical school, or direct entry into the job market. And School Boards should never cave to censorship. The narrow-mindedness of a small minority does not justify depriving the vast majority of students from reading books that will make them think! (And yes, I recall my personal experience with censorship so vividly because I had doubts about my father's action, even at age 12.)

~ * ~

More next week on what I fear may be our slide into mediocrity, something we need to fight against with passion!

And because I don't want to close on a negative, I asked my son for a Willow update. Clearly, Willow enjoys "tucking up."

 

Willow, curled into almost the same position as her March photo.

Cassidy at an all-state (Florida) Drill competition last week

Her team was named among the top ten.

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

 

Gallery & Heart-warming Tales

 Grace note:  claiming Birthday Privilege, I am taking a week off. Next blog: July 30

 

 A box of doll clothes has been sitting on my bedroom floor for more years than I care to admit - ever since my daughter returned all the outfits I had made for the 18" preteen dolls I gave my three grandgirls way back when. After all the work that went into them, I guess I just couldn't bear to give them up. But this week . . .

Long story short, I did an inventory, bagged & labeled each outfit, and offered the clothes (via our choir email/text loop) to anyone who knew a girl with an 18" doll. I also had to do a bit of spot removal here & there, and of course, I ended up with a Miscellaneous pile, outfits that were inevitably missing pieces after a number of years of use. (Mostly Tops - small enough they were likely swallowed by the washing machine.)

In the end, not counting the Miscellaneous, I had nearly thirty complete outfits, from dresses and evening gowns to winter ensembles. Two families ended up taking them all, one a family I knew well and one consisting of a mother and two daughters who are newcomers to the church. I was truly thrilled to see the doll clothes go to good homes. Below, pics of two of the many (admittedly, two of the fanciest):

 

I have already posted the following story to Facebook, but I'd like to share it with my Blog readers as well:

I'm just to the right of the candle on the left.

 I have been singing in choirs since I was 8 years old - and no, I'm not going to say how long that is, except "way over half a century." But this morning was something totally new. We arrived for rehearsal to find the following in the bulletin: "The flowers at the altar today are given by Liz and Larry Sole in thanksgiving for Tim Hanes and Our Wonderful Choir at Resurrection." Wow! I immediately took a photo of the flowers. After rehearsal, we went en masse to thank the couple; and after the service we lined up for a photo with "our" flowers. Believe me, we were all touched by the Soles' thoughtful gesture. 

 

Below, a few pics from the Awards Ceremony at the end of Cassidy's Police Explorer 2-week boot camp. As most of you already know, Cassidy, my youngest grandgirl (who turned 16 this Sunday), exchanged doll clothes for guns & bullets some time ago. And, sure enough, she picked up another marksmanship trophy.

 

Yet another marksmanship award

Cassidy with Proud Dad

Cassidy with Proud Gramma

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

 

The World's Messiest Recipe

 We celebrated Susie's birthday on June 28 with one of our many Mother-Daughter Drink Selfies - except this time logistics dictated we get help from an outside photographer. (Kobe's drinks are really tasty!)

 

 

 THE WORLD'S MESSIEST RECIPE

All right, it's possible there may be other recipes just as messy, but I've been cooking for a long time, and it's the messiest recipe I've ever tackled. It is also totally delicious and worth the mess. (I suppose one could wear disposable gloves, but I need to get right in there and "feel" what I'm doing - in this case, getting covered in "goop.")

A bit of background:

Because of my allergy to chemical preservatives, I make far more things "from scratch" than most people, particularly after the Publix Bakery reduced their list of preservative-free pastries to three varieties of mini-muffins, two of which I don't like. Sigh.

I am particularly fond of scones, and have had good luck using the mixes provided by King Arthur Flour (highly recommended), but I wanted to try making scones from scratch. So I bought a book of scone recipes and set to work. Horrid disappointment. No matter which recipe I tried, the scones were dry and had little taste.

Okay, maybe it was the cookbook. I ordered a different one. It didn't seem to feature as many exotic ingredients as the previous one, but maybe . . .

Hmm. The first recipe I tried came out quite well, certainly a vast improvement on the "dry as a bone" scones in the previous cookbook. So I chose "Raspberry White Chocolate Scones," never suspecting what I was getting into.

Repeat: this may be the world's messiest recipe, but it's well worth the effort. Not only does it taste sublime, but it freezes well. I cut each triangle into three pieces and freeze the pieces six to a bag - which means I have "fresh" scones for a load of days, with no more effort than remembering to take the bag out of the freezer the night before.

So here it is, the World's Messiest Recipe:

RASPBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE SCONES

2½ cups flour

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon lemon zest*

1 tablespoon baking powder

8 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

½ cup sour cream

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup white chocolate chips

½ cup raspberry jam

2 tablespoons white granulated sugar

2 tablespoons milk 

 

*I have a spice container of dried lemon zest, but fresh would likely be even better. 

 

Take butter out of fridge enough ahead of time to be sure it's room temperature. You will also need a floured bread board or something similar, big enough to knead in the final ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350°; line a sheet pan with parchment.

1.  Combine flour, salt, lemon zest, brown sugar & baking powder. Stir to mix well. 

2.  Add butter; blend into dry mix using your hands until it resembles coarse crumbles.

3.  Add vanilla, sour cream & eggs; mix together to form thick dough.

4.  Add white chocolate chips & fold them gently into the dough. 

5. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface; roll into a ball. 

6.  Flatten ball into a 1" thick round disc.

7.  Spread the jam across the disc, then fold in half, and in half again. Roll the dough back into a ball. 

8.  Flatten it once more into a 1" thick disc, making the edges as even as possible. The jam should now be well-swirled into the dough. (And you will undoubtedly want to scrub your hands before proceeding any further!)

9.  Move the dough - CAREFULLY - onto the parchment paper; cut the disc into 12 triangles.

10.  Brush scones with milk then sprinkle with white sugar.

11.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

12.  Remove to cooling rack.

 

Reminder:  though yummy warm, these scones also freeze well.

Grace note:  this recipe is adapted from Super Scrumptious Scone Cookbook by Nancy Silverman.

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)