I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet.
They sent me an… 
elephant! 
He was too big!
I sent him back.
      .    .    .
So they sent me a… 
frog! 
He was too jumpy!
I sent him back.
      .    .    .
So they thought very hard,
and sent me a…
puppy!
He was perfect!
I kept him.
                                                       from Dear Zoo
                             written and illustrated by Rod Campbell
                                               Four Winds Press, 1982

    By now you know my dad was a philatelist. I’ve mentioned it often. I like the mouth-feel of the word and I’m proud of myself for being able to spell it correctly without looking it up. All us kids knew what one was. It was a little piece of knowledge we had that most of our friends did not.
    My dad was not a letter writer. He was a stamp collector. The stamps were incidental to the mail. They were the purpose for his collection, his and his group of like-minded friends. 
    When I saw a small article in my local paper about a new documentary about a United States Postal Service program, I wanted to learn more. Dear Santa is a film from IFC. You can see the trailer and find out lots of info about the film at https://www.dearsanta.movie It comes out on December 4, and will be available in theaters and VOD (Video on Demand) 
    From its website page https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/operation-santa.htm I learned that the USPS has been receiving letters to Santa for over 100 years. (If you’re curious about the history of the USPS itself, check my blog from July 28, 2020.)
    In 1913, then Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock decided to formalize the hundreds of thousands of requests the Post Office received each year. Most were for toys, but many did (and still do) not fit into a box. Things like a necessary surgery, a favorite food or any food, a sibling. A blanket. Shoes. Well, blankets and shoes do fit in boxes, but you know what I’m after here. Hitchcock authorized local Postmasters to allow postal employees and regular citizens to respond to the letters. This was the beginning of a program that became known as Operation Santa.
    During World War II, the volume of letters increased so much that the Post Office invited local charities and corporations to join in. They provided small gifts and responses to the letters until Operation Santa gained a life of its own. With its own mission statement: “…to provide a channel where people can give back and help children and families — enabling them to have a magical holiday when they otherwise might not — one letter to Santa at a time.” (source of quote is in the above link)
    When I was growing up, Hanukkah (Chanuka, Chanukka, Hannukaah, …) was a pretty important holiday. We lit the candles in our Chanukkiah, one more candle each night to symbolize the growing light and goodness in the world. We sang songs. We played dreidel, we ate potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream. But presents were not the mainstay of our holiday. My girls will tell a similar story about the gifts. They did receive a gift each night, but most tended to be practical. Underwear, socks, a board game we could play together…gloves. Where did all those single gloves go?
    So when I found out about Operation Santa and read some of the letters, and felt their sincerity, I decided to join in.
    This year is the first year Operation Santa is nationwide. Letters addressed to Santa will be accepted from November 16 through December 15. If you or your child or someone you know would like to write a letter, all the information you need is here: https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com/getinvolved/letterwriting 
    If you want to fill a request, start here: https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/operation-santa.htm Letters can be viewed beginning December 4. You can read them and choose to  answer one or more. All identifiable markings such as full name, address of letter writer and letter responder and even the zip codes will be removed by the Postal Service before the letters are uploaded to their site. For security reasons, all adopters will be vetted by the Postal Service. The forms, the FAQs, the letters will all be uploaded December 4. Once a child’s letter is chosen, that letter is removed from the site. Letters will be continually added until December 15. The Postal Service keeps track of all the letter-writers and letter-responders. If you send a gift, the USPS will track it and send you an email when it arrives. All anonymous. On both ends.
    This is where you can read letters from previous years. https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com You will also find Santa’s address, forms to fill out to be vetted, sign up, and beginning December 4, read this year’s letters. You can keep checking back until December 15, and choose to adopt a child, some children, or a whole family. 
    Hanukkah or Christmas, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Bodhi Day, or the Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib, all are causes for celebration. After all the turmoil of this American year, 2020, I want to celebrate them all! 
    Whatever your religion, or no religion, I hope you find your own causes to celebrate, large and small.
                            -—stay curious! (and spread good cheer)

     “What’s a Pilgrim, shaynkeit?” Mama asked. “A Pilgrim is someone who came here from the other side to find freedom. That’s me, Molly. I’m a Pilgrim!”
                                       . . .
     “I’m going to put this beautiful doll on my desk,” Miss Stickly announced, “where everyone can see it all the time. It will remind us all that Pilgrims are still coming to America.”
     I decided it takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.
                                                    from Molly’s Pilgrim
                                                      by Barbara Cohen
                                      illustrated by Michael J. Deraney
                                Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1983

       My grandparents were Pilgrims, too. All four of them. They came to America for religious freedom and for opportunity. They were astonishingly brave. They each, in their own time, left their families, everything they knew, put behind everything they feared and sailed into a future full of strangers, strange languages, strange food, strange money. They each learned English. They learned how to buy groceries, set up a bank account, build a business. They became citizens. They adopted America and America adopted them.
       I am grateful for their stalwart acts, their courageous ventures, their self-sufficiency. This Thanksgiving, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.
My grandparents exhibited:

• Self-reliance
• Determination
• Ability to comply with rules that are fair
• Capacity to stand strong and speak out against rules that are not fair
• Generosity
• Compassion for those less fortunate

       I like to think those character traits flowing through my own veins, too. 
       My grandparents did not give up everything for their own selves, for a better life for themselves. They did it for their (future) children, and for me and for my kids and my own grandchildren and even their grandchildren. 
       Today my grandparents would not be called Pilgrims, even though they were. They’d be called immigrants, which they also were. 
       This Thanksgiving I will define immigrants as people whose courage, self-determinism, and faith in a bright future, allowed them to pull up the roots of everything familiar and re-plant themselves into the unknown.
                             Happy Thanksgiving!
                                          --stay curious! (and thankful)

…if you plant a seed of kindness
in almost no time at all
the fruits of kindness will grow and grow and grow.
And they will be very sweet.
                                               from If You Plant a Seed
                                 written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson
                                      Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2015 
                                             found on YouTube 11/16/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TH44VOz7Y&feature=emb_logo 

    I don’t think I was an unkind child, but Mom’s voice still echoes. “You’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar,” I can still hear her say. It took a while for me to understand what she meant. I was young. 
    Kindness seems to be blooming, lately, though.
    I wonder, am I really tuned in to the kindness of others more, or is it easier to spot since we are comparing its opposite every other minute on news reports and media posts? People do seem more aware of the need to be kind. Kind to ourselves, to others, to our pets, to our plants, to our planet. It’s not that hard, as these websites show.
    Many of us just celebrated World Kindness Day. It is celebrated on November 13 every year. https://inspirekindness.com/world-kindness-day 
    National Kindness Week, also called RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Week falls in February each year. https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/rak-week 
    Last month, The Cleveland City Club teamed up with several local libraries for a Five Days of Democracy Challenge. https://www.cityclub.org/about/five-days-for-democracy Although not directly about kindness, being informed and making good choices bodes well for us all. 
    I made a few decisions this past week.

• I’m leaving the vitriol of election season behind.
• I’m working on not being afraid of COVID-19.
• Gratitude is my new watchword.

    It will take some work, but I’m willing. 
    Sometimes the world aligns. I was thinking of these ideas when I tuned in to a weekly radio broadcast, “On Being.”  https://onbeing.org/programs/remembering-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks/  Krista Tippett interviews prominent thinkers in all walks of life. Last weekend she re-ran a conversation she had with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, who sadly passed away last week.
    “How can we be true to our own convictions while also showing love towards the stranger?” she asked Rabbi Sacks.
    Of course he turned to the Bible as his authority. Rabbi Sacks believed one of the things we fear most is the stranger. For most of our history, people lived in homogenous groups. They talked the same, they looked the same, they thought the same. 
    As the world shrank and we started interacting with more and different people, we became fearful of strangers, called them the other. 
    To help us overcome that fear, we have instructions dating back three or four thousand years, Rabbi Sacks reminded us. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and one directly from Moses, “Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person.” Science has proven that when we are able to see the welfare of the other as somehow linked to our own, we’re able to rise to high moral ideals. 
    And doing good to and for others, having a network of strong and supportive relationships, and feeling a sense that our lives are worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness.            
    Since Crick, Watson, and Franklin showed the world that everything alive or once alive is made of DNA, we can look at biodiversity through a different lens. We humans are more alike than we are different. Color (hair, skin, and eyes), political ideologies, religious doctrines we hold sacred and dear aside, we all need to give and receive love, we need to feel our lives have a purpose, we need to feel validated.      
    Everyone’s role model, Fred Rogers, said it best when he asked each one of us to be his neighbor. His neighborhood really was the whole world.
                                        -—stay curious! (and neighborly)

    When Mississippi’s ma and pa named their baby, they called her Magnolia. She was a beautiful sight. Magnolia later became the official state flower, and the whole place was known as the Magnolia State. So pretty, that place.
         from Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It
                                      written by Andrea Davis Pinkney
                                            illustrated by Brian Pinkney
                                     Little, Brown and Company, 2020

    My dad was a philatelist. He collected stamps from all over the world and all over the United States, too. Two framed maps hung in our basement rec room. One was a world map, the other a map of the United States. It was a long time ago, so Alaska and Hawaii probably were not inset to the west of Texas, confusing third graders who tried to figure out the difference between east and west, on a map anyway. Alaska is not an island state, really.
    When I was in college, our sociology professor asked us to fill in a blank map of the United States. Easy peasy! But not for everyone. I was one of only two students who labeled every state correctly. Even Wyoming and Colorado. Even Alabama and Mississippi.
    On our honeymoon, my husband and I drove the girls to Florida, admiring the differences and the sameness of the states along the way. Later on, we took the girls to New England. Years after that, we drove across the northern states to Montana to pick up my younger daughter. She had decided to move back home after September 11, 2001. I’ve been out West visiting several of our National Parks. I’ve been to Kentucky, Washington State, and Oregon, but I’ve never been to Mississippi.
    Mississippi’s history is complex. With a total population of just under three million, Mississippi has the highest poverty rate of all the states. And the poorest education system. 
    One of the most powerful symbols of any state is its flag. Even though Mississippi achieved statehood on December 10, 1817, it did not have its own flag until right before the Civil War. As the story goes, on the eve of the Civil War, just before secession was to be declared, someone on a balcony overlooking the State Convention handed down a Bonnie Blue, a large, white star framed on a square, blue field. The Bonnie Blue was moved into the top left corner and a large magnolia tree was placed in the center of a white background. The flag may or may not have been outlined in red. The magnolia tree may or may not have been in bloom. Variations abound in the sources I consulted. But the Magnolia Flag served Mississippi for the duration of the War. It was not flown much. The Confederate battle flag was preferred. 
    After the War, another State Constitutional Convention nullified many of the ordinances and resolutions passed by the State Convention of 1861, including the provision for a State flag.
    So, in 1894, the Mississippi legislature replaced the Magnolia flag with a new one. The Confederate battle flag replaced the small Bonnie Blue. Thirteen stars represented the original thirteen states. They may also have represented the eleven states that seceded plus Missouri and Kentucky. Three horizontal stripes; blue, white, and red, replaced the magnolia tree. They may or may not have reflected the colors of the Union. 
    This second flag, with a few minor variations, flew over Mississippi until very recently. In 2001, the governor appointed a commission to design a new flag. A referendum was put before the voters, but they voted down the new design and the 1894 flag, the one with the Confederate battle flag embedded in the corner, continued to fly. 
    And even though the Confederacy was defeated and Abraham Lincoln tried to knit our country back together, some ideas die hard. White privilege is one. The Confederate flag is another.
    Condemned by organizations as diverse as the NCAA, Walmart, and the Mississippi Baptist Convention, the flag brought unwelcome controversy. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, weeks of protests, and a lifting up of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Mississippi voters finally said “no” to promoting racism on its flag. Exactly one week ago Mississippi voters finally gave up the Confederate flag.
    One hundred and fifty-five years and 7 months has passed since General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. President Andrew Johnson finally declared a formal end to the War sixteen months later.
    Mississippi is the last state to replace its flag with one that does not venerate the Confederacy. On Election Day, 2020, the people of Mississippi chose their new state flag.
    Please have a look. It’s beautiful, in so many ways. https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/new-mississippi-state-flag-election-results/6061248002/ 
    Since Mississippi was the twentieth state to join the union. twenty stars ring a large central magnolia blossom. A single gold star at the top represents the indigenous people of the land that would become Mississippi. The magnolia blossom represents hospitality. Two vertical parallel, gold lines flanking it and the gold stamen of the magnolia blossom itself symbolize Mississippi’s rich cultural history. 
    In January, Mississippi’s Legislature will formally enact the new design into law. The new flag will be flown around the state shortly after. 
    If we ever get to drive to Florida again, I’d like to detour through Mississippi. I’d love to admire that beautiful flag! 
                                     -—stay curious! (and wave strong)

    The peaceful transfer of power shows that the real power isn’t in the office or the elected official, but in us, the voters. And that’s why it’s important to vote on Election Day and also stay active all year long, paying attention to what our leaders do and say, because in the end, we’re in charge.
                                 What’s the Big Deal About Elections?
                                                written by Ruby Shamir
                                             illustrated by Matt Faulkner
                                                             Philomel, 2018
    
    Today is the 59th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-Third Amendment. It allows citizens of Washington DC to vote for president and vice president. Three years later, in the first presidential election after ratification, the people voted for Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson. The election was significant maybe not so much for itself, but certainly for what followed.
    While he did not legally need to (as soon as 3/4 of the states ratify an Amendment it is certified and recorded making it part of the Constitution), one of Johnson’s first acts in his own full term as president was to sign, as a witness, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.
     Until January 23, 1964, when the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was ratified making a poll tax illegal, many Southern states and some other states, too, required it. The poll tax was a registration requirement in those states. Everyone paid it. Because of the poll tax, people who did not earn enough money to be responsible for income or property taxes were still able to help fund the federal government. It was in actuality, an effective way to suppress the vote of poor citizens, mostly Black and Brown people, but poor whites, too. If you did not pay the poll tax, you did not vote. The poll tax became illegal in 1964, with the ratification of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, but voter suppression was alive and well.
    Even though the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) declared “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote …  not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” (but not gender) the facts proved a different picture. It was not uncommon for some Southern states to require literacy tests, even until 1965. While the questions were (mostly) legitimate, answers were often obscure. Sometimes potential voters were asked to write portions of the Constitution from dictation. Spelling counted. For an interesting discussion on literacy tests see https://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm 
    For a moving and entertaining first-person account try https://themoth.org/story-transcripts/voting-day-transcript 
    In 1965, there were 15,000 black citizens of voting age in Selma, Alabama. Only 335 were registered to vote. On March 7, 1965, six hundred or so peaceful civil rights marchers began to walk their way from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital. In Selma, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police used night sticks, tear gas, and whips to stop the march. “The marchers were protesting the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper. They were protesting the lack of voting rights for Black people in America. They were protesting the lack of freedom for Black people in these United States of America. They were marching to Montgomery in search of freedom.” https://www.wave3.com/2020/06/30/column-rename-edmund-pettus-bridge-bridge-freedom/ The day became known as Bloody Sunday.
    A week later, March 16, 1965, President Johnson listed for Congress the many devious ways voter suppression was taking place. A week and a half after that, March 25, the marchers reached Montgomery. They were led by Martin Luther King, Jr. John Lewis was there, too, causing “good trouble.” 
    Less than six months later on August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists were present for the signing. Here’s a picture: https://www.nps.gov/articles/votingrightsact.htm 
    A legislative masterpiece, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, banned all discriminatory voting practices. According to history.com, <https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act> the Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in United States. 
    But voter suppression is alive and well in 2020. According to the Carnegie Corporation, for a variety of reasons it has become harder to register and even to vote. https://www.carnegie.org/topics/topic-articles/voting-rights/11-barriers-voting/  
    So what has changed since 1964 when the poll tax was abolished, really? Black people are still targets of police violence, many times resulting in death. This is not a problem for “law and order” to solve. 
    Black and Brown people are still living in poverty at many times the rate of the white population. This complicated problem can only be solved when government agencies work with non-profit organizations and regular people to recognize the disparities and address each one.
    Racism is a 400-year-old problem that can not be legislated away. We need to recognize each other’s strengths and build on them, to lift up everyone. 
    Bob Dylan’s 1963 lyrics sound like a breathless hope. I wonder if his vision is still possible? https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/thetimestheyareachangin.html 
    John Lennon’s “Imagine” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnlennon/imagine.html tempts us all with a blissful future of living together peacefully. I hope it’s not too late. 
                                             -—stay curious! (and patient)

    In November some birds move away and some birds stay. 
                                     .   .   .
    The staying birds are serious…, for cold times lie ahead. Hard times. All berries are treasures. 
                                                    from In November
                                                     by Cynthia Rylant
                                             illustrated by Jill Kastner
                             HMH Books for Young Readers, 2000

    I’m reading Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy (New York Review Books, 2015). It’s an environmental memoir if that really is a thing. McCarthy describes his connections to the destruction and resilience of our natural world. His beautiful language mirrors the beautiful colors, forms, and powers he encounters.
    His work inspired this poem.

                      The Constancy of Change
Why is it nearly impossible to recall the last robin?
The last fresh snow?
The last kiss?

We live our linear lives 
    Spirally.
        Sometimes swirling. 
            Sometimes plodding.
                Always forward…

            Halfway round, 
        we look back
    at our growing perspective
in ever heightening cyclical journeys.

                 In the hemisphere of the atmosphere 
                            change is constant. 

Recalling that last robin
is nearly impossible 
so filled with expectation and hope 
are we
for the next one. 
And the next one.

When suddenly 
    a robin does light 
        again
            on a low branch
                of the sycamore 
            and daffodil shoot
        through stiff slush
    to announce
a new lap around
    the journey. 

        And we kiss again.
                                           -—stay curious (and vote!)

“It sounds like you are torn between two choices,” said Miss Edwards.
“You are right,” said Amelia Bedelia. “And it hurts.”
    .    .    .
“Nice work Amelia Bedelia,” said Miss Edwards. “By joining your own club,
you joined the other two clubs together.”

                              from Amelia Bedelia Joins the Club
                                        written by Herman Parish
                                         illustrated by Lynne Avril
                                  Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2014
    
    Amelia Bedelia found it too difficult to choose between joining her friends who were puddle jumpers and her other friends who were puddle leapers. So she invented her own club, one that incorporated leaping and jumping. Everyone joined in.
    If I had to choose say, between Butter Pecan ice cream and Rocky Road, I might opt, like Amelia Bedelia, to have a little of both. I’d give up a little Butter Pecan to get a little Rocky Road. That way, less Butter Pecan doesn’t sound so bad.
    According to the online version of Merriam-Webster, one definition of compromise is the settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compromise 
    The word itself comes from the 1500s. Used as a noun, a compromise is the end result of a fruitful discussion where all parties agree to be a little selfless for the sake of gaining a greater good for all. Compromise, as a verb, describes doing the actual work. 
    In the 1820s, our country’s immense growing pains resulted in the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state at the same time Maine was designated a free state. Just over thirty years later, the Missouri Compromise was repealed and replaced with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, another slave-saving compromise meant to keep slave states and free states in balance.             
    But when a compromise is based not on the betterment of all, but on holding to the status quo no matter who is being hurt, the whole society is hurt. 
    Slavery can never be called good. Slavery can never be rationalized as necessary. Our worth as human beings is intrinsic to our personhood. It is the difference between priceless and worthless. We, all of us, by our very nature, are priceless. 
    There is no room for compromise on the issue of slavery.
    Look what happened when the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were tested in the Judicial system.
    Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, both enslaved people, sued for their freedom. They based their case on two Missouri statutes. One allowed any person of any color to sue for wrongful enslavement. The other stated that any person taken to a free territory automatically became free and could not be re-enslaved upon returning to a slave state. Dred, Harriet, and their owner lived for a time in Illinois and Wisconsin, both free states.
    A series of appeals slowly moved his case up to the Supreme Court. Even though Dred and Harriet won their freedom in the lower courts, the Supreme Court’s decision kept them enslaved.
    Citizenship was a controversial idea in the mid-nineteenth century. Roger Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, claimed in his majority opinion that “all people of African descent, free or enslaved, were not United States citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court. He also wrote that the Fifth Amendment which assured property owners that their property could not be taken from them without compensation, protected slave owner rights because enslaved workers were their legal property.” https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/dred-scott-case
    The public’s outrage toward Taney’s decision moved Abraham Lincoln closer to the presidency. And moved the United States closer to Civil War. (In a note of irony, when Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth President, it was Chief Justice Roger Taney who administered the Presidential Oath of Office.)
    Dred Scott and his family finally became free, but not because of anything Taney did. Scott and his family were sold to Taylor Blow, the son of Dred’s first owner. Taylor abhorred slavery and freed Scott and his family on May 26, 1857. 
    Passed in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves. It guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” 
    When we reach compromise for the right reasons, to give a leg up to our most vulnerable, to reward those who work toward the ideals laid out in our Constitution, to put the greater good ahead of any one person’s or one group’s gain, we all become better people.
    Still in 2020, many of the most vulnerable in our society are marginalized. Finding a good job, attending a well-staffed and well-funded school, living in a safe neighborhood, access to quality healthcare and clean water and nourishing food are all very high hurdles for many.
    But, we can elect a congress who we believe will put the good of the many ahead of their own selves. We can encourage them to keep working for the good of our society by calling them, sending letters and emails. And by saying thank you when they succeed as well as making demands when demands are necessary.
    We can elect a decent man president. A breath of sanity, stability, and sound judgement will be a very welcome change, indeed.
                                            -—stay curious! (and vote)

And so the fact finders started digging.
Equipped with only shovels, flashlights,
and a need to know the truth
they dug a tunnel deep, deep underground.

At last … they found the box.
They hoisted it out of the darkness 
and let out the facts.
In the clear blue light of day,
the facts were glorious in all their splendor.    
                                              from: The Sad Little Fact
                                                written by Jonah Winter
                                              illustrated by Pete Oswald
                     Schwartz & Wade/Penguin Random House, 2019

    I believe in science, but science is not static. Facts change as we learn more about how science affects us and how we affect our world. Our Earth has always been round-ish, and has always, or at least for the last billion or so years, revolved around the sun. But it took brave and intelligent people to show the rest of us those Truths. Even Columbus knew the world was round. Ancient Greek mathematicians had proved that long before Columbus set sail. 
    It took Galileo’s courage to defy the Church and affirm Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory describing the pattern of planets and other heavenly bodies’ paths around the sun. That the sun is the center of the universe, and Earth revolves around it, was a cataclysmic change in thinking from Ptolemy who had set the stage over 1,700 years earlier when he declared Earth to be the center of the universe.  
    It cost Galileo much, including a conviction by the Church of “vehement suspicion of heresy.” Under threat of torture, Galileo expressed sorrow and cursed his errors.     
    Science is my Tree of Knowledge. This is not the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That one sprouted and grew metaphors in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were supposed to avoid it, but they did not. 
    The Tree of Knowledge, though, is sturdy and its roots dig deep. Its branches of metaphor grow wide and sheltering. Sometimes new branches sprout, sometimes mere twigs.
    Depending on where you look, you may find few branches of Science on that Tree or many. Wikipedia’s four major branches sounded right enough to me. Formal, Natural, Social Sciences, and Applied Sciences, each one includes lots of subheadings. Scientific subdivisions are what you might expect and include Mathematics, Biology, Ecology, Chemistry, Linguistics, Medicine, and Technology. You can think of many, many others. 
    While not only about Science, the Nobel Prizes are about Truth.
    Alfred Nobel was a man of science and a man of the world. Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833. He lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, from age nine until he was twenty-one. Then he studied Chemistry and Technology in France and the United States.
    Although his interest in Medicine can not be disputed, a perusal of his bookcase shows his interest and deep knowledge of literature and poetry. And though it might seem counter-intuitive to think of the inventor of dynamite offering a prize for Peace, his greatest invention was not intended as part of the war machine. Armies usurped its potential. 
    Nobel left much of his vast fortune to the establishment of a prize, which, as you can imagine, caused great controversy in his family, his scientific community, and the world at large. It took five years to settle the arguments and award the first prize. According to his will, “the interest on [the fund] … is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” 
    The prizes were equally divided into five categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature to the most outstanding work in an Idealist Direction, and one to Advance Fellowship among Nations, Abolish or Reduce Standing Armies, and Promote Peace. 
    Today six Nobel Prizes are awarded, one each in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and since 1968, Economic Sciences.
    Sometimes the Prizes are shared. Sometimes no prize is awarded in a particular category or another. In that case, the prize money, about $1,000,000.00, is kept for the next year. If no one is judged worthy of the prize in the second year, the money goes back into the general fund. 
    Since 1901, six hundred and three Nobel Prizes have been awarded. Only twice have people not accepted the award. Jean-Paul Sartre declined the Prize in Literature in 1964. He had consistently refused all honors. In 1973, Le Duc Tho was honored by sharing the Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their work negotiating Peace in Viet Nam. Le Duc Tho declined, referring to the situation in Viet Nam at the time. Fighting continued there for two more years.
    On October 9, 2020, David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his agency of the United Nations. The award, he said, “turns a global spotlight” on the 690 million hungry people of the world. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1075012 
    While I believe in the importance of working toward achieving world peace and the pursuit of scientific goals to increase knowledge as well as their usefulness to humankind, a certain Truth can only be described poetically. 
    John Keats in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn” said  
        “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
        Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.”
    On October 8, 2020, Louise Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-gluck Anders Olsson, the chair of the prize-giving committee, praised her “minimalist voice and especially poems that get to the heart of family life.” You can read about her and read a selection of her poetry at the Poetry Foundation’s website (above).
    I feel a poem swirling around, calling me. I better try to catch it!
                 -—stay curious! (and celebrate the Beauty of Truth and    
                                   the Truth of Beauty)

What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t  be?                          
                                                   from The Hate U Give
                                                         by Angie Thomas
                                                      Balzer + Bray, 2017
                                     Coretta Scott King, Honor Award

    Much is at stake, locally and nationally, less than one month away from the General Election. And that Election is already underway.
    Due to many people feeling unsafe in large crowds, lots of us are choosing to use a mail-in ballot. So far, ballots have been sent to voters in twelve states and over two million have already been cast. Today, Ohio’s first day of early voting, the Board of Elections in Ohio will mail absentee ballots to registered voters who requested them.
    For so many reasons, this year is not a normal year.     
    Now we learn that the president, the first lady, and many family members and close advisors and staff have contracted COVID-19. Depending which source you read or listen to, the president is doing well, or not. 
    Who knows?
    But we should care. I know “should” is not always appropriate, but this time, it is. While I feel skeptical of the news, more or less so depending on the source, it is important to be aware.
    I had some “what-if” questions, so Google, here I come. According to USNews, https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-10-02/what-happens-to-the-us-presidential-election-if-a-candidate-dies-or-becomes-incapacitated it is possible, but unlikely to postpone an election even if a presidential candidate becomes incapacitated.
    The rules to determine a replacement nominee are complicated and cumbersome. It is likely too late for a replacement to be chosen, should that become necessary. 
    So, on November 3, if the date is not changed, the public will vote for (or against) Trump or Biden, even if one of them dies before November 3.    
    Our elections are complicated, too.     
    When we cast our ballots for President, early or in person, we are instructing our Electors who we want them to vote for.
    Thousands of people are chosen as delegates based on the vote tally from each state’s Primary Election or Caucus. The delegates, representing their particular party, vote during their respective Party’s Nominating Convention (this year held virtually on back-to-back weeks this past August). Once the Party’s Conventions have taken place and the nominees are chosen by the delegates, we’re ready for the General Election and then the Electoral College. 
    The Electoral College is that body which actually votes for our candidates. Each state has laws for how Electors are chosen. Generally they are party faithfuls, committed to their respective Political Parties. Most states require faithfulness, but there are no consequences for failure to comply. Consequently, each Elector usually votes for his or her Party’s nominee.
    Each state has a number of Electors equal to the number of the state’s Representatives plus 2, one for each Senator. Washington DC has three Electors, the minimum allowed since they have no representation in the Senate. The candidate needs a simple majority of the 538 Electoral votes (270), to win the election. (U.S. citizens residing in U.S. territories can not vote for president.) https://www.usa.gov/who-can-vote 
    The Electoral College meets on Dec. 14 to vote for president. 
    The votes are counted in Congress on January 6. States with larger populations have more Electors making it possible for a candidate to win the overall popular vote but not win the electoral vote. Lots of states with only 3 or a few Electors can add up to a majority of Electors. That’s what happened in 2016.
    In short, our Presidential Election is complicated. It is a several-step process, beginning with the Primaries and delegates and ending with the Electoral College and Inauguration on January 20. 

•     Primary elections and caucuses take place in the states beginning in February. Delegates are chosen.
•     Delegates choose their party’s nominee at the Party Conventions during the summer.
•     Electors are appointed by the Parties.
•     The General Election is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
•     The Electoral College meets and votes on December 14.
•     Votes are counted in Congress on January 6.

          The election is certified after Congress counts the votes.

•     Inauguration is held on January 20.

    
    Most of the time we know the winner of the election on Election Night. This year, because of many complications, some I have addressed, some I’m still thinking about, we probably won’t know. 
    Remember three things which are really true.
    1.  Lots of mail-in votes need to be counted. Some states do not
               allow counting to begin until the end of Election Day..
    2.  The Electoral College does not meet until December 14. 
    3.  Congress does not certify the vote count until January 6.

    Each person’s vote carries weight. Remember, the Electors of each state pledge to vote as the people voted. So when the tally of popular votes in Ohio goes to a particular candidate, that candidate doesn’t get each person’s vote, but does get the total Electoral votes, 18. (Only Maine and Nebraska split their Electoral votes. Maine has 5 and Nebraska 4.)
Here are a few things to think about.
    Although real people are running for office, the election is not
              about them. It’s about us.             
    Elections are about standing up for the ideals we believe in.
    Think about the Supreme Court. Think hard. The President appoints
              Justices. Their decisions impact our personal freedoms.
    Change begins with voting. The path to reform is not perfect, but
              we can’t give up.
    When more people exercise their constitutional right to cast a ballot in a Presidential election, the more influence we, as individuals will have. 
    If you need a ride to your polling place consider Lyft. They are offering a 50% fare reduction if you use their code. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/helping-more-people-get-to-the-polls-on-election-day 
                                     -—stay curious! (and be patient)   

The cat walked through the world
with its whiskers, ears, and paws…
and the child saw a cat.
               .    .    .
Then the cat came to some water.
Imagine what it saw.
                                            from They All Saw a Cat
                         written and illustrated by Brendan Wenzel
                                                Chronicle Books, 2016
                                                      Caldecott Honor
                                        read on YouTube 9/27/2020
    Last Saturday, someone I saw in a Zoom meeting asked me how I was doing. A mundane question, but I decided to go for the truth. I answered, “I have this underlying feeling of terror overlaid with a combination of angst and profound sadness.” Well, that kinda stopped his clock for a second, then he answered, “Me too.”
    So, instead of hurricanes, fires, Supreme Court Justice nominations, the Electoral College, COVID-19 and the economic crisis, Climate Catastrophe, plastic in the ocean, policing issues, or Black Lives Matter, I want to tell you something big in my little world.
    My husband and I adopted a cat. 
    She’s gray with white fingers and toes. She has a white bib, too. I named her Pearl, in honor of Hester Prynne’s daughter, Pearl. Even though Hester was ostracized and made to wear a scarlet letter “A” announcing her adultery, Pearl was born because her parents loved each other. She reflects the hope every new child represents to his or her parents. For me Love + Hope = Pearl. 
    Of course, that got me thinking about the word, adultery, itself. Turns out it does not originate from a form of “adult” (like I thought), but from the 1300 CE French, avoutrie, “voluntary violation of the marriage bed,” https://www.etymonline.com/word/adultery. In Modern French it became adultĕre. Adultery is related to the verb “to alter” and the noun form, “adulteration.”
    Back to our new Pearl. She is very gentle. She comes to me when I call her. She loves attention, but not too much cuddling. She’s a good eater and knows what her potty is for. I think she’s about a year old.
    She needs an appointment with our veterinarian. We need to get negative results on a Feline Leukemia test, also Feline AIDS. She will need vaccinations and probably will need to be spayed. I made the first appointment I could get, this coming Friday afternoon. She’s living in the basement for now. Just to be sure.
    To be a real part of our family, she’ll need to meet our Gang of Three. We’ve introduced many cats to each other over the years. Generally, they get along well together. Whether the pattern is real friendship, mere tolerance, or an uneasy understanding, fights are rare (and not tolerated). 
    I expect another easy transition.
    I got my first cat when I was about 12. The father in the family I babysat for became allergic to their cat, a male, when he grew into his adulthood. Princey was really big, a black and white tom cat. When he bird-watched in the window sill, he filled up the whole thing. He was a gentleman except for the times he saw something none of us humans did. He’d run up and down the steps and jump half-way up the wall in the downstairs hallway. Then, just as mysteriously, curl up on his favorite chair and take a nap.
    When I was in high school I had a job and my own money. After Princey lived out his long life, I asked for another cat. By now my parents liked cats, too. I bought a show cat, Cricket, a chocolate-point Siamese with a pink nose. Dad took me to the west side of Cleveland (about an hour’s drive from our house) to pick her up. She took to him, right away. Maybe because he gave her baloney for lunch.
    Borgia was a birthday present. She was a small, black Hemingway cat. She had six toes on each foot and six fingers on each hand. She lived with me through many difficult transitions and many household moves. She finally became an outside cat and went to live with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law far away on their farm-sized property, complete with a barn. I’m still sad when I think about her. 
    My husband had a cat named Samantha when we met. I had a daughter named Samantha. Wow! Something else we had in common. Samantha the Cat lived a long and good life. One day, she didn’t come upstairs for breakfast. I found her laying peacefully in front of the dryer. Just like that we were catless. 
    Then my older daughter found Midnight. She started coming around and we fed her. Of course she kept coming back. We took her to the vet, and took her in. one night, unbeknownst to us, she went outside and came back in an altered state. Soon she had four beautiful kittens. And so did we. We found good homes for them all.
    Since then we’ve given a home to lots of cats. Charlie, Pumpkin, Tristan, Vernon (on a short loan from my younger daughter), Blue, Frances, Tippy, Gus, and Pearl. They each have (or had) unique personalities. I have stories about each one, but Pearl. 
    She’ll tell me some good ones. I’m sure of it!
                                 -—stay curious! (and love a cat, or two)