Cats here, cats there,
cats and kittens everywhere
    Hundreds of cats
    Thousands of cats
Millions and billions and trillions of cats
                                                 from Millions of Cats
                               written and illustrated by Wanda Gág
                                                   Puffin Books, 1956
    Although I like to paint my world in rainbows and shades of gray, sometimes I think in opposites. Common ones like 
    all/none
    large/small 
    feast/famine 
    loud/quiet
and some that are not so usual like
    grow/stagnate
    dearth/plethora
    banal/creative
    detritus/treasures. (This is my favorite category.)
Some words have more than one opposite like
    right/left and right/wrong 
    fast/slow and fast/temporary    
    hard/easy and hard/soft. 
Some words are contronyms, words with two meanings that contradict one another. They are their own opposite, like
    cleave (to hew apart) and cleave (to hold tight)
    trim (to add, decorate) and trim (to subtract, cut away)
    
    The obvious one-word opposite of “opposite” is “same,” which sums up our world neatly in black and white (which are only opposites when we consider the color spectrum). 
    English is a difficult language to learn. It is subtle, complex, and nuanced. The 20-volume second edition set of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) contains 171,476 entries, but usage, grammar, and clarity are elusive for many of us. We can define a word, but might have trouble with its pronunciation. The opposite is also true. My daughter opined as she was working on a Wordle puzzle a couple of weeks ago, “just because you can pronounce it, doesn’t mean it’s a word.”
    Lots of words have opposites, but many of them don’t. Flower? Bird? Song? Brick? Ocean? I was thinking in this vein during a recent walk. Our nearby county fairgrounds was hosting the American Kennel Club’s dog show. I observed. Some dogs are huge, some are tiny. I learned. Some are workers like bloodhounds and sheepdogs. Some, like Pekinese and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are lapdogs. They live to entertain and comfort their owners. I listened. Some barked their poor, fool heads off. Some were quiet as cumulus clouds in the bright blue sky.
    It’s true that some people are dog people and some prefer cats. But cats and dogs are not themselves, opposites. Besides the obvious physical characteristics: whiskers or not; tongues (smooth and slobbery or rough and dry-ish); claws (clobbery or click-clacky), dogs and cats provide companionship. They keep us from talking to ourselves, or they let us pretend about that. They don’t judge us. Their love is unconditional, whether they show it with exuberance or a quiet lap-sit. And, with a little patience and attention, we humans can understand the needs, distress, and joy they communicate to us. 
    I’ve never known a cat to demonstrate unconditional love by slobbering all over me after jumping on me and knocking me down. I had a cat though, who would softly tap my cheek each morning, a gentle reminder to get his breakfast ready.
    Then there’s the “let’s go for a walk” difference. With the exception of two different cats who lived many years apart, my cats have been content to stay home. They do their business where they are supposed to (mostly) and I thank them for that. I like a destination when I walk. Most dogs are not welcome in the library, post office, bank, or grocery store. So that part works out well, too. My cat gets to stay home and I get to go where I want to.
    My preferences make me a cat person. I recognize and admire independence (albeit limited), a calm, unassuming demeanor, and a penchant for naptime. I would choose golf over football, a sailboat over a power boat, and meaningful ballads over raucous hip-hop.
    I like crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, and board games. I like reading to discover something old, something new, or some different perspective. I like quiet over chaos. 
    I found an interesting graphic that shows the results of a survey done by the scientists at www.NationalToday.com Turns out that when 1,000 people answered the question: Are you a dog person or a cat person, 14.2% answered cat person and 42.8% said dog person. Lots of people claimed to be both, but really? I don’t think so.
    And just as dogs are not opposite to cats, dog people are not opposite to cat people, either. Like cats and dogs, people come in different colors, genders, and temperaments. Cats and dogs, just like us, need to be nurtured, accepted, and encouraged. 
    And loved, unconditionally. 
    
                              Be curious! (and love unconditionally)

“…lots of preservatives can be found in our kitchen. What do you think you should look at?”
    “Hmmm. Preservatives make things last a lot longer. So food that lasts a long time?”
    Mom nodded. “You’re on the right track, kiddo. See if you can figure out what the preservatives might be by looking at the stickers with the printed ingredient lists.”
    “To the kitchen, Sassafras!” I announced. “We’re going on a preservative hunt!”
                   from Zoey and Sassafras: Monsters and Mold
                                                   story by Asia Citro
                                          pictures by Marion Lindsay
                                           The Innovation Press, 2017
                                             (read on Libby 7/24/22)
    How long does a Twinkie last? Really. That question began an over 40-year-long science experiment in a high school in Maine. The Twinkie sat on top of the chalkboard in the science lab for 20 years. In 2016, it went into a see-through case and sits on the school director’s desk.
    It doesn’t look quite as good as it did in 1976. It might not even be edible, but it’s the school’s claim to fame. The director contacted Hostess in 2016 to see if they’d take it as a donation, but I couldn’t discover if Hostess has replied, yet. By the way, Hostess is scheduled to report the results of its second quarter (ended June 30, 2022)  tomorrow, Wednesday, August 3, 2022, after market close. 
    Preservatives aside for a moment, food waste is a huge world-wide problem. Close to 1/3 of all food produced is wasted. At 30-40% here in the United States, we fall right in the middle of that average. Spoilage occurs at every stage of food production from the farm to the refrigerator. Problems can happen in planting, growing, harvesting, milling, and transporting. Equipment malfunctions can allow food to get too hot or too cold, and damage it before it is consumed. 
    Buying too much can be a problem. Choosing only the most beautiful peach or pineapple and leaving the rest often results in the grocery produce department’s contribution to waste. In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s agency on Food Loss and Waste set a goal of 50% reduction by 2030. That 50% means a reduction of waste sent to landfills down to 109.4 pounds per person per year. That still sounds like a lot to me.
    Here's the USDA’s definition of food loss and waste: the edible amount of food, postharvest, that is available for human consumption but is not consumed for any reason. It does not include moisture loss due to cooking and unlike some recycling statistics, does NOT include inedible parts of food like banana peels, egg shells, and bones.
    Food waste is the largest single category of material sent to landfills. And food in landfills produces the greenhouse gas methane. So the wasting food also wastes water and land. 
    A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists describes the growing number of innovative farmers and scientists who are moving toward sustainable farming to bring food and textiles to market in ways that are compatible with our earth. The impacts are environmental, economic and social.  
    Environmental Sustainability includes building healthy soil, managing water wisely, minimizing air and water pollution, and promoting biodiversity. 
    Economically and Socially Sustainable agriculture enables farms, large, small, and medium-sized to be profitable and contribute to their local economies. It supports the next generation of farmers and workers, promotes racial equity and justice, and creates access to healthy food for everyone. Economically and Socially Sustainable agriculture prioritizes people and communities over corporate interests.
    The new field of agroecology studies and implements how to work with nature rather than against it. Agroecology promotes the interconnectedness of environmental, economic and social factors we need to create a truly sustainable world.
    But that is them. What can we do to reduce our own food waste?

• Download the free FoodKeeper app from USDA. Type in chicken, strawberries, or pickles. Tap the “go” button and discover how long you can store your items.
• Check food safety guidelines from the FDA.
• Label and date leftovers. I started doing this at the beginning of the pandemic. I was shopping less and buying more each trip. It required a little more organization, a roll of masking tape and a sharpie, but not much time.
• If you’re interested in composting, look at the EPA’s  Composting Fact Sheet. 
• Use your senses. If something smells bad, it most likely is. Get rid of it. If something looks bad, check out the website www.eatortoss.com It includes a food index and “Use-it-Up Recipes.”
• Take “use by” and “best buy” dates with a grain of salt. 

    My box of dried bowtie pasta is stamped March 29, 2024, as its “best by” date, but I’m sure my bowties won’t dry out any more if I keep them longer. Dried beans and peas? In my book dry is dry, but the USDA recommends keeping them only one year. 
    Canned goods? According to www.foodnetwork.com “best by” is a label assigned by the manufacturer. FoodNetwork.com quotes the Can Manufacturer's Institute, “canning is a high-heat process, so it preserves food and prevents the growth of any bad organisms. Canned food is forever safe. But, it notes quality may be affected. And dented and bulging cans are NOT safe! Toss the food, recycle the can.
    Preservatives are added to processed foods to make them last longer. The FDA has the primary role in approving a particular preservative or not after rigorous and ongoing testing. For more information about the safety and controversy of food additives, check LiveStrong.com They use recent and relevant research, use experts to review their articles before they’re published. They do their own “fact checking” to assure accuracy.
    LiveStrong’s bottom line is, it’s safer to eat preservatives than risk eating foods infected by bacteria and fungi. The balance comes in the next sentence. If you want to avoid eating preservatives, eat more whole foods and fewer packaged ones.
    Reducing food waste is a noble goal. On my own small scale it won’t make a dent in the 820 million people in the world who are hungry or even the one in eight Americans who face food insecurity, but working together, each of our own small efforts is part of a very big picture.
                               -—be curious! (enjoy summer’s produce)

After a week of visiting and traveling to, with, and from kids and grandkids, I need a week off! Thanks for understanding! See you next Tuesday.

There was no sport the nineteen-year-old [Jackie Robinson] did not excel in, making him a hero to many minority youths in Pasadena.
                 from 42 Is Not Just a Number: The Odyssey of
                                   Jackie Robinson, American Hero
                                      written by Doreen Rappaport
                                              Candlewick Press, 2017 

    There’s always one kid who is last to get picked to be on a team. When it came to choosing sides in sports, that kid was me. Kickball, field hockey, dodgeball, you name it, and I was last. I was okay with that, pretty much. I knew sports were not my best thing at school. I liked spelling bees and grammar challenges, but that’s a different story.
    As bad as I was at sports, Jackie Robinson was good. He set records in basketball, track, football, and even tennis in Junior High, High School, and Pasadena Junior College. At UCLA he competed in baseball, basketball, football, and track and field where he was a four-sport star.
    Jackie met his future wife, Rachel Isum, at UCLA where she was studying nursing. They were married after she graduated, just one year before Jackie broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
     After his honorable discharge from the Army in 1944, Jackie continued playing sports, but until April 15, 1947, American Major League Baseball was segregated. As good as he was, as an outstanding athlete and as an outstanding person, he was shunned because of the color of his skin. When he played for the Kansas City Monarchs, a team in the American Negro League, Jackie caught the attention of Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
    He said of Jackie, “There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than (Jackie) Robinson.”
    Ricky approached Jackie with a deal: They would integrate American baseball by putting Jackie on the Dodger’s team, but Jackie would have to accept the taunts, slurs, and outright abuse Ricky knew Jackie would have to face if he accepted the offer. The abuse was so awful that at one point, Jackie wanted to quit baseball. But he stayed, much to his credit and much to the support of his wife, Rachel. 
    Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day every year on April 15. It commemorates the date in 1947 when Jackie made history in Major League Baseball with his debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.    
    In 1997, the League retired Jackie’s number, 42, throughout the Majors, and since 2009, all on-field personnel honor his legacy by wearing 42 during scheduled games.
    As stated on jackierobinson.org, “Since her husband’s premature death, Mrs. Robinson has used her ability and his legacy to further the causes they so ardently supported.” Together with Jackie, they provided young, black people with housing and opportunities through education. They were tireless in their social action.  
    Rachel has also won many accolades in her own name. After earning a Master’s Degree in psychiatric nursing, she became a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Department of Social and Community Psychiatry. She was a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Department of Social and Community Psychiatry, then became Director of Nursing for the Connecticut Mental Health Center and an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Yale University. 
    A year after Jackie’s untimely death from a heart attack and complications of diabetes, Rachel created the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a non-profit that provides college scholarships and leadership training. Through the Foundation, she’s able to continue encouraging young people and continue her social action work.
    In 1996, she wrote a biography of her famous husband called Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait. She has been awarded many achievement awards and eight honorary doctorate degrees from prestigious colleges and universities.
    A week from today, July 26, 2022, the Jackie Robinson Museum will open in New York City. Here's a list of the festivities featuring live music, a documentary screening, and a celebrity panel discussion. 
    The museum’s three-fold mission:
        “To educate visitors about Jackie Robinson, the athlete, activist,
        patriot, entrepreneur, and family man.

        To inspire those interested in the history of social change and
​        the prescription for greater progress.

        To challenge people of all ages to pursue a life of achievement
        and purpose.”
will be achieved through 20,000 square feet of permanent and changing exhibits, artifacts, historical images and over 450 hours of broadcast quality video footage. 
    Over 1,000 supporters, both large and small donors, have helped The Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) and Mrs. Robinson’s campaign raise over $34 million. 
    By opening the museum, the JRF “will [continue to] educate and inspire the general public around the ideals embodied in the life of its namesake.”
    And today is Rachel Robinson’s 100th birthday. Happy Birthday, Rachel Robinson! Many happy returns!
                                            -—Be curious! (and play ball)

    John scraped up a small piece of egg and put it into his mouth. It immediately became chocolate—chocolate white and chocolate yolk. Both lovely, lovely chocolate. “Mmm!” John mumbled. “Chocolate egg!” In almost no time he had finished every scrap of egg on his plate. Then he tried the bacon. The bacon turned to chocolate, too.
    John had never before enjoyed his breakfast so much.
                                            from The Chocolate Touch
                                               by Patrick Skene Catling
                                     newly illustrated by Margot Apple
                                                       HarperCollins, 2013
                (originally published William Morrow Publishers, 1957)

    Today, July 12, 2022, would have been my dad’s 105th birthday. We always celebrated with chocolate cake covered in chocolate frosting, and topped off with a scoop (or two) of chocolate ice cream. Dad loved chocolate. 
    His favorite was milk chocolate. Mine, too. But I also like those little semi-sweet chips that give chocolate chip cookies their name. I like hot cocoa, cold chocolate milk, and a crisp chocolate bar. I like creamy chocolate and gooey chocolate-covered caramel. Chocolate-dipped strawberries, marshmallows, cashews…mmm. I got sick once after I ate the chocolate-covered graham crackers my mom sent with my lunch at camp. I think I was coming down with the flu, but, ever since then I avoid those.
    Last Thursday, July 7, was World Chocolate Day. It occurs every year on the same date. It’s been suggested that July 7, 1550, was the date that chocolate was introduced to Europe. I couldn't verify that, though. The Aztecs and Mayans were the first to use the cacao bean in food products. Evidence of cocoa-based food dates back many thousand of years. 
    Shortly after Columbus’s adventures in the 1490s, stories about lands that flourished with flora, fauna, and golden riches tempted Spanish Conquistadors to cross the ocean to see for themselves. They plundered the land and the people in their quest to conquer, and by the way, discovered the cacao tree and its bean. 
    Cacao beans were cultivated and used by Mesoamerican civilizations who predated the Mayans. The beans were removed from their pods, fermented in containers and laid out to dry. Then they were ground, mixed with water and various other ingredients like chile peppers, flowers, vanilla, and honey and stirred into a thick, bitter, and foamy drink.
    Although the Aztecs enjoyed a cold version of a similar drink, they mostly used the cacao beans as currency. 
    In 1519, when the explorer and Conquistador, Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico, he captured the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan, and defeated Montezuma. Fighting continued for several years until the Aztecs who were much diminished by the Spanish, finally succumbed to smallpox. 
    But their chocolate lived on.
    Cortés returned to Spain with cacao and the formula to turn it into the rich beverage. He built cacao plantations in the new colonies of the conquered Mexican lands and produced beans for trade that brought prosperity to Spain. 
    The Spaniards liked a sweeter drink with fewer spices. It was enjoyed in secret by the aristocracy for several decades before they shared it with the rest of Europe. The French and Italians changed the recipe again. 
    It took the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with its development of steam-powered machines, to make the production of cocoa powder affordable. In 1850, Joseph Fry added cacao butter to cocoa power and formed a solid mass. Solid chocolate became wildly popular. 
    The US is the world’s largest producer of chocolate and Hershey’s is our country’s largest producer of chocolate candy. The Hershey Chocolate Company was established in 1894. Six years later, they sold their first candy bar. On a visit to Hershey, Pennsylvania, you can enjoy the main street with its Hershey Kiss-shaped street lights, peruse the gift shop, and tour the factory, which is not at all like Willy Wonka's! 
    By 2019, about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply came from West Africa where child labor is the norm. Kids as young as ten-years-old are prohibited from going to school and forced to harvest cacao.
    Chocolate industry leaders worldwide pledged in 2001, under pressure from the U.S. Congress, to eradicate “the worst forms of child labor” from their West African cocoa suppliers. It was a goal companies agreed to reach in four years. 
    Twenty-one years later, the practice continues. Nestle, Mars, and Hershey are working to encourage farmers to improve their working conditions and eliminate child labor, but the only way to make sure your chocolate is sourced ethically is to look for the fair trade certification label. 
    Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is touted as a health food. It very well may be. For me, though, the best chocolate experience is laced with butter, plenty of sugar, and a few nuts, caramel, or a creamy center. 
    Life really is like a box of chocolates. Enjoy your inevitable surprises.
                      -—Be curious! (and lick up every luscious drop!)

    The idea for today’s post came quickly. As soon as I saw an article on World Chocolate Day, I had to find out more. Unfortunately, during (and after) a wonderful whirlwind week with my grandsons and their family, the research never got done. Please come back next week to find out what I found out about chocolate.
                      --Be curious​! (and discover something delicious)

In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
        .     .     .
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere.
                                                 from Goodnight Moon
                                   written by Margaret Wise Brown
                                            pictures by Clement Hurd
                                                           Harper, 1947

    Can you still imagine Clement Hurd’s pictures of the great green room? You probably remember the old lady sitting on her rocking chair next to a table holding a telephone and a bowl full of mush. And the picture of the cow jumping over the moon in its scalloped frame. And the little mouse that appears on each page. What makes this simple story so incredibly memorable?
    In my blog celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter (7/31/2018), I made a list to define a literary classic. As I said then, I based the list on my training and experience as a children’s librarian, and my pleasure in reading to young children, (my own and other people’s), not-so-young-children, and reading to myself. Yes, I read children’s books. Really, I mostly read children’s books.
    Here’s what I came up with then, and I think it still holds true.

1. Re-readablility: How many times can you read the same book and enjoy it? Can you find new details that add to your understanding or your child’s? Is it still fun to read and listen to? 
2. Characterization: Are the characters real? Do they do real things and think real thoughts? Can  both you and your child identify with them? 
3. Philosophical: Does the book help you and your child understand what it means to be human? Life lessons in classic literature are hidden. They’re subtle. Are you still thinking and talking about the book and character(s) even after you finish reading it?
4. Emotional: Is the ending satisfying? Surprising, but tied up? Leave you feeling good? Even the sad ones, like Charlotte’s Web and Where the Red Fern Grows?
5. Sturdy: Is it able to stand the test of time? 

    Part of the reason Goodnight Moon keeps its charm after hundreds of readings, and I’m sure I’ve read it many hundreds of times, is because familiar objects and routines are just a little bit mixed up with the unfamiliar. It’s comforting to lie in bed getting sleepy surrounded by the cozy and familiar, but on the very last line of the book, the child narrator says “Goodnight noises everywhere.” Is she addressing the noises, wishing they would let her sleep peacefully? Or is she simply acknowledging and accepting their very existence, both the familiar and the strange.?             
    Questions without answers abound. Who will eat that presumably cold bowl of mush. Why say goodnight to nobody? Where is the old lady at the end of the story? These questions and others keep the story interesting time after time, for the children and their grown-up readers.
    Only one character, the narrator, describes her surroundings. And unless you count the old lady or the kittens or the little mouse, which I don’t, we watch her perform her bedtime ritual alone, saying goodnight to everything important to her. Even both moons, the real one outside her window and the one drawn in the picture of the cow jumping over it, and even that bowl of mush. In 1947, it was a ground-breaking move to write of the mundane in a children’s book.
    We see life lessons in Goodnight Moon. Children need routine and curiosity, relationships both real and fantastical, a firm grounding in their real surroundings and the freedom to imagine.
    Goodnight Moon is tied up at the end with a surprise. We, as readers and listeners,  expect the whole process of bedtime rituals to end with a parent’s kiss on sleepy eyelids. What we have is just as satisfying, but just a little unexpected. After saying goodnight to the outside world, we return inside to those familiar nighttime noises.
    My last criterion, can the book withstand the test of time? Well at 75 years and counting, I vote yes.
    People buy about 800,000 copies of Goodnight Moon every year. This includes gifts for new babies, personal purchases, and library copies. By 2017, the latest information I could find, an estimated 48 million copies have been sold. You can find copies published in French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Catalan, Hebrew, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Korean, Hmong, German, and Armenian (both the Eastern and Western dialects). 
    Even though the actual 75th anniversary of Goodnight Moon will not be until September 3, 2022, I decided to give the book and Margaret Wise Brown a little extra love and celebrate early. 
    So much changes in our fraught world. Sea-levels are rising and extreme weather events continue to wreak havoc on our Earth’s resources, plant, and animal life including our own. Wild fires rage. Laws change to promote the minority’s will. And all any of us can try to control or even influence (people, things, and ideas) are those nearest and dearest to us. 
    Just like Goodnight Moon’s narrator, we need to identify those things most precious to us, but unlike her, instead of saying goodnight, let’s fight back, with our words and our actions. 

                                        Be curious! (and courageous)  

    We were so far away from the sun that it didn’t look big anymore. It just looked like a very bright star. We were leaving the solar system!
                                         from The Magic School Bus:
                                             Lost in the Solar System
                                                written by Joanna Cole
                                            illustrated by Bruce Degen
                                                         Scholastic, 1990

    I was 16 years old in 1968, the year the Rock Musical Hair opened on Broadway and ignited the Age of Aquarius. Peace, it predicted, would guide the planets, and love would steer the stars. It would be a time of harmony and understanding. Sympathy and trust would abound. No more falsehoods or derision. Living dreams of golden visions and mystic crystal revelations would fill the earth. And the mind’s true liberation would be cause for celebration.
    Some lyrical interpretation makes a better narrative, but the gist is still here, even though we’re all still waiting for those predictions to come true. Seems like planetary alignment is more important to poets and astrologers than it is to astronomers and cosmic science in general. 
    But dreaming is important, even crucial to being alive in this time fraught with fear of so much that is out of our control. And real danger, too.
    All month astrology and astronomy are traveling companions, of a sort. Five major planets are aligned in the early morning sky. They have been visible without a telescope for most of this past month (June) and Friday (6/24/22), if the clouds stay away, will be the best day to look for them. About 45 minutes before dawn look toward the eastern horizon. At south-south east you’ll find Mercury pretty low in the sky. A little higher and about due east you’ll find Venus. A crescent moon comes next. Then look a little higher still and a little farther south. You’ll see Mars. Past Mars, Jupiter appears due southeast (is that a thing?) and higher still. Finally continue turning till you’re due south. You should be able to see Saturn a little lower in the sky than Jupiter. Here's a link to an article from Sky and Telescope. Scroll down till you see the skymap. 
    Sunrise occurs at 5:51 here in my part of Ohio, so I’ll need to be in my backyard by dawn, about 5:00. The birds start singing good morning, calling each other to my birdfeeder around 5:30, so it will dark and quiet. Trees clutter up my horizon. I'll need to take a short drive across the street to the country!
    Our sister planets all orbit the sun in similar orbits so being able to observe a conjunction (two or three planets close together) is fairly common. Seeing these five, though, especially in their order of distance from the sun, is pretty rare. According to astronomers, the planets won’t line up again like this until August, 2040. 
    Robert Fitzgerald, a prominent British astrologer says astrological ages shift about every 2,160 years. He says in The Astronomical Journal (02/06/16), we are at the edge of the Age of Pisces and about to enter the Age of Aquarius. We’ll be moving into an era of “genius and science, revolution, brotherhood, utopian ideals, immortality, and world culture.”  
    Okay, I’ll keep waiting, but I’m not as patient as I was when I was 16.

             Be curious! (and work toward the Age of Aquarius)

…word spread
from the port
to town
through the countryside
and into the fields
that a Union general read from a balcony that we were all
now and forever free
and things
would be
all different now.
                                           from All Different Now:
                          Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom
                                         written by Angela Johnson
                                           illustrated by E. B. Lewis
            Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014


    I remember when we celebrated Abe Lincoln’s birthday and George Washington’s birthday on their real birthdays. I remember when Decoration Day became Memorial Day. We all knew when D-Day was, and Armistice Day, and Pearl Harbor Day, too. 
    Names change to become more inclusive, dates change to become more convenient, and very occasionally, a new national holiday is added to our calendar to emphasize a particular aspect of American heritage or celebrate an event in American history. 
    Congress has considered national holidays honoring both Susan B. Anthony and Caesar Chavez, each for their contributions to American society. Since 2011, Congress has discussed, on and off, a proposal to make Election Day a national holiday. None of these suggestions has become reality.
    In 1934, FDR established the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, a national holiday. “Congress believed that the nation would be honoring the courage and determination which enabled generations of immigrants from many nations to find freedom and opportunity in America.” (Congressional Research Service Report) In 2022, many people choose to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October instead. 
    Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday has been celebrated as a national holiday since Ronald Reagan signed legislation in November, 1983.
    All together, we celebrate eleven National Holidays. Here they are. Even though Juneteenth has been celebrated, mostly in Texas, since June 19, 1865, it took over 200 years for Americans to recognize its importance and for our president to establish the day as a national holiday. Many people still don’t know why June 19 was selected for our newest national holiday, the first since 1983.
    Here it is: Juneteenth commemorates the end of the Civil War, the official end of slavery, and celebrates the significance African American heritage has added to our culture.     
    On January 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, through the Emancipation Proclamation, declared all enslaved people to be legally free. But that freedom could not take effect in places still under Confederate control. This included the western-most part of Texas. It took two-and-a-half more years before the announcement could be made telling the enslaved people there, that they are free.
    On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger along with 2,000 soldiers, rode into Galveston and explained that the Emancipation Proclamation combined with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States assured their freedom throughout the land. The 250,000 formerly enslaved people of Texas were finally and legally free. 
    The joint resolution of the amendment was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. In the language of the amendment, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
    The phrase “except as a punishment…convicted” was the cause of much agony. Its misinterpretation led to lynchings and Jim Crow laws, and did nothing to assuage ingrained, generational prejudice.
    In the century and a half since the end of the Civil War, our citizens, Black, white, brown, young, old, men, women, and everyone landing anywhere on the spectrum of these several dichotomies, grapple with what it means to be American. 
    Juneteenth can be appreciated by everyone. It’s a national holiday honoring our Union, the defeat of division, and a celebration of African American influences on American culture.
    Despite recent and current pushback, the US is becoming more diverse and more accepting. Our holidays and celebrations highlight and lift up our differences, and our similarities.
                           Happy Juneteenth!

                             Be curious! (and celebrate each other)​

Do not stand there, Reha, says Amma. Come in or stay out.
It’s the old superstition,
    .     .     .
neither inside nor outside,
            .     .     .
A metaphor, as Amma says,
for not doing anything halfway.
                                           from Red, White, and Whole
                                                      by Rajani LaRocca
                                  Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, 2021
   
    When I was in grade school, I spent birthday money or my weekly allowance coins at my local dime store to buy, among other stuff, lucky rabbits’ feet. I don’t remember how many I had. They had a way of getting lost or borrowed or given away and needed to be replaced. Some were dyed pink or blue. I preferred the plain white ones. Their claws were still attached. On the opposite end was a round metal clasp, like a cap. A chain made of tiny balls was threaded through a small hole at the top so it could be clipped to a keychain or necklace. 
    Like most of my friends, I carried a rabbit’s foot on my keychain for good luck. When our teacher handed out tests, purple-inked ditto sheets, sometimes stapled together, sometimes just a single page, we’d all lay our rabbit’s feet on our desks. For good luck, in case the studying and generic prayers were not enough to ensure our success. Just in case.
    One year, maybe third or fourth grade, our teacher told us “No rabbit’s feet in my classroom.” She gently explained that the good-luck charm had cost a living animal its life. 
    Why in the whole world had I not made that connection before? I was appalled. And now I had a dilemma. What would be the best way to rid myself of the sad and disgusting dead foot of a once living, furry bunny? The other sad part of this story is I don’t even remember. Maybe I gave it to a younger friend who did not have my same teacher. Maybe I gave it to my brother. I know I did not throw it away. That would have been sacrilegious. I’m not even sure I knew the word, but the idea of throwing away even part of a once-living being was as appalling as keeping it. 
    During a conversation with my older daughter we started talking about superstitions. She suggested that superstitions are portents of something bad. Unless you did a particular thing or carried or said one thing or another, something bad would happen. Black cats, ladders, and broken mirrors came to mind. But like carrying that rabbit’s foot, I knew sometimes superstition could foster good luck.
    The New World Encyclopedia defines a superstition as “a way of attempting to regain control over events, particularly when one feels helpless.” 
    Understanding why events occur is one of humanity’s deepest yearnings. When something good, or especially when something bad happens, a common response is Why me? The quest for answers has led to many superstitions. 
     Often superstitions are born through coincidence. Who besides me has a lucky shirt or a penny? or pair of socks? or fork? or pencil? … Sometimes the item wards off the bad, and sometimes it attracts the good. I’ve been known to walk under an open ladder, just to see. (BTW, nothing happened.) I’ve also been known to toss a few grains of spilled salt over my shoulder, just because.
    Some superstitions are particular to one society or culture or group of people. Some are more universal. Breaking a mirror will bring bad luck is a superstition believed in many cultures. It may have begun in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome whose citizens attributed a person’s reflection with a connection to a their soul. Viewing your reflection in a pool was akin to seeing your soul. When artisans learned how to put a high sheen on metal, they believed their gods could see their souls in these reflective pieces. Later, when mirrors were made of glass, they became much more likely to break, often due to poor handling. It was considered so disrespectful that “people thought it compelled the gods to rain bad luck on anyone so careless.” ("The Conversation" from the University of South Carolina)
    But maybe superstitions are really related to our attitude. If we think something bad will happen, but we carry a four-leaf-clover, or find a face-up penny, we’re likely to be more aware of the moment. We can ward off the bad happenstance through our own sensitivities. Likewise with “good” luck. If we expect good things will happen, we’re more likely to work toward that end. 
    I’m really more of a “gray” person than one who lives in the black and white of the world, but opposites are one of my fascinations. I keep a list of them. So I wondered, what is the opposite of superstition?
    Expecting something in the spiritual realm or something faith-based, I took a quick peek at the antonym for superstition on my computer’s built-in thesaurus. What I found was not really a surprise: science.
    Pure and simple, science is based in fact. But science is ever-changing and very complex. And we’re acquiring new scientific knowledge all the time. That doesn’t change the science, but it does change what we know to be true. At least until we learn the next new thing.
                                              -—be curious! (and believe)