Above all, [Clarence Darrow] hated capital punishment. . . [a]nd so his most ardent and strenuous fights were against what he saw as a barbarous practice, cruel and utterly useless in deterring crime.
                                        from Murder Among Friends
                                          written by Candace Fleming
                       Anne Schwartz Books/Random House, 2022

    I like to read, but mystery is not my go-to genre. Neither is true-crime. It’s not that I don’t want to grow brain cells trying to figure out “who done it,” it’s more like I want to build brain cells by imagining what could happen, not necessarily what did. 
    Besides, even after all the questions are answered and the last string is tied up, sometimes people (or fictional characters) get away with murder, or embezzlement, or kidnapping, or robbery. 
    And sometimes, the lawyers get it wrong. And sometimes the juries do, too.
    And so, here in America, as in other modern countries, we have a way to correct mistakes. When we talk about that kind of correction or forgiveness, we use several different words. 
So let me take a minute to sort them out as defined in the Austin American Statesman. 

• Pardon: Complete forgiveness for a crime. It removes legal penalties and can restore certain rights.
• Commutation: A reduction in a person’s sentence, such as shortening prison time.
• Amnesty: A broad act that forgives a group of people for offenses, often political in nature. (Remember when President Ford issued a partial amnesty to Vietnam deserters?)
• Reprieve: a temporary delay of punishment, often to allow for appeals or further review. 
• Stay: A temporary stop in a judicial proceeding through the order of a court. Similar to a Reprieve.
• Clemency: mercy, leniency, compassion. Can be awarded after someone petitions a judge, usually at sentencing.

    American presidents have lots of power to grant pardons and commute sentences of people who have been tried in Federal court. (Presidents cannot pardon anyone convicted in the court of a particular state or in civil court.)
    In his last weeks as president, Joe Biden commuted the sentences of lots of people and pardoned lots more. Thirty-seven of the 40 prisoners on death row benefit from life in prison, now. That doesn’t sound like much until we realize that the incoming president is expected to take a hard-line approach to federal executions. And what if some of those inmates really are innocent?
    According to Robin Maher on pbs.org, Biden’s “is the largest mass clemency grant of death-sentenced people by any U.S. president since Lincoln.” The three men whose sentences Biden did not commute were found guilty of terrorism or hate-fueled killings.
    At its beginning, capital punishment in the United States was influenced by English Common Law. The 20th century saw a more compassionate America. Stimulated by ethical issues, questions about wrongful convictions, and especially the outcome of Furman v. Georgia in 1972, executions were temporarily stopped. The Supreme Court who heard the case cited “arbitrary applications.” Could people’s lives really have been affected willy-nilly? 
    The reprieve only lasted four years. In 1976, the death penalty was reinstated, but with several prohibitions in place. Specifically, intellectually disabled people and minors are exempt.
    People in favor of the death penalty claim it is a deterrent to crime. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), among other well-established and well-recognized organizations disagrees. 
    Here’s an article from the National Institute of Justice, a US Government publication, that describes the false perception. 
    The Innocence Project “work[s] to transform the inequities and failings that lead to wrongful convictions, alongside policymakers, supporters, and partner organizations.” They have worked to free more than 250 innocent people from prison. They use DNA and other scientific technology to prove innocence when they can. When that is lacking, they often produce new and convincing evidence of their clients’ innocence. 
    The subhead under the headline on their website states, “[Biden’s] decision [to commute those 37 sentences] acknowledges the fallibility of the capital punishment system.”
    The Innocence Project supports their clients in rebuilding their lives after prison with their social work department. Most clients are from communities of color and face unrelenting discrimination. The people who work for the Innocence Project work hard to ensure compensation and help their newly freed clients find homes, health care, and meaningful work opportunities. 
    The District of Columbia and 23 states have abolished capital punishment in their states.
    Executions have been on hiatus during President Biden’s term in office. 
I’m reading Never Have I Ever by Joshlyn Jackson (William Morrow/HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019). When a beautiful woman and her son move into Amy Whey’s neighborhood, Amy’s world seems about to fall apart. Some secrets might be better off if they stayed hidden, but at what cost? This thrilling page-turning mystery is not what I’d usually pick up, but it’s a breath-taking and surprising read.
                             Be curious! (and exercise compassion)

    [Olivia] made friends with the animals right away and was thrilled when they agreed to go home with her!
                                                from Not My Circus
                                 written by Janet Sumner Johnson
                                     illustrated by Patrick Corrigan
                           Picture Window Books/Capstone, 2024

    I’ve never been to the circus. That’s true. But last week I was in Florida and my husband and I went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Museum and toured the grounds. 
    We wandered through the history of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and marveled at the acrobats’ athleticism, were mesmerized by a video demonstration of how a clown applied his makeup, and laughed as a couple of kids squashed themselves into a replica of the clown car used by Lou Jacobs. His car is on display, too. It’s hard to imagine how Lou folded his 6’1” body into the 2’ by 3’ foot car and drove it into the ring.
    In 1966, the 100th anniversary of John Ringling’s birth, Lou Jacobs’s face appeared on the first US postage stamp that depicted a living person.  Here's a picture (that won't load to the blog!)
https://www.vintagepostagestamps.com/product-page/5-circus-clown-25-stamps
    Then, in 1993, a 29-cent clown stamp (that looks a lot like Lou) was issued to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first circus in the United States.
    And it’s Lou’s face that appeared on circus posters, wagons, and memorabilia. 
    Lou Jacobs was a great clown. He worked for Ringling from 1925 until 1985. He was a Master Teacher at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College from its beginning in 1968 until he retired in 1991. 
    Although his is not a household name, Lou Jacobs is an American icon like Emmett Kelly, Charlie Chaplin, Carol Burnett. And Pinto Colvig (Bozo), Patch Adams (portrayed by Robin Williams), and Bob Keeshan (among others) as Howdy Doody’s sidekick, Clarabell. 
    The organization Clowns Without Borders reminds us that laughter is healing. “After all, comic relief IS relief!” 
    So, of course, I wondered how that works. When clowns express all their feelings and invite their audiences to do that, too, it’s called mirroring. That’s what lets us laugh at ourselves.
    First, a little drop of history.
    Pharaohs had jesters in Ancient Egypt. They amused their audiences because they were allowed to break society’s rules.
    Native American cultures had sacred clowns who used humor to teach lessons.
    Jesters in medieval Europe entertained Kings and Queens, but their jobs were dangerous. They critiqued the court by disguising their criticism in layers of humor. They mocked the court, sometimes at great risk to themselves.
    Jesters evolved into our famous and not-so-famous clowns. But their exaggerated make-up and dazzling clothes, huge shoes, and tiny cars did not mask their purpose: to entertain us by reflecting our society in slapstick, surprises, self-deprecation, and dry humor, poking fun at our taboos. Deadpan, “potty” humor, and puns, even sarcasm can get us to laugh at ourselves when delivered well. 
    Now we have Saturday Night Live, John Oliver, and Stephen Colbert. Richard Pryor, Carroll O’Connor, and Mel Brooks. While not in traditional clown costumes, the point of their humor, too, is to help us laugh at ourselves. 
    Clowns let us humans feel our humanity. 
    We will do well to take their jokes as the wisdom they really are. These next four years could be the funniest ever, if time really heals and we all live through them.
    Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is no longer performing live, but you can find an interview with Kenneth Feld, owner of the circus until he and his family closed it in 2017, lots of acts from the last RBBB show, and even the whole two-hour performance here on YouTube.             Their last Ringmaster, Johnathan Lee Iverson, might have said it best, though, when he quoted Dr. Seuss. “Don’t be sad that it’s over. Be glad that it happened.”  
    When RBBB closed for good on May 7, 2017, I thought the lights went out on all circuses forever. 
    Turns out Ringling was not the only show in town. In fact according to Wander Wisdom, over 50 circuses continue to tour in the United States every year. Some have a limited season, some a limited geographic area. Most have animal acts. All have acrobats. 
    But it’s clowns the audiences love most. 
    They help us laugh at ourselves.

I’m reading Murder Among Friends by Candace Fleming (Anne Schwartz Books, 2022). It’s a disturbing non-fiction study of how kids (the murderers were 19 years old) can grow up without a conscience. It’s a deep dive into what holds friendships together, and what drives them apart. This one’s not for everybody, but the research is thorough, and the compelling writing brings a new dimension to the “Gilded Age” in American history. 

                            Be curious! (and remember to laugh)     

Everyone thinks I named him Mango because of his orange eyes, but that’s not the case. I named him Mango because the sounds of his purrs and his wheezes and his meows are all various shades of yellow-orange, like a mango in different seasons.

                                      from A Mango Shaped Space
                                                          Wendy Mass
                  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2008

    For me, and most people, too, a sunset is a beautiful experience of colors brilliantly or gently mixing in swirls, lines, and bottom-lit clouds. Or the surprise of the first daffodil or dandelion or encountering Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.” It’s visual.
    When I hear a symphony, or jazz, or a folksong, the melody could be raucous or harmonic or an interesting or maybe grating combination. Or the delight of a baby’s giggle or the lyrical tune of a birdsong. It’s auditory.
    Even those two descriptions “stay in their own lanes” in my brain’s pathways. A picture forms when I read about the sunset, but sound is evoked by the description of the music.
    Since I watched and read about Pharrell Williams in Piece by Piece, his new biopic, I learned about synesthesia. According to healthline.com, “[s]ynesthesia is a neurological condition in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses. People are usually born with the condition, but some people develop it later.” Research is showing that synesthesia may be genetically inherited.
    The word itself comes from the Greek words synth (together) and esthesia (perception). Like Pharrell and others, sounds, especially music are visual as well as auditory. 
    Each of our five basic senses is processed in a different part of our brain. Synesthetes, though, simultaneously process one stimulus in different parts of their brains. While listening to middle C, for example, the auditory cortex will light up, but so may the visual cortex, showing the listener a color or shape. The parietal lobe, that part of the brain that distinguishes one taste from another, may also activate, associating the sound with a particular taste.
    All this is to say that people with synesthesia have brains that are hyper-interconnected in unusual and unexpected ways. Although synesthesia presents differently in different people, sensory triggers are consistent for each person. The main character in today’s quote tells us that all of her cat's sounds were shades of mango. Each time he purred or wheezed or meowed. it looked the same.
    There is no known treatment for synesthesia, but most synesthetes enjoy experiencing the world in their expanded, if unusual way. 
    Pharrell Williams’s particular form of synesthesia mixes sound and colors. He has been intrigued with LEGOs since he was young and his interest in “the infinity of space” was the catalyst for his collaboration with LEGOs designers to create a new spaceship set. As sometimes happens, one thing led to another and his biopic included not only Pharrell’s synesthesia but also his LEGO creativity.
    How the creators used Pharrell’s story to show the development of LEGO’s new Over the Moon set is its own example of creativity. The whole movie set is made of LEGO bricks, and then animated. The story opens with Pharrell’s discovery of sound images as he sits, fascinated, by the colorful music bursting from his turntable speakers.
    Mixing senses to create surprising and unusual images is often the work of poetry. Unexpected juxtapositions of familiar items help us think in new ways. 
    But it’s not only the job of poetry. Sensory images appear in our common vernacular, too. How about sharp cheddar? We don’t usually describe our food as a shape. Or the sweet sound of success. What does that even mean? And the whole genre of music: the Blues? 
    So could our senses be connected to our emotions? The short answer is yes. According to NeruoLaunch.com, “[o]ur five senses…are like gatekeepers to our emotional realm. Each sense has its own unique way of influencing our mood and triggering emotional responses.”
    When a piece of sensory information enters our brain, it creates its own unique pathway across our vast and complex neurological system. And at the center of it all is a collection of structures, the limbic system, our “emotional brain.” 
    Our limbic system acts as a bridge that uses our memories to connect our senses to our emotions. It taps into our vast mental library and compares the current experience with ones in our past. We feel the emotional response.
    And it’s not all unique to each individual. 
    Exposure to the color red can increase our heart rate and blood pressure. Blue calms us down. Studies have shown that even a brief exposure to nature can reduce stress and improve our mood. Most of us respond favorably to a hug. Music really can soothe our souls. 
    Even though my own experiences do not include mixing actual colors with the emotions evoked by the music, science has shown that    
listening to or singing the Blues helps us process our loneliness, sadness, and grief.
    On this last day of 2024, I’ll turn on the radio and sing along.

I’m reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Atlantic, 2023). It’s a three-generational saga that’s set in South India. A young girl (12 years old) travels across the water for her wedding, where she will meet her husband, a 40-year-old man, for the first time. According to the publisher, it is a “hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding… one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.  
                   Be curious! (and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”)

…I think it’s quite tragic.
Mum’s parts could help others,
And I think that that’s magic!
from Freddie and the Magic Heart
                                            written by Mark James
                                      illustrated by Lulu McWilliams
                           Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd., 2023
  (accessed on Hoopla through my library’s website 12/22/24)

    When I renewed my driver’s license, I also renewed the checkbox for organ donor. If my parts are good enough when my days are done, other lives can be saved. 
    It’s that simple.
    I don’t think of myself as more selfless, more generous, or more altruistic than anyone else, really. I think most of us go around this earth the best way we can and do for others when and how we’re able. 
    But some of us are heroes. Some of us are just better do-ers and better thinkers. They recognize the right choice and just do it.
    A core tenet of Judaism is gemilut hasadim, usually translated as “acts of lovingkindness.” Gemilut are actions done with reciprocity in mind and are valuable to everyone involved. Hesed (pluralized as Hasadim) is usually translated as “human kindness.”
    Rashi, a medieval commentator on Torah (the Five Books of Moses, including writings and commentaries on them) explained it this way in My Jewish Learning. “Hesed is when you give your heart and mind to the well-being of the [other] person…and when the command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ is fulfilled.”
    Brain research has recently discovered the science behind why some of us are more prone to extreme kindness than others.
    Abigail March is a neuroscientist and an associate professor in the neuroscience program at Georgetown University. She studies the brains of adults and adolescents to determine the differences that exist between people who have done altruistic acts (donating a kidney to a stranger, for example) and those labeled as having “severe conduct problems and limited empathy.”
    She found, and others have since corroborated, the amygdalas of altruists are larger and more active than those of psychopaths, their sociological opposites. The amygdala is the part of our brain that notices and reacts to emotions, especially fear. If we don’t recognize fear in others, we won’t be moved to help. Dr. Marsh would probably agree that It’s a lack of compassion more than an evil desire to do harm that stops someone from intervening in a dangerous situation.
    The opposite is also true. In her TED talk (September, 2016), Marsh defines altruism as “a voluntary, costly behavior motivated by the desire to help another individual.”
    She also claims that people are fundamentally compassionate. In our society, as we become more financially secure, we are better able to extend ourselves. 
    We also see more suffering. Altruism, like most human qualities, is found on a continuum. One end is anchored in selfishness, the other in altruism. Most of us fall into the vast middle. We donate time in food pantries, animal shelters, hospitals… or donate funds to help alleviate the suffering we see.
    Matthieu Ricard, a happiness researcher and a Buddhist monk, tells us that goodness is banal. It is common, obvious, and boring. We don’t pay attention to goodness, but we all agree with his comment when we notice that murder, theft, and other bad news get the attention of news reporters, whether in print, on air, or online (whether true or not).
    This is the season of gift-giving. While most of us will not give a kidney or lung or run into traffic to save someone’s life, I think most of us are doing the best we can. 
    When I looked up altruist in Thesaurus.com, I found contributor, philanthropist, promotor, humanitarian, and well-wisher among others.
    Selflessness is related to benevolence and kindness.
    And generosity is linked to hospitality, benevolence (again), largesse, high-mindedness, and open-handedness. 
    Do-gooders, all, to be sure, but giving does not have to be materialistic. Many of the most meaningful gifts involve kindness, compassion, and our time.
    According to St. Augustine, altruism (the act of doing for others) is the quality in humans that makes us like angels.

I finished reading Demon Copperhead and agree with everything I said last week. Although I’d love to spend the time to read David Copperfield for comparison, wow, so many books, so little time has become my mantra.
                                         Be curious! (and grateful)

Vocabulary—all the words you know.
After you read this book your vocabulary will be gigantic! (That’s fancy for really big!)
                    from Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words
                                          written by Jane O’Connor
                                illustrated by Robin Preiss-Glasser
                                     HarperCollins Publishers, 2008
    
    I learned about tofu presses the same time I realized I needed one. No problem. I made my own. A combination of the A and M volumes of my 1989 World Book Encyclopedia (the heaviest ones), a couple of large cans of diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, or tomato sauce (whatever is handy and NOT in glass), and a couple of thick dishtowels folded in half got the job started. I topped it off with my Roget’s Thesaurus and an American Heritage Dictionary. 
    While squeezing out the liquid by sandwiching the tofu between all those words does improve my recipes, it does nothing for my vocabulary. But when I find myself turning to Google and online dictionaries and thesauri, well, I like to think of my books as being useful, too.
    Speaking of words, we’ve come to the time of year when word-conscious organizations announce their “Word of the Year.” The criteria are different for each, and I’ve listed some of the most common ones.  
    dictionary.com analyzes data from headlines, search engines, and trends on social media to “identify words that [impacted] our conversations, online and in the real world.” They came up with demure, noting the American TikToker Jools Lebron’s viral media clip.
    Merriam-Webster bases its choice on results of “tracking a rise in searches and usage” from several sources. Their choice, polarization, describes not just division, but [political] division that is moving us “toward the extremes rather than toward the center.”
    Cambridge Dictionary uses three criteria to determine their word: 
        Which word was looked up most (or spiked)
        Which word captures best what was happening during the year
        What is interesting about the word (from a language point of view)
    The criteria pointed these scholars to the word manifest. Even though the word itself has been used for over 600 years, its common usage has changed from an adjective (to refer to something clear or obvious) or a noun (to refer to a list, say of passengers or cargo) to a verb. It’s scientifically unproven, but “famous performers, star athletes, and influential entrepreneurs claim they have achieved something because they manifested it.” Focus on something you want to do or be, then try and make it happen.
    Oxford University Press uses a combination of public input and their own language analysis to come up with their word. In 2024, the use of the term brain rot skyrocketed 230% from 2023. Brain rot is what happens when we overconsume online content that is particularly “trivial or unchallenging.”
    So four esteemed organizations used a combination of technology and humans to determine, in the words of Wikipedia, “the most important word [or phrase] in the public sphere” and came up with four very different words. 
    If you want to nominate your own word of the year, you can submit your choice to the American Dialect Society using their form. Click on the link to find a little history, some guidelines, and a place for your submission. ADS will announce their WOTY during their annual conference (in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America) upcoming in Philadelphia from January 9-12, 2025.
    Word of the Year generators are available on the Web. According to Andie Jaye, writing for MaryAnne Kochenderfer’s MamaSmiles, everyone’s Word of the Year will be different. Choosing one helps identify a “point of focus” or an intention for the coming year. It’s broader than a resolution. Your word can inspire, encourage, and motivate you throughout the year to become more self-aware. Here's a word list From MamaSmiles. Activities on the second page will help keep you focused.
     Here's another one from The Goal Chaser that includes lots of motivation to carry you through the year. 
    Nancy Clancy, in Jane O’Connor’s books (see quote at the top of the page) never says anything simply if she can fancify it. The series has been a hit since it first came out in 2005. 
    While journalists, editors, and literary agents of all kinds encourage their readers, writers, and clients to use simple, clear writing to express their ideas, we all know it’s not nearly as much fun as being fancy.

I’m reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, 2022, Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). It is a modern story inspired by David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1849) and addresses our society’s same ills: institutional poverty, dangers of the foster care system, child labor, poorly performing schools, addiction…that can’t be solved with Story. But, fiction takes a tiny step back from our reality to show us how life is for victims of extreme poverty and what it takes to move through it. 
                                     Be curious! (and choose your words wisely)

Trixie’s daddy called the airline
and asked them to look for
Knuffle Bunny on the plane. 
But the plane had left for
China!
                                         from Knuffle Bunny, Free
                              written and illustrated by Mo Willems
                                                 Balzer + Bray, 2010

    It was usually an uneventful walk to my elementary school, a short distance from home. Occasionally, it was scary, like the time I told a stranger-dog to Go Home! and it worked! 
    Or the exciting time I found a nickel.
    A nickel was a lot of money for a six-year-old, especially in those “olden days.” I wasn’t sure what I should do, but I knew I couldn’t keep it. It wasn’t mine, and some unfortunate schoolmate was surely sad and looking for it. 
    I showed the nickel to my teacher, Mrs. Zimmerman, and asked her what I should do. She told me to take it to the Principal. Mrs. Z must have known how intimidated I felt. She walked me to the Principal’s office and even spoke for me. 
    My kind and knowing Principal (I wish I could remember her name) said she would keep the nickel safe for a week. If no one claimed it by then, I could keep it. 
    After a long week, no one claimed the nickel and it became mine! A reward for my honesty, the Principal and Mrs. Z told me.
    Life was pretty grand for me, but I wondered for a while about the kid whose nickel I plinked into my piggy bank that afternoon.
    Then, the other day I saw an article on CNN about the Unclaimed Baggage Store.
    The store opened on a kind of whim in 1970. One day, Doyle Owens’s friend called him from Washington, DC. He had “mountains of unclaimed luggage and didn’t know what to do with it.” The friend worked for Trailways bus service. People forgot their bags, he said, or they were misdirected or otherwise lost. Doyle borrowed $300 and a 1965 Chevy pickup. He drove to DC, collected the suitcases, and when he got home, put ads in the Scottsboro, Alabama newspaper. 
    He set up the items on tables, and people flocked to the store. Doyle sold out, again and again. Now, 52 years later, the store is online and international. With over one million visitors annually, it’s become one of the area’s main tourist destinations.
    No wonder! More than 7,000 new items arrive daily and include everything from athletic shoes to zippered handbags. Designer jewelry and clothing, electronics, musical instruments, wigs, and books are just some of the types of articles you’ll find.
    The stuff are not those things people don’t want anymore. They are not useless birthday presents or the wrong brand of perfume. The merch that ends up in Scottsboro, Alabama, are precious. They’re sentimental. They’re those things travelers don’t want to leave at home when they visit their grands or embark on the trip of a lifetime or travel for business.
    If an airline has never lost your luggage, you are in the huge, vast majority of travelers. Over four billion bags are checked each year. According to Unclaimed Baggage’s website, 99.5% of suitcases do not get lost. But, if the math is correct or even close, about two million suitcases do go missing every year. 
    Most airlines are diligent. To protect customer loyalty and present a caring, concerned, and helpful face to the public, carriers invest “significant manpower and tracking technology” in making sure passengers are reunited with their stuff. 
    So where do they end up?    
    If, after an extensive three-month search, the owners are not found, airlines sell the lost luggage to the Unclaimed Baggage Store. They don’t profit from selling the lost bags. At best, they reduce their own monetary loss incurred by the search for owners and payouts to them.
    With the huge amount of new stock arriving each day, the Store has streamlined its procedures for handling it all. After it arrives, bags are unloaded without opening them or taking inventory. Then the merch is sorted. About 1/3 of lost items are “treasured finds,” looking for another go around with a new owner. Other items are donated to local, national, and global charities.” Unusable items are disposed of in the most environmentally responsible way possible.
    Electronics are tested and wiped clean of personal data.
    Clothing is washed or drycleaned as needed.
    Then, experienced retailers value items for sale at up to 80% of their value.
    Some of the most unusual items from the past 50 years are on their website. Click for a peek!
    Here’s a short list of some of the best ways to make sure your bags end up where you are when you arrive at your destination.

• Securely attach a luggage tag with your contact info on each bag (but not your address. That can alert a potential thief that you are not at home!). Put one inside, too.
• Remove old stickers, especially those with barcodes on them.
• Be ready to describe your lost bag. “Big and black” won’t get the job done.
• Check your bag(s) as soon as you arrive to give staff plenty of time to tag and load your bag(s) correctly.
• Tie a bright color to the handle or use a funky-colored bag. Other passengers will be less likely to mistake your bag for theirs.
• When you check in, match up your baggage receipt details with the tags your agent attaches to your bags.  
• Remember, most bags and people (and pets) arrive safely! 

I just finished reading True Grit by Charles Portis (first published in 1968 as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post). The story is the flashback of a colorful spinster narrator who tells how she searched for and found her father’s killer with the help of a US Marshall who had plenty of “grit.” By the end, readers will know that Mattie sustains herself with her own “true grit.”
                        Be curious! (and treasure what you love)​

For the first time ever,
they didn’t feel bad
about feeling bad,
or sad,
or mad
or happy.
They were free to feel
all their own feelings in their own way.
                                                      from Moo Hoo
                                        written by Audrey Perrott
                                         illustrated by Ross Burach
                                             Scholastic Press, 2024

    I was not that young, maybe nine or ten, when I caught my mom crying. She was cross-wise on her neatly made-up bed, sobbing. 
    I had never heard Mom cry before. Surely something terrible was going on. 
    “Sometimes even moms get sad,” she admitted when she noticed me. She assured me that all was well. I think I believed her. Neither of us mentioned it, ever, until now. And that’s all I know. We never mentioned it again.
    I never saw (or heard) her cry again, either. 
    According to the New York Times (11/14/24) though, “[c]rying is a quintessential human experience.” Crying is found on multiple continuums. Some of us cry a lot, some not so much. Some people cry easily, some only when profoundly moved. Some cry in sympathy with others, and some of us only cry when we’re alone. If you’re human, you cry.
    We cry to express emotion, and scientists have verified what most of us know. Our emotions are complicated. No single area of our brain has been identified with a particular emotion, say sadness or anger or joy. And, as yet, scans have not verified what actually happens in our brains when we cry.
    While crying is most often associated with sadness, Dr. Ad Vingerhoets, an emeritus professor of clinical psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and one of the foremost experts in human crying, named helplessness “the core element of crying.” Adult crying, for any reason, probably points us back to our babyhood reason for tears, a call for help or support. 
    Reflexive tears protect our eyes from irritants like dust, strong odors like the gas released by a cut onion, and even bright sunshine. Basal tears keep our eyes lubricated. But emotional tears are physically different from the other types. 
    According to NeuroLaunch, founded in 2022 by a team of experts in neuroscience and psychology and "committed to accuracy, accessibility, inclusivity, curiosity, and integrity," it is our lacrimal glands, tucked in above each eye, that produce our emotional tears. Strong emotions trigger the gland to produce tears rich in proteins and hormones. They contain higher levels of stress hormones like cortisol and a natural painkiller, leucine enkephalin. Oxytocin is released during emotional crying. So are endorphins. These chemicals contribute to the cathartic feeling many of us experience after a good cry. It is our body’s way of naturally self-medicating.
    All strong emotions are tear-triggers. The crying continuum that kicks in can be attributed to a complex interplay of individual personality traits, past experiences, and possibly a biological predisposition. 
    People who are more empathetic tend to cry more easily.
    Cultural and societal differences also matter. In societies that place a high value on bravery, strength, and masculinity, like ours, crying is viewed negatively. It is seen as cowardice or weakness. Other cultures value open emotional displays as a sign of sincerity and trustworthiness. Crying shows a direct expression of the crier’s true feelings. 
    The researchers at NeuroLaunch tell us that when we see someone cry it often triggers compassion in us. These connections can help encourage community-building. Tears signal that all is not well with us. They help us bridge the gap between our feelings and our difficulty in expressing them. Tears are a form of nonverbal communication. 
    Even though crying is beneficial and everyone does it, in our culture it’s not always appropriate. Suppressing our tears while giving a speech, teaching a lesson, or meeting someone for the first time, for example, is usually desirable. Sometimes a deep breath or two can help. 
    If you seem to cry all the time or even most or a lot of the time, you can try journalling or meditation. Or, it may be time to seek professional guidance. 
    Crying is the result of strong emotion and it is not all negative.
    Tears of joy are real, too. They help the crier deal with their feelings and they may encourage the witnesses to shed a few of their own, building a connection. 
    While research is still scant in the field of emotional crying, social and clinical psychologists are working with others in their fields of human behavior to discover whether crying helps children and adults develop a sense of morality, empathy, and ethics. Studies of depressive disorders, psychological trauma, and pathological grief are other areas they consider.  
    Science has come a long way since Charles Darwin deemed emotional tears a “purposeless phenomenon.”
    Mom may not have cried again, but I suspect she did. I hope she felt better for it. 

I’m reading A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings (St. Martin’s Press, 2024). Although I’m only a little way in, I am beginning to understand how tightly the grip of Ms. Levings's religious teachings bound her. The enormous conflict within herself spurred her escape from her husband’s extremism. She needed to save her own life and her children’s, too.  
    Be curious! (and don’t deny yourself a good cry now and then)

    Back home, George finished his concerto. It was just as he planned—daring, razz-ma-tazz, and dazzling. 
    It was a musical kaleidoscope of America’s melting pot.
    Rhapsody in Blue is what it was named. 

                                 from The Music in George’s Head:
                      George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue
                                            written by Suzanne Slade
                                          illustrated by Stacy Innerst
                                                   Calkins Creek, 2016

    One hundred years is a long time in anyone’s book, but 1924 faded into 2024 when Baron Fenwick began his performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Canton Symphony on November 23.
    Paul Whiteman, a prominent band leader, commissioned the work in 1923 to be performed in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday the next year. Whiteman wanted a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert, but Gershwin told Whiteman that he didn’t have enough experience, enough knowledge, or enough time to complete the work. George Gershwin was 26 years old.
    Then, during his regular billiard game, Ira (Geroge’s brother) interrupted them to read from an unsigned article in the New York Tribune. It said that George was working on a jazz concerto for Whitehead’s February 12 concert. It seemed that Whitehead’s arch-rival wanted to steal the idea of an experimental concert. With that info, Whitehead convinced George to pen the piece.
    We can’t know how Gershwin sounded as the soloist at his premiere at Aeolian Hall in New York City on February 12, 1924. Gershwin hadn’t even written down the solo piano sections until after the concert was over, and it was not recorded. 
    George Gershwin played by heart. And with heart.
    Frederic D. Schwarz said that Ross Gorman, the clarinetist who played the glissando that opens the piece, meant it to be a joke for George Gershwin, but Gershwin loved it. 
    The rest is history, living history.
    Schwarz continues in his American Heritage magazine (link above) that the glissando has become as instantly recognizable as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
    By the end of 1927, the piece had been performed by Whitehead’s orchestra over 80 times. His recording sold a million copies.
    Leonard Bernstein recorded “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1959 and again in 1976. 
    And in 1984, 84 pianists clad in pale-blue tuxedos, fronted by a bevy of dancers in flowy light blue gowns and backed by an orchestra in white, performed a spectacular, if abridged, version of Gershwin’s iconic American music at the opening ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Here’s a link to find it on YouTube.
    When Baron Fenwick took the bench of the grand piano on stage of the Canton Symphony last Saturday evening, he did so with exuberant enthusiasm, energy, and expertise, but no music. 
    Just like Gershwin, the music was in his head, too. 
    Fenwick delivered the masterpiece by heart and with heart. His standing ovation lasted several minutes while I hoped for an encore. But he left us wanting more.
    At only 29 years old, he’s won major piano competitions, played in important concert halls, and has had a concerto dedicated to him.
    While I’m not a stranger to classical music, I’m a fan and nowhere near an expert. 
    The day after my experience in Canton, I attended my grandson’s percussion performance where I was introduced to several avant-garde works by mostly young composers and traditional instruments performed in new ways. One performer used a bow to strum the pipes of her vibraphone.
    My very talented grandson played a new-to-me instrument, the water phone. It is an uncommonly-used musical instrument invented by an American, Richard Waters, in the late 1960s. It’s an idiophone, a metal instrument that produces its sound by creating resonance either by lightly striking it or bowing it. 
    Inspired by kalimbas, African thumb pianos, Waters continued experimenting by adding water to the base and was satisfied with the eerie, haunting sound his instrument produced. Nowadays, the shallow base is usually filled with water which amplifies the sound, and according to Waters, “bend[s] tones and create[s] water echoes.”  Here's a picture and a little more information.
    My grandson bowed a water phone in a piece called “Gasoline Rainbow,” composed by Adam Silverman in 2009. After the concert, I asked my grandson how he learned to play it. “Mostly by feel,” is what he told me. He’s right, of course! The thinnish bronze rods welded to the stainless steel bowl are of different lengths but not specifically tuned to a particular scale of tones. 
    Listen to a demonstration here. Scroll down to “What [does] a Waterphone sound like?”
    The grands and their parents are coming for Thanksgiving. I’m sure we won’t hear any waterphones, but I’m looking forward to listening to all the new piano pieces they’re learning. And maybe a preview or two from my younger granddaughter’s musical, Annie. 
    My older granddaughter is a violist. I’ll probably have to wait to hear her until we travel to Maryland next month.

I just started reading The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2024). According to the blurb, it’s more than a war story. It’s about sacrifice, commitment, idealism, and courage. More next time.
             Be curious! (and listen to the song in your heart)    

    When Mary was twenty-four, she made 
another amazing discovery!
This creature didn’t have legs.
Or flippers.
It had WINGS!
Mary had unearthed a prehistoric flying reptile called a pterosaur.
                   from Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries
                        of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist
                                           words by Linda Skeers
                              pictures by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
                Sourcebooks eXplore/Sourcebooks Kids, 2020

    I thought maybe one of my kids would be fascinated by dinosaurs, then I thought maybe one of my grandkids would be, but no. I learned all about Thomas the Tank Engine, cars, mushrooms, construction vehicles, fairies, and Teletubbies, disasters at sea, and weather, but no dinosaurs.
    We read lots and lots of books, but not about dinosaurs, real or imaginary.
    So I got pretty excited when I heard about the missing link bird fossil discovered in São Paolo, Brazil in 2016, and reported on again just last week. Paleontologists have been working on this marvelously intact fossil since its discovery. 
    Because birds’ bones are so delicate, this find is extremely rare. Most bird fossils are crushed by time, and the weight of what falls on top of them practically squashes them into two dimensions. 
    Although the soft brain tissue has been lost to time, historical evidence and previous knowledge allowed scientists to piece this fossil together with “remarkable detail.” Newsweek Magazine reported that modern technology has enabled scientists to “digitally reconstruct the bird’s skull and brain…”.
    The discovery bridges the period between the Paleozoic Era, when vertebrates and land plants first appeared, the Jurrasic Period of dinosaurs, and our own modern birds.
    Navaornis hestiae, named after its discoverer William Nava, is a new species. It lived from about 15 million years before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs until tens of millions of years after the oldest pterodactyls, those bird-like dinosaurs, flew above them. 
    Luis Ciappe, a curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, says of the discovery, [It’s a] "relatively small bird, something the size of between a pigeon and a starling. It would have been an active flier, fully feathered.”
    Researchers CT scanned the bird’s cranial cavity to accomplish the digital reconstruction of its brain. The portion of the cerebellum that controls flight in modern birds is not very well developed in Novaornis hestiae but, Chiappe continues, “features of the inner ear are greatly expanded, suggesting it used an alternative means of coordinating balance and flight.” The cerebrum, associated with higher level cognition, “is much larger than the bird-like dinosaurs that came before and almost as large as modern birds.”
    Their presumed “cleverness” probably helped these “transitional birds” find food and shelter and encouraged the development of their social structure. It “represents a species at the midpoint along the evolutionary journey of bird cognition,” says David Field, the Strickland Curator of Ornithology at Cambridge's Museum of Zoology in the same Newsweek article.
    The study of paleontology can help us moderns understand our own physical world. Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin both demonstrated that life during common time periods is more similar than life in similar geographic areas. That is, new species develop more readily over time than across miles.
    Studying fossils, one might say, is irrelevant (or should be) in these days of fraught politics and Climate Catastrophe, but that is precisely why paleontology is crucial.
    Adapted from the PLOS blog (Public Library of Science), Paleontology helps determine 

• the evolutionary identity of living and extinct organisms
• cause-and-effect relationships (how things actually change under different conditions)
• how rare events experienced in the past shed light on what our future may hold
• the relative magnitude of change in today’s world and how best to understand it

    Figuring out a fossil’s anatomy, developing critical thinking skills, and determining cause and effect are all crucial pieces of science that transfer to many aspects of our lives. Besides, dinosaurs are cool.
    Again from PLOS, “[the] parallel between the relevance of life’s history and the relevance of our cultural history is a good one. When paleontology is reduced to cataloging the weird things that once were, it instantly becomes as irrelevant to our own time as cultural or political history would be, if it were reduced to a list of things that once happened.” (italics mine)

I’m reading The Witches of Willow Cove by Josh Roberts (Owl Hollow Press, 2020). It’s his debut about a small town, being the “new girl,” and witches. Roberts combines the Salem witch trials of the 1690s with modern girls turning that magic age, 13. Spooky without being scary and modern yet drawing on history, this one is a highly readable tale with a touch of mystery. 
                           stay curious (and learn from the past)

Hana practiced every day, just like Ojichan. And every day her brothers [complained] about the horrible noise. 
    [The day of the talent show arrived and Hana remembered Ojichan’s advice, “Do your best, dearest Hana.”]
                                   …
    “This is the sound of a mother crow calling her chicks,” she said. She placed the violin under her chin, held her bow in position and played three squawky notes.
    “This is the sound of my neighbor’s cat at night.”
                                    …
    Finally, as the last sound effect trailed away, Hana tucked her bow and her violin under her arm. “And that,” she said to the audience is how I play the violin.”
    Then she took a great big bow.
                               from Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin
                                         written by Chieri Uegaki
                                           illustrated by Qin Leng
                                             Kids Can Press, 2014

Please note: In light of the results of last week’s election, I just signed up for BlueSky Social. After this post, I have decided to stop posting on Twitter (X). You can still find my old posts there, and I am continuing to post here on my website, www.ShariDellaPenna.com/blog, my FaceBook page, and now @sharidellapenna.bsky.social, too. I hope this is easy for you. Thanks, as always, for understanding.

    I have resiliency bred into my DNA. 
    First, a little history. Catherine the Great established the Pale of Settlement on Russia’s eastern border in 1791 and forced the whole Jewish population to move there. Pogroms began some thirty years later. Organized by the Crown, mobs looted, burned, and murdered Jews living in small communities in the countryside. (Think Fiddler on the Roof)  
    When Nicholas I, Catherine’s grandson, came to power in 1827, he conscripted young Jewish boys, as young as twelve years old, to twenty-five years of mandatory military service. Not a typo. Twelve years old, twenty-five years of service. 
    Then, in 1881, when my gram was a baby, Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. According to most accounts, the Russian government used his murder as an excuse to target the Jews even further. 
    In 1903, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a cruel and vicious document created by the Tsar’s secret police force, was published and widely distributed. It might have been the first bestselling “fake news,” and it led to the massacre and exile of hundreds of thousands of Jews.
    In 1903, in Russia, against this violent, unstable, chaotic environment, my great-grandmother had the audacity to bear a child. Three years later, Gram brought my three-year-old grandmother to find a better life here in the USA. 
    My father’s parents also grew up in the Pale of Settlement. The planet was in the midst of World War I in April 1917 when the US declared war on Germany. My dad was born a mere 3 months later in Schenectady, NY. 
    Unbeknownst to anyone, a virulent flu would be unleashed less than a year later. The flu killed more people than even the “war to end all wars.”
    Grandmothers on both branches of my family tree uprooted themselves to start over in a land of strange food, strange customs, and a strange new language.
    They did not move away from fear, anxiety, and scarcity (although they did that, too). They moved toward a chance for safety, freedom, and hard work that would lead to financial security for their families. 
    My mom and I would have a discussion sometimes when I was growing up and when I was grown. Mom was a “bootstraps” kind of woman. “People just need to gather their bootstraps and pull themselves up,” she would tell me. 
    “What if they don’t have any?” I’d counter.
    “Then they best go out and get some. Your grandparents never asked for a handout.”
    Yikes. But, on some level, I understand. They were resilient.
    To research resiliency, I listened to a TED talk given by Lucy Hone. (Look it up by typing in her name and her title: Three Secrets of Resilient People.) 
    She says her three strategies are not automatic and even though they are easy to learn, they are not always easy to implement.
    1.  Resilient people, she says understand that sh*t happens. They know that suffering is part of life, and terrible and tragic incidents happen. And they happen randomly. Resilient people don’t often ask “Why me?” That doesn’t matter. Entitled people, quite a large amount of people today, believe that good is the norm. Resilient people know the exact opposite is true.
    2.  Resilient people are really good at focusing their attention on what they can change and somehow accept what they can’t. 
    This is a vital and learnable skill of resilience. Resilient people don’t ignore the negatives, they have worked out a way of focusing on the good. Resilient people look for things to be grateful for. A recent scientific study showed that after six months, people who named three things they were grateful for each day showed a higher level of gratitude and happiness and a lower level of depression.
    Science tells us we are better off when we make an intentional, deliberate, and ongoing effort to tune into what’s good in our lives.
    3.  Resilient people ask themselves, “Is what I’m doing helping or harming me?” They ask the question many times throughout their day. By asking, we bring an intention to our decisions and give ourselves control over our decision-making.
    Resilience is not a fixed trait. In an article posted at InBrief: The Science of Resilience (find it on YouTube) we learn that our genes determine where our center of resiliency is. Optimism and pessimism are two ends of a continuum. Some of us have the propensity to be optimistic, some pessimistic.
    We all fall somewhere between the extremes. 
    Our environment and our life experiences, combined with the ways we react to them, are highly individual and highly interactive.  
    My grandmothers taught me to move toward the future. Lucy Hone reminds me to be grateful and stay conscious of my thoughts and behavior.
    She says, “It is possible to live and grieve at the same time.” 
    I say we have to.

I’m reading Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby (Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2021). It is very readable, clear, and concise. My “history lesson” came from Ms. Tishby. 
   Be curious! (Take time to grieve. Then, take stock and act.)