Shari Della Penna

To the Space Station

5/26/2020

Well, if I’m going to be stranded here, I might as well take a look around.
from Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars
Schulz, Charles M.
KaBoom!, 2020 [electronic resource]

I grew up when space exploration was an exciting frontier. We watched TV shows like “My Favorite Martian,” “The Jetsons,” and “Lost in Space.” “Telstar” shot to the #1 spot on the pop music charts.
   At school, we gathered in the gym to watch spaceship launches. A local TV channel projected the news in real time. We were in awe. Lots of my classmates wanted to be scientists, astronauts, and explorers. I did not.
   I liked the safety of my own front door. I liked feeling cool grass between my toes on a hot, summer day. I liked reading books about kids like me, kinda boring, but grounded.
   Tomorrow afternoon at 4:33 EDT, SpaceX will launch its Crew Dragon spaceship. (Wednesday, 5/27/2020) It’s not the first time the shuttle will see space, but it’s the first time it will carry people when two experienced astronauts climb aboard and fly to the International Space Station.
   The 27 foot tall craft, about the height of a three-story building, will transport Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. To watch live coverage, go to NASA.gov then type ISS in the search box on the top right. This will take you to a live stream of the blast off.
   The International Space Station is a space laboratory. NASA is using the what they learn there to help us understand how spending time in space and in a confined area affects people. The goal is to make it possible for humans to travel farther into space than ever before.
   Finding the ISS while traveling 17,000 miles per hour in orbit around the earth is a tricky business, especially since the space station is also moving. Traveling about 17,500 miles per hour, the ISS is in its own orbit about 200 miles above the earth. It makes one full orbit every hour and a half. The scientists have it all worked out though. It is more a matter of getting close and doing a series of U-turn maneuvers, kinda waiting until the space station finds its way to the craft. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/earth_day.html
   The Crew Dragon is expected to dock on the space station late Thursday morning. So about 17 hours to travel 200 miles at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.
   On the face of it, it seems like, (if not for being in space) you could walk there faster! But, I’m not an astrophysicist.
   It’s the first time in eleven years that a shuttle will launch from Kennedy Space Center. An American crew will take off from American soil in an American built craft. For the last nine years, the United States has been depending on Russia to transport our astronauts to the International Space Station and bring them home. NASA had been working on the development of a shuttle, but cost overruns and delays put plans on hold.
   Now in private/public ventures, four different companies are working on designing re-usable space craft. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, of course. But Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin, too.The plan is for the space capsule to be used and reused for 10 flights before it will need significant refurbishing.
   In the 1990s, the ISS was renamed and redesigned to reduce costs and expand international involvement. In 1993, the United States and Russia decided to merge their separate facilities into one, and shortly after invited Japan to join them. Canada, Brazil and eleven members of the European Space Agency joined forces, too.
   The ISS has been continuously occupied by humans since November, 2003. Astronauts and cosmonauts come and go, staying for various amounts of time, and performing different experiments. “Moving astronauts and cosmonauts, science experiments, food, water, air, spare parts, and other supplies to and from the ISS is a highly choreographed international operation that must be executed with near perfection, every time."
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2018/04/30/what-does-it-take-to-keep-the-station-stocked-with-supplies/
   Nationalism is raising its ugly head in all different countries and parts of societies. But we may be witnessing a whole new era. Scientists tend to live in a world where cooperation is necessary and expected. Space exploration and space travel are cooperative ventures where learning and teaching each other is commonplace. In the area of space science, at least, many people have learned to work together toward common goals.
   The goal is Mars, and by 2034, to invite regular people along for the ride. (see “Far Out!” 7/16/19) I’m not sure I’d sign up if I got the opportunity, but I bet lots of people would.
--stay curious! (and fly high)

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Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown

5/19/2020

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Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Good night noises everywhere
from Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown
pictures by Clement Hurd
Harper, 2016 [electronic resource]

I love picture books. I mean I really love them. I love the honest emotions they explore, the wisdom they illuminate, their humor, raucous and quiet, and the way a whole story unfolds between 32 pages. I love the way the pictures expand the text, and how the text plays with the pictures.
   Well, in my twenty-five years as a children’s librarian, and since, I have read my share of picture books that made me stop and say, “How did *this* get published?” “Where was the editor?” “What could the author have been thinking?”
   But, if I’m being honest, (of course I am!) most of what I read and shared with children was and still is excellent literature. Just like the short story or a novel or poetry, there is an art to a picture book, aside of course, from the illustration. But there is a craft, too. For the last several years, I have been studying that craft. I’ve learned about character development, story arcs, and the importance of point-of-view. I’ve studied and tried techniques for using dialogue, crafting plot points, and incorporating language play.
   I’ve explored the importance of tapping into my (potential) readers’ emotions, widening their world view, and creating tension for the beautiful release it offers when done correctly, like breathing in and breathing out.
   One of my favorite authors has always been, or at least since I found Goodnight Moon at the library when my girls were small, Margaret Wise Brown. She wrote beautifully simple, true stories that are a pleasure to read over and over.
   In The Runaway Bunny, the book I gave each of my girls as they left for college, a little bunny has decided to run away from his mommy and his home. He poses different scenarios to his mother. She promises to help him make his dreams come true. My favorite pages go like this:
   “If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,” said his mother,
   “I will become the wind and blow you wherever you want to go.”
When I was still working, I was advised not to use The Runaway Bunny with groups of children. Every other spread in the book is black and white, and their attention would wander. “My” children loved the story, though. The colorful pictures show the mommy bunny’s dreams for her child. They contrast with the black and white illustrations depicting reality. The distinction was not lost on the storytime crowd, young as they were.
   Almost every mother realizes she won’t be able to take care of her children for their whole lives. Reality holds many possibilities that make this statement true. But almost every mother wants her children to be happy. She wants to encourage them to dream impossible dreams and help them make those dreams come true.
   Even though she freely admitted that she didn’t really like children, (https://www.npr.org/2017/01/22/510642518/goodnight-moon-author-margaret-wise-brown-was-no-old-lady-whispering-hush) Margaret really knew how to write for them, and their grown-ups, too. She published over 100 books in her short life. One day she was at her doctor’s office literally kicking up her heels to celebrate how well she was feeling, when she dislodged a blood clot and died almost instantly. She was only 42 years old.
   Well past an average lifespan now, (Margaret would be 110 years old this coming Saturday, May 23, 2020), much of the world of children’s literature still mourns her untimely passing and celebrates her remarkable career.
   Two biographies have been published pretty recently. In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary (Flatiron Books, 2017) tells a somewhat narrative tale of Margaret’s colorful life. Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus (Beacon Press, 1992) is a more straightforward telling.
   In 2019, HarperCollins published a picture book biography by Mac Barnett and Sarah Jacoby, The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown. The title refers to her Important Book and begins with a quote: “It did not seem important that any one wrote these stories. They were true. And it still doesn’t seem important! All this emphasis today on who writes what seems silly to me as far as children are concerned.”
   But who writes the stories is indeed important. Children can grow up to be authors. And artists. And actors. And explorers, nurses, physicists, cosmologists, and cosmetologists. They need role models and teachers. And books where they can see themselves and find themselves.
   As Mac Barnett reminds us in his 42 page book, there were many important things about Margaret Wise Brown, but the most important thing is, she wrote books for children.
   And the important thing about that is, books help children dream.
   Happy birthday, Margaret Wise Brown.
RIP
-—stay curious! (and dream big)

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Could this be the Era of the ERA?

5/12/2020

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Nowadays, girls didn’t need special treatment as if they were weaker—in fact, nowadays they’d be knights, too.
from Here in the Real World
by Sara Pennypacker
HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2020

   Is it true that of all modern nations in the world, only the United States does NOT have guaranteed rights for all its citizens? Well, I’m afraid so. The white men who wrote the Constitution at the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia in 1787 were men of their day. It was signed on September 17 of that year. On June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify, the Constitution was officially adopted.
   Amendments seek an improvement, a correction, or a revision to the Constitution. Two thirds of both Houses must agree that an amendment is necessary in order to introduce it, and three fourths of the States need to ratify it before it's adopted. That puts the magic number at thirty-eight (3/4 of 50).
   Thousands of amendments have been discussed and not proposed. To date, 27 amendments have been approved, including the first 10 (the Bill of Rights) and only six have been introduced and not adopted.
   Of those, four have no expiration date, so technically still can be considered. They include a way to expand representation in the House of Representatives, prohibition of the acceptance of Titles of Nobility or other honors from a foreign power, a pro-slavery amendment sent to Congress on the eve of the Civil War, and one regulating child labor.
   Two proposed amendments have expiration dates and have expired. An amendment granting the citizens of the District of Columbia full congressional representation and the ability to vote in national elections expired in 1985 with only 6 states having ratified it.
   But when the original deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment came and went in 1979, Congress extended the cutoff date to June 1982. Thirty-five of the necessary thirty-eight states had ratified it by then.
   Nevada ratified the amendment in 2017, and Illinois in 2018. On January 15, 2020, the Virginia legislature passed a resolution to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, the thirty-eighth state. One month later, February 13, 2020, the US House of Representatives passed a joint resolution to remove the original time limit. Ah! So why hasn’t it been adopted yet?
   Well, lucky for me it doesn’t have anything to do with fractions.
   Without getting too deep in the weeds or too far down a rabbit hole, it has to do with deadlines and how they are worded. In 1921, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could put time limits into a proposed amendment, but is not required to.
   For example, James Madison proposed the 27th Amendment in 1789. It was not ratified until 1992. Yep, 203 years later, 1992. That Amendment says any pay adjustment (raising or lowering) Congress may pass for itself can’t go into effect until after the next Federal Election. That Amendment did not have a deadline.
   The drafters of the ERA chose to include a time limit. But they included it in the text of the amendment itself, not in the resolution language that *proposed* the Amendment. What’s the difference, you ask? Good question. Garrett Epps, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Baltimore asked it this way: If the congressional-pay amendment could come back from the dead after two centuries, why not the ERA after a mere decade and a half? Since the ERA limit has already been changed once by Congress, why can’t another Congress change it again, retroactively? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/will-congress-ever-ratify-equal-rights-amendment/580849/
   The answer is, it depends. Of course it does. It depends actually on two decisions. The first is congressional approval of a new time frame. Can it be changed again? So far, the House thinks so. Also, four states that had voted to ratify have since changed their mind and passed resolutions of “rescission.” A state’s vote to rescind has never been accepted as valid, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be argued.
   The 14th Amendment granting citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States was ratified in 1868. Even though the 14th Amendment granted them citizenship, women didn’t get the right to vote for fifty-two more years. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.
   Section 1 of the Equal Rights Amendment says simply: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Seems to me that a statement like that should be understood within the Constitution itself. But it’s not.
   All members of the Constitutional Convention were white men. They were products of their day. As a society, we have become more and more inclusive even as we have become more and more polarized.
   But discrimination, (making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit https://www.dictionary.com/browse/discrimination?s=t) has no place in a society that values kindness, courtesy, and compassion.
-—stay curious! (and tolerant)

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May 4 . . . a Fifty Year Reflection and Some Other Related Stuff

5/5/2020

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Shiela Rae was brave. She was fearless. … When her sister Louise said there was a monster in the closet, Shiela Rae attacked it.
from Shiela Rae, the Brave
written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 1987

The year is 1971. I graduated from high school in June and my plans for college were all set. I thought I’d like to stay a little close to home, and Kent State University sounded like a good choice to me. My mom and dad were concerned, though, since four students were killed by the National Guard and nine were injured just a little more than a year before. Besides, they said, I’d be better off at a smaller school.
   For reasons beyond the scope of this page, and for some reasons I still don’t understand, I registered for classes at Ohio Northern University, a small school in northwestern Ohio, about three hours away from home. Many very good and some not-so-good decisions were made there, by me, by my classmates and roommates, and by those in charge of one thing and another.
   Even though I did not know any of the students who were killed or hurt at KSU, the incident stayed on my mind. It was the senseless and random violence of that tragedy that stuck with me.
   Several years later I met one of the National Guardsmen who was there. He was an acquaintance of my ex-husband’s. It was probably around 1979, and he said he was not allowed to talk about it. At all. And he didn’t. He looked uncomfortable and I believed him.
   I’ve always been uneasy around guns. Even though my brother played with toy guns and I sometimes played with him, it was pretend. I’m not sure that made it okay, but that’s how it was.
I don’t know if my father kept a gun in the house. I suspect not. Even thinking as hard as I can, I have to admit that I really don’t know.
   My brother never kept a gun in his house. I never asked him, it’s just something I know in my soul. I think my nephew or nieces did not play with toy guns, either.
   I don’t know if any of my brothers-in-law had a gun. It was a discussion we never had.
   My ex-husband felt the same as me. He did not have a gun.
   My husband had a gun for a time. I think he kept it in the back of the closet. He sold it many years ago and I’m glad it’s gone.
   Guns are always in the news. Guns are in the paper, on TV, in movies. Whether we want to admit it or not, our society is a violent one. Maybe it has something to do with the Wild West. Maybe it has something to do with our desire to be seen as strong and fearless. But powerful people don’t always make good decisions. Gun-toters aren’t always brave.
   And I know not everyone who carries (or owns) a gun is homicidal or suicidal or mentally ill or unstable.
   Gun shops were declared an essential business in our age of COVID-19 and gun purchases have surged along with the virus. I’m not sure why. Protection, I guess. From burglary? Do people really think someone will come steal their toilet paper or hand sanitizer?
While homicides have indeed decreased, domestic violence has increased. After all, if kids are not in school, bars are closed, movie theaters shuttered, mass shootings, of course, will decrease. But tragically, hate and anger will find their own outlet. So the irony is, we have been told to stay home, to stay safe. But, some homes are not safe.
   And while the Dickey Amendment prohibits the Federal Government from allocating funds to advocate or promote gun control, in March, 2018, Congress reached a compromise of sorts. Language stating the Secretary of Health and Human Services has the authority to conduct research on the causes of gun violence. But, even though research is allowed to be conducted, that research has yet to be funded. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993413/ The NRA, while experiencing funding issues of its own, is still a powerful political force.
   But gun’s are not just for civilians. Police and soldiers carry guns, tools of their trades. They are used for self-defense or to protect the values of the United States and our citizens. But not always. That is not the case when police kill civilians. The Washington Post has been keeping track of that since 2015. Here’s the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
   A big part of the problem is the weapon of choice. While most victims of hand gun violence can recover from their injuries, victims of assault type weapons will not.
   When soldiers use rifles kill students on a college campus in the outskirts of a small town in Ohio, the reverberations are heard and felt 50 years later.
   The United States is not the only country to experience senseless civilian shootings on a mass scale. About two weeks ago, a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. One week later, Prime Minister (of Canada) Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban on assault type weapons. Current gun owners can sell back their newly-illegal weapons. Detail of the ban are still being worked out.
   Strength and courage sometimes means solving a problem, even when the solution is complicated. Thanks, Mr. Trudeau, for being like Sheila Rae, brave and fearless.
-—stay curious! (and stand strong)

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Trees . . . For Goodness Sake!

4/28/2020

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“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
from The Lorax
written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
Random House, 1971

We can’t hug our friends, neighbors, or even family members, but Nature is singing to me this spring. Especially this spring. It’s time to get out there and hug a tree!
   I wonder about tree-related words. “Forest” and “woods” are common enough, and woods are smaller than forests, but how about the difference between an orchard and a grove. Turns out they are both groups of trees, nut or fruit trees or a combination of both. I checked Grant Barrett’s website https://www.waywordradio.org/orchard-vs-grove/ and found out that an orchard is specifically planted to raise fruits and or nuts and a grove is not necessarily planted, but is full of nut trees and / or fruit trees, anyway. Why is a group of orange trees called a grove and an apple farm called an orchard? Well, according to Grant, it just sounds better that way. So there you go!
   What is an arbor, then, and why do we call the holiday Arbor Day? According to www.dictionary.com an arbor is “a leafy, shady recess formed by tree branches, shrubs, etc.”
   Started as a formal holiday in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton shortly after he moved to Nebraska Territory, Morton recognized the importance of trees for holding the soil in place and for windbreaks, fuel, building materials, and shade from the hot prairie sun. Morton was a journalist and became editor of the first newspaper in Nebraska. He used his paper to write about his love of trees and encouraged many of his neighbors to plant the trees they sorely missed after moving West themselves.
   Other states passed legislation to institute Arbor Days of their own, and by 1920, forty-five states and territories celebrated Arbor Day. For many years, it was celebrated on April 22, J. Sterling Morton’s birthday.
   Many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year, though. They base their observance on the best tree-planting times in their area. The dates range from the third Friday in January in Florida and Louisiana to the first Friday in November in Texas and Hawaii. California celebrates for a whole week in March, but most states join the National celebration now held on the last Friday in April. Here’s a map. Just scroll over your state to find when your celebration is held. www.arborday.org/celebrate/dates.cfm
Not wanting to let anyone down, since this is also still National Poetry Month, and the last Tuesday, at that, here’s my poem for the week.
Two Trees Trapped in Concrete
Twiny twigs tremble,
resemble fingers wind-dancing

while branches touch, catch, stretch skyward,
a lacy embrace.

Canopied leaves glow green and green.

But rumbly roots dig deep,
search for earth,
downward, downward, sideward,
an ugly
unseen struggle
against
cement.
And finally, here is an important good-news article from the Arbor Day Foundation’s blog.
   On Oct. 25, 2019, social media influencers partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to launch an initiative called #TeamTrees. Their goal was to raise $20 million for tree planting by Jan. 1, 2020. During the next two months, more than 800,000 unique donors from 200 countries and territories around the globe visited TeamTrees.org to make a donation. On Dec. 19, that goal was surpassed and the promise of more than 20 million trees became a reality.
   Now the Arbor Day Foundation’s planting efforts are in full swing, as our goal is to plant all the trees funded through #TeamTrees by December of 2022. Nearly 30 projects have been selected for planting in 2020, and many more are being planned for the coming years. Following is an inside look at three of the projects benefitting from #TeamTrees this year. https://www.arborday.org/programs/replanting/teamtrees/
   Lots of cities across the United States are part of the Arbor Day’s Tree City USA program. Mine is. Find out if your city has that designation here https://www.arborday.org/programs/treecityusa/directory.cfm and how to become included if it is not.
   The symbols of each state include a tree. Find yours here https://statesymbolsusa.org/categories/state-tree
   Thirty-three countries all over the world, including the United States, celebrate Arbor Days of their own.
   The whole world celebrates trees!

-—stay curious! (and smile back at Mother Nature)

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’Tis the Day Before Earth Day

4/21/2020

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Earth Mother walked across the African savannahs wearing a robe fringed with falling rain. She filled the water holes and sharpened the thorn bushes.
from Earth Mother
written by Ellen Jackson
illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
Walker Publishing Inc., 2005
read on-line 4/21/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zq58hc7B8A&t=334s
The rest of Earth Mother shows how Earth Mother received thanks from humans for providing frogs to eat, but they complained about the pesky mosquitoes. She received thanks from the frogs for providing mosquitoes to eat, but they complained of humans eating their kind. She received thanks from the mosquitoes for providing humans, so juicy, but the mosquitoes complained about the frogs, always eating them.
   Then, Earth Mother said goodnight to the beetles, to the hawks, to the people, to the sunbirds, to the frogs, the whales, to the mosquitoes and the fireflies, and to her children everywhere.
   And then she went to sleep and the world, in its own way, was perfect.
   I remember when I learned about conservation. My teacher stressed that the word meant “to use wisely,” not “to save.” I took that message home and my mom told me a story.
   Mom told me about my dad’s mom. She saved a pair of silk stockings my dad brought home for her when he returned from fighting in World War II.
   She never wore them. Babba (we called her) kept them in her dresser drawer instead. Too pretty, too expensive to wear, lest they wear out. My mom and my aunt found them, still in their box, still wrapped in tissue paper when they closed up the house after Babba and my grandpy passed away.
   When my mom tried to lift those stockings out of their carefully protected place, the material had disintegrated.
   “What a shame,” I remember my mom saying. “No one got to enjoy them.”
   To me, conservation is kinda the same. For me, the opposite of conserve is “waste,” not “use.” Some consumables we need: water; fabric for clothing; materials for shelter. We need to enjoy them. They can be replaced, regrown. They are renewable.
   Here’s my poem for Earth Day, 2020.
Lament to Our Mother: What Have We Done?
Atmosphere, breathless
smokestacks relentless,
spew carbon high,
hiding the clouds.

Oceans fantastic
succumb to more plastic
than even a whale
can enshroud.

Ground so polluted
crops are diluted.
They feed but don’t nurture
our souls.

Machines clack and clatter
exhausting all matter
of solitude,
solace, control.

Thunberg, Muir, Gore,
and so many more
warned catastrophically
clear.

But icebergs drip, dripping
hurricanes whipping
cause us to all
live in fear.

Does she take it in stride,
All patience and pride?

Our Mother Earth
can’t reconcile
our path to destruction
discarding instruction.

She brings out her
sunshine and smiles.

This week marks several anniversaries.
   It’s been 10 years since the Deep Water Horizon explosion caused the largest oil spill in United States history. Located in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 people were killed, millions of gallons of oil spewed into the water for 87 days, countless marine wildlife were killed. A toxic crude oil component (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) are still found in Gulf fish and mammals. Billions were spent by BP and the government on clean-up. Research is ongoing.
   Early in 1970 Richard Nixon, of all people, signed the Environmental Protection Act into law. This led to The Clean Air Act and the The Clean Water Act, also to Nixon’s credit.
   Clean Air Act programs have lowered levels of common and toxic pollutants. Although water continues to be polluted in many places, strides have been made to protect and clean our vital life-source.
   This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It truly has become a world phenomenon. Because of distancing recommendations by health experts the world over, Earth Day celebrations and challenges have all moved on-line. https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020/
   Billions of dollars are spent each year on research and programs like installation of solar panels on private homes, electric cars, and discovering how to harness the energy in our garbage.
   More people are more aware of the Climate Catastrophe, the unnecessary use of single-use (especially but not only) plastic, food waste, air and water pollution. Becoming aware is the first step toward taking action and speaking out.
   Greta Thunberg is inspiring kids all over the world and admonishing the grown-ups.
   Even in this pandemic, maybe because of this pandemic, people are becoming aware of what we really need and what we really need to do.
-—stay curious! (and celebrate our Earth)

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Flights of Fancy

4/14/2020

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Open your beak and
sing!
   tra la la
   tweet, tweet, tweet
   hum, hum, hum
   cheep! cheep! cheep!
     from: Hooray For Birds
        written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins
        Candlewick Press, 2017
Here’s my next installment for National Poetry Month. This poem may sound like a flight of fancy, but it came from remembering that answerless question “if you could be any animal you want, what would you be”?
On a Wing and a Prayer
If I were a bird, I would not be an eagle
all beak and talons
snatching a mouse or a weasel.

If I were a bird, I would not be a crow
all black and murderous
waiting in branches above and below.

I would not be a swan, either
all graceful necked and gliding
around and around going yon and hither.

I might be wren or a junco
Or an Indigo Bunting
warbling wonder in backyard bushes

because I like the sounds of their names.

While I try to physically distance myself from all the bad and scary news out there and continue to hunker down and stay safe, I find myself sitting in front of my laptop for sometimes longish stretches. Since I have a wonderful view of the bird feeder, I’ve kept track of my feathered visitors.
   Sparrows, too many to count! one kind with a white band around its neck and one more mottled
   Tuffted titmouses (mice?)
   Black Capped Chickadees (who might be considering the bird house, the same one the wrens rejected last year)
   a pair of cardinals
   a smallish woodpecker, I don’t know what kind
   a pair of bluebirds (They were in the backyard. I get up and move around, sometimes!)
   finches (red and yellow)
   A hawk sometimes watches from a perch on one of the trees in the side yard.
   squawky crows, too (of course, not on the feeder)
   robins, naturally (also not on the feeder, pecking for worms, though)

  Try this for wonderful information about birds: https://www.audubon.org/joy-of-birds
And this one to listen: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-to-learn-bird-songs-and-calls/ Tap the “Bird ID” tab at the top to find the bird you’re looking at and listen, too.

     Lots of squirrels try to climb aboard the feeder, but mostly they stay on the ground and clean up the seeds the birds drop. Chipmunks travel up and down the downspout. They come out and fill their cheeks almost to bursting then scamper off to do damage in my garden. I’ve seen the holes they dug around the parsley just now trying to come back in full force.
   My garden, such as it is, needs attention. I also keep promising my houseplants an outdoor vacation. Maybe next week.
   Till then,
-—stay curious! (and dare to imagine)

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Questions in the Flower Garden

4/7/2020

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June bug, june bug,
do you know me?
My leaves point like swords,
and my petals wave like flags.
I am an iris.
From: Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me?
written and illustrated by Anne F. Rockwell
HarperCollins, 1999
read online on Libby through www.libraryvisit.org

I like to think of myself as firmly grounded. In my beliefs about the way the world works, my rudimentary understanding of science, my religion. In my family relationships and my friendships, too.
   I like to think of myself as flexible, though. Able to bend with the wind, compromise within reason, work for the common good.
   Grounded as the opposite of flighty. Even though I will stand up for what I believe to be true, and I try to stand up for myself, like the Violet, I’d rather hug the ground.
   Here’s this week’s poem for National Poetry Month, a comparison between violets and irises, both spring bloomers, but each with a different attitude.
Questions in the Flower Garden
Violets, intimidated by Nature,
safe from nibblers, grazers, and flyers,
grow in clusters, hug the ground.

But Irises, tall and stately,
line up singular
row
by
row,
fearless.
Flaunting flags as if
to battle pounding rain and whipping wind.

Can one receive more
wonder?
reverence?
awe?

Can one be wiser than the other?
Less a subject of Mother Nature?

Can one be less rooted?

Can anyone?

-—stay curious! (and enjoy the moment)

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A Mild Monday Morning in March

3/31/2020

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Bird and Raccoon were playing a game of catch when Bird got bonked on the head.
"Poor Bird, would a hug help?"
Rabbit gave bird a hug.
"It's not helping."
. . .
"What you need is a cookie," said Beaver. "You can fix any problem with a cookie."
from: Boo Hoo Bird
written and illustrated by Jeremy Tankard
Scholastic, 2009
Some of you know I'm taking a poetry class (for almost free) through Youngstown State University's 60+ program (since I am). The class is completely on-line, which is a very new for me and a little bit anxiety-causing. Lucky for me, too. One thing in my life did not change.
Our professor is really well organized. Although I've only seen criticism on my own work, he is astute, clear-spoken (okay, written), and kind. We write one poem each week and give critiques to our classmates. We're graded on our critiques and our original poems.
Here's mine from last week. As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.

A Mild Monday Morning in March
Droplets splash, puddling sidewalks, backyards.
Sparrows tip speckled heads, sipping, sipping.
Deer graze, lazily, on daylilies, dahlias.

Flash! Crash!
Wind whooshing wildly.
Skybursting thunder.
Quick, quick.
Run. Seek shelter. Slam doors.

Gasp. Breathe. Sigh. Relief.

But, no
relief.

Gasp! Rasp!

Danger lurks in
corners, hides in
carpets, cupboards, bedclothes.
Waits- invisible,
infectious.
Impatient as a mother waits
for the wail of her newborn.

Waits- invisible
for another victim and
another and
another.

Again and again till all that’s left is sobbing, wailing, longing.
Dark disk eclipsed the sun.

Till all is over. Danger spent.
Gasp. Breathe. Sigh. Relief.

Calm restored.
Corona glows.
--stay curious! (and connected to each other)

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What’s a Gig?

3/24/2020

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The front lawn didn’t take long, but before I was done the next-door neighbor came to the fence, attracted by the dust cloud. He waved me over.
     . . .
“You mow lawns?” he asked. “How much?”
   And that was how it started.
from Lawn Boy
by Gary Paulsen
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2007

After I found out what the gig economy is, I realized how much I depend on it. We all do, really. I know lots of people who are part of it, or at least they were until last week or so. Covid 19 has most of it pretty much shut down.
   Turns out everyone who works independently, everyone who starts up his or her own business, everyone who works as a freelancer, is a gig worker, just like the narrator in the quote from Lawn Boy. The gig economy is named after musicians who are hired to play gigs. Their work may or may not be steady. It depends whether anyone wants their services.
   The gig economy is made up of all the independent workers. You know them. Hair stylists, house cleaners, dog walkers, the mechanic who works out of his garage, writers, artists, entertainers, Uber drivers (at least at this writing). It’s a long list. Probably farm workers are. For sure the people who have stalls in a Farmer’s Market.
   We depend on them, and our whole economy does.
   They pay taxes, probably more than big corporations do. They sometimes employ other people, too. According to https://www.lawcareers.net/Explore/CommercialQuestion/Travers-Smith-LLP-The-gig-economy-Uber-and-Deliveroo “[t]he 'gig economy' describes a working practice whereby individuals are paid for the 'gigs' they do rather than for their time.” The carpenter you hire to build your garage, the seamstress you pay to hem your new pants.
   You get the idea. I could probably complete all 800 words of this blog with a list of gig workers. I won’t. I’m thinking more about what they are all doing now that so many of us are sheltered in place.
   No one is asking for their services. Without work, there is no money coming in to pay for rent/mortgages, food, utilities, petcare, prescriptions, Bandaids, and especially toilet paper. (I still don’t understand the hoarding mentality of that.)
   Or taxes.
Gig workers mostly do *not* have paid health insurance or paid sick days.
   Our leaders in Congress are working out a plan to support those workers who are vital to keeping our economy going. The Federal Reserve assures us that in co-ordination with the Treasury Department, anyone who wants access to his or her cash will be able to retrieve it. Small business loans will be easy to get and some will be forgiven under certain conditions. Loans for big businesses will be available, too.
   Unemployment payments are the responsibility of the individual states. The Federal government says it will help.
   Millions of people will use these resources to move from day to day while we shelter in place. Most impacted, though, are the gig workers. And there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it. We’re told to stay home unless we need to refill our prescriptions, or other medical issues. Or buy food. Here in Ohio restaurants are still allowed to provide food for customers on a carry-out or delivery basis only. Ohio’s list of what is open and what’s not is at https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/03/whats-open-closed-under-ohios-stay-at-home-order.html Those neighborhood restaurants are full of gig workers.
   So I started thinking about the shelter-in-place order. I understand that this rogue virus needs to be contained. I know that you don’t always know you have it, so the rampant infection is spreading wildly. I know there is no cure (yet) or even medicine to relieve the symptoms, but it feels like we’re going around this whole thing kinda inside-out.
   We have always been told to stay home when we’re sick. In other words, we isolate the sick people and the people who are well can go about their business, gig workers, or employees, or CEOs, or anyone else. This time we’re isolating all the people who are well (and those who are sick or might be) and no one can go out or about.
   I’m not complaining. For introverts like me, this isolation is a respite from the demands I feel in my former, normal day to day. I relish the time I can stay home. I don’t miss being around people. I have to remind myself to call my friends, and I do. I know most people are not like me. And I really do feel for them. Really.
   So I guess the best advise I can give myself is to keep calling my friends, or text, or email. Keep physically not socially distant. To move around. A couple of flights of steps in the morning, laps around the island in the kitchen while I’m making dinner. It’s easy for me to curl up on my big, green chair with a book and stay there for a few hours. And wash my hands!
   Mom was really right about that!
-—stay curious! (and patient)

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"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist

To the Space Station

Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown

Could this be the Era of the ERA?

May 4 . . . a Fifty Year Reflection and Some Other Related Stuff

Trees . . . For Goodness Sake!

’Tis the Day Before Earth Day

Flights of Fancy

Questions in the Flower Garden

A Mild Monday Morning in March

What’s a Gig?

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist​

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist