“Why did you decide to live here in Greenland?” [Jack said].    
    “I wanted a new life,” Erik said. “People call us pirates. But I am a seafarer who searches for safe harbors where I can live with my family. I have found one here at the edge of the world. I named it Greenland.”
     from Magic Tree House: Narwhal on a Sunny Night (#33)
                                  written by Mary Pope Osborne
                                             illustrated by Ag Ford
                  Random House/A Stepping Stone Book, 2020

    In Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, brother and sister, Jack and Annie, discover a magic tree house filled with books that take them on time-travel adventures while introducing young readers to people and places in world history. 
    In Narwhal on a Sunny Night, Jack and Annie are whisked off to Greenland where Leif Erikson helps them free a narwhal that had become trapped in a shallow pool as it tried to escape from an orca. During the course of the story, the kids also meet Leif’s father, Erik the Red.
    Most knowledge of him comes from various medieval and Icelandic sagas written and performed long after his lifetime. So a grain or two of salt is advised.
    Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red for his flowing red hair and beard, was born in Norway in about 950 CE. When Erik’s father, Thorvald, was exiled for murder in about 960 (a common punishment in that time), he traveled about 900 miles from Norway, across the Norwegian Sea, to settle his family, including young Erik, in northwestern Iceland.
    All went well for the first 20 years. But in about 980, when Erik was about 30 years old,  several of his servants accidentally triggered a landslide that crushed his neighbor’s house. In revenge, the owner’s kinsmen killed Erik’s servants. 
    Erik moved his family farther north. 
    Two years later, he was involved in a “massive brawl,” and killed two of his new neighbors’ sons. Erik was banished for manslaughter.
    But Erik was finished with Iceland anyway. He knew of a large landmass about 1,000 miles due west and headed across the open ocean. The voyage was dangerous, but Erik the Red was was an expert navigator and his ship’s design was well suited to the danger.
    And Erik the Red was a Viking. He named the land Greenland.   
    Vikings were known for sailing great distances. In (now extinct) Old Norse, the word Viking translates to ‘a pirate raid.’ According to legend, the Vikings traveled from Scandinavia between 800 and 1066 to raid, plunder, and fight wars to acquire and control more land. (It was William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, who invaded England in 1066 and in a land grab, claimed the throne, changeding the course of British history.)
    Vikings fought with longbows and arrows, swords, and axes. Since metal was expensive, many weapons, even axes and spears, were made of wood. They carried round wooden shields, but did not use much armor.
    Berserkers were Viking warriors who went into battle wearing wolf or bear skins. Believing that Odin, their god of war, would protect them with superhuman powers, berserkers charged into battle fearlessly, wildly and out of control. It’s where our word berserk comes from.            
    Early Viking society was divided into three classes. Jarls were rich landowners and traders who protected and provided for their workers. In return, the workers heeded the call of their jarl when he called them to join him in raids and battles. 
    Karls made up the middle class of workers and artisans. Thralls were slaves. They did the work no one else wanted to do and said no on pain of death. Some were able to earn enough money to buy their freedom.
    After many years, some jarls became rich and powerful enough to claim Kingships. Kings and Queens took over the rule-making and decision-making that had previously been worked out in community meetings called Things (no etymological connection to the English word).
    Islandic sagas note that early Norseman had discovered Greenland long before Erik the Red. When his banishment expired in 985, he returned to Iceland to recruit people for his return to Greenland. 
    He assured them the land held great promise. Of the 25 ships that left with Erik, only 14 arrived in Greenland. The survivors established two settlements and according to biography.com,“Erik lived like a lord with his wife and four children” including Leif.
    It is thought that both colonies survived for several hundred years, making Erik the first known successful and permanent settler of Greenland. The colonies died out around the time of Columbus.
    Here’s a success story, though, from the BBC. The oldest parliament in the world was set up in 930 CE by Vikings. It is called the Althing and is currently functioning very nicely in Reykjavik, Iceland. But Iceland is mostly green, and should not be confused with Greenland.
    Greenland, the world’s largest and mostly icy island, is part of the Realm of Denmark. Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 when it was redefined as a district of Denmark. Its economy is based on the Danish kroner, but has its own local government and sends two representatives to the Danish Parliament.
    While Greenland’s economy is still heavily dependent on fishing, climate change is reducing its sustainability. Tourism is growing,  but the government is looking to its natural resources: gold, natural gas, diamonds, lead, and zinc as sources of income through foreign investment.
    But at what price?
    Burt Bacharach and Hal David may have said it best through the voice of Dionne Warwick.
    “There are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow
     There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
        Oh listen Lord, if you want to know
     What the world needs now is love sweet love
     It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
       What the world needs now is love sweet love
       No not just for some but for everyone…” 

I’m reading The Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson (University Press of Kentucky, 2016). A saga told through several generations of Kentucky women living in a small, rural town, it’s a story that explores the many faces of mother-daughter relationships, a young girl's growing sense of her own sexuality, guilt, shame, mental illness, and oh yes, redemption. A little graphic, though, so choose knowingly.
    -—Be curious! (and call your senators and representatives)
                                                           senate.gov
                                                            house.gov
                    download the 5 calls app or click 5calls.org

They kept paying money. They kept running through
Until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one . . . or that one was this one
Or which one was what one . . . or what one was who.
                        from The Sneetches and Other Stories
                             written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                               Random House, 1989

    When they were growing up, one of my younger daughter’s favorite stories was “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss. She loved it so much that I renewed it until I was embarrassed. I ordered a copy from our local bookstore and told my daughter that we’d need to take the library’s copy back so another child could read the story and love it as much as she did.
    When her own copy of the book arrived, we continued reading it over and over.  
    The story, whether it was Dr. Seuss’s intent or not, is about fairness, control, and the sanctity of a space. Both types of Sneetch wanted to be the best on the beach. Their disagreement failed to escalate, though, when both groups decided the best way to live well is to live well together. Neither type of Sneetch was best. Each group had something to offer the other, and each individual, too, while maintaining their own identity. Most learned they are all happier when everyone decides to work for the betterment of the group. 
    No, Seuss did not say that. I did. And I’m not sure that’s exactly what he had in mind when he wrote his story about made-up animals one-upping each other on a fictional piece of land. But it helps me get to the next point.
    By 1820, the War of 1812 had ended in a military draw and both sides claimed some victories, proving to the rest of the world that the United States was truly a country that could defend itself by standing up to European powers.
    The United States was coming out of a widespread depression. James Madison was finishing up his last moments as our fourth president.
    In 1820, our fifth president was elected without the need of a two-party system. Imagine most Americans agreeing on something as crucial as that!
    Maine and Missouri entered the Union with a Compromise that “kicked the slavery can” down the road about 30 years, and the beginning of James Monroe’s presidency was nicknamed “The Era of Good Feelings.” 
    Our fifth president believed firmly in the American Experiment. His strength, though, was on the international stage. In South and Latin America between 1821 and 1822, ten Spanish colonies declared their independence. With the counsel of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, Monroe prepared a talk to Congress to clarify his position regarding the American relationships he envisioned. 
     Although purporting to dissuade colonialism, Monroe’s well-thought-out doctrine announced to Europe that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization. He promised the United States would not interfere in European affairs or with existing colonies in the Americas. He declared that if any European nation tried to interfere with the United States, it would be viewed as a hostile act. 
    In essence, if the United States were to gain any more territory, that territory would become part of the United States.
    Monroe did not say what would happen if Europe decided to see how serious the declaration was. (Probably nothing much could happen to retaliate and probably, most of Europe knew that.) Through this foreign policy statement, though, Monroe sent diplomats to the new South American and Latin American countries to form alliances with them. 
    Eventually, both the European nations and the United States did interfere with the new countries. But in the 1820’s, the United States, by enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, was able to play the upper hand in the Western Hemisphere.
    During the Banana Wars, (reports ResponsibleStatecraft.org in a Jan. 9, 2026 article), “from 1890 through the early 1930’s, the US interfered in seven Latin American countries. Several presidents used military force to protect American agricultural interests.” The article continues that by the mid-1920s, a diverse group of Americans “from religious pacifists on one end, to xenophobic populists on the other,” saw these actions as blatant imperialism. They called the military action “wasteful, pointless, and morally abhorrent.”
    In the 1930s, during FDR’s Good Neighbor policy, the US turned toward mutual respect and economic engagement, encouraging neighborliness.
    The Monroe Doctrine has never been without controversy. It’s been interpreted and reinterpreted. Through the years it’s been called outdated and irrelevant, but now it’s been claimed vital by the current president. 
    Just looking at the words and the intent of the original, I extrapolate. I see the Monroe Doctrine as a document that seeks to inhibit colonization and dominance of one country over another while maintaining an attitude of co-operation, if not benevolence, and still putting the interests of the United States in the forefront.
    To use it for any other purpose, like blowing up fishing boats and killing their captains and crew, kidnapping a head of state of another country and appropriating their oil and the money it brings, and claiming to be “Acting President,” of Venezuela (Time.com 1/13/26) seems to me, a gross overstep and just plain wrong.
    
I’ll have a book review next time!
                          -—Be curious! (and respect each other)

“It’s fun to have fun 
But you have to know how.
I can hold up the cup
And the milk and the cake!
I can hold up these books!
And the fish on a rake!
    .  .  .
I can fan with the fan
As I hop on the ball!
But that is not all.
Oh, no.
That is not all. …”
                                           from The Cat in the Hat
                               written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                            Random House, Inc., 1957

    News is spewing non-stop like a fire-hose at full blast with no one holding on. It’s flopping every which way, and I kinda am, too. You probably are, too. And it’s only the first week of the new year. And today is the fifth anniversary (is that even the right word?) of the frenzied mob who stormed our Capitol to prevent the 246-year-precedent known to all as the peaceful transition of power.
    The transition was anything but peaceful. You remember. Since then, “DOGE,” undoing USAID, federal employee firings, cancelling the Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and childhood immunizations. Ripping off the East Wing of the White House.
    Here's what happened to the 2026 quarters that were agreed on by a congressional committee. In short, Frederick Douglass, Ruby Bridges, and Suffragists were replaced by pilgrims, the Revolutionary War and the Gettysburg Address. The first quarter is being released today.
    Trump wants his face on a new $1 coin. Whoo, boy!
    Pardons, tariffs, ICE, National Guard in our cities. Threats, rants, and dozing off in important meetings. Swooping up immigrants and hustling them into detention without due process, CECOT. 
    So much more. 
    Targeting, bombing, and killing people in fishing boats in the Caribbean, military build up off the coast of Argentina and kidnapping the ruler (whether legitimate or not) and his wife and bringing them to New York to face trial for drug trafficking. When I first read that piece of news I thought it was a sick joke. Really. 
    Who’s in charge of Venezuela? What’s next? 
    Are the wheels that turn our Earth still greased with extracted and processed oil?
    
    The only way to stay somewhat centered and somewhat able to concentrate on going to work, doing the laundry, and cooking dinner is to stay as informed as we are able (this will look different for each one of us) and take as much action as we can (this will also look different for each one of us).
    It’s been a minute since I fired up my 5 Calls app. I’ve spent less time reading Substack and listening to the news and I do feel calmer. Actually I’m calm and angry. It’s time to make some calls.
    It’s easy to download the 5 Calls app. Then type in your zip code and your Representative and Senators will be listed for you. Choose your issue(s) and read the script(s).
    You can also find your Representative and Senators by typing in your address here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Their name, address, and phone number will appear. You can send your message with a click or phone call. Or, use the Postal Service.
    A little hope for the future is always a good thing, so here’s my version of an old Jewish folktale I remember hearing when I was young, and telling when I was much older.
    Once a kind, old man, who dripped wisdom from the tips of his neatly trimmed beard, finished his chores and went on his morning walk. He stooped to pick up a fig lying in his path. He took it home and prepared the seeds for planting. 
    When the seeds were ready, the man walked out to a warm sunny patch of land on the outskirts of his town. He scratched the earth with a small rake and scattered the seeds over the damp ground. A small sprinkle of water finished the job.
    Every day, sometimes more than once if was a hot day, the man watered his fig seeds. He expected at least one would grow into a large fruit-bearing tree.
    He pulled weeds that competed for the soil’s nutrients. He chased away insects that hovered around causing distractions. More than once he shooed away a raccoon or a stray chicken.
    Years later on a particularly warm Tuesday, a small boy approached an old man tending a young sapling.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    “I’m tending my fig tree.”
    The boy laughed so hard he held his sides and fell on the ground, still rolling with raucous laughter.
    “Why do you laugh?” asked the wise, old man.
    “You are so silly," said the boy. "You are old. It takes years and years for fig trees to grow big enough to bear fruit. You may not live to eat them.”
    “But, I am not planting them for myself,” answered the wise man. “I am planting them for your children.”

    To answer the question of why I care so much about what I, as only one person, can not control and hope only to minimally influence, I answer, I do what I do for our children and grandchildren. 

I’m still finishing A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, 2016). I’m still liking it. I’m still recommending it. (See last week’s blog for my “review.”)
                                 -—Be curious! (and stay positive)
FB: It’s January 6th again. Remember. Reflect. Act (in whatever way you can, large or small, or something in between).