It was a phone booth, painted white and with many panes of glass.
    Mr. Hirota went inside.
    His voice floated out.
        Fumika? It’s your father. I miss you.
                     from:The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden 
                                             written by Heather Smith
                                            Illustrated by Rachel Wada
                                           Orca Book Publishers, 2019

    Even before my girls were teenagers, they wanted, no, make that needed a little privacy. We had a rotary phone attached to the wall and to the landline connecting our phone to every other phone. A curly cord accordioned out several feet from the receiver. The cord was so long that the person talking in our house could stretch it to its outer limit and talk privately, sorta, on the basement step behind a partially closed door. 
    That system worked for a long time. The girls grew up, moved out and got phones of their own. I held fast to that landline, though, even when lots of people were switching to use their mobile phones exclusively, including “the girls.”
    What finally changed my mind was picking up messages from my answering machine after we came home from vacation. Seventeen messages rewarded me with robocalls, requests for donations, a couple of wrong numbers, and a few blank messages full of dead air. I had no calls to return. Not even one. 
    We joined our kids and went landline-free.
    At first, I was undependable. I’d forget my phone when I left the house on errands. I’d inadvertently let the battery run down. I’d leave it somewhere and spend many precious minutes looking for it, only to find it on the shelf next to the cat box where I had purposefully set it down to clean the box.
    The telephone is a remarkable invention. It changes the sound of our voices into electrical impulses and sends them, now mostly wirelessly, to anywhere in the world. And not only sound, but images. Of ourselves, our grandchildren, and friends when we videochat through FaceTime, Zoom, or one of many other platforms. Like the wheel, moveable type, automobiles, and computers, the telephone changed the world.
    The name most associated with the telephone is Alexander Graham Bell. Although he is credited with the invention, his passion was oralism, teaching deaf people to speak using lip-reading and verbal speech, rather than sign language. He studied Visible Speech, a phonetic alphabet devised by his father, Alexander Melville Bell, a British linguist. Melville used symbols to represent the position of the speech organs when articulating sounds. The symbols were cumbersome, though, and after about 10 years they fell into disuse. 
    Alexander learned the alphabet and used money he earned from his invention of the telephone to promote oralism and the Visual Alphabet in the US.
    Telephones were not immediately or overwhelmingly received. When he first viewed the telephone in 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes was said to have commented to Alexander Graham Bell, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”
    It’s hard to stop progress, though, and in 1887, the first telephone line was constructed, the first switchboard was created, and the first telephone exchange was in operation. Three years later, almost 49,000 telephones were in use. By 1900, there were nearly 600,000 phones in Bell’s telephone system and 5 years later, more than 2.2 million. After he acquired Western Union, Bell’s company, AT&T, had a near monopoly on electronic transmissions. 
    The 1960s, saw more than 80 million phone hookups in the U.S. and 160 million in the world. That number doubled by 1980.
    A decade later, the first digital cellular network went online in Orlando, Florida and by 1993, 25 million people subscribed to cellular phone service. 
    According to Pew Research, 97% of American adults own some type of cell phone. And while it is true that almost every American adult owns a cell phone, smart or otherwise, less than half of us are solely dependent on them for internet searches. We have laptops, tablets, and reading devices, too.
    And according to Common Sense Media, over half of our children own a smartphone by the age of 11. 
    Small enough and lightweight enough to carry in our pockets, telephones have not only become indispensable, they are sophisticated beyond all measure. Besides allowing us to “ring up” our families and friends, our telephones record important life events, locate mundane answers to mundane questions, provide vital life-saving information, allow us to waste time playing solitaire or any number of other activities, buy gifts, groceries, and garden equipment. We can watch movies, podcasts, and classic TV shows.
    We can text any number of ways. We can email, pay our utility bills and credit card bills. We can keep track of our heartrate, calories we’ve eaten, and miles we’ve walked. We can check out a book from our library or buy a book and have it delivered right to our house.
    I actually can’t think of anything that can’t be done with a smart phone.  
    Our landscape is dotted with cellphone towers, providing all that instant access. But smartphones not only facilitate our conversations, and searches, they listen in. They listen for “wake words” also called “hot words” to activate voice commands like “Hey Siri” or “Alexa.” 
    Here's how to turn off your microphone. You’ll need to scroll down pretty far past the Norton ads. You can still talk into your messages, ask Google to find a website, and transcribe a list in your notes. 
    Since I just turned off Siri this moment, I’m not sure how much less she will hear. I’ll keep you posted!
                                     -—Be curious! (and stay in touch)    

    More and more people wanted their lawns mowed—on the second day I had eight jobs—and the fact was that I was fast approaching my limit.
                                                      from: Lawn Boy
                                                      by Gary Paulsen
    Wendy Lamb Books/Random House Children’s Books, 2007

    Two of my grandsons mow lawns for some of their neighbors. It might be a family tradition.
    My brother supplemented the income he earned from his daily paper route by mowing lawns for some of our neighbors. An old family photo shows him as a probably four-year-old walking beside our dad. Both of Dad’s hands are on the mower handle, and my brother is holding on as high as he can reach beside my dad’s. In those days it must have been a “boy thing.” My sister and I never got a turn to help Dad mow.
    We lived in a neighborhood with driveways leading to a detached garage between each house. The lawns were average size for a city lot. We had a front lawn and a back lawn, too. Dad was proud of the soft green grass, evenly trimmed and meticulously edged. Not weed-free, but close.
    The whole neighborhood looked like that. No one skimped on the weed-killer or fertilizer. It was the 1950s.
    According to a 2019 New York Times article, when the colonists settled here in the 1600s and 1700s, their livestock ate up all the native grass. They imported seed from Europe and parts of North Africa to prevent their livestock from starving. And shortly after independence was declared, George Washington wrote to his estate manager in England for landscaping plans for Mt. Vernon. 
    Large expanses of grassy lawns had no agricultural value. Even so, the wealthy new Americans copied Washington’s and Jefferson’s ideal of beautiful European landscape architecture. The first lawnmower was patented in 1830. 
    After the Civil War, suburbs began to proliferate. Grassy lawns, inspired by public parks with their own sprawling lawns, became more common. In 1871, Joseph Lessler received a patent for the first lawn sprinkler that connected to a garden hose. By this time, city and suburban water systems were becoming more widely available. Watering lawns and flower gardens became much easier with Lessler’s invention. 
    By the time of Teddy Roosevelt's administration, around 1914, yard work was touted as a relaxing pastime and good exercise. Golf became a popular sport after WWII. More and more companies began developing strains of sturdy, soft grass suitable for golf courses.
    Then after WWII, when it became easier for some but not all veterans to get home loans, especially in the new suburbs, well-groomed lawns became more popular. 
    And here we are, fighting dandelions, yanking clover, and poisoning little wildflowers that dare to bloom in our soft, suburban, or city landscape.
    Begun in the UK in 2019 by citizen scientists, No Mow May promotes allowing those wildflowers to bloom and attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It’s catching on in the US, too. Appleton, Wisconsin, about 200 miles north of Chicago, Illinois, was the first city to legalize the practice. Cleveland Heights, right here in Ohio no longer mows the median strips in their roads. Citizens are encouraged to participate by allowing their yards to bloom.
    The movement has its detractors, though. Some people are concerned about rodents, snakes, and ticks. And once “weeds” gain a foothold, they are not easy to discourage. Tamson Yeh, turf specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County in New York is someone who voices these concerns. She says allowing a lawn to flourish then ruthlessly cutting it back on June 1, is counterproductive. Pollinators communicate to each other. They return time and again, year after year, to use (what they think is) a recurring food source. 
    And the most horrible thing: you may inadvertently discover a bunny nest the first time you mow!
    Her solution is several fold. Use your space as a wildflower garden. Plant a variety of perennials to encourage pollinators, beautify your personal space, and eliminate the need for a mower. No need for gasoline to power it. No need to find something to do with the clippings. No noise. You’ll enjoy chirping crickets and grasshoppers, and trills and tweets of songbirds. At least, Yeh recommends, allow a patch as large as you can, for wildflowers native to your neighborhood. Enlarge it each year.
    In the meantime, wear long sleeves and long pants if you plan to traipse around in the beauty and check for ticks before you return indoors.
    If you must mow due to complaining neighbors, local ordinances, … keep your grass as high as you can. Four to six inches will promote healthy roots and still allow the very short flowers to bloom.
    My baba, Dad’s mother, did not have a lawn. Her spacious backyard was a fruit and vegetable haven. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, horseradish, beans, peas, you name it, she grew it. Her front yard was on fire every season with marigolds, snapdragons, pansies, peonies, irises. And low-growing portulacas grew in the median between two narrow strips of gravel on the driveway. She had no need of No Mow May, but I bet she would have loved the idea!

I’m re-reading (listening to) Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She talks about her theory of creativity. Ideas are sentient beings, she says, and only become manifest through a human collaborator. Ideas are always on the lookout for a human to bring them into the world. By being always open to new ideas, Big Magic will happen. Ms. Gilbert is sure of it. She made me a believer, too.
                               Be curious! (and listen for the birds)

After many months and 
many crumpled sheets of paper, 
Ramon put his pencil down. 
“I’m done.”
                                                             from ish
                                               by Peter H. Reynolds
                                           Candlewick Press, 2004
                                        accessed on Libby 5/8/23
                                (first electronic with audio edition
                                      Weston Woods Studios, 2013)

    Delaying work, projects, or promises that need attention is something I’m not proud of being good at. I’m finally getting to the nuts and bolts of this post on procrastination.
    Rory Baden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose that I mentioned last week turned out to be a motivational exercise in time management, although, in his words, time can’t be managed. You can only manage yourself. Niké summed it up in three words: Just Do It! My mom had a longer version: First you do what you have to do, then you do what you want to do. Both phrases are useful ways to conquer procrastination. 
    Business Insider describes four kinds of procrastinators: The Performer, The Self-Deprecator, The Overbooker, and The Novelty Seeker. Ali Schiller and Marissa Boisvert, authors of the article, claim that if you find out which one you are, you can overcome the tendency to procrastinate and become more productive. 
    My procrastination feels like a rebellion against my mom’s wise but nagging words. And that sounds rebellious to me.        
    So I procrastinated by taking a test on the Psychology Today website. I answered 10 questions and got this message: “According to your results, you are somewhat of a procrastinator. Your score indicates that you either procrastinate significantly in a specific area (or areas) of your life, or are a moderate procrastinator overall.” 
    My specific area flares when I don’t want to do a task, job, favor, report…so that part’s true. But none of those four BI types address the rebel piece of my personality.    
    Back to Business Insider's procrastinator types. (Distraction can also be a problem!)
    Performers claim to work best under tight deadlines. BI says this is a cop-out for perfectionism. If you only have a little time, you can’t produce a perfect “fill in the blank.” The biggest challenge, the authors say, is getting started. Their solution: commit to a start date, not a completion date. Once you get started, you’re on your way to finishing.
    Self-Deprecators claim laziness is their problem. Since laziness is a personality trait, they’re stuck with it. Not so, says BI. These procrastinators are the opposite of lazy. They work hard and need a break. They need time to rest and recharge. When they’re rested, the work will flow. I’m skeptical, but then again, I’m a procrastinator.
    Overbookers are mostly overwhelmed. Saying “yes” to everything makes setting priorities difficult. It’s easier to blame being late or not getting a job done at all on something or someone else that’s maybe more important. Chaos makes it difficult to know what should come next. The best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed, they say, is to understand why it’s so hard to say “no.” The problem is not so much the ability to prioritize, but to know what is really important.
    Novelty Seekers are a little like a cross between a squirrel and mad inventor. They no more get started on a great new project when their attention swings to the next new idea. It’s hard to see results when focus shifts so quickly. Completion becomes illusory. BI's solution sounds easier-said-than-done. The authors suggest jotting down the new idea and saving it for when the job at hand is finished. 
    According to social scientists, most people procrastinate. Procrastination is a habit and we do it for many reasons. Habits are formed when we get pleasure or relief from doing (or putting off) an action. Over time, this tactic is rewarded because it makes us feel good, and through repetition, a habit is formed. But the habit is a short-term solution. When it begins to bother us or even interfere with our lives, we want to change that habit.
    One of the best ways we can eliminate a bad habit is first to recognize we are doing it. Habits, by their very nature, are what we do without thinking. Discovering the reasons why we procrastinate can also help us get on task. Sometimes it helps to “Just Do It!” Sometimes it helps to promise ourselves a small reward. Sometimes external motivation (set a clock to chime at completion) helps. Putting off something unpleasant only works for a little while. Focusing on the benefits of completion sometimes helps get me going.
    I grew up on my mom’s phrasebook and sometimes her words of wisdom conflicted with each other. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today bumped into Look before you leap. 
    I know I do more looking than leaping. 
    Spending time to figure out the why of my procrastination seems like a good? productive? helpful? way to put off the unpleasant task of cleaning my refrigerator. 
    I’ll just put the fridge on tomorrow’s Do List, again!
        
I read The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick Press, 2022) winner of a 2023 Newbery Honor. I enjoy fantasy if it feels “real” and this one does. The main character, Sodsai Mudawan, is a twelve-year-old girl with a big secret. Her future depends on whether she can hide the truth of her low-life father and her past of poverty. She strives for her independence by winning an apprenticeship to a mapmaker. He takes Sai with him on a journey to look for a continent that is the subject of a popular myth. As Sai sails farther from home, she has to decide whom to trust and what sacrifices she is willing to make for her future. 
    While written for kids (ages 9-12) food for adult thought includes colonization, ecology, and racism. Recommended.
                                     —-stay curious! (and Just Do It!)

    I decided to find out more about procrastination for this week’s post. I found the definition in Dictionary.com: The act of delaying especially something requiring immediate attention, a familiar phrase: Procrastination is the thief of time, and a book from 2015: Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Baden, a self-discipline strategist. After a busy week and a busier weekend, that’s as far as I got.
    I hope I’m not procrastinating! but I’ll have more next week!

    nearer my freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself is the first person account of a young African boy who was kidnapped and caught up in the slave trade. It was made especially accessible by its modern interpreters Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge (Zest Books/Lerner Publishing Group, 2023) through their found poems. The form and the content are interesting and inspiring. 

    It was hard to decide what to do, so I left it up to the Magic 8 Ball. I walked up to each door where the different clubs meet and gave the 8 Ball a shake to see which one I should join. I got a lot of “No’s” and a few “Ask Again Laters,” but I finally got a “Yes, Definitely” when I was in front of the Yearbook Club door.
                     from Diary of a Wimpy Kid #8: Hard Luck
                            written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney
                                        Abrams/Amulet Books, 2014
                                        accessed on Libby 4/30/23

    It may not have been Gregg Heffley’s destiny to be part of the staff on his Yearbook, but Queen Elizabeth II’s firstborn, Charles Mountbatten-Winsor, was destined (or fated?) to become King Charles III.
    His coronation will take place this Saturday, May 6, 2023, amidst a throng of thousands in person and on-line. The ceremony will be photographed by serious journalists, tabloid artists, and regular folks with smartphones. 
    Majestic is probably the best word to describe the reverential, religious, and regal festivities. The prescribed procession includes religious leaders of all faiths, including Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu leaders. The King will be formally greeted. After a moment of silent prayer and collective singing, the five main elements included in the coronation itself will begin. 
    First is Recognition. Its formality harkens to the Anglo-Saxons. Charles will receive a red leather-bound Bible. The presentation dates back to the joint Coronation of William III and Mary II in 1689.
    Part II is The Oath. The Coronation Oath Act of 1688 requires the King to declare that he will maintain the established Anglican Protestant Church, rule according to laws agreed in Parliament, and cause law, justice, and mercy to be executed in his judgment. This year, for the first time, the Archbishop of the Church of England will preface the oath with the promise that the King “will seek to foster an environment where people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely.” The Oath includes prayers, hymns, and a sermon. 
    The Anointing, Part III, is the most important facet of the religious ceremony and is performed in private.
    The Investiture and Crowning comes next. The King is presented with Golden Spurs representing knighthood and chivalry, the Jewelled Sword of Offering symbolizing royal power and the King’s acceptance of his duties, the Armills known as the “bracelets of sincerity and wisdom,”  the royal robe, stole, orb, and ring, glove, scepter, and finally comes the crowning itself. The crown weighs almost 5 US pounds and is worth about $4,500,000.00. The bells in Westminster Abbey will ring for 2 full minutes in the Fanfare. Leaders of all the religious denominations will invoke a blessing for love, protection, grace, and wisdom over the newly-crowned King Charles III.
    Finally, the King is seated on his throne, above the Stone of Destiny Homage is pledged to him by the Archbishop, his family, and the people. 
    But will anyone but me focus on the Stone of Destiny? I only learned of it a few days ago.
    The origin of the stone has been lost to history, but its earliest mention places it in Scotland. Although unable to be fact-checked, Scottish Kings were said to have been crowned using the Stone since Kenneth MacAlpin received his crown in 843. In 1296, King Edward I of England seized the stone from the Scots. Edward I had a throne built in Westminster Abbey to house the sacred stone. It was first used it in a coronation for his son, Edward II in 1308. 
    For a long time it was thought to be the stone that Jacob rested his head on in Genesis. That night he dreamed of angels and when he woke, he consecrated the stone to Gd. 
    In 1998, though, geologists from the British Geological Survey performed detailed examinations of fragments of the stone and determined its origin was not Middle Eastern at all. It was identified as being hewn from the same type of sandstone found in the Scone (pronounce skoon) Sandstone Formation, an outcrop in the area around Scone Palace, in Scotland. 
    Its name, whether the Stone of Scone, the Coronation Stone, or the Stone of Destiny, begs the question of its power. Some suggest that when King Edward I captured the Stone, it had been switched out so he took the wrong one. The original may have borne the inscription translated to, “If the Destiny proves true, then the Scots are known to have been Kings wherever men find this stone.”    
    Also unsubstantiated, is the claim that even before that, the Stone was blessed by St. Patrick to be used as a coronation stone for the kings of Ireland. Anyway, no engraving can be seen on the stone now.
    Unlike our representative democracy, monarchies pass power from King or Queen to an heir in a structured hierarchy. Does Destiny play a role? Does Fate? Or is it a function of genetics?
    Fate and destiny both hold connotations of pre-determination. Ancient Greeks said our paths are chosen by the three Fates and lead us where they will. Fate is the darker side of destiny. Coming from the Latin “that which has been spoken,” fate is what happens when we are not active participants in our own lives. Our fate is sealed when we don’t take responsibility for ourselves.
    Destiny also comes from the Latin, but involves more personal action and responsibility. The phrase translates to “that which has been firmly established.” When we fulfill our destiny, we connect to our life-path. We know where we must go and take responsibility for our lives. An element of choice allows us to actively shape our destiny.
    So while Charles’s fate was cast from birth to become a king, he can choose to forge his destiny by ruling capably, courageously, and  kindly.
    Rather than fate or destiny, in today’s quote Gregg’s Heffley based his decisions on his 8 Ball. They are pure chance. 

I just started reading nearer my freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself interpreted by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge. (Zest Books/Lerner Publishing Group, 2023)
The authors used Equiano’s autobiography as their source to write a “novel-length series of found-verse poems.” (from the Back Matter) 
    The poems were created by carefully selecting words, phrases, and quotes from Equiano’s text to tell his story of being enslaved, buying his own freedom and his work as an abolitionist. The authors use lyricism and an economy of words. More next week. 
                                   -—stay curious! (and take charge)