Continued Confessions and Happy Black History Month
Sad that it's the shortest month, but there's an extra day this leap year!
The first thing I have to say is that we should be studying all of our history all the time, but we should celebrate the halting steps forward that have been made.
My first confession this morning is that I actually cannot stand reading a book on my phone. I tried to save some money by getting a book I wanted on my Kindle. It was half the price of the book itself, and I thought it could help me not add to my hoard. However, I am not enjoying the experience at all, even though the content is fascinating. I could perhaps have listened to it instead but lately I’m perturbed by the thought of AI taking over. So I am going back to ordering the hard back version of anything I want to read. As my dear friend Carol says, I could always re-sell them to recoup the money. However, she should know me better by now after more than 40 years of friendship. I am unlikely to discard anything, particularly books. But I do want to say something positive about technology since I am sitting here writing on my laptop and potentially speaking to people all over the globe. I shared a lovely visual time on Sunday with my daughter and grandson as he got his nails cut while we chatted. Back in the day as we say, I could not have shared that time without being actually present. So that’s a plus. And I just read a post from India which I plan to restack with a note. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately because so many fabulous writers and thinkers are here on Substack and sharing their words gives me great pleasure and hope for the future.
I’ve been taking more time on my morning puzzle calendar and am happy to report that I’m now able to do about half of the daily offerings. It’s definitely good for me to be forced to slow down and concentrate, with the expectation that I may be able to solve each day’s puzzle. Luckily, there is occasionally a hint offered particularly for the ones involving numbers. They are still my hardest to master though. I’m getting the hang of the ones based on words. It’s good to be challenged.
And my other calendar of daily quotes gives me my last topic today. The quote from yesterday was attributed to Anne Frank, Jewish writer, and I believe that everyone has heard of her and her story. I wanted to repeat the quote, but I worry about copyright issues, so I’ll just say that her words about people being “truly good at heart” ring true to a Pollyanna like me. Please look up the entire quote if you like because it may help to give you the sense that we can come through this difficult time we are experiencing now.
HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH
(It bears repeating because the history behind its celebration is quite complex and worth a read on Wikipedia.)