#ForRealMonday

[elfpuddle]

I met my husband in a Sims forum. I met my midwife there, too.

I can’t even imagine my life without the people I met online, or because of those people!!

Reblog if you’ve made amazing friends online and are grateful for their existence

[elfpuddle]

Very good friend of mine, my adopted Father in law, is in the hospital with pneumonia and COVID. His wife has been told to prepare for the end.

He’s a retired Navy nuclear scientist and submarine officer as well as the Deacon at a local parish. He’s my husband’s mentor.

Please pray for Deacon John, his family, his friends, and his parish.

Thank you!

[elfpuddle]

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

[elfpuddle]

I was teaching The Diary of Anne Frank as a student teacher. One student told me that God created white people, but Jews and N*ggers evolved from apes. I had no support from my assigned teacher, and didn’t have the skills to confront that stupidity and hatred. I left the assignment early, after the same student threatened my life.

Assuming the young man is still alive, he’d be in his thirties now. I hope he’s had enough people in his life who could help him fix his damage that he has done so.

If you do not believe that Jews are indigenous to the place that was called Judea, Judea being the source of the words Judaism and Jew, then where are we supposed to be from?

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

Snowy Victorian Houses

[elfpuddle]

I’m so glad I could help!

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

Zum Frühstück ein Apfel … by © Hans Rentsch

European Badger

[elfpuddle]

Traditions are not a spectator sport.

Saw an op-ed that was on the surface a complaint about kids not wanting to take on family heirlooms but read like an elegy to dying traditions. The hardest part was the anxiety without recognizing that they didn’t pave the way for the decisions they assumed their kids would make.

(This is written entirely within the dominant white/western culture - about traditions that have neglectful stewardship rather than those actively suppressed)

The anxiety makes sense. You’re seeing, too late to do anything about it, that there’s no foundation - no space - for the traditions you expected to pass on. Your kids _can’t_ take your mom’s fine china. So now instead of enjoying what you have you worry about its future.

I see a pattern in these op-eds though - a pattern in what’s left unsaid. There were responsibilities tied to these traditions. You collectively assumed they _would_ be passed along. So collectively, what did you do to ensure those traditions _could_ be passed along?

Op-eds never speak for everyone, but it’s worth acknowledging the pattern in what speech is deemed worth sharing widely.  And in this particular pattern, there’s an answer: that answer looks like “nothing.”

You want the china passed down but your kids have no room in their rentals. You want grandkids but your kids don’t have the financial stability. You want that cross-country RV neverending road trip but you’ve had decades of wanting lower taxes more than you wanted infrastructure.

The bleak outlook for traditions is a direct result of the unmaintained foundations for them. The second best time is always now - if it’s important enough to op-ed about, what are you willing to change to get it back? What will you give up or re-prioritize?

I kinda think that world-defining assumptions are always gonna break without maintenance. So rather than getting mad at whoever’s next for not carrying on the norms we didn’t do upkeep on, when it’s my turn, I hope I’m introspective enough to help instead of externalize & blame.

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

[elfpuddle]

Also Current Mood

Roses and silver fern tatt commish

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

Chęciny Castle, Holy Cross Region, Poland by Karol Bartnik

[elfpuddle]

😂❤️🤗💙💛

So, life is good?

your first column of emojis describes your personality! what’s yours?

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

[elfpuddle]

Current Mood

Huck