by jphilo | May 29, 2012 | Current Events
With Camp Dorothy in full swing and Hiram laid up with a pinched sciatic nerve, there wasn’t time to attend any Memorial Day commemorations. Still, my thoughts strayed to friends and family members who served our country to protect the freedom I often take for granted. Here are the top ten reasons I was thankful on Memorial Day.
10. Mr. Criswell – The father of Katie, one of my best friends in high school, was a WWII vet. I’m thankful for his pride in and the honor his family has for his service to our country.
9. Great-great-grandpa Fred Hess – Fred served in the Union Army for the entire Civil War. I’m thankful for his letters home which his wife Tabitha saved.
8. Marvin Conrad – I’m thankful Uncle Marvin participated in the Minnesota Honor Flight to Washington DC a few months before his death in 2010.
7. Ronnie Fielder – This young man from our church the same year as our daughter, Anne. I’m thankful he’s safely home and going to school on the GI Bill.
6. Hugo (Burnell) Hagen – My great-uncle on Dad’s side regaled us with tales of his WWII service in Alaska. I’m thankful his unit held regular reunions in Las Vegas for decades so he could rave about what a showman Liberace was.
5. Ordel Rogen – Uncle Ordel farmed within 2 miles of his birthplace…except for the years he served in the army during WWII. I’m thankful he came home and married my mother’s sister Ruth.
4. Harold Walker – I’m thankful Hiram’s uncle continues to write and publish accounts of his years as a WWII fighter pilot in the Pacific theater. His story of seeing the Enola Gay take off before bombing of Hiroshima makes that terrible far off event seem close at hand.
3. Leo Hess – Uncle Leo tells amazing, horrendous stories of fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. I’m thankful he dodged enemy fire and caught up with his platoon, despite the shrapnel in his foot.
2. Jim Hoey – Uncle Jim served as a medic in the Korean War. During his years as a second father to my siblings and I, Dad’s faithful friend, a fix-it man for Mom, and my high school World History teacher, he rarely spoke of time overseas. I am so thankful for his service and his safe return as his presence enriched my life in innumerable ways.
1. David Philo – Hiram’s dad repaired radios in WWII planes. In the 1990s he took our family to the Dayton Airplane Museum to show our kids one of the planes whose radio he repaired – the plane assigned to Vice-President Harry Truman during WWII. I’m thankful he got to show his grandchildren a piece of his life history.
Who were you thankful for on Memorial Day? Leave a comment to honor the special soldiers in your life.
by jphilo | May 14, 2012 | Current Events, Reflections on the Past
NPR ran a story about an intriguing concept this morning. The host interviewed Taylor Jones, a 22-year-old who created the website www.dearphotograph.com. Here’s what Jones, in an article at www.npr.org says about how the website came about:
He came up with the idea last year while sitting at his parents’ kitchen table. While flipping though a family photo album, he stumbled across a picture of his younger brother, Landon. “It was his third birthday,” Jones says. “He had a Winnie the Pooh cake, and I was sitting in the same spot my mom was when she took the original photo.” Landon was also sitting in his same birthday seat. So, Jones held up the old picture — taking care to line up kitchen cupboards just so — and snapped a photo. He posted it on his blog, and the rest, he says, is history.
People can go to the website and submit their own photographs, all of which must begin with the words Dear Photograph.
Like I said, an intriguing concept. So intriguing, I started thinking about what picture I would like to rephotograph in the same setting as it was originally taken.
- One from our South Dakota days? Too far away.
- A wedding shot? Too unoriginal.
- A Kodak Instamatic shot of the Badlands from the famous camping trip with my uncle and aunt? Not sure where that one is.
- Something from my teaching days? No, they tore the school down.
Undecided, I opened iPhoto, and there was the scan of a newspaper clipping we found when cleaning out Mom’s house 3 years ago. The clipping records one of my earliest clear memories – the day my aunt took her two daughters, my brother, and me (I’m the one closest to the camera) to watch a parade in our home town. I don’t remember the parade as much as the newspaper photographer who shot the picture. I do remember how safe I felt with my aunt, how much help she said I was, what a big girl I’d become. Heady stuff for a middle child whose major talent at the time was tripping over her own feet.
The caption says 8,000 spectators watched the American Legion Parade that day in 1961. It also lists our names, ages, and the address of the corner where Aunt Donna found a quiet, shady spot (Central Avenue and Fourth Street SE) so we could watch the National Guard trucks rumble past.
Mom and I are going to visit Aunt Donna in a couple weeks. Maybe I’ll take the original clipping along, find that street corner, line up the clipping with the present day location, snap a picture, and submit it to www.dearphotograph.com. I know what to write beneath my submission.
Dear Photograph,
Fifty years has taught me it’s more fun to join the parade of life than to sit and watch it go by.
Jolene
by jphilo | Apr 27, 2012 | Current Events
A long, long time ago God invented mothers because He knew kids needed someone to:
- tuck them in bed at a decent hour so they could pay attention in school.
- remind them to be nice to their friends.
- shoo them outdoors to run around and get some exercise.
- make sure they ate 3 balanced meals a day.
- tell them to think a little while and see if they could figure out the answer for themselves.
- limit screen time.
- put them in the corner until they were done sassing and ready to treat people with respect.
- teach them to deposit half their allowance in the piggy bank so they learned to save.
- force them to drink water instead of pop because water is free.
- regale them with pregnancy stories.
- keep track of how often babies pee and poop and send older kids to sit on the toilet when they have stomach aches.
- tell kids to go upstairs and read a book ’cause they’re driving their parents crazy.
But according to yesterday’s episode of On Point (an NPR show hosted by Tom Ashbrook) entitled “The Quantified Self,” computer apps now can do everything mothers used to do. The webpage about the show lists the following what-your-mother-used-to-do apps:
- Sleep Cycle The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase. It aims to make you wake up more refreshed.
- Facebook Timeline The social networking site now includes a timeline feature that puts your interactions with the site and your network of friends in chronological order.
- Fitbit A machine that tracks your sleep and physical activity.
- Meal Snap Take a photo of the food you eat and this app — amazingly — can figure out how many calories you’ve consumed.
- Honestly Now helps you make decisions by getting you the answers you want to your burning questions.
- What Pulse This app tracks your keyboard and mouse use.
- Mood Scope This app records your daily mood, tracks it over time, and can be integrated with your friends — with the aim of improving your well-being.
- Mint An online tool to track your financial transactions.
- Waterlogged This app keeps track of how much water you’re drinking each day.
- My Pregnancy Today Track your pregnancy with this app.
- Baby Connect records information about your newborn: feeding (bottle, nursing, solid, pumping), diapers, sleep, mood, activities, milestones, health, medicines, vaccines, photos, and more.
- Azumio This app measures and records your stress levels.
I am not making this up, According to Tom Ashbrook and his guests, almost everything mothers used to monitor can now be monitored and quantified by computer apps.
Why? Well, Tom Ashbrook didn’t say why (click here to listen to the show), but my guess is that grown up app creators prefer having a computer analyze their lifestyles and tell them to get enough sleep, eat right, and get off their butts and exercise than to have their mothers tell them the same things. Or point out the obvious: Companies aren’t interested in hiring people engrossed in digitized navel gazing. People obsessing over data about their sleep cycles, diets moods, bowel movements, water intake, and financial transactions don’t have a social life. So these app gurus are stuck in an endless, self-perpetuating cycle. They sit around creating apps about everything and anything except what they need to hear.
Stop navel gazing and think about somebody else for a change!
But God knew young adults need someone to tell them the truth now and then.
So he created an app for that.
And named her Mom.
by jphilo | Apr 13, 2012 | Current Events
Attention all Downton Abbey wannabes! You know who I mean.
- The career woman ashamed to admit her childhood dream was to be a princess and live in a castle when she grew up.
- The mom who saving up for mother-daughter Belle gowns from the Disney catalog.
- The hunter who secretly wishes he could wear a scarlet coat and riding britches instead of a fluorescent orange vest when deer season opens.
- The husband who dreams of a life where he can ditch his wife and spend the evening smoking cigars and drinking cognac with his posh buddies.
Yup, we’re the people who make the Masterpiece Theater creators eyes shine with dollar pound signs once we’re hooked on a show like Downton Abbey.
But it’s very, very important for us wannabes to avoid taking ourselves too seriously. Otherwise, we won’t have the emotional energy needed to remain suspended on the season two finale’s cliffhanger, worrying about what really matters. Things like:
- Will Matthew and Mary really tie the knot?
- Will Mr. Bates go to prison?
- Will Thomas quit smoking?
- Will the Dowager Countess of Grantham (aka: Maggie Smith) turn quickly and knock someone over with her hat?
- Will the wardrobe mistress ever let Edith wear a pretty dress?
Those issues weighed heavily on me until a friend and fellow wannabe sent a link to a YouTube video. Those who take themselves and Downton Abbey too seriously should be prepared to be indignant. Everybody else, be prepared to laugh at this spoof entitled Downton Arby’s.
[youtube]http://screen.yahoo.com/downton-arby-s-28723019.html[/youtube]
by jphilo | Mar 12, 2012 | Current Events
We did some mighty fine eating during our Savannah vacation. So fine that I’ve been fighting an unsuccessful battle of the bulge since arriving home last Tuesday. For days, my inner dialogue has been a free-for-all of complaints.
Why did I indulge in so many afternoon snacks, and evening ice cream runs?
Why did the food down south have to be so tempting?
Why didn’t I walk more while we were there?
I was complaining last Thursday when our church secretary sent the following prayer from a dad requesting prayer for his son:
“Jaxson and his mom will be in Omaha for eight weeks, starting Monday, where they will be working on issues with his food aversion. Since coming home last year, his only real source of food has been through his feeding tube and an occasional (when he is in the mood) bottle or a little bit of something solid. When eating, he has constantly gagged. He is on at least four different medications at any one time and taking those at least three times per day. He is on constant oxygen all day, and we have been visited at least three times a week by medical and AEA staff who have been working with Jax on his development. We are definitely praying for success out of this because, to be honest, it is our best and last shot (this is only one of three food aversion clinics nationwide) to get help in getting him off the food pump, g tube, and oxygen and eating right!”
My heart broke for them as I remembered our son’s food aversion as an infant. It hadn’t lasted as long as Jaxson’s, but it had been traumatic. More than that, I knew this family. I interviewed them and told their story in Different Dream Parenting. I sensed God calling me to pray for them for the next eight weeks. And I sensed His gentle chastening, too. Instead of complaining about my battle of the bulge, he called me to thank Him for blessings too often taken for granted.
Thank you, God, that I can chew. Thank you for the ability to swallow, for being able to eat and enjoy food. Lord, make these blessings I take for granted part of Jaxson’s life, too. Amen.
by jphilo | Feb 16, 2012 | Current Events, Three Thoughts for Thursday
Since this week began with a smokin’ episode of Downton Abbey and moved on to Valentine’s Day, it’s no wonder this Thursday’s three thoughts include love triangles. But as for the fixations with hot flashes and Pinterest, I have no idea of their origin.
- The minute Lavinia Swire walked into Downton Abbey, she was the doomed member of the love triangle. In our family, we call it the “Bonanza” principle. It’s named after the 1960s – 70s TV western series where beautiful, female guest stars always died. How about you? Did you see it coming?
- If a picture is worth 1000 words, is there any place on Pinterest for writers?
- If women in their 50s were in charge of utilities companies, they would already have invented heat pumps that could be attached to menopausal, hot flashing women, thus alleviating human suffering and solving the energy crisis in one, fell swoop.
Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment about your Thursday thoughts, even if they don’t include Valentine’s Day, Downton Abbey, Pinterest, and hot flashes.
