HALLELUJAH! JOHN MC CAIN UNITES US TODAY

During the past few days, Senator McCain has given this nation a gift, even after he passed away.
We have been united in our grief, admiration, and gratitude for this great man , a decorated war hero who suffered 5 1/2 years in  captivity in a North Vietnam prison camp, then went on to serve his country as a Senator.  He endured a disappointing presidential bid, but kept his dignity, and went on to fight the good fight.

Just for a little while, we didn't have to see and hear so much about what is wrong with the President of our country.  Whether you're a Trump supporter or not, it gets depressing to hear about every little thing he says or does wrong.  No matter who has been president of the USA in my lifetime, I always wanted them to do a good job.  It's a sad day when the leader of the free world is forced to resign, or is impeached, and it certainly doesn't help the mood of ordinary Americans.

So here's to  Senator John McCain--a true statesman and American hero, beloved by people in both political parties.  Thanks for making us proud to be Americans on this day before your funeral.

WOMEN, BEAUTY & EYEBROW THREADING

 Beautiful eyebrows used to be a simple matter.  Young women plucked their bushy eyebrows, and older women penciled in their thinning/grey eyebrows.  But now, this is the decade of eyebrow threading.

Walk through any metro mall, and you will see at least one kiosk where you can have your eyebrows threaded.  This, by the way, is an ancient practice originating in Asia centuries ago. In the past few years, women  from India have been brought to the US by some enterprising businessmen in their country to perform this procedure.   A cotton thread is used to twist the eyebrow hairs, removing the strays and shaping the brows.  Yikes!  It hurts.  But once a person  has their eyebrows threaded, they are supposedly so hooked on the way they look now that they keep going back for more every five or six weeks.  It only costs about $15, so I guess if you are willing to spend the time and around $150 a year, it may be worth it, if it makes you feel better about yourself.

If you haven’t seen anyone getting eyebrows threaded, you probably imagine that the clients would be young, good looking women who want to look even more beautiful.  Not true.  I’m always amazed at the ordinary women of all ages, sizes, shapes, and skin color enduring this painful process. I’m guessing that  if you don’t like your looks very much, you think this will help.   And will females suddenly find they’re attracting more male attention after they’ve shaped up their eyebrows?  If not, you can always add eye extensions, but that gets a lot more pricey—around $40 to $80 every three weeks or so.  Wow, now we’re getting in to expensive territory—a minimum of $700 a year.

It seems to me that the whole fad is placing entirely too much emphasis on a woman’s appearance, and means that if you want to keep up with the competition out there, it’s going to cost you plenty.  Obviously ,at my age,  I will never spend the time and money on any of these  procedures.  And I’d hate to think a younger woman couldn’t find a boyfriend or get a good job unless she threaded her eyebrows. 

WILL OUR CIVILIZATION BECOME EXTINCT?

Do you care about what happens to your grandkids' grandkids? Most of us never really think that far ahead.  Just getting your children raised and educated is about as far as your worries go during middle age.  All of a sudden, the kids are grown, and now you have grandchildren, and the worry cycle starts all over again. Will they get through childhood illnesses, bullying, bad SAT scores and finally become happy successful adults?

But what about your descendants thousands of years from now? Lately, I've been reading about lost civilizations and wondering if that's what's going to happen to us.  Global Warming, terrorism, oceans full of plastic, for starters.  With most extinct animals and lost civilizations, scientists really can't figure out what happened.  Since I'm not an educated environmentalist, I can only report on the scary things I saw in my own backyard this year.

For thirty years, we've had sun patients (flowers) that grew and blossomed all summer long.  Geraniums were a no-brainer.  Stick them in the ground, water every so often, and there you go. Beautiful, robust flowers until Thanksgiving. This year, in the middle of July, they simply shriveled up and either rotted or burned.  They say farmers are seeing half as much soy bean and corn yields this year.  I hope it's an anomaly, but what if it's not.  What if this earth is going to get so hot that  we can't produce enough food for this overpopulated world?  And what if Earth ends up like Venus, where the temperature on a typical day is 900 degrees?

My thought is that there will be pockets of survival scattered throughout the globe.  Maybe those natives spotted by a drone in Brazil, who've been living millions of years without any contact with the outside world will make it.  There may be some remote islands where natives will survive.  And maybe those people will progress to the point where they discover electricity and invent the internet. And eventually, they may find traces of lost civilizations in Germany and Indiana.  And they will scratch their heads and wonder what happened, and how all of these people became extinct.

For the sake of future generations, let's start getting serious about climate change.

WHAT CONSTITUTES CHILD NEGLECT?

Last night, it was reported on the news that a woman who allowed her daughter to walk around the block with her dog was accused of child neglect.

My first thought was, who is the person who has nothing better to do than monitor the mothering practices of her neighbor?  And if she was really concerned, why not speak with the mom, herself, rather than calling the police?  This person obviously has some serious emotional issues.

The times have changed a lot in the last 50 years or so, and I'm not sure why.  My husband and I both walked home from grade school unaccompanied by an adult every single day of our young lives.  My children walked home from their elementary school two blocks away and no one thought of that as child neglect.  Now, when you drive by an elementary school at 3 o'clock, you are caught in a traffic jam of cars, and people picking up their children.  If a young child cannot walk around the block by themselves in a pleasant, middle class neighborhood until they are 14 years old, I don't know how the parents can deal with that.  I wonder, too, what single mothers do.  Do they give up their jobs and go on public assistance in order to walk their kids back and forth to school until puberty?

Why do we over protect our children?  How will they develop any self confidence and feeling of independence if they must stay indoors unless a busy parent has time to accompany them on a bicycle ride or walk?  Most kids today have smart phones, and if anything is amiss, they can easily call a parent or 911.  We didn't even have that protection when we were children, and yet most of us did survive.

It's getting tougher and tougher to be a parent all the time.  It's no wonder that some people choose not to have children at all.

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS THAT MAKE YOU CRY

Decluttering can be heartbreaking when you see those old photos from happier times.

Here are just a few examples:

Your first wedding (which ended in divorce).

Happy family pictures before the divorce changed everything.

The last holiday gathering with all of your children before the family feud

Your parents 50^th wedding anniversary when your siblings were still alive.

The last time your children and stepchildren were all together.

The last time you were with your grandchildren before their parents divorced or  moved far away.

The last Christmas you spent with your first cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

You and your best friend, before she died of cancer.

I can think of many other pictures  that would bring even more tears.   A  beloved family member who later died a tragic death.  A loved one before she was diagnosed with dementia.  That list could go on and on.  The gut wrenching  thing about those before and after pictures, is that you had no idea  this would be the “last time,” when those photographs were taken.

After about an hour, we had to stop.  There was way too much  joy, love, heartbreak  and nostalgia  packed into those old albums.  Photographs that catch those last moments  of happiness before things went South take a lot out of  you.  Right now, I’m going for a walk in the park.  And yes, we saved all of those photos.