Feliz Navidad

Christmas day, and it's rainy and windy outside. Very odd for a WI Christmas. I do remember a number of years ago when we had a thunder & lightning storm in December. I guess Mother Nature just likes to keep us on our toes.

In spite of the dreary weather, we had a warm and cozy day inside. The twinkly Christmas lights glowing throughout the house and seasonal tunes streaming through the speakers.

There's a really pretty song I just discovered this season. It's so soothing, and almost haunting... but I can't find it on YouTube to share it with you. However if you can find it elsewhere I'd suggest you give it a listen. It's called, "In Winter's Cold", by Brittin Lane.

I hope your holiday was cheery and festive, full of all the seasonal blessings.

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours! 

 ...and here's a cute picture of my parents. Aww!

......AND... *drumroll*

Channing proposed to Rachel! She said, yes!

God has truly blessed our family this Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for and can't wait to see what the future brings. ...most especially a wedding this next year!

Who are the "Educated"?

This month I wrote about education for the newspaper. Who exactly qualifies as an educated person? What does it mean to be educated? ...here is my attempt to answer these questions, or at least provide some food for thought on the issue.

Humanity. We're a curious thing. We were designed with the unique ability to evaluate ourselves. We are able to choose how we act or react to our surroundings. Although this self awareness should be good, it seems that mankind often finds ways to organize people into categories and types. Whether it's a positive way to understand people or a way to feed our insecurities and control others, we continue to subject each other to tests, stereotypes and ethnic groupings.

The recent election coverage is a perfect example of how divisiveness is fueled. The media used terms like Hispanic, black, and female, lumping voters into groups while attempting to sort out the election results. In the name of statistics and data, they also foster an elite class of citizens. As if subjecting their viewers to racism and sexism wasn't enough, one additional term was used to separate the intelligent from the dumb, the elite from the average. It was the term, “educated voters”.

The media draws attention to a matter that has been an issue in our society for some time. The fact that we often judge someone's intelligence or worth based on their education level. Assuming that the media's definition of “educated voters” are people who've finished 4 or more years of college, does that mean everyone else is uneducated? Or maybe a 2-year college course still counts as 'educated'? Does a high school education count? What about alternative forms of learning?

Research the successful people of the world and you will find many names of great renown that don't live up to society's standard for education. George Washington, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and John D. Rockefeller... All these men had either limited formal education, didn't go to college or dropped out of college. What about successful women? ...Rachel Ray, Florence Nightingale, Doris Lessing, Coco Chanel, Melania Trump. The list of successful yet less formally educated people is long.

Author and Boston University educator Karen Arnold said about valedictorians, “I think we've discovered the 'dutiful' – people who know how to achieve in the system. But valedictorians struggle as surely as we all do. To know that a person is a valedictorian is to know only that he or she is exceedingly good at achievement as measured by grades. It tells you nothing about how they react to the vicissitudes of life.”

Daniel Goleman wrote in his book, Emotional Intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, “At best, IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success, which leaves 80 percent to other forces.” Goleman mentioned a study of highly educated graduates, “When ninety-five Harvard students from the classes of the 1940s – a time when people with a wider spread of IQ were at Ivy League schools than is presently the case – were followed into middle age, the men with the highest test scores in college were not particularly successful compared to their lower-scoring peers in terms of salary, productivity, or status in their field. Nor did they have the greatest life satisfaction, nor the most happiness with friendships, family and romantic relationships.”

In a 2012 article titled, Defining the Educated Person, Jill Anderson wrote about a forum discussion at Harvard Graduate School for Education. In a two hour session five very bright and influential minds from government, media and educational institutions aimed to discover what it meant to be educated. Anderson wrote, “To be considered educated, said the panelists, students should leave school with a deep understanding of themselves and how they fit into the world, and have learned what some call “soft skills”, complex problem-solving, creativity, entrepreneurship, the ability to manage themselves, and the ability to be lifelong learners. As Professor Fernando Reimers, who moderated the panel, summarized, there is a disconnect between how education gets delivered in the classroom and the common desire for students to become good, well-rounded people.”

Why then, does the media draw attention to educated voters as a factor in presidential elections? Should a person's education be an employer's first priority? Why do communities pressure youth to attend college in order to obtain success and social standing? Why do we listen to someone with a college degree over someone who has abundant experience? Certainly, it is the condition of a person's mind that matters more than their sex, race, or education.

Education can give a person a wonderful advantage in life. Yet, it does no more than to equip an individual with the understanding to better employ themselves in a given occupation or field of knowledge. Here in America it should not be about race, gender or education. It should be the land of opportunity for everyone. Whether we think America needs to be made great again or not, we can all agree that life isn't measured just in how well we perform scholastically. It is what we do with the knowledge we possess, how we treat the people around us and how we deal with life's challenges that count the most.

Amazon

There's something about shopping that I can't stand. Perhaps it's the temptation to buy everything I didn't go into a store to get. Or maybe it's the crowds of people making you feel like you need to hurry and make up your mind, get your stuff and get out. I know shopping isn't really that daunting... and people are much kinder than that. Yet, when I'm constantly driving to and from work each day the last thing I want to do is go drive again to the store.

So sometimes I just hop on Amazon, click a mouse instead of push a cart, and then wait for a few days. I just ordered my barn boots this way. After visiting the two farm stores in my area I've discovered that they seldom carry women's boots in my size. Unless they're made from cheap plastic/rubber and pink in color. Umm... ya gotta mean business when you go to work. No pink boots.
Well I looked on Amazon and the brand of boots I like did carry women's boots in my size! BUT... they were WHITE. White. In a barn?! ....I don't think so. As a last resort before humbling myself and buying the cheap pink books was to order men's size 5 boots. After waiting with great anticipation and struggling through a week of working in boots with hardly any tread the new boots arrived! And fit wonderfully. No more 45 min. drives to the big farm store on the other side of the city to be disappointed by their lack of options. No more pick boots from the local farm supply store.

Anyway, I did a little clicking on Amazon today. In under 5 minutes I had something for my body, something for my soul and something for my spirit.... and I was done shopping. :)

For the body: Activated charcoal. The stuff is like magic. I can't believe this stuff isn't a common household remedy. It's black and pretty messy when it's not contained, though it doesn't stain. It can be taken to help with stomach flu, alcohol poisoning... and other poisons. It alleviates gas and bloating. It can be applied topically to an insect sting. Some people use it to brush their teeth... other people take it as a regular dietary aid. It has so many awesome uses. Google it!

For the soul: Elf. Yeah... the movie. It's been forever since I've watched, but I remember it being pretty funny. Since we don't have that many movie rental options living way out in the sticks like we do, I figured I'd just buy it. I've been telling my parents they should watch it for a while. You never know with my parents. They'll either laugh historically the whole time or they'll think it's the dumbest movie in the world. I watch the movie, "What About Bob?" with my grandma once and we laughed so hard that we were sore the next day! My parents couldn't stand it. Then I tried to get them to watch "The Cobbler" with Adam Sandler. Because it had Adam Sandler in it they were convinced it would be a not-so-clean movie. Well, they eventually watched it and laughed historically. I have no idea what makes them tick... but it's amusing so it's worth the attempt to try out Elf on them.

For the spirit: Over the Top. It's a book by a  Russell Fralick. I was driving to work one morning and the radio station was broadcasting him telling his story. Perhaps it was his Irish accent that kept me tuned to the station. He told of being an Atheist and how he came to God through an incredible life intervention while rock climbing. It was a pretty crazy story... so I figured the book might be a worthy read.

Well... yep. That's it. Yay, for Amazon shopping. Oh, I also purchased some cranberry chutney from a little store in Northern Wisconsin. We used to be able to find it in our grocery. Now I search for it every time I go to a new grocery store with no luck. Therefore in spite of a little extra shipping charges it'll be nice to taste a little cranberry chutney again after years without it.

Roots

The other day I was talking with a friend when the subject turned to our ancestry. It reminded me of the very first article I wrote for the local newspaper. For whatever reason I never shared it here on my blog, so I thought I'd do so now. 

 

Roots

The other day I was looking over some of my family's ancestral and genealogical records. On my mother's side I can trace my bloodline back to William Bradford, one of the pilgrims who sailed to the new world on the Mayflower. He's my 13^th Great-Grandfather. Then there's some connection to Samuel Huntington, who was a prominent political figure during the American Revolution, and John Perkins, who's daughter, Mary Bradbury, was falsely accused of being a witch. On my father's side people like Max Detweiler (“Uncle Max” from Sound of Music) and William Jennings Bryan have their place in the family tree. There's even a Row family crest and a castle in England somewhere. The intriguing findings never cease. My family history is not unique. Most everyone can find some famous or infamous person in their history.

Yet, what amazes me the most is how we all managed to wind up in the Eau Claire area by some means or another. It is incredible to think of the seas crossed, the journeys embarked upon, trials faced and the roads taken that brought each of us here to this peaceful country.

I have a friend who was born in Central America and moved to the United States to study at UWEC. Now a successful businessman and world-traveler, he once told me that the Midwest, specifically this region, is inhabited by the kindest, most easy-going people he's come across.

Malcom Gladwell wrote of the people who settled in the Appalachian region in his book Outliers, “...when they immigrated to North America, they moved into the American interior, to remote, lawless, rocky, and marginally fertile places like Harlan that allowed them to reproduce in the New World the culture of honor they had created in the Old World.”

Here in the Eau Claire area there's been a lot of expansion and growth since it was founded. Even in the last decade we have larger communities, bigger buildings, greater technological advances... an over all growth of the commonwealth. It is a sort of boom in relations and communication similar to when one switches from dial-up to high-speed internet... or from a land-line to smart phone. The kind of boom that produces instant development in so many areas of life.

Still, the people remain essentially the same as the people groups and regions they came from.

This is no coincidence or miracle. Often it is the deliberate decision of passing on our values to the next generation. What our grandparents passed on to our parents who passed it on to us... who in turn pass it on to our children... and so-on. Then again, it is also a sort of inherited code of conduct, patterns of speech, general temperament that we receive unwittingly from our relations and our community that haven't changed in hundreds of years.

Malcolm Gladwell determined that, “Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.”

Many of our ancestors moved to an unfamiliar land to defend their rights and keep their freedoms. We live in a place where we can carry on the same values that our predecessors fought to maintain.

In this community we share a strong moral standard; a great sense of goodwill toward our neighbors. We wave and smile at the strangers we pass by and though most of us probably don't have a family crest each of us have the right to a 'castle' and the freedom to defend our homes, ideals and the people and things we hold dear.

In the course of a lifetime it may not be life-changing to know who our ancestors were and one might surmise that looking to the past renders little good. Yet, evidence shows that looking back we can see where we came from to better understand where and who we are now. Though here in the Chippewa Valley area we may not have the heritage of a Southern town or the revolutionary roots of the Eastern states, we live in a quiet, kind land... and it takes a kind people to inhabit a kind land.

When It's Hard To Say Sorry

Not all events are appropriate for blogging about. Let's just say this week started out on a rough note. I came down with a cold, there were some temporary vehicle issues and so-on. One or two issues aren't so difficult to deal with but when there are several it seems to be enough to tip the scales of insanity. What started out as an average Monday turned into a manic Monday and I got caught up in the worries of the day. 

Talking to Courtney is always a relief. She understands the craziness of what happens to a woman's mind when worry sets in (which reminds me of Mark Gungor's hilarious description of how men and women think differently in The Tale of Two Brains). A phone conversation left us laughing at our mishaps. I think Mark Twain was onto something when he said, "The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven." 

My biggest problem was really that I had let my emotions run away with me. Whether it was exhaustion or other circumstances that caused my trouble, there wasn't much of an excuse and I needed to apologize to the offended parties involved. I returned to the situation still thinking I wasn't in the wrong. That the fault of the situation wasn't mine. I knew I wasn't going to make it very far with this attitude though and in asking for God's help to face the situation a verse I'd learned as a child came to mind.

Ephesians 4:31-32, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Proverbs 21:2 says, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts." I certainly thought I was right in this situation but I decided to just try it God's way. Even though it seemed dumb to apologize to someone who I thought didn't deserve an apology.

Then with forgiveness, came understanding... and a softer heart. In forgiving the other person it removed the big obstacle of pride and they apologized as well. I could see my mistakes and we were able to work on rectifying the problem. God's way takes faith. It doesn't always immediately make sense to do things His way but it says in Psalm 18:30, "As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him." 
...and in Proverbs 2:6-8, "For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints."

Sometimes I just need to be reminded to yield to the Spirit of God. Letting Him work through my life creates such better results than when I try to accomplish things in my own strength.
Galatians 5:22-23 pretty much sums up my week:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

#inktober

Since Mom is on vacation it's a chill night that Dad. He poured us both a bit of Jameson.... his favorite right now. And it goes down pretty smooth so I don't mind it either. We had a  dinner together and he told me of the crazy events at work like a trench that caved in and concrete that showed up an hour early. Between talking of the day we browsed newspapers and magazines that had come in the mail. That sort of thing. I like these easy-going evenings.

Well, there are seriously 100 things I want to blog about. Okay, maybe more like 10... or 20. Haha... but with so little time I figured I'd take care of "business". That is, I haven't uploaded my Inktober drawings yet. In the month of October there's this epic art challenge an artist friend told me about, in which you draw one ink sketch every day of the month. It's always exciting the first day or two when there's time to draw and some thought out ideas of what to sketch.

 I've put off posting the pictures because some of them are just not that great, honestly. You can tell when I had time and when I was in a hurry. BUT.... I'm sharing the good and the bad because it shows the learning process. I made a few discoveries by branching out with ink and trying new things. Discovery is what it's all about. Without further ado, here are my 31 days of #inktober.


Day 1: #inktober. It was fun coming up with creative images for the letters. Though I could have done better on the 'R' perhaps. But seriously.... what makes the shape 'R' in real life?!


Day 2: Cutest poem I've ever heard. My sister taught her daughter to say this when she blew kisses. Adorable! Plus, I've always wanted to try sketching dandelion seeds blowing in the wind.


Day 3: I wanted to draw a shipwreck. I found an image on google that suited my imagination, but now that I look at it I think it's just a whaler ship? I cannot tell. But... you'll notice that in the sea are lyrics to one of my favorite songs, "In The Eye of the Storm". :)

 
Day 4: The family crest. I especially like the motto: "Innocent but not fearful."


Day 5: ...I had no clue what to draw. I was starting to lose ideas. So I began with shapes and odd things. I kind of like how it turned out.


Day 6: Once again, a little lack of inspiration. It was late at night... should have been in bed... Must. Draw. One. Sketch. ....so I found a few items on my desk and sketched them. Shadows and all.


Day 7: Another day without inspiration was upon me. I had to break out of the funk. I took a receipt that I still had from a visit to Chipotle, cut it and taped it to my paper (double-sided tape of course). With the little umbrella girl protected I drizzled ink diluted with water down the paper. One of my favorites from this #inktober.


Day 8: Having discovered mixing ink with water and letting it run down the paper, I decided to give it another go.


Day 9: It must have been debate night. A stick figure was all I had time for. He is a cute version of Uncle Sam, if I do say so myself.


Day 10: Not a great sketch... but an amazing topic. Babies. I think there was a big discussion about abortion around this time, so it was a matter close to the heart.


Day 11: A field down the road full that inspired this one. Pretty simple because I didn't have time for much else.



Day 12: Tried some more ink/water art. This one turned out curiously. I haven't decided if I like it yet... but that is the nature of art.


Day 13: I didn't put a lot of effort into this one. The shading turned out terribly. Wasn't a very comfortable sketch.... but hey, you can tell what it's supposed to be, so that's good.


Day 14: This was 4 failed attempts. Without any more time or inspiration it was all I had for the day.


Day 15: Humming birds. Zinnias. Oh bring back Summer, please!


Day 16: This one is pretty off the wall. Just entirely random. But I was trying ideas and concepts from a little book on how to draw basic sketches. It was pretty fun.


 Here's a close up of one of the random buildings. Almost a little Edgar Allen Poe.


Day 17: It was Elton's birthday. Inspiration enough! I drew an okay likeness... but still. Faces are so difficult!


Day 18: You just can't spend every day making art. A friendly Box Elder Bug was kind enough to pose for this quick sketch. It was more of an exchange, really, as he was late on his rent payment. He payed me with his photogenic modeling services instead. He is still residing in my bathroom and seems to especially like the sink.  


Day 19: It was a busy day. Perhaps the night of one of the presidential debates? This was all I had time for. Officially one of my family's favorite jokes is to say, "Wrong." in a Donald Trump-like manner.


Day 20: This is a throwback. I didn't draw a sketch but this was one I'd deemed unworthy last year and therefore didn't include in my 31 sketches. It was better than stick figures and therefore it was looking great this year! 


Day 21: It was my sister, Emily's birthday. That was inspiration enough. I tried using a grid in order to get the proportions right.


Day 22: I can't even remember why I drew a rose. ...but a few days later I discovered a special lady named Rosie died. It's Rosie's cheerfulness that I remember when I see this picture.


Day 25: Mr. Darcy. Well... or at least that who I was trying to draw. Terrifying likeness. The ink did not cooperate. I put shading in the wrong places.... oh dear. *wince* It really did start with good intentions.


Day 26: During the trip to Colorado we discovered this little inside joke about my uncle. Uncle Mark is the funniest fellow you'd ever want to meet. Always smiling and joking around. Perhaps it's all the weed he smokes... ;)


Day 26: From a photograph I took in Colorado at St. Mary's Glacier National Park. The trees there looked like they were from The Lord of the Rings or some other fantastic tale.



Day 26: 'Lil Bit. The cutest dog, ever. My Aunt and Uncle in Colorado have two adorable pups and so 'Lil Bit was my last subject for the day.


Day 27: Inspired by a photograph of my friend, Courtney! It was a sunset, silhouette shot. I asked her for an inspirational quote to add to the picture and she suggested the song lyrics. Perfect!


Day 28: Snowflakes. They actually just started out as patterns. I was hoping for something much more like flowers or.... I don't know. But I definitely wasn't going for snowflakes!


Day 28: This was an attempt to draw raindrops on a window. Not my best work... haha.


Day 29: I wanted to spend time with the family, so doodling random shapes and designs was the only thing I could manage while also visiting.


Day 31: This concept was burning in my imagination for weeks. I wanted an artist friend to sketch it for an article I wrote... but they were unable. So I took it upon myself. Murica.
By this last day I'd finally figured out that grids make people easier to draw, and I'd discovered a nice Speedball sketching set with pen tips that actually make detail possible with ink. Now I know for next year!

And so that is all, folks.