people, places and things that have piqued my interest
Observation:
My wife has a monthly get-together with a few women friends. They’ve all known each other for over 20 years. They can just sit and talk for hours at a time.
Most men, on the other hand, seem to need to be either playing a game or watching one, when they get together to hang out and talk.
I have to admit that I am usually dismissive of all the cat pics and kitty videos on Facebook and Instagram.
And then there are days like today that have been a challenge and the neighborhood cat sneaks into our house, jumps on my lap, and lets it be known that the most important thing in life right now is that I scratch him between his ears give him a rub under his chin.
A day or two after the news that Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia had died, a Facebook Friend whom I greatly admire posted this on her FB Timeline:
I’ve been seeing a lot of vitriolic gloating diatribes about Scalia’s death. But I don’t think this is a constructive attitude. How we frame our responses to events does matter. To me, the kind of reflection in this link leads more directly to a world where there’s a place for everyone rather than a world where it’s us against “them”.
Here is the link she was referring to, which is a wonderful piece about the fact that the most conservative and the most liberal of the Supreme Court justices were, despite their political differences, quite close friends: http://www.vox.com/2016/2/14/10990156/scalia-ginsburg-friends
I am very grateful to this friend for her message. Let us all strive do just what Ruth and Antonin did. They admired each other, they honored each other, and they didn’t let their political differences get in the way of that.
What do you say when one of your teenager’s friends has been killed in a car accident?
My youngest son is a high school senior. In my email Inbox today was a message from the high school e-news person, letting parents know that one of the school’s students had been killed in a car accident over the weekend.
The name of the kid was a little familiar, so after school today I asked my son if he knew that boy.
Yes, he did: Classmate, something of a friend, someone he’d known and got along with for the past few years. My boy doesn’t have a large social circle, so I sensed right away this might hit him pretty hard.
I struggled a bit with how to keep the conversation going (the school email noted it was important to help students deal with the tragedy). I’m a bit impressed that my guy said he was annoyed that the official school news didn’t include the fact that the friend’s girlfriend was in the hospital, critically injured in the crash
This son, more than most his age, has learned that the actions one takes on the spur of the moment, or the choices that others make, have a huge impact on the future of many people.
I am ever so thankful that my son wasn’t in that accident. I’m ever so thankful that my son recognizes that an instant of poor judgement can result in tragic loss.
My son might not believe it, but I was a teenager once, too. I had a car. And yes, once or twice I did something pretty stupid, and reckless, as a driver. Perhaps it was only sheer luck that none of those lapses resulted in tragedy.
But in the meantime, I have a kid who needs to deal with an important loss, and whose world of fun, video games and hanging out with friends has been interrupted by a tragic event.
What advice do you have for teens, and their parents, when something like this happens?
My wife/partner/bestfriend has just spent the past three+ hours on the phone with a friend who has recently gone through a difficult divorce that involves a longtime partner and two teen kids. She burned through the battery on her cell phone, then switched to the land line (thank goodness for plenty of minutes on the cell plan and Unlimited Long Distance on the land line).
Everyone should have a friend like this, someone they can talk to for hours at a time, someone they can just spill it all to, someone who can offer advice and opinion but at the same time not be judgemental.
Our friend is lucky, and so am I.
Do you have someone like this you can count on in times of need?