How few, how little time

Have I injured a Jewish person today? Or anyone else? Never intentionally. But if I remain silent when someone else does, am I guilty, too? To some degree, depending on what is within my power to do or say. Below is an excerpt from a message that hit my inbox yesterday. I was nine days from my third birthday in 1942 when this event took place. An event which resulted in millions of deaths in addition to the Nazi's desired 'final solution'. I'm not three years old now and I have a voice and platform of sorts.

Mike Evans: I will never forget my mother’s words, “Christians hate Jews. Christians kill Jews.” That was all she knew from her family’s history.

It was seventy years ago today that the “Final Solution” was proposed and agreed to at the Wannsee Conference. Ninety minutes—a mere ninety minutes—was all it took for Adolf Hitler’s henchmen to determine the fate of six million Jews. During that period, roughly the time it would take to drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv during peak traffic, the Holocaust became a heinous reality.

The date: January 20, 1942.

The place: a beautiful villa in a serene lakeside suburb of Berlin.

The objective: to find a “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

Presiding over the conference was SS-Lieutenant General Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and Security Service. In attendance were fourteen high-ranking German military and government leaders, among them Adolf Eichmann. Imagine, over lunch fifteen men in ninety minutes changed the world forever. January 20, 2012 marks the 70th anniversary of that fateful conference. We dare not let this dubious anniversary pass without marking how little time it takes to alter the course of history.

Not green? Puh-leeze!

Time for a rant, I guess. This piece is not original with me, but I think it bears wider circulation. I could be that 'older woman', minus the apology! Comments in parentheses and italics are my own additions. If anyone is offended, talk to me after you've hung a couple dozen diapers on a line in winter as your fingers freeze or washed dishes by hand for fifty years.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own reusable grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing' in its day.
(We just 'got 'er done'!)

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the 'green thing' back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right.
We didn't have the 'green thing' in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. (Been there, done that!) Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right.
We didn't have the 'green thing' back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, (if that) in the house - not a TV in every room (plus a computer in every room and several laptops and smart phones). And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right.
We didn't have the 'green thing' back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the 'green thing' back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the 'green thing' back then?

Never Forget

Some with four legs and a sensitive nose

Christmas Blessings

Looking back over this year I seem to have lived in a kind of fog for most of it, doing whatever was necessary in fits and starts. A little lonely, in spite of having people around most of the time. How do you learn to be a single again after more than fifty years? Like most things, put one foot in front of the other, then do it again.

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love the carols which remind us of the reason for the season, decorating the tree. Cleaning and straightening the house, not so much! The last three Christmas seasons were hard with my husband bedridden from a stroke and in a nursing home under hospice care the last one.

But those three years brought blessings, too. A special joy was great grandson Tyler, whose smiling little face and burbling laugh brighten the darkest day. I pray that as he grows up, Tyler will look to the Jesus whose birth we celebrate for guidance. And that we, his parents, grandparents and great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins will be examples of those who also look for that guidance in our lives.

Much as we love Christmas, Jesus did not suffer arrested development and remain a babe in Bethlehem. He grew up and accepted the suffering, death and separation from God that His human body would have to endure to save those who believe in Him from eternal death. And because the Holy Spirit raised Him from that death, we can now celebrate His birth and His life and the life we ourselves live and will live after our last breath on earth. My Christmas may be a little more subdued this year, but celebrate I shall. Because I believe our loved ones in Heaven celebrate with us when we remember the
Reason for the Season, Jesus!

Some Favorite Christmas Tree pictures

I love to look at pictures of Christmas trees and have a bunch on my computer. Above are two favorites. I found the unusual second one a few days ago on Mary Murtz's blog and she graciously said I could repost it here. See the original on her Blog, http://http//marymurtz.com/2011/12/12/wherein-i-build-a-christmas-tree-out-of-books/, and instructions for making it.

Coming up for air!

Maybe I'll be posting a llliitttle more regularly now! Have been pretty busy working with others on a couple of projects for writing group.

I was mad at Blogger because I couldn't see my 'Followers', along with other users. We (dozens) lodged complaints, all we got was suggestions to change Browsers (preferably their Chrome, which few wanted to do). I knew I probably needed to upgrade my Internet Explorer 7, but didn't need my computer to be down if something went wrong so put if off.

Last week I finally upgraded. Guess what? I can now see my (all 4 of 'em!) followers! Welcome, Gina. Thanks for looking me up. Hey, Corey and Richard. And, of course, my baby sister always supports me! Hope to see you sometime next month, Sis!

Great grandson keeps growing and getting sweeter! When they visit he toddles in to GGMa's office and tries to pull all her books down and climb on all the 'stuff' that has accumulated in here. Ya Ya, (my daughter, his grandma) mostly takes care of him when we have him here on days his parents' shifts overlap. He loves to ride in a car. I have a car seat in my car and was going to take him home. We put him in the seat but found we needed to adjust the straps and took him out for a moment. He screamed and tried to get back in the seat. Memo: don't put Tyler in the car seat unless you're ready to go!

Frustration

If I ever run into Mr. Murphy, of Murphy's Law fame, he will get an earful from me. If he had never come up with the idea that 'if anything CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong,' would it still be true? Guess we'll never know. He opened the can of worms.
A while back my Followers stopped showing up on my Blog. All 3 of them! Though my Dashboard shows there should be 4. Have been reading Blogger/Google help files and posted my own question. Apparently it's something about Security settings on my computer. I've changed this and that, put Blogger and Blogspot in my allowed websites. I thought I might get a clue if I changed 'cookie' settings so I have to allow each one, resulting in having to allow or deny a dozen or so for each website I go to. Now if that was chocolate chip cookies - but I digress. Now I read it may be something about the handling of 'scripts' in my Internet settings. What I need is a computer wizard. Lacking one I guess I'll set the cookies loose and let them accumulate as they will and peruse my script settings. Wish me luck.

Wonderful

Now I'd like to be around when a 'flash mob' like this formed!

Hallelujah Chorus