Mary Beth Writes

12/3/2021

One of my favorite lines this year: “Our family does Christmas cards at 20 paces.” (I apologize that I don’t remember the author.)

Are you done buying or making presents? Is this easy for you or is it a craziness in your life? I think for most of us, obtaining presents isn’t too hard except one or two people will stump and stymie. Make sure that if that person is not your favorite person under ordinary circumstances, try to not devote too much more time or money to them than you do to the folks you love full and easy. Christmas isn’t a contest to win. It’s simply a season to share ourselves and our resources more obviously.

What are thoughtful and helpful things we can give to each other this year? Assuming we would like, as much as possible, to avoid plastic (which will never decompose), or strapping ourselves financially, while attempting to do a little to make the world more just?

Here are a very few ideas.

There are many companies who will try to say they are Fair Trade. Look for Fair Trade Federation. They have the best track record.

Have you ever assembled a dead weeds bouquet? Go for a walk with a kid or a friend. Bring scissors and a basket. Cut weeds in alleys or along roads where no one cares what you do. The beautiful shades and graceful shapes of dried grasses, weeds, and pickers can be as beautiful as the memory of the walk. If you have cats this bouquet might only last a day, but if you don’t like comedy, you probably don’t have a cat.

When I was a teenager my sister gave me a very cool Scandinavian-design hand mirror. Mirrors are simple tools we seldom think to give to each other. I still use that mirror every day.

One year I spent quality time at the library picking gorgeous coffee table books on subjects Len is interested in. Wrapped them up and gave them to him Christmas morning. He spent weeks perusing them - and then I returned them. I would probably only ever do this for Len, but it was fun.

If one can afford it, it is always powerful to give a kid a bike. And a helmet.

When our kids were getting ready to go to college, we gave them boxes with handy tools in them. Hammers, nails and screws, florist wire, duct tape, screw driver set, Allen wrenches, pliers. Our son has turned his set into his garage filled with tools; our daughters still have their boxes and when we help them move, they haul them out.

When the kids were in elementary my mom gave them sewing boxes with various threads and simple sewing equipment. As they grew older they jettisoned the fancy boxes (I still have them, sigh, they were from my mom) but each kid knows how to use a needle and thread if they need to.

Good jams and cheeses. Perugino or other fancy chocolate bars or other candy. The trick to sweets seems to be that if the gift is for a kid, go for quantity. If it is for an adult, choose quality. Nuts and seeds. Fancy dried fruit. Medjool dates. Did you know camel drivers carried figs and dates because one only has to eat a few to garner most of the vitamins, minerals, and calories a person needs to exist? Efficient if you are going to ride a camel across a desert for a couple weeks.

If you know the person well, choose the weird things they love to eat. Our kids give Len anchovies and upscale sardines. The cats come into the kitchen to lick the cans when he’s done.

A good pillow is a fine luxury.

For our anniversary our kids gave us a digital picture frame which revolves photos of people and pets in our family. I walk by it frequently in a day; seeing the faces of my family makes me smile. It works via email, so they frequently send new photos. It’s a great (and expensive) gift for families who don’t live close to each other. A friend and her siblings bought one for their mom in an assisted living residence.

Kites - with a promise to fly it with your giftee! We know kids loves kites but you might have adult friends who would enjoy an afternoon flying a kite with you. Imagine the photos!

This is the time of year to try to shop at least once in places that feature artists’ work, or at Fair Trade Fairs (there is one in Madison this weekend https://www.fairtrademadison.org/ ). Stop by a ceramic studio. Buy cards and bowls, fabrics, and placemats. Shop an independent bookstore. We know all this but have you put it on your calendar? Or ordered online from such places?

This list is not awesome but I think you have ideas, too. 

What do you like to give and get?

 

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We gave some of our Chicago kids a Zoo membership. It gives them free parking, so they can take the “littles” for an hour or so any time. My dad gave me a socket wrench set; a lifetime favorite, and so much power in a box!

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Y is for Yellowstone

9/27/2023

Back in February I asked you to give me topics to write about that would correspond to the alphabet. Sometimes several of you sent ideas for one letter and sometimes I wrote about all of them (I’s and S’s) Here we are at letter Y for which your suggestions are Yummy Food and Yawns. The word yawn absolutely makes me yawn; no way I could write about that - I would yawn for hours. I worked on Yummy Food but could only find a scolding voice about Americans eating too much sugar. Bah. True but not interesting.

So, I gave Y a go again. Y is for?

"I was Scott Simon's teller."

9/22/2023

First of all - Thank you to those of you who came to the Wisconsin Writers Association zoom gala last night. I HAD received an email a week ago which said I would be reading my whole story. Cutting it in half while I was reading was awkward! It was still a happy event for me and the other writers. Thanks for being there! 

X is for Xeriscape

9/20/2023

Xeriscape is pronounced ‘zeer-eh-scape’ and it means landscaping with little to no irrigated water. Readers in the west already know about this. Those of us who don’t live in arid or desert places need to wake up to the incredible resource that water is - then begin to accommodate ourselves to “water all around and beneath us all the time” is no longer our reality. Nor is it our right. We’ve got to get smarter and do better.

W is for Wonder

9/13/202

To whomever suggested Wonder - Thank You!  ‘Wonder’ has been bobbing in my mind like a frog in a pond.

However, I have FOUR suggestions from you guys for X - but I do not want to write four X essays. These are the suggestions:

1.) X signature substitution

2.) xylophone on a string pulled by a toddler

3.) xenophobia

4.) Xmas. 

If you have an opinion respond with the one you would like me to attempt. I will choose whichever X gets the most comments.

There will be no gerrymandering in this election.

GNTL - NAMI

9/7/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

NAMI

Most of you know about my former weird and lovely job of coordinating an employability skills program for Huber-qualified inmates in the Racine County Jail (that’s a mouthful). Early on I realized that most of the people I would work with were people with 1.) huge addiction problems, and 2.) underlying and over-the-top and to-the-side just lying around mental health issues.

V is for Vocabulary

9/6/2023 

For those who are new here - This year I am writing about topics, in alphabetical order, that were suggested to me by readers. Sometimes this is hard! 

IRTNOG

My cousin-in-law Dave has some powerfully thorough avocations (for fun and profit he earned a PhD in biochemistry; you will notice this in his list). This year, among other pursuits, he has been collecting words which have appeared in our culture since 1945, which was the year he also appeared in our culture.

Tag Cloud

9/11 17 minutes 500 Words A-Z AARPtaxes AAUW abortion Acadia accident Accountable Advent aging Alaska anniversary antibiotics antlers apples appointments Arrows art Ashland August Augustine aunts baby Badlands balance Baldwin Barbara Barkskins Beauty Becky Becoming Esther Berry birthday bistro BLM Blue BookReport books boy scout Bread BrokenDays BuyAngry Cabeza de Vaca Cahokia calendars Canada canoe cat romance cats cello Chicago China Choosing Christmas cilantro Cinnabuns circus climate change clouds Clowns clutter Colonialism comet ComfortZone CommonSense community consumerism Cops Corvid-19 Courage Covid-19 Crazy creditreport creosote CrimeShows danger DarkRiver death Debate December DecisionFatigue decluttering democracy dentist depression Destination Today Detroit Didion disasterprep dogs dollhouse Dreams Duty Easter eBay Echoes Eclipse election EmilyDickinson eschatology Esquipulas exit polls eyes Fable FairTrade family farmer Fata Morgana ferns firealarm Fitness Five Flatbread Flexible flu Food Pantry Fort de Chartres frame Franc FrancGarcia friends frugal FrugalHacks Frugality frustration Ft.Ticonderoga fungi fusion Galena Gannets Garden GarfieldParkConservatory Gaspe genius geode GeorgeFloyd gerrymandering ghosts gifts girls GNTL gorgons goulash GovernorThompsonStatePark Graduation grandkids granola groceries Guatemala gum guns Hair happiness HaveYouEver? hawks healthcare Healthinsurance hearings heart heaven HelleKBerry heroes hike History home HomeRepair Honduras Hope HowCrowGotOutofJail humor hurricane Ice Cream idiosyncrasy igloos impeachment Innkeeper Instincts integrity InternetPrivacy Interview InviteMe2Speak James Baldwin Jan 6 Janus jewelry JoyceAndrews Judy JulianofNorwich Jump justice Karen kites ladder Lady Lamb LangstonHuges LaphamPeak laundry LeeLeeMcKnight lemming Len Light Lincoln Little Women LockedOut Loki loneliness LouisArmstrong Love Ludington Macaw macho Manitoulin MargaretFuller Maria Hamilton Marquette marriage Marsden Hartley masks Mayan MayaWorks meme Memories men Middlemarch MilesWallyDiego MindfulChickens Mistakes MLK moon Mother MothersDay mounds mouser movies museums must-haves Mustapha NAMI Nancy Drew Newfoundland New Mexico New York City Nomadland nope observation OBUUC Ocotillo OnaJudge ordinary OscarRomero osprey Outside oximeter Parade mayhem PastorBettyRendon Paul Hessert PDQ Penny persimmon photos Pi Pies pineapples poetry Preaching privacy procrastination Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism reading recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage romance Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez satellites ScottSimon sculpture Seasons Sermon ServantsoftheQuest sewing Shepherd Shontay ShortStory shoulder sick sickness Slower snow Social Security SofritoBandito solstice South Dakota SpaceShuttle spirituality spring square feet staining stars stele Stereotypes stories StoryStarts stream monitoring stress Survival swim Talent taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou therapy ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant Umbrella UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning Vocabulary vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria Won! Wonder words Xeriscape Yellowstone
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