Mary Beth Writes

Coming right up, Pandemical Mother’s Day! If you are a mother you probably have one of two imperfect tomorrows in front of you.

If you are a mom with kids in your house, you will eat what they cook, or call in take-out, or cook the meal to celebrate yourself. If that 3rd option happens I’m suggesting cereal, candy bars, popcorn and Old Fashioneds. But you do you.

If your kids are grown and out of the house, well, there’s a conundrum. Cozy phone calls? Or Happy Social Distancing with the ones you love best. Air hugs just don’t cut it, do they? Maybe you will hug them anyway, I won’t tell.

I read this smart article earlier today which certainly suggests that if you can manage it – stay outside. Read here.  The weather in the Midwest tomorrow is supposed to be rain interspersed with snow. Fun.

Tomorrow you either will or won’t be with your mother, your children, and grandchildren. Mother’s Day is an easy day to start with the best of intentions and attitude and then whammo-bammo, one kid sticks his finger in the nose of the other (they are 40 and 42) and next thing you know … complicated feelings.

So maybe today think of things you would like to happen that YOU can be in charge of. A walk, with snowshoes? Cooking something you love to eat. Listening to your favorite music. Watching a movie. (We watched “Becoming.” It was like breathing clean air to remember how many good people are in our country.) If you have the money to do so, order something you’ve been coveting a little.

Never wait for someone else to make you happy on Mother’s Day during a pandemic.

In case you need or want a laugh: Best Tweets by Women this week.   

Things I saw on Twitter yesterday and this morning:

 Tweet 1: Trump's grandfather died in the 1918 flu pandemic and the subsequent life insurance policy that paid out created the Trump fortune. This is the most mind-boggling thing I've learned during Covid 19.

Tweet 2: In the past DAY, the 8 richest men increased their wealth by $6.2B:
Mark Zuckerberg: $1.08B, Larry Page: $956M, Bill Gates: $931M, Sergey Brin: $919M
Jeff Bezos: $907M, Larry Ellison: $634M, Warren Buffett: $429M, Steve Ballmer: $353M
Combined wealth: $653.8B

While 33M+ lost jobs

A friend asked me (via email, sigh) how I’m doing. I said I feel as if in the last few days I and America have finished Part One of the pandemic. We have witnessed thousands of people dying, bodies stacked in refrigerator trucks, Trump stumbling through his briefings and Cuomo gripping our attention in his. We know who Fauci is as well as the lady with the scarf. We know how to put on our masks. I don’t think much anymore about “going out” since being here seems so normal. Getting in the car makes me feel slightly giddy.

I check the Dow Jones a lot less than I used to; it seems dead and stupid and has so little to offer people who lost their jobs. Some businesses are re-opening but who is patronizing restaurants and stores now? According to surveys, about 70% of us are staying hunkered down until something makes more sense than this.

We are in Part Two where 46% of Americans are affected by lowered income. But that means 54% of us have about the same. Len and I and many of you are in the 54% - and it doesn’t feel a bit stable or kind.

I walked on the boardwalk through the slough behind Target this morning, my mind tumbling and whizzing. I leaned against the railing a few minutes to watch mud.  And wouldn’t you know, a piece of that muck began to move! It was a big ole’ turtle! 

It was so marvelous to watch that old lady (I decided she was she) pushing around, biting at weedy things, just being her perfect self. I smiled until I realized I was smiling and that I was excited. I wasn't trying to be delighted, that just happened on its own. I thought about the generations behind me who taught their kids to look for turtles for fun, science, and dinner.  All of those people and their kids crowded up behind me with their curiosity and respect, we all wanted to see the big turtle at the edge of a swampy city pond.   

The earliest known turtles date from the Middle Jurassic, making them ancient. Turtles are thought to have exceptional night vision due to the unusually large number of rod cells in their retinas; turtles have color vision with sensitivities ranging from the near ultraviolet (UVA) to red.

The story going on around us is so much older, wilder, and bigger than us.  

 

Comments

Watched Becoming the day it came out -- smiled the whole way through it. Michelle is such an upbeat, decent, encouraging person, she is amazing. Watching the Grant Park scene on election night made me cry, just as I did that night in 2008 when I felt so hopeful for my country. Watching Becoming did once again give me some hope. In spite of the dumpster fire that is the current administration, we did once have leaders who were decent and competent; so perhaps we could have that once again. Feeling hopeful is so much better than feeling despair. Feeling despair makes one want to give up, but feeling hopeful makes one try to make things better.

I have walked that boardwolk many times in past years....thanks for the memory. I have a big old snaping turtle who lives in my channel. Head as big as my fist. I see heim every year....but not this year yet....strange... one year he got stuck inside the fence around my veggie garden. I had to rescue him. Had to get him to grab a stick and drag him out the gate. He wasn't very apprecative. He's lucky I don't like turtle soup!
Mary Beth's picture

Aren't they awesome! Like a wave from millions of years ago, they hung out with dinosaurs and they hang out near us.

I too watched Becoming on the day it first came out. All I can say is that that woman has more intelligence and class in her little finger than that poor excuse for a president we have in Washington... And as for turtles how can you not love them... As kids we used to bring them home from a nearby pond and keep them in the backyard until they would escape or we'd take them back to the pond...

That reminds me of a turtle I had brought home for a "pet". It all went well until one day when holding it on my shoulder.....it bit me on the neck! After that I stuck to bring toads and frogs home....except when I got a muskrat from the almost empty city swimming pool after the winter draw down.....I was into bring anyting live home for a pet, snakes, baby black birds ( full of lice, my mother pointed out, when I set them on the kitchen table ) I also collected niightcrawlers with a flashlite after a heavy rain, by the coffee can full. My first "pets".
Mary Beth's picture

Michol, I can just see you with pet worms and a muskrat and a crow on your shoulder, giving heck to anyone who crossed your path. A mom who names her daughter Michol knows who that daughter is going to be!

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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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