Mary Beth Writes

Check out Fresh Air for March 7, 2022: 'New Yorker' cartoonist David Sipress. He mentions this cartoon that he created back in the 1990's. 

 3/8/2022

Boy, the news, huh? Pretty easy right now to feel overwhelmed. Ukraine is sucking up all the air in the room and if we stop being fascinated and aghast at that story – we remember the other stuff. Local dirty politics and where’s Covid and global climate meltdown and let me see – am I going to say the rising cost of gas is our place to be in solidarity with the people of Ukraine-  or is this oil companies gouging us while blaming it on a crisis? (Read more here.) 

I keep asking myself this question, which I will not be precisely answering for you because I don’t know how.

What does my spirit need? What do I need to get or do or be to enjoy my life and be a helpful person on this earth?

Not - how shocked and angry and astounded am I - but what do I need?

I am very sure we are not here to be outraged and depressed – though we are not going to fault ourselves and our friends when this is where we end up.

Being a human in any time and in this time is a gift, a disaster, a trick, and a challenge. 

..

Here are two things to remember if you, like me, feel assaulted and tired.

1. Go outside. We are animals who we need to walk around in our world. We get sick if we don’t.

I sometimes think all the messages about exercising and speed walking and running marathons and weight lifting and treadmills and YouTube yoga, yadda yadda, are valuable because obviously, we need to move. But these messages have also trained us to think that going outside requires specific outside activities.  We have learned to think of the world as a place to drive through or a gym where we exercise.

I remember my long-gone days when I smoked. A half dozen times a day I’d go outside to sit on my front or back steps with a cigarette and then not think about much for seven minutes. I’m never going back to smoking but I did love and still do, sitting outside by myself, watching the world flutter. We don’t always have to have a purpose but we do need to let the universe touch us.

2. Be generous.  Send money, donate stuff, give to worthy causes addressing the crises in our world. Bring home bakery cookies to give to the neighbors. Buy your pets treats. Give flowers for no reason. Maybe to yourself.

ICYMI today is International Women’s Day. I remember when I was a girl feeling ashamed of being a girl because it meant I was not going to be as valuable or important as a man.  Not kidding, I thought this. Thank you to all the women who risked their comfort and safety to show girls then and girls now how awful and stupid sexism is.  Just saying, none of us are strong all by ourselves.

If you feel like commemorating today, when you go outside to sit on your steps (see above) don’t come back inside until you’ve remembered some of the women who helped clear the path for you.

National Red Dress Day, the first Friday in February, is the day to wear red in honor and support of women’s heart health. (I knew it was out there but I had never really logged in on what day it was.) 

In January I had 2 1/2 days when my heart fluttered weirdly and my new Apple watch ECG app said my heart rate was “inconclusive.”  One thing and another, today I am wearing a Holter monitor which a very nice tech stuck on me yesterday. It’s small - about the size and thickness of half a granola bar with a thin 3” tail - all of it is stuck to me. Tomorrow I pull it off, put it in a small box that fits in a postage paid envelope which I mail back to the cardiology department at the medical center.

Wow.

My dad died of a two heart attacks in three days in 1967; no one ever knew exactly what happened to his heart. He was not overweight, he didn’t smoke or drink, he even jogged sometimes for exercise.  His mother would die from strokes. My brother died of a heart attack in 1999. My uncle died of a heart attack. All these Danielsons worked hard, were bright and fine and loved, had some good and some bad habits until they keeled over way too young.

And now a watch and a little stick-on gizmo are going to tell me an enormous amount about the health of my heart. I expect my results to say my heart is fine. Nothing has thumped or fluttered since January.  I think I had too much coffee one morning and then I freaked out at the Inconclusive readings.

Anyways. If people around you talk about “the good old days” please thump them upside their heads.

While culture wars have been spinning on, scientists have been busy and we who have access to medical care are damn lucky.

.

And here is my latest cat scan.

 

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Comments

Hoping the miraculous Holter monitor brings reassuring information. One thing it cannot reveal is the miraculous nature of you and what you bring to us all with your writings. That miracle is revealed straight from your heart to our own.
Mary Beth's picture

Awww... I'm sitting here grinning. Thank you.

Looks good to me! And you have nice clear and bright eyes! Peace
Mary Beth's picture

Laughing..

You have a very good heart, Mary Beth. Sometimes in this difficult world, we are a bit irregular, why not? That will be addressed, if need be. But I am going on record saying your heart is good.
Mary Beth's picture

And you knew it when it was young....

Love this. A very good read!
Mary Beth's picture

Thanks, Pal!

What Karen K, said. I thank your heart. Patricia

Well, that has to be the most conclusive cat scan I have ever viewed. Just looking at the sweetness makes my heart rate slow down. Here's hoping your heart is in great working order and the weirdness is gone for good. I love the cartoons...I can relate to each one! Got my chuckle for the morning in. Thanks.

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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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