gratitudes, norad tracks santa, change and resistance to change, list of fundamental truths
yesterday i was grateful for shopping in small shops...
today i am looking forward to the feast of seven fishes and two of my favorite christmas movies...
And what began in 1955 as a way to familiarize war-weary Americans with Cold Warāera defense systems has become an operation in which more than 1,000 Canadian and American military personnel, Defense Department civilian workers, and local participants near Colorado Springs, where NORAD is headquartered, volunteer to answer the more than 100,000 phone calls that come from children around the world on Christmas Eve. It is a testament to the longstanding U.S.-Canadian friendship.
not quite sure how to think about this oneā¦ i imagine little wendy who dialing santa and getting norad by mistake ā¦ did the defense departmentās heart grow a few sizes that day?ā¦ or did they cynically seize a propaganda opportunity?ā¦ that the men and women keeping watch over us voluntarily staff phone banks to take the calls of children inquiring after santa from all over the world these days adds just the right sentimental touch for this christmas carolā¦ in the end i think its a sweet story and i did have a tear in my šļø at the endā¦ to the men and women of the armed servicesā¦ thank you for having santaās and our backsā¦
How to Live Fully: Ursula K. Le Guinās Remedy for Our Resistance to Change ā The Marginalian
The most assuring thing about life is that we can change, that things can change, that they are always changing. The most maddening is that despite living in a universe that is one constant transmutation of energy and matter, despite living in bodies and minds whose cells and ideas are constantly being replaced, we so vehemently resist change, too afraid to unsettle the structure of our lives ā even when it doesnāt serve us.
this post by maria popova hit home for me because i have undergone a significant change in the past couple of years... i am referring, of course, to my becoming trans feminine, openly, in public... i like to think of it as an evolution and i am really proud of myself for being able to evolve... it was scary at first... i couldn't hold it back but i was afraid of how people would react... i rolled it out slowly over time... subtly at first... then more and more vibrantly and openly... to the point where i now wear red lipstick in public without hesitation... one of the things i love about me being me these days is me being an anomaly... in the spirit of be the change you want to see... i am presenting feminine spirit to the world because i both feel it and believe in it... i also believe in in a broad diversity of expression... and i believe in the right and necessity to evolve...
this also, quoted in the context of the post...
āPeople wish to be settled,ā Emerson wrote, ā[but] only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.ā
and this
āAll that you touch you change,ā wrote Octavia Butler. āAll that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change.ā
i think this is one of the fundamental truths to add to my list of fundamental truths...
Facts don't matter. What people believe matters. -- Kelly Ann Conway
and,
The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of. -- Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea
i think i am starting a list of fundamental truths i encounter...
my wife shared a post on Lucy Burns on facebook... very much worth getting to know who she was...
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 ā December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate.[1] She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns was a close friend of Alice Paul, and together they ultimately formed the National Woman's Party.[2]
some photographs from this morning...
i love the skirt... going to investigate its availability in my size...
