The Social Porcupine

silk tatted lace edging for my wedding dress If you asked me as a young girl what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wouldn't have had some answer that suggested I wanted to labor away for some corporation eight hours every weekday. I had no visions of being a Redcross nurse and patching up soldiers (unless it was for the other side), or of being some schoolteacher (I'd have encouraged all the students to play hooky), or of being the secretary to the President of the United States (nor of being the president).    No, I'd have told you that I would much prefer to make leather shoes and spin yarn for sweaters for my babies... and tat lace. Even now, I can't imagine a better aspiration than to sit in a rocker of luxurious wood on embroidered cushions and tat yards of silk lace with my silver shuttle. We all have a grandmother, or a friend who has a grandmother, who made lace. Depending on their heritage and background, they may have done tape lace, bobbin lace, ...

I have a question for you: "If you lived in Germany during the Third Reich, would you have been one of those that stood by silent as Jews were dragged away from their homes? Would have refused to believe that Jews and many others were being killed and treated inhumanly at several large concentration camps scattered throughout your home country?" Before I answer this question for myself, I want to take a break and share a story from my siblings and me.  When my Dad was in the hospitable last year for a month, my mom spent all of that time with him, I was mostly in charge of my ten younger siblings. The few just under me in age were able to take care of themselves and help out with the younger ones, too, but as the oldest one I ended up dealing with most of the messy, stressful situations that arose.  Such as making sure my younger siblings did their chores and school and not spend every moment watching movies or playing video games. The only problem was dur...

The other day I was thinking about how it was sad that some people don't like to think or have opinions. As if having an opinion about something is bad. You see, I love to spend my days developing opinions about all sorts of things while I work. It's fun to think. And it's fun to stretch your thoughts in new directions. But on this particular day, I was pitying all of those that don't like having opinions. I really pity those who say things like, "I don't really have an opinion." And say it as if they really  don't have an opinion. Like I said, I was spending my time pitying them. Until I started thinking about how impossible it had to be to not have an opinion about something. "Surely, there's something that everyone has an opinion on?"  And then it dawned on me what that something was—kissing!  Everyone has an opinion about kissing. And if you tell me you don't, I'll be convinced that you are lying to m...

We writers love words. Many of us love speaking these words aloud almost as much if not more than writing. That's because we have opinions - opinions we believe ought to be shared. Even to the point of friendly   discussion unless that's impossible because someone completely stupid won't understand . But sometimes we opinionated verbalists take a moment and realize we need to fuel our minds and stabilize our opinions with facts.   That's why, occasionally, we choose to listen . lis·ten ˈlis(ə)n verb 1. give one's attention to a sound. synonyms: hear , pay attention, be attentive,  attend ,  concentrate noun 1. an act of listening to something.                                                                       ...