Eleanor, Gee! I think your "swell-anor!"

Today, 11 October, is the birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt. Let’s celebrate!

Although I won’t go as far as Hillary Clinton and want to channel her, Eleanor is one of my favorite first ladies. I admire her for her lived conviction of peace and for the rights of women and children. Her work in drafting the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and efforts for the rights of women makes her, in my opinion, “a top 3” in any listing of first ladies.

What is the role of a first lady? Yes, there is a lot of ceremony and “hostess with the most-ess” duties, yet, each first lady is to have a cause and a focus for which she promotes and labors. Admittedly, in all the wrongs needing righted and the causes needing championed, having a first lady in your corner helps a great deal. It are the women who took a stand and made effective change be it in interior decorating, beautifying the landscape, health, children, or literacy that we remember.

Although it doesn’t seem as if there is one on the near horizon, it would be quite fascinating one day to have a first man. How would that go over? What would be his cause? How would he host a White House dinner party?

In case you’re curious, my top 5 of first ladies includes: Betty Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalyn Carter, Michele Obama, and, as mentioned, Eleanor Roosevelt.There is a clear reason for each. Yes, it leans very strongly to the left of the aisle…..really, no surprise, right?

Who’s in your top 5?

sj;

Pick your frontier

In a phrase that always makes one sound incredibly pompous....today, while reading the New York Times (see it does, doesn't it??) I read that today in 1968 was the first manned flight of the Apollo mission in the USA's quest of the great frontier of space. Cool.

That got me thinking about frontiers. Although, a full moon ranks very high on my list of WOW! sights and I have lost time staring at a night sky stuffed with stars, I've never been one to be overly enthused nor impressed about our exploration of space. Being a toddler sitting on my Mama's lap when we landed on the moon, that whole generational focus on the "final frontier of space" was lost on me. I'm also not one who is a lover of flight. I would be the one who pays attention to every detail of the pre-flight speech, looks to make sure I know where is my closest exit, and makes use of a variety of in-flight sacred talismans during take-off and landing.

For me, the frontier that caught and still catches my attention is the ocean and the depth and vastness of the water. I loved Jacques Cousteau! As a kid, I recieved a toy figure of a scuba diver and I would take my plastic diver, fill up the bath tub and spend hours imagining deep sea exploration!

One of the more amazing moments was being on a cruise ship and late at night going out on the upmost deck to stand in wonder at being surrounded by nothing but lots of deep, deep water in the middle of the big, big ocean.

Personally, I would choose snorkeling over hang-gliding.

Where is it that strikes true to your awe-quotient? Have you spent time in that frontier?

Adventure is needed....

sj;

'Tis the season

I could be mistaken, yet, as a kid I do not remember folks decorating their homes for Halloween in as outlandish and elaborate ways as they do today. I recall the standard pumpkins and corn stalks and some fake tombstones and a few ghosties hanging around.

However, today, people who track these things say that following Christmas, decorating for Halloween ranks a close second. People go all out this time of year. There are orange lights in trees and bushes, fog machines, webs, lifesize ghouls, blownup ghosts and frankensteins, and entire productions of full cemeteries with accompanying hands that rise from the earth and zombies that stalk the lawn.

In case your wondering, and based on zero scientific research, I believe the popular decoration for this Halloween season is a huge spider web neon, slime green in color that features a gigantic purple spider. I have seen this decorative theme featured on several homes.

So, what's up with all this time, money, and effort to decorate ghoulishly and garishly?

I for one don't understand why folks would want a giant, inflated Winnie-the-Pooh in a green and red hat and riding a sled in their front yard; so I am totally clueless as to why people would want to have skulls, creepers, and horrors taking up space on their front yards and porches for several weeks.

To be honest, there are some homes that frighten me so much I pass by on the other side of the street. Maybe, that's part of the fun to go out of our way to shock or scare.

For me, I still like the standard pumpkin (traditional orange) and cornstalks and am alwasy entertained by the decoration that looks as if a witch flew into a tree, pole, post, etc.

sj;