Sunday Salon, the John Lewis Memorial edition

Weather: Saturday morning we awoke to drizzly skies after a hot week. The forecast is for clearing and warmer temperatures Sunday.

This week: No hiking or nature reserves but we are preparing for a vacation to Central Oregon this coming week. Our daughter in S.F. will be joining us. Before she left she sent us a text of this photo of Fred, her cat, with the note, "I'm all packed."

Also this week: We took Ian to a bike event at our church for some fun in the sun. He has a little strider bike. Unfortunately I can't post the video, so you only get to see him holding his little bike.

Books:

• Currently reading:
• Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes From a Mindful Cook by Dana Velden--Not sure how I found my way to this book but I am enjoying its simple messages. (Print)
• Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith. Black men and women speaking from beyond the grave. (E-book)
  
• Completed
• Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore--A book club selection. A tough book to categorize but I give a trigger warning here. The opening chapter is a rape. (Audio)
• Close to Birds by Magnusson, et al.--A gorgeously rendered book with photographs and descriptions of birds. I love this book. (Print, part of the 12-book library haul)
• Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye--A Middle Grade/YA collection. All the poems have to do with trash. I enjoyed many of them a lot. (Print, part of the 12-book library haul)
• The Reason I Jump: the Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida--Another book club selection. Very insightful and revealing. (E-book)
  
• Kent State by Deborah Wiles--A YA account of the killings at Kent State during the tumultuous  Vietnam protests in the late 1960s. Relevant for today. Written in poetry, with each group assigned a different font: students, towns people, National Guardsmen, etc. (E-book)
  

Good and important news of the week:

1. Goodbye and thank you, John Lewis:

• John Lewis's funeral
• (all 3+ hours of it!) I spent Thursday weeping and sobbing while watching all but a few minutes of this moving service.
• President Bush (Funny and brief but very touching)
• President Clinton  (His remarks on a theme. I love how he brings it all around.)
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi (I wept through most of this)
• President Obama (Not just a eulogy but a very important political speech. I miss him so much.)
• A 3-minute summary/highlights of the three Presidents giving their remarks (LA Times)
• "Good Trouble" song by BeBe and Marvin Winans
• John Lewis's last words to us, published the day of his funeral in the NYT. Because it is behind a paywall, I know you may not be able to find it there, but try to find it somewhere. Or at least watch the segment on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell where Morgan Freeman reads the letter aloud while images of John Lewis are shown. Powerful stuff. Here is the last paragraph of that letter---
• "When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide."- John Lewis, published July 30, 2020

2. Sinclair Broadcasting has dropped the segment they were planning to show about a conspiracy theory related to Dr. Fauci -- that he created the coronavirus. (CNN) Hmm, I guess they finally decided to look into the kooky claims themselves and decided it was a no-go. Good.

3. Raffi (remember him kids?) wrote a song to sing at the Black Lives Matter protests:

🙏❤️ in solidarity with #BlackLivesMattter, a tribute to the heroic protests vs injustice in Portland and elsewhere: an idea that woke me up 3 am, now recorded. thanks to @LinzMunroe (vocals) and Ivan Rosenberg (dobro). #PortlandMoms #ResistFascism #FloydGeorge #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/uzOIQKW056

— Raffi Cavoukian (@Raffi_RC) July 25, 2020

4. Fully 53% of respondents in the latest Civiqs survey released Thursday said they "oppose President Trump, and there's almost nothing that could change that." Once more, those definitely opposing Trump’s reelection outpaced those definitely supporting him by 19 points.

5. 1619 Project. This week Tom Cotton, senator from Arkansas, earned honors as "Worst Senator in the World" for saying, "Slavery was a necessary evil" and went on to elaborate that he doesn't want the 1619 Project to be taught in our schools. (CNN) Of course not. He is a racist. Clear and simple.

        I was not that familiar with the 1619 Project until Cotton's attempt to censor it. Censor teaching about slavery? After some investigation, I am very impressed with the content of this New York Times project.

        I decided to highlight one aspect of the 1619 Project each week until we read all the way through it. If I link one piece to read, it won't be an overwhelming task. Let's read together purposefully and thoughtfully.

       This week's read is fairly short (unless you follow all the links): "Why We Published the 1619 Project." and the introduction, The Idea of America, by Nikole Hannah-Jones. Thanks for joining me, now let's get to it!

6. The best anti-COVID spot is a Nike ad that is an editing marvel and very inspiring. We can do this! (Muse)

7. For you, a feel good moment  watch and/or dance to 'Love Train' by artists on Playing for Change, highlighting kids from Turnaround Arts featuring many stars including Yo-Yo Ma, Jason Mraz and the O'Jays. Here.

On the lighter side:

My husband saw this at his doctor's office this week. "Good Job, Herald"

Yes. This would be great debate material. Do it!

I had one of those Facebook conversations this week, as a matter of fact. Ears plugged for sure.

Mine is #5

Non sequitur:
Take a moment to breathe. Watch. This is mesmerizing.

I sure do appreciate it if you leave me a comment, even if you disagree with my idea of good news, just so I know you were here. Thanks so much.

-Anne