Earthlings!

On Sunday, February 16th at 2 pm. I will tell and sing and play with anyone of any age who wants to learn about being a Proud Earthling! At Godfrey Daniels - info below!

I wrote a song for this event AND an action rhyme.  I am posting the lyrics to the song below.

HOWEVER, I also chose some great stories and there will be a game and discussion and a secret (sort of ) club.

We are all earthlings.
The Earth is our home.
We love the lands, the skies and the seas
The sun and the rain, the snow and the breeze.

We are all earthlings.
The Earth is our home.
We share this home with rabbits and bears
the fish in the seas, and, birds in the air.

Break:
We are all Earthlings
We cherish this place.
We’re a family of Earthlings
On a ball out in space.

We are all Earthlings
The Earth is our home
We love the deserts, the jungles and towns,
The mountains and swamps, and the mud, rich and brown

We are all Earthlings
The Earth is our home.
We share this world with gators and bees,
the crawlers on land and the climbers in trees.

Break:
We are all Earthlings
We cherish this place.
We’re a family of Earthlings
On a ball out in space.

We are all Earthlings
The Earth is our home                                  by Karen Maurer, 2020

I just finished the action rhyme after reading about the ways people greet each other around the world. To be totally factual, most people accept a bow or a handshake. But whenever possible, native
people's traditions should be respected.  The story behind Tibet's odd greeting is wonderful! (See below!)

Here is my beta version of How Do People Say Hello? It may change before Sunday, who knows?

(Children pair off. In each verse, they act out how people greet each other. In flu season, you may want to skip or "air play" New Zealand and Oman. I am doing this with a teddy bear since I have a cold.)

 (Repeat this first verse between the others. Children can wave to each other during this verse or greet other people in the way they just learned about.)

What do people do to say hello?
How do people say hello?

In America, you take
your friend’s hand
and give a shake
That’s what people do to say hello.

In  far off Tibet, some monks
will stick out their tongues
That’s what people do to say hello.*

In Japan, bowing is polite
When you meet both day and night
That’s what people do to say hello

In New Zealand, touch together
foreheads and noses*
That’s what Kiwis do to say their helloes-es.
That's what people do to say hello.

In the deserts of Oman,
Men touch noses when they can*
That’s what people do to say hello.

The Masai like to jump.
Some people do fist bumps.
A hug, a wave, a fast hand jive
A smile, a slap, a quick high five.

People do so many things to say hello
So many things to do to say hello!          Karen Maurer 2020


Okay for the asterisks.
#1. In the 6th century, Tibet had a horrible king, cruel and nasty. He had a black tongue. Tibetans stick out their tongues to assure people they greet that they have no relationship to that nasty king. Reincarnation plays a part in this greeting but young children might not get it.

#2. This greeting is called hongi and is very sweet. Eyes can be open or closed.  Also, Kiwi is a slang phrase for someone who lives in New Zealand because kiwi birds are native to New Zealand.

#3. Touching noses appears to be an Arab tradition. Since men and women have very separate roles, I only found this greeting listed as involving men.

NOT AN ASTERISK: Inuits (sometimes called Eskimos) do NOT rub noses. They touch their nose and upper lip to a person's forehead and breathe in. First one person does it, then the other.

I love Earthlings. We are awesome!

Update: I found the info about greetings on these websites:
https://www.opodo.co.uk/blog/greetings-around-the-world/

https://guff.com/15-ways-people-greet-each-other-from-countries-around-the-world

https://www.insider.com/how-to-greet-people-around-the-world-2016-8#india-place-your-palms-together-and-say-namaste-12

Sunday Selfie - Fight Delight? Nah.

Yesterday, as I ran errands, I caught snatches of a radio essay on "delight". It made me smile.

The idea of "delight" is far from our minds in the dark of winter. In fact, most mornings when I wake up, delight is the last thing I consider. First, I groan because it is later than I hoped. Then I sneer because it is earlier than I want it to be. (Figure that one out.) Then I stretch and discover that the joints and parts that hurt last night still hurt this morning. Some mornings, I refuse to get out of bed, yet.

But I always do rise and shuffle through the day. Delight can catch me then, unawares. Oh, but not if I am wary.  I fight the delight because no one can make me feel - or do - anything I don't want to do.

Except...I do want to be delighted.  Even in my battle against surprising happiness, I do things that surprise me with happiness. I should just give in.

Bill Staines, after his performance at Godfrey Daniels.

 Last night is a case in point. Now, I know the name Bill Staines. He wrote a song called "Place in the Choir" that was turned into a picture book in the '90s. Then Kadir Nelson (Kadir Nelson!) illustrated the song in 2009. We sang the song around campfires in the 80s, I think.

Kadir Nelson' version.

The older book!

I know that Bill Staines has written some great songs, covered by some very well-known singers. I had never been to a Bill Staines performance, though.

I volunteered to work the counter at a place that delights me in so many ways, Godfrey Daniels, the Lehigh Valley's original listening room.  Because, why not? I mean, Bill Staines is FAMOUS!! and if I volunteer I get to see the performance for free. (Hint! Lehigh Valley peeps! It's worth the scrambling before the show and at the break to be a volunteer. The caveat is this; you will end up purchasing tickets for other shows because so many folk legends play this club.)

Delight. It hit me square in the eardrum and in the eyes - delight in music so smooth and so sweet that worries roll off your shoulders. Delight - to see and hear people of so many different ages singing together. It was like a tent meeting of kindness - delight.

His songs are about rivers, home, old dogs, bridges, rodeos, road trips, children, memories, love, loss, hope - these are the building blocks of delight. 

Today, the weather is meh! and my head aches. I could take a walk so I could complain about the wet weather and the damp. Or play foolish games on the computer, or nap.

Instead I think  that I will put my new Bill Staines CD on while I make a home cooked meal and feel delight in my home, in warmth, in coziness and in the talent of an American folk singer.

When delight jumps out, invite it in.  Put on some music. Make some soup. Set your mopey self free.

Adventures in Space

The music on the loudspeakers brought to mind Star Wars, E.T., and music of space dramas through out the history of soundtracks. We headed towards the Rocket Garden. I wanted to ride the bus out to the Apollo exhibit. He wanted to view "Heroes and Legends", an exhibit added since our last visit.

Have you been to Kennedy Space Center? To me, it has all the enchantment of any amusement park anywhere.  It has excitement and glamour and sparkly things and it is all true.

The bus ride traveled around Merritt Island, home to NASA, and to seas turtles, cranes, alligators and eagles. We circumnavigated the VAB, Vehicle Assembly Building, and stopped by one of the enormous launch tractors that painstakingly and more-slowly-than-sloths-or-turtles move vehicles to their launch positions.

We passed the SpaceX building leased by Elon Musk for his rocket projects. We drove by Launch Pad 39B , now in use by Musk's team. Our guide pointed out the zip lines attached to the launch tower to help the crew escape in an emergency. I wonder if that would even work.

We even drove past Launch Command Center before landing at the Apollo/Saturn hangar and exhibit that houses as manyrockets as they could cram into the building. I saw the actual firing room preserved as it was during Apollo 8's historic launch - and so much more. After my visit, I hopped back on the shuttle that returned me to the Space Center and I sat across from the Rocket Garden in the sun with my husband and wondered at humanity's obsession with space. Lucky for us, a guide gave a walking tour of the Rocket Garden which was broadcast over the square.

We have lived through fascinating, exciting times.

The books I read on this vacation connected so strongly with the Spce Center that it felt cosmically ordained.

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews   A group of friends chase the paper lanterns set loose in the river to find out where they really go. The traditional song claims that the lanterns rise into the sky to join the stars. Um, really? Ben and his friends make a pact. They will never look back; they will not turn home. Behind them on his father's too-big bike rides Nathan, the class weirdo and a boy that Ben has known his whole life to Ben's ever growing embarrassment.

One by one (or two) the other boys fall away, for Taco night, or because they are tired, or because they don't want to get in trouble, until it is only Ben and Nathan on this trip.  Ben resents Nathan's presence but he shrugs and on they go. After all, Nathan has his Mom's rice krispie treats. Nathan repeats the pact that he heard the boys make and wonders if he should have said goodbye for good to his parents before he left home. Literal, an encyclopedia on legs, cheerful and undaunted - that's Nathan.

Off into the night they ride, into a fog that steers them awry, where they meet magical characters, all of whom are chasing bright mystical beings on this autumn night.

I kept thinking of the best anime I've seen as I read this graphic novel. The artwork moves from predictable to energized to manic and finally to ahh! inspiring.

When I finish this post, I will hunt the book down to purchase. The copy I read is due back at the Bethlehem Public Library.

Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos    Nova is beyond excited about the space shuttle Challenger's 10th launch. She and her older sister have used space travel as a way to escape their worries even back when they lived with their widowed troubled Mom, and through all the foster homes in between. Nova is with a new family. Bridget has promised her that no matter where she is Bridget will reach Nova in time for the launch.

Nova does not speak. Noises and new situations make her frantic. She shrieks and flaps and twirls and without Bridget, she has no one who can understand what she needs or what she is going through.

As she adjusts to a new family, and a new school, Nova writes to Bridget every night in a notebook Bridget gave her for the express purpose. Bridget is the only person who can read what Nova writes.

This book brought tears to my eyes as Nova describes what people say about her, thinking that she doesn't understand, as she tells how she has been misunderstood and treated by adults who thought they were doing what was best.

Her new foster family brought tears to my eyes because they made no assumptions about Nova's abilities. They looked beyond her oddities and saw her the way that Bridget saw her.

The soundtrack that helped Nova deal with overwhelming stress was Davie Bowie's Space Oddity and that song always brings tears to my eyes.

I think I don't need to go on. We all know what happened when the Challenger's 10th mission was launched - the one with school teacher, Christa McAuliffe, on board. The disaster frees memories that Nova has suppressed.

Tears.

Real life adventures, fictional stories, the same stars and universe - we share it all.

The Real Reason for the Advent Avenger

If you are a parent, I am warning you. There will come a holiday season when your kid - or kids - doesn't want to have anything to do with you!  Santa Claus is passé. The magic is gone. And sure as shooting stars, the kid will NOT get the fabulous, very expensive gift they are too young, too reckless or too irresponsible to get. So, scowl!

This can be a temporary one season thing or it can stretch for YEARS!! I know. It happened to me.

I was miserable. I only have one kid. There was no other small human acting giddy and foolish over dreams and surprises. There was just this barely polite person who, honestly, had no patience for me or his father. (By the way, this phase bounced off and on for years. Sigh.)

When I am miserable, after marinating in some seriously superior self-pity- (it is one of my few native talents) -I always look for an action that will take my attention away from my misery. As my mother, the Wisest Woman in the World - the original WWW - always said, "When you feel sorry for yourself, help someone else." It works!

I searched my memory banks for help. The problem was that my memories involved sisters and brothers - pretty many of them. I had no idea how to take the games we played as a group of goofballs and turn them into something that would engage one goofball - who wasn't even talking to me except when absolutely necessary.

It all started with a kangaroo ornament, the first of my Advent Angel gifts. It was, the tag read, "An Advent Australian Animal." I found it at Ten Thousand Villages in Ephrata. I planned to find items that I could alliterate with Advent and drop them on his bed each day.

It is very hard to find items that begin with "a" that fit the holiday season. Advent Apple? Done. Advent Automobile - a toy, of course. Advent Aardvark - I tried that. I did. The Advent Aardvark was my first Advent messenger.

And then, the Advent Avenger sprang fully clothed - or not, if you are familiar with the story - into being.

The Advent Avenger turned into a calendar - and a book - that I photocopied at a local printer. And I handed a copy to each of my brothers and sisters and to others besides.

We joke about the Advent Avenger among ourselves. One of my brothers made me a sweatshirt, a photo of which you can see below.

Note the holly on the shoulders. This brother is so creative.

The Advent Avenger kept me sane during those angsty years of growth and pulling away. They - the Advent Avenger is gender neutral because they could be anyone, even YOU! - still bring me joy and remind me to look for a hopeful way out of uncertainty.** (What?! I was "woke" even back in the early '90s.)

BTW, The Advent Avenger wants you to join the club. This is all you have to do to join. Spread good feelings everywhere. Smile. Speak gently. And if you have some holiday cash left over, here are some organizations that are spreading JOY! all year round.

The Heifer Project. Since the late 1940's, Heifer Project has provided livestock, plants and seeds to people in impoverished areas around the world. What could be more holiday-ish than purchasing a lamb for someone else?

Habitat for Humanity. When there is "no room at the inn", Habitat steps up to make homes for people who need them.

Conservation International got a 4 star rating at Charity Navigators making it a sure bet for working towards a cleaner and safer globe.

OR find a charity that is working for something that you feel is so necessary.

Have the best holiday ever. Remember that the difficult people in your life are having tough times. They have never lived through this holiday season before. None of us have.

Sunday Selfie -

The Army Ants came first.


It was a tough time. The budget was tight and services to children and infants stretched. My husband and his good friend worked in Intake, under a director who was later accused of malfeasance. (I forget exactly what she did.) At one point, Hub and J were ordered to tell new callers that they could not offer them ANY services. They took that order hard and did what they could to help all callers.

Their cubby was located near the front door of the agency. Hub took some of our son's Army Ants into work. Do you remember those?

When Hub and J found that workers came in to play with the Army Ants, (arranging them in battle positions or other positions, probably), they decided to make their little way station a "destination" office.

"The Quote of the Day" was a big hit. More about that later.

When the holidays hit, Hub asked me for the tackiest Christmas decorations we owned. He and J festooned their work stations. The other workers LOVED it.

But the best thing they did during the holidays in that time of duress was the Word of the Day. Each morning, they picked a word and offered prizes (candy) to anyone who guessed that word.

If you know my Hub, you can just imagine what words the workers expected. After all, it was a high stress time in the office. Caseworkers offered every foul word as a possible choice.

At the end of the day, all those barnyard speakers were delighted to find that Hub and J, both of them world class cursers, always picked something benign.

"No, no!" Hub would say in his mildest, somewhat incredulous voice. "The word is 'holly'." Or reindeer or snow or something else seasonal.

Hub told me that story - again - this morning. And it cracked me up - again - as it does every time I hear it.

It was a stressful time at work and here at home. Hub rose to the challenge, helping his co-workers stay sane in a job that is thankless and emotionally draining. J is gone and we miss daily.

When the agency's awful director was finally removed, Hub and J auctioned off their Quote of the Day post-its to raise money for small gifts for new foster kids. It was the end of an era.

Step up to keep your friends and family sane this holiday season. Do the little things - offer tea - a smile - a joke - Hold the door open. If you work, make your workspace a safe and cheery space.

If, like the coworkers in this story, you feel like cursing - buy some Army Ants! 





Bill's favorite Quote of the Day from the days of Bill and Jim:

"My kingdom will always have room for a boot licking lackey like you." (From the Gummy Bears cartoon show.)

Themes and memes

The last two books that I read this year - not the last for the year! heaven forfend! - dealt with immigrants who moved from Asia to English speaking countries. Both books also dealt with dead or dying parents. Of course, beyond that the books are widely different. One is written for teens; the other is written for middle grade readers. One takes place in the good ole U S of A. The other is set Down Under. In the book for teens, it is the parents who have had trouble, or so it seems, adjusting to their move. In the book for middle grades, the main character, an 11-year-old, feels shanghaied by his family's move.

Language is a connector. It is also a barrier. A way to communicate CAN be found but we need to be compassionate enough to try.


Frankly in Love by David Yoon starts out as a typical last year of high school when will I get a girl romance. Of course there are complications. There are always complications. Frank's complications are his parents.

We watch Frank's parents "evolve" as Frank's view of his family evolves. Yoon never paints the parents broadly or stereotypically, but it seems that Frank does. They have "racist" attitudes about dating because they are immigrants. Frank knows how they think because he hears their opinions. They keep Frank's older sister at arm's length because she chose the wrong partner.

Not crazy about this cover. Just saying.

The very best thing about this book is Yoon's writing. He lays out the puzzle pieces and the reader is pretty sure where the pieces will go. Whether they fall into place as the reader predicts or not, Yoon adds depth of emotion and enlightenment to the simplest event.

So, here's the plot. Frank Lee has never had a date because his parents will only approve of him dating a Korean-American girl. His lifelong friend, Joy, IS dating a non-Korean, secretly. So they come up with a plan to fake date each other.

From comments on Goodreads, it appears that fake dating is a thing. I suspect it was a thing back in the pre-Cambrian Era when I went to high school,   - religion, race, neighborhood, the same-same.

The inevitable result of fake dating happens, but the ending is not rosy.

Meanwhile, Frank breaks his non-Korean girlfriend's heart. Frank's best friend, Q, spouts erudite nonsense (which cracked me up). Frank and Q's friendship made this book for me.

And THEN, there is a family crisis that is sad and revealing and ultimately healing. Nuff said.

Now, this cover holds promise!

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai is also about immigrants. Jingwen, his mother and his younger brother, Yanghao have moved to Australia. Jingwen simply cannot get the hang of English. He views the other children at school as Martians. He understands just enough English to convince himself that some of his classmates are mocking him. And he realizes that HE is the alien.

Jingwen makes a lot of assumptions about the people around him because he can't talk to them. He reads body language and faces. His own feeling of failure imbues his interpretations with threats where none exist. What an awful feeling!

Jingwen and Yanghao's father wanted to move to Australia and open a bake shop where only the most special cakes would be sold. Then he died in a car accident. When their mother went through with the move, Jingwen feels that his family abandoned the memory of his father.

 Jingwen is sure that the only way he can ever feel happy again is by baking every cake his father planned for their bake shop, Pie in the Sky. So secret cake baking ensues. Yanghao has to be included because HE can make himself understood. Cakes! Messes! Duplicity! They need to keep their baking secret because using a stove is dangerous for children.

In the meantime, Jingwen struggles. His teacher reaches out. A classmate is kind. When Yanghao ends up in the hospital because of a marginally cake related accident, their mother finally pays attention to Jingwen's grief. It is not easy being a widowed mother in a foreign land.

All those cakes end up improving Jingwen's grades, help him make friends and create a hopeful ending.
ALSO, the drawings are delightful.

Sunday Selfie - Smile

People tell a friend of mine to "Smile." all the time. He hates it. I agree with him for disliking it, because it's disrespectful to order someone else to change their facial expression. This friend has an absolutely awesome smile. When I see him smiling at someone, it brightens my heart. His resting expression is serious and he prefers that people keep their opinion of that to themselves.

"Smile" is actually good advice, though. Studies have determined that if you smile - not that fake grimace we gave during school pictures, but an actual smile - the act of smiling alerts your brain that your mood is in the process of lifting. Keep smiling and eventually your mood does lift. Muscles and memory work together to help you feel better.

The other night I went to a club meeting where people got up to share stories. I love these events and I usually sit there with a smile on my lips. Or I lean forward in concern when the teller is relaying something sad or exciting.

I looked around and noticed that hardly anyone else was smiling. I wonder why. Were they just waiting their turn? Do they, like my friend, have serious resting expressions? Do they equate listening to a live performance to vegging in front of the TV? (THAT is a subject for a whole other post.) Later when people shared their impressions and thoughts about the stories, hardly anyone smiled. Again, I wonder why.

I admit that when I walked away from that meeting I had neutral to concerned feelings about the people there. The ones who smiled as they talked - appropriately to the content of their stories or statements, of course - I felt positive towards. I wondered if the others were sad, tired or even angry. When we go THERE, the next step is to wonder if they were angry with me.

See? Now possible friendships became fraught with obstacles because people did not smile.

Don't smile because it makes me more comfortable, though. Smile because it will help you through tough times.

When someone tells me I look worried, as I often do, it reminds me to smile, even to laugh. When I do, the worrisome things fall into their rightful place in my life. and I feel less stress.

Advice for the day is twofold:
Don't tell other people to "Smile."

BUT, remind yourself to smile. It will make you feel better in most situations.