I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Life

  • And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor


    Just kidding – we don’t even have a sponsor to interrupt us, but I do have a few  pictures and thoughts to go with them. I’m taking a break from my PEST (Post Election Stressful Trauma) and concentrating on the potential for holiday good cheer with cards from old friends and a former President I shamelessly admire for his ongoing efforts to “Wage Peace” in a lifetime of public service.

    015

     This year’s card 

    014

    Each year for many years former President and First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter send us a Christmas card. I can set my Christmas clock by it. It’s one of two cards that arrive at Casa de Canterbury immediately following Thanksgiving. Our tried-and-true friend James Brown from Greenville sends a beautiful card we always love that announces the holiday season, and the Carters are close behind with good wishes from their family and the Carter Center.

    I first began supporting Jimmy Carter in 1976 when he was running for President. At the time I was disenchanted with the Washington establishment during and following the Nixon administration. I believed we needed a change from those horrific public Watergate nightmares in order to move forward with a higher moral compass in the White House. I thought the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia would be just the person to shake things up…OMG, Somebody stop me.

    I just can’t give it a rest.

    Oh well, enjoy a few of the other Carter Christmas cards over the years. I promise to shut up.

    032

    President Carter’s own drawing of cutting a Christmas tree with his daughter Amy

    029

    Christmas in Plains, Georgia, his home town

    (another personal drawing)

    027

    His boyhood home in Plains

    (also his drawing)

    022

    I couldn’t have said it better myself. From the Carters and Casa de Canterbury to all our friends in cyberspace.

    Imagine peace.

     

     

  • Today is the First Day of…


    …the rest of your life? Exactly….but today is also the First Day of December which means Christmas music, holiday parties, magical outdoor lighting and indoor decorated trees, Santa sightings, frantic shopping sprees, too many cookies – not enough fiber, too much eggnog – not enough water, too many rum cakes – not enough veggies…too many reindeer – not enough sleighs.

    img_4197

    Annual Cookie Walk in Montgomery, Texas

    Ellen’s busy giving away the farm with her Twelve Days of Christmas, and Pretty is busy wondering why we aren’t in the audience for one of those days. I told her we would make that part of our financial plan for 2017. As a matter of fact, we can make that the cornerstone of our financial plan for next year.

    So clearly in the spirit of the season, the president-elect is tweeting “we the people” our leadership gifts for the next four years.

    On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    a partridge in a pear tree –

     a promise to drain the swamp in D. C.

    On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    two turtle doves –

    (Breitbart Steve and Reince)

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    three guys named Mike –

    (Pence, Flynn, Pompeo),

    Breitbart Steve and Reince –

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    three billionaires and their Goldman Sachs adviser –

    (Betsy, Wilbur, Donald, Steven),

    three guys named Mike,

    Breitbart Steve and Reince,

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    five Golden Tweets –

    three billionaires and their Goldman Sachs Adviser,

    three guys named Mike,

    Breitbart Steve and Reince,

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    Ah, the joys of the holiday season in a presidential election year. I can hear the bells going jingle, jangle – or is that my nerves.

    Party hearty.

     

     

     

  • Pretty Set Free in Time for Thanksgiving!


    006

    Autumn colors at Casa de Canterbury

    Pretty escaped the confinement of her hospital bed and the Magic Motion Machine yesterday afternoon and was deliriously happy to be liberated!

    When she went to her therapy session after her release, everyone was pleased that she can now bend her knee to 126 whereas before her procedure she could only do 106. I am not sure what all these numbers actually mean, but I do know the optimum number range is 120 – 130 for knee bending because Pretty told me so herself, and now she is smack dab in the middle of the range so all is well at the moment.

    As Thanksgiving rolls around for us at Casa de Canterbury, we find ourselves planning an unusual family gathering here.  (Yes, well, the family is unusual like most families, and it’s highly unusual for everyone to be here.) We normally drive to the Upstate to the party room of the First Baptist Church of Fingerville, South Carolina to share a meal with Pretty’s mother’s remaining family members plus our son and his wife, her dad, her sister and brother-in-law. Since that would be a tough trip for her to make this year, her immediate family members are coming here.

    While Pretty was at her second post-Magic Machine PT this morning, I ordered the ham and turkey from the helpful folks at Honey Baked Hams. Yum.

    As my regular cyberspace friends already know, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I think that love affair began when I was a little girl living with my grandmother who started roasting a turkey in a very special small oven in the wee hours of the morning and I awoke to the aroma of that baking bird plus a variety of fresh apple and cherry pies which would be served with an extra sprinkling of sugar and a small shaving of butter on top of the crust when it was done.

    I slept in a tiny enclosed porch next to the kitchen at my grandmother’s house until I was thirteen years old, and the only partition between the kitchen and my bed was a folding  piece of plastic that looked like an accordion when it was closed. The unbelievable smells from the kitchen bypassed the plastic curtain and enveloped me when I awoke on Thanksgiving morning. Who wouldn’t love a holiday that began like that…

    011

    Spike will be the official Family Greeter for us

    015

    We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Pretty is home, and I am still able to take care of her with the help of an army of friends who have stood by our side in the past few months to support us with taxi services, food, flowers and general fun to lighten our burdens and anxieties. Bless all of your hearts for all you have done and continue to do.

    Thank you again to our cyberspace followers who have had an ongoing bond with The Red Man and his family for the past six years. We love you all and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Count us among those.

    014

  • Breaking News – Pretty Update


    Please pardon this interruption, but so many of our friends and family have asked about Pretty’s personal saga with her knee replacement which now includes another hospital stay this week for a second procedure three months after the original surgery. Her doctor assured me today all was well, and so I will take him at his word, although I seem to recall this was the same remark he made after the first operation. Hm.

    img_3311

    Pretty’s old knee in happier times 

    with Smokey Lonesome Ollie in Texas

    Pretty is connected to a gazillion machines with blinking lights and flashing numbers that apparently have some meaning to somebody somewhere, but not to Pretty or me. The most important machine is one that keeps her knee in constant motion bending it at various angles. I have named it the Constant Motion Magic Machine because it is supposed to make her knee regain flexibility following today’s manipulation by Dr. Cool and Smooth. Here’s hoping.

    img_2763

    Pretty and The Red Man on Worsham Street

    (before any problems with her left knee)

    If all goes according to plan, Pretty will be home Thursday and beginning another arduous round of physical therapy. She is very determined to bend her knee to her will; I admire her for that.

    Thank you to all of you who have called, texted, visited, brought homemade brownies with homemade whipped cream to her hospital room…or delivered Dutch comfort food to Casa de Canterbury in the form of a delicious casserole filled with meat, potatoes, cheese and cabbage… or brought brand new purple and white socks to the hospital tonight in honor of the colors of the Suffragette Movement. We are so very lucky to have friends like you in our lives. For our cyberspace friends who live in other parts of the USA and other countries around the globe, bless your hearts for caring.

    Kindness is catching on – big time.

  • Try a Little Kindness


    Our household at Casa de Canterbury has suffered a post-Election Day Depression that has cast a pall on our happiness in the past week. Charly and Spike and I have tried to rally to lift her spirits, but Pretty has wrestled with her grief and discouragement and basic lack of faith in the goodness of the American people. We are a political household – actually activists in the LGBTQ movement for 30 years – and so have lost battles in our lives to bigotry and bullying rhetoric before, but I think we had wrongly believed we had as a nation moved past the hateful and harmful to the more harmonious.

    In the midst of this overwhelming gathering of dark clouds of despair, we heard a knock at our door this afternoon. Pretty went to the door and saw a younger friend of ours named Travis who stood outside the door holding a gift bag and purple flowers. Attached to the gift bag was a wonderful letter, and I wanted to offer a portion of his letter as a perfect example of what is meant by trying a little kindness.

    005

    Hello my friends,

    I have been thinking of you. While I have seen a lot of craziness posted on Facebook and through other media over the results of the Presidential Election, I wanted to spread hope and comfort. So, that is why this Democrat Care package has landed on your stoop…

    Purple flowers – look at the beauty of these fine gifts of our Earth…today I want you to see how beautiful the purple is when red and blue come together…

    Chocolate…lifesavers…a nice pen…you know the pen is mightier than the sword. Use it and your voice to protect reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, criminal reform, healthcare reform…

    …if the chocolate does not work, ditch the flowers, wash the glass and pour a big glass of your favorite drink (wine, bourbon and Diet Coke all count). Drink that one glass and during that drink allow for anger, self-pity and worry, BUT never despair! When you are done reach out to me and let’s see how we can make a difference!

    All my love,

    Travis

    Pretty and I were both moved by the letter, flowers, gift bag goodies and a card that all combined to make a Care package we will never forget. As he left, I looked at the sky and thought I detected a few rays of sunlight piercing the darkness that had been hovering over the gigantic oaks in our front yard. I think Pretty saw them, too.

    Kindness really matters to everyone. Pass it on.