What Would Jimmy Do?

Tomorrow is February 12 — Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. There will be a few local celebrations in some states and a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. I believe there is also a ceremony at Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky.

The third Monday in February is the date designated for the federal Washington’s Birthday holiday under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971. Technically, the federal President’s Day commemorates George Washington’s birthday. (There is no national holiday called “President’s Day.” Maybe this is a good subject for another blog…)

Most people believe that President’s Day celebrates both Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays — that’s really not true…. somewhere along the way, Lincoln got cheated out of his birthday celebration. After Lincoln’t death, there were efforts to get his birthday recognized as a holiday, but there has never been a federal Lincoln birthday holiday.

In 1940, 24 states and the District of Columbia observed Lincoln’s birthday. In 1990, Lincoln’t birthday was observed as a paid holiday in 10 states. After the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed and states moved toward celebrating the federal Washington birthday as President’s Day, there are only a few states that honor Lincoln directly (Illinois, Connecticut, Missouri and New York.) A number of states, including California and New Jersey, phased out the Lincoln holiday, mostly as cost-cutting measures.

There have been several attempts in Congress to get Lincoln his own national holiday, but none has succeeded.
It’s interesting to note that Indiana (and New Mexico) celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday.) Why? President Lincoln, in 1863, issued the proclamation that officially set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving.

So even though it’s not a national holiday, or even recognized in most places, I think Lincoln deserves his own birthday celebration. Happy Birthday Abe!!
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I hate February. But, that said, I do feel a little bad for it. Even though lots of things happen in February, like Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, Chinese New Year (usually) and most often the Super Bowl — it still is the one month that just doesn’t seem to “fit in.”

It not only is the shortest month in the calendar, it’s also the only month to be affected by leap years. That means it gets and extra day every four years, and even with that extra day, it’s still the shortest month.

In some ways, I guess February is lucky to be here at all…originally the month of February never even existed. The old Roman calendar only had 10 months in a year. It seems like the Romans (like me) didn’t like the cold winter period so they just left it blank — and nameless. Eventually, the Roman calendar was revised to 12 lunar cycles and January and February were added to the existing 10 months.

Of course the calendar we use today is loosely based on the old Roman calendar and there are a lot of myths and legends surrounding how we got to where we are today. One “February” legend says that Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the spring equinox (in March) and ended in December. Supposedly this explains the names of October (Oct=8) and December (Dec=10.) After December there weren’t any “official” months, probably because winter was considered “un-important” as to the harvesting of crops.

The second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to make the calendar more accurate by syncing it up with the actual lunar year. So Numa added two months, January and February, after December to account for the extension of days to the existing calendar. Both January and February were given 28 days each. However, even numbers were considered bad luck at the time, so this didn’t sit well with Numa. He added a day to January but left February with 28 days. I guess Numa was okay with February staying at 28 days and “unlucky.” Maybe because the Romans honored the dead and performed rites of purification in February. The word februare means to purify.

Finally, around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar commissioned an expert to make a sun-based calendar, just like the Egyptian one. Caesar added an extra 10 days to the calendar and an extra day in February every four years, making the year average out to be 365.25 days.

So, for whatever reason, February just has never got the respect that maybe it deserves. I feel a little bad because it gets the short end of things, but I still don’t like it… maybe if it came along between May and June, I’d change my mind.
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Well, we made it through January — that’s the good news. The bad news is that January is followed by February. I’m really looking forward to spring, or at least warmer weather. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day… every year I usually write about Groundhog Day and every year I write about the same stuff — because, well, that’s what happens on Groundhog Day.

As just about everyone knows, if a groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow, there will be six more weeks of winter, if he doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll have an early spring. Of course these rules don’t apply to just any groundhog — only to Punxsutawney Phil. He’s the only authorized true weather forecasting groundhog. No matter what other groundhogs may tell you, they are impostors.

Punxsutawney Phil has been making weather predictions for more than 131 years, so that makes him pretty old (and probably pretty wise.) If you’ve read this blog every year, you know that Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip — before getting that name, he was called Br’er Groundhog.

So in anticipation of tomorrow, I predict that Phil will see his shadow and we’ll have six more weeks of winter… and I also predict if he doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll still have six more weeks of winter.
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As (both) my faithful readers know, I tend to celebrate a lot of holidays — some are well known and others… not so much. Today, January 17th, while not really a holiday, is nevertheless a special day. It’s officially (I’m not making this up) “Ditch New Year Resolutions Day.” I usually just take note of it every year, but don’t really celebrate it, because once I make a New Year Resolution, I stick to it — I don’t always accomplish it, but I stick with it and even admit to failure at the end of the year.

But — I think this is a necessary day because for many people new year resolutions are hanging heavily over their heads. Their resolutions have become a burden, and by now they may be thinking they weren’t such a good idea after all.
It makes sense that if there’s a day to celebrate the new year and to make resolutions, then there should be a day to ditch those resolutions. That’s the reason for today.

If you, unlike me, haven’t accomplished, broken, or given up on your New Year Resolutions, today is your chance to get out from under them.
So…. to all of you who over-indulged and made resolutions, you couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t keep…. Happy Ditch New Year Resolutions Day!!
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A couple of days ago, was the anniversary of a fairly significant “event” in the United States. On January 14, 1943, the Pentagon was officially dedicated and “opened for business.” The building’s first employees actually moved in on April 30, 1942 — before the building was completed.

Construction on the Pentagon began on September 11, 1941. Exactly 60 years later, to the day, a hijacked plane struck the building, killing 189 people and damaging roughly one-third of the structure.

The Pentagon is located in Virginia — on a plot of land known as Arlington Farm; that land was once part of the grand estate of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Even today, the Pentagon ranks among the largest office buildings in the world. It took 410,000 cubic yard of concrete to construct — that concrete was made from 700,000 tons of sand dredged from the Potomac River.
The original cost of construction was estimated to be $35 million. The actual cost was about $75 million.

The Pentagon continues to be a symbol of America’s military strength — so Happy 75th Anniversary to the Pentagon!!!
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According to the news this morning, South Africa is planning to formally protest President Trump’s (reported) remarks referring to El Salvador, Haiti and some African nations in a derogatory manner. South Africa’s government is expected to issue a diplomatic protest to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria. A number of lawmakers, both republicans and democrats, have criticized Trump’s comments, some accusing him of racism.

Well, that got me to wondering about racism. We hear the term all the time and I suspect that it’s used often when what’s being described or discussed actually isn’t racism. My extensive research on the subject started with the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, racism is: 1) a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; 2) racial prejudice or discrimination.

Actually, reading the definition didn’t help me much, but I think 2) in the definition above comes closer to what we usually think of as racism. If you talk to most people, they’ll say, “I’m not racist,” or “there’s not a racist bone in my body.”

I think a lot of people, including myself, equate racism to hate. The dictionary definition above mentions racial prejudice — prejudice is defined a preconceived  opinion that isn’t based on reason or actual experience… so basically that implies that one feels superior to another without any test results or logical reason to demonstrate that anyone is superior to anyone else — it really doesn’t have anything to do with “dislike.”

Hate, on the other hand, is…. well, just hate. If you hate someone because of their race, that probably makes you a racist. If you hate people in general, because of other reasons, you’re probably not a racist — you just don’t like people.

The further I get into this topic, I’m more and more convinced that there’s nothing simple about it; it’s a very complex subject. “Racism” has been around for a long, long time and probably won’t go away any time soon. Racism is bad — hate is worse. Maybe we should concentrate more effort toward getting rid of hate… and maybe the race issue would fade away. When you stop to think about it, there really is only one race — the human race….
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(Some) Virginians are in the middle of a long weekend today — Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday, and Friday was Lee-Jackson Day, a state holiday in Virginia. Lee-Jackson day falls on Friday and Martin Luther King Day is celebrated on Monday.

Lee-Jackson Day is designated in Virginia to remember two Confederate generals — Robert E. Lee and his “right hand man,” Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Especially now, with all the controversy swirling about the Civil War and pretty much all things associated with the “South,” the day is somewhat controversial, given that the two generals fought for the Confederacy.

But Lee-Jackson Day has been celebrated in Virginia since 1889. Originally, it was the observance of Robert E. Lee’s birthday, but Jackson was added to the holiday’s name in 1904. After Martin Luther King Jr. Day was made a national holiday in 1983, Virginia designated the holiday as Lee-Jackson-King Day — a one-day, combined celebration. That lasted through 1999. In 2000, the holidays were separated.
Today, some cities in Virginia refuse to observe Lee-Jackson Day and others celebrate it with a great fanfare.

So no matter what your view, if you happen to live in Virginia, there’s at least the potential you may get a 4-day weekend. Admittedly, these days — on the surface at least — seem to contradict each other, but maybe eventually we’ll be able to accept our past for what it was and move on to a brighter future….
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As both faithful readers know, we have two new twin granddaughters. Well, I got to wondering if they’d do things at the same time or which one would be “first” to accomplish a new task. I wonder which one will be the first to speak a recognizable word — and — what will that word be?

So that got me to wondering about babies first words… I’ve heard that the most common first word is some form of dad, like dada. I guess most moms and dads want the first word to be either dad or mom, or some variation of those — some think that the kid will be more devoted to the first parent they can name. Most babies usually say something that sounds closer to dad than mom first because the “d” sound is easier for them to say than the “m” sound.

My extensive research into this subject indicates that “no” is probably the most common word (outside of dada or mama.) Why is that? Because one of the primary roles of parents before kids can talk is to keep them from doing things they shouldn’t do, so kids here the word no a lot and babies tend to repeat the sounds/words they hear most often.

It’ll be interesting to see what Rory’s and Ellie’s first words will be. I don’t remember what Dave’s first word was, but think it may have been dada or something like that. I remember Kelly’s first clearly spoken word was clock. We had a grandfather’s clock and every time it chimed (4 times and hour), she said, “clock.” I think Locke’s first word was also something close to “dad.” Emily’s first word was “Iguana.” I have no idea what that means — except maybe that Emily has always operated outside the box…
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I, like everyone I guess, had two grandmothers. And those two grandmothers, like any two people I guess, were very different. My grandmother Williamson lived to just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday. She was born (I’m pretty sure) in Alabama and came to Oklahoma when she was very young — in a covered wagon. I think her maiden name was Horton but she married my granddad and became a Williamson. Her given name was Josephine, but everyone knew her as Josie. Maysville was a very small town and everyone knew everyone — literally. So to say everyone knew her is an understatement.

Josie had lots of energy and interests and was very active in various organizations. She also was her own person, very independent, and pretty much marched to her own drum.

Although I always remember her being “old” (she was a grandmother for crying out loud) she never acted old. She never learned to drive so when she wanted to go somewhere, like Pauls Valley, or Oklahoma City she never asked anyone for a ride — she just hopped on a bus and went her merry way. Although Maysville wasn’t big, geographically, she always walked to where she was going. She used to walk completely across town to visit the “old folks” in the town’s only nursing home. The fact is, she was probably older than 90 percent of the people she was visiting.
Every year she planted a (big!!) garden and grew all sorts of vegetables. Of course there was no way she could eat that much produce, so she walked all over town giving anyone that would take it, some of her garden.

I’m not sure of her age at the time, but she was well into her 90s when she decided to fulfill one of the things on her bucket list — she’d always wanted to visit the “Holy Land.”  So — she cashed in one of her insurance polices, bought a plane ticket and went to the Holy Land. She didn’t go with anyone (that she knew) — she had never been on an airplane before and probably as far away from home she’d strayed was a trip to California many years before.

When she went to the Holy Land, people in Maysville panicked — no one knew where she was or what had happened to her. When she returned, everyone was relieved, but started giving her a hard time for not telling anyone what she was doing or where she was going. Her response was, “Gee, I thought I told you — I’m sorry…”

There’s no reason I decided to write about Josie today except maybe some years from now, our kids and grandkids may read this and realize that their great- and great-great- grandmother was kind of cool….
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I warned you a few days ago that this was probably coming. As I talk about every year around this time, new year resolutions aren’t really realistic terms/conditions/actions to commit to because of something like an eight percent success rate. Every year some of us pledge to change or improve all sorts of things, but as the year goes on, our motivations dwindle and our ideals or goals change to accommodate real life demands.

The truth is, most of us will do the same thing this year we always do — set some goals that will be forgotten about by the 5th of January. Actually, this year (like most years) I thought about doing something different. And that is…. do nothing — don’t set any resolutions or goals. I also thought maybe my resolution should just be just to give up wanting anything to happen in the new year and make my goal for 2018 to set no goals.
But nonetheless, and despite all odds, once again I resolve to….

• make better bad decisions in 2018
• I will assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else’s fault
• I will drive by the Shepherd Fitness Center at least once a week

And I think that’s about it — I know the list is much shorter than usual, but I decided that these are realistic resolutions that I have a very good chance to keep throughout the year. As usual, you can check back here near the end of the year to see how I did. I hope 2018 brings good health, happiness, and peace to each and every one of us….
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