Promote What You Love

In the midst of a divisive and vituperative election season, I'm reminded of the saying, "Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate." My organist friend, the one with the successful heart transplant, has taken a social media break because he's so overwhelmed with the steady diet of negativity. I don't blame him.

There are several stories I could be chasing down today but I find myself pushing back and wanting something different. So, here goes.

This is what I love:

I love hearing my teenager talk at the end of the day about how her piano teacher says she has improved so much since the start of the year. I love quizzing her for her biology test and seeing how much she's learned about the circle of life, and yes, it's more than a song.

I love arriving at the HoCoBlogs party with windblown hair because my grown-up daughter is now proudly driving her first car, a convertible. (And not too cold because it has, as she says, "tushy toasters".)

I love meeting my neighbor's new dog, an adorable German shepherd with impossibly big ears. Echo may not know it yet, but he has hit the jackpot with the best doggy mom ever. I look forward to seeing him grow up.

I love having a husband who loves both music and baseball, because that means any day now he'll be planted in front of the tv with his beloved Orioles while playing acoustic guitar. Or electric bass. Or banjo. Or harp. Or tuba.

I love my circle of friends in Oakland Mills who care enough to get involved in our community and in our schools. They encourage me to be my better self. They make me think, they make me laugh. They make room for my quirks and imperfections.

I love all those local folks who geek out about local news and politics. It may be a bubble, and we may be stuck in it, but it's our bubble and we love it. These are the folks who know who shows up to County Council meetings and why. They want to make our community a better place today, and they're keeping an eye on tomorrow at the same time. They make current events fun for me.

I love this place where I live--Columbia, and Howard County. I love that I am still learning knew things and meeting new people. I love hearing about how we can treasure our natural environment, and how we have so many historical sites worth preserving. I love watching Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods move forward with the building of the Chrysalis.

That's what I love: home. And the people who make it home.

There's plenty of time tomorrow for the tough stories.

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog