July 5, 2020 thought for the day: Master your emotions so that each day will be productive. Traditional Proverb

This has been a typical Sunday. A good sermon with the company of a few good people on a gorgeous summer day. It gave me the renewal in spirit that I needed especially in this day and time of world growth and changing existence.

Yesterday’s photo theme was “stars”. I chose one that fit the day, July 4, to a T. The starry field on the American flag on my front porch.

I have not and am not planning to get much done today beyond tending to my “garden” that is thirsty and experiencing a rising temperature period.

The word today is improving. We know what we are, but know not what we may be, William Shakespeare. We sometimes from dreams pick up some hint worth improving by reflection, Thomas Jefferson. Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power, Laozi.  Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach, Seneca the Younger. Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending, Anne Bradstreet.  All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss, Benjamin Franklin.  While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings, Henry David Thoreau. 

The photo challenge for today is “garden”. My garden is struggling this year so I did some searching in the neighborhood and while out on errands. This one that I am showing was taken as I waited at the McDonalds drive through.

It’s to bad some people make it so bad for him, the man this article started out to interview. He sounds like a good man, a man being loyal to his job along with career peers and to his race. All people should be understanding to all people, while knowing the difference between bad people and good people. He is trying to protect both his race and all of God’s other children as are his fellow officers. For people who know history know that in all of history there have been white slaves as well as black slaves. To my way of thinking and understanding, all of them suffering all of the implications of slavery. It’s possible that somewhere in my past some of “my people” have been slaves. Note: One place I recently came across concerning the explanation of slavery is an excerpt from a book, by Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University. For those interested in history it may be worth looking up and reading this book. It would be appropriate and informative if news reporters and politicians would note these points in their dialog's too. Today's article is about an African American police officer. The article opened with a description of what he and all the officers are experiencing, ‘....had held the line for hours, never flinching as protesters screamed insults, hurled rocks and frozen water bottles and dared the men and women to take off their uniforms and fight”. Then someone in the crowd “zeroed in on his black skin”. They circled him and called him names. Of course the insults hurt this good man. Further in the article after some discussion of the racial question within the police, it was stated. “The assumptions that every officer is racist are unfair and wrong”. One of the African American police officer’s interviewed stated that he has seen plenty of protests in Columbus before but nothing like this one. He went on to say that he had been shot at and called “Uncle Tom”. He talked about how the community doesn’t seem to ask for reasons for the everyday killings of young black men claimed by street violence. One of the female officer’s stated that she “hopes this racial justice movement, rather than dismantling law enforcement, will increase diversity in the ranks and lead to better understanding” (on all fronts). Another of the quotes from the interview was, “We needed Black police officers, doctors, firemen. Now we’re having that change. Don’t down us for doing what our people and what my grandparents fought for us to have.”

As happens four times a month I had a second challenge on the photo a day subject. This one was titled “clouds in the sky. Believe it or not I had to pull from my archive of photos. We are having  a gorgeous summer day and the sky is wonderfully blue but there were very few clouds presenting themselves at the time I was looking for them

I think we will order in again this Sunday. It seems fo have become another “tradition” as Friday is for pizza.

Joy