August 28, 2020: You can't put two saddles on the same horse. Mongolian Proverb

Today has been an emotional day for me. A young adult cousin of mine came from an other state and was recently seeking refuge from emotional suffering after the death of his mother. I was unable to help him as I should have and wanted to. There was another source of help at the time that seemed more appropriate. After a while in that “source”  he found himself in a hellish situation here in Columbus. We were notified that he couldn’t take the veiled abuse at that place and went back to the state he had come from where he had old friends. I succumbed to an episode of a broken heart for him. I sobbed for most of the afternoon. My two sons tried to console me but only my release to God helped in the end. There is still a bit of sadness in my heart for the gentle giant that my young cousin is. He is loving and gives super bear hugs to those who will allow him to love them.

My (our) photo challenge for August 27 was “beauty”. Here is another of those themes that can offer a large range of choices depending on the weather, the photographer’s mood at the time and a whole lot of other ideas. This one was taken at Westgate Park. There are a few small garden areas placed around the park.

I muddled through the tears to get the newsletter ready for mailing and the message for the free meal at church ready to put with the meals. That is about all I am going to accomplish today.

I did get outside once to cut one of my gorgeous hibiscus flowers to brighten the table and my mood. 

The word is loyalty.  You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Base yourself in loyalty and trust. Don't be companion with those who are not your moral equal. When you make a mistake, don't hesitate to correct it, Confucius. Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect, Marcus Aurelius.  Loyalty expanded is not loyalty betrayed! E. B. Farnum. Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends, Alexander Pope. A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle, George William Curtis. Loyalty is the greatest quality of the human heart, John Boyle O'Reilly. One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood, Seneca the Younger. Loyalty is what we seek in friendship, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Lord, grant that anger or other bitterness does not reign over us, but that your grace, genuine kindness, loyalty, and every kind of friendliness, generosity, and gentleness may reign in us, Martin Luther. Mysterious haunts of echoes old and far, The voice divine of human loyalty, George Eliot. 

The photo theme for today is “coffee (or choice of liquid refreshment)”. I don’t drink coffee anymore, since I had some digestive problems. I drink mostly tea and sometimes diet colas. So here is my offering for today.

Again the news left something to be desired today so this is what I found. This article isn’t from the Dispatch as most of them that I use here are. It is from Columbus Monthly magazine. It is a sort of comparison of the Flu of 1918 affecting Columbus and this pandemic. It was called the Spanish flu but it is uncertain that that is where it originated. It was called the Spanish influenza because it happened during the war and the media was flooded with that news and “the censor-free Spanish were the first to report the flu. According to the article about forty percent of the world was infected. Fifty million people died with 500,000 people in the United States died, that was one percent of the worldwide fatalities. In Columbus on October of 1918 it was reported that “there is no need to worry....the epidemic appears to be at its peak”. That statement was quite true, the infections increased fast from September 1918 to March 1919 “with two peaks in early November and mid-December. The article went on to show that, “Camp Sherman housed 42,000 World War I soldiers. There, 5,686 got the flu and 1,777 died:...” From another source it was reported that the death count in Columbus was 1,000.

I am soooo glad it is pizza night....I really need it tonight.

Joy