February 26, 2023 a thought for today, Sweet are the uses of adversity. Hebrew Proverb

The twins were here for a while yesterday so it was all sound and movement (or feet hanging over the arm or a chair) around here for a few hours. 

The first upload for yesterday as “a tree from below”. This is the season to see, explore and enjoy the multitude of shapes, forms and potions of the branches on the winter time resting tree. 

The message at church today was presented by one of our lay people. It was a good message and a day-to-day type of presentation. Then we had a piano solo by our newest choir member, a very comfortable tune. 

Soon after I got home Bob and I had an invitation to lunch with Lowell and Rebecca. We met at Olive Garden. I don’t get to see them as often as I would like so it was a treat. We had just ordered when Lowell got a call. Lou Ann was having furnace trouble, not good in this kind of weather, and needed Lowell for some help so he had to leave us. Bob and I shared Rebecca’s company for the rest of the meal. 

Sue is spending the day helping her granddaughter and spending some more time with the twins. 

The second upload for yesterday the title was “church window”. Here is one of the many images of church windows from my archives. 

Today the temperature is not so bad. It is around 50 degrees but by evening the temps will drop to the thirties or so.

My diabetes (Type 2) has been raising its ugly head for a week or so, so I doing more finger sticks and walking (exercise to lower sugar) and being careful with food. So the food for today at our outing  had to be thought about.  

One of the uploads for today is “pasta”. This was Rebecca’s delicious order at Olive Garden today 

The word today is danger. He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. Confucius.  Never was anything great achieved without danger. Niccolo Machiavelli.  The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. Thucydides. Danger is sauce for prayers. Benjamin Franklin.  As soon as there is life there is danger. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. Charles Caleb Colton.   If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. Henry David Thoreau.  There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone. Henry David Thoreau. The humble are in danger when those in power disagree. Phaedrus.

This second upload for today is titled “composite (red)”. I didn’t have a lot of time, there was a lot of
activity today. I should have taken more time to put together this composite. I am certain I could have generated a better image, I have some experience with composites. I wanted to show my gorgeous Christmas poinsettia as it progressed in its life inside a warm house. There was to gorgeous red bracts at first then they began to fall until there was only bare stems. It will be planted outside in early April to awaken again next fall. 

Here is another story of history in Columbus from one of my favorite sources. This one talks about problems immigrants had when coming to Columbus.  As the article relates, in the 1850s there was “unprecedented growth and economic success in the United States”.  At that time there were a “rag tag collection of former British colonies into a united nation of almost limitless possibilities”.  In the Midwest rich soil and high yields of crops of wheat and corn also livestock. Roads, rivers, canals and railroads added to growth and productivity. According to the article Columbus was a big part of the countries activities. Columbus had 5,000 residents in 1834 and 17,000 in 1850. Many of those were from Western Europe and Ireland and Germany. The Irish settled in the more northern part of town, now Nationwide Boulevard. The German immigrants seemed to settle in the more southern part of the city, around Livingston Avenue. Here is where this article  began to pass on new information. There were ‘concerns’ about the growing immigrant population which led to a formation of an urge to promote “immigrant restriction”.  It went as far as forcing the use of a ‘password’. When passing by someone a password was asked for, many times the person being asked replied “I know nothing!” This led to the thought of a “Know Nothings” group formation. All of this finally led to “confrontations of one sort or another.....some verbal...others....violent”. One story of one of these occurrences was: in July of 1855, in the early evening a group in the “South Ward, a German Infantry Company....holding a celebration.... marched through the city”. At the back of the procession there was an American flag as well as a “society banner”.  The banner was threatened by bystanders. One of the accounts of the incident said that as the march continued it reached a point where stones were thrown at them as well as verbal insults, some said that even pistol shots came from nearby. That incited some of the marchers to draw pistols....it is reported that in this skirmish one young man was killed. Of course the parade ended. The article related that “nineteen young German men were quickly arrested”. According to the article “no further confrontations of this kind” happened although “dislike and distrust” continued for many years. In time, Irish and Germans along with many other nationalities coming to Columbus became part of the “diverse fabric that is America today”. 

We are each on our own for dinner tonight since we went out for brunch. 

Joy

            when I was filling my gas tank I noticed a cup someone “forgot?”