July 15, 2025 a thought for today, We know men's faces, not their minds. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “keys”. My son Bob seemed to collect old keys. This is one of the many “sets” he had in his collection

The next upload was “my choice” and is another of my series of “minimalist”. his tangerine against a black background seems to shine. 

The last upload for yesterday was “a touch of blue”. I see this garden umbrella everyday. It is two house over so I see it through the sections on the privacy fence. 

Life today. I had a hiccup in procedure yesterday. I completed most of the bulletin yesterday before noon. Afternoon I received a text from a different preacher who said there had been a trade for next week. So I had to redo the whole bulletin today, with more formatting than on yesterdays. It seems like we have had more changing scheduled dates for meetings in the last few years than all of the ten years prior that I volunteered in this position, a sign of the times or something else?

There is an additional bulletin for this week. We are having a funeral at the church on Saturday.  All of the arrangements haven’t been completed. Hopefully I have that tomorrow. 

The first upload for today is another “my choice” and another of my series of “minimalist”. This is the only flower I have blooming in the yard this year. 

I had expected Brian to be here to mow the lawn today. But I haven’t heard from him. It is supposed to rain the rest of the week. So it may be a while before it gets mowed. It’s already pretty high in the back. 

I didn’t go out again today so I had to put some thought into how I wanted to get the photos for today. I had everything I needed right here. 

I am missing my “fix” of fast food sandwiches though. Bologna, tuna salad and grilled cheese only go so far. 

The next upload is “where I sit”. This is the chair where I spend most of my time during the day. 

The word today is element.  Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the least. Mencius.  Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious. Thomas Carlyle.  Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all government upon earth. John Quincy Adams.  Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together. Thomas Carlyle. We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements. William Shakespeare.  Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence. Paracelsus.

The last upload for today is “jewelry”. This is a bracelet my husband gave me oh so long ago. It has a message that I like to see every now and then. 

Article: I don’t think I learned much about pirates in my history classes. If we studied it I must not have been paying attention. Anyway, this title raised a bit of interest. So here it is to share. The title to the article is “Who was the first pirate?” written by a professor of political science. It started out talking about how pirates in the movies have been portrayed as “swashbucklers” and “mad” but likable. Some may have been inspired by Captain Hook in Peter Pan. They were glamorous and full of mischief, wore flashy costumes and maybe had a peg leg. They buried treasures and talked to parrots. It went on to say that these pirates were mostly invented. This author wanted to learn where in the world and when it started. He said that his research “finds today’s pirates to be less like swashbuckling Jack Sparrow and more like regular old thieves.” The article goes on to tell that pirates have ben around “as long as people have moved things by boat”. Then he pointed out that in archaeological studies it has been shown that “boatbuilding goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians”as early as 6,000 years ago. It is presumed that valuable good were on those boats and “you can usually find thieves too” where there are valuable goods. There is a kind of proof that this may have happened because “Egyptian pharaohs left records grumbling about pirates and their widespread pillaging”. It went on to point out that 3,500 years ago “sailing vessels” were used to “raid coastal towns and villages in and around the Nile Delta” and further towns. Valuable goods like pottery, silk, glass and spices were moved by ships on the “high seas”. As that kind of trade grew they “became the targets of ancient pirates” on the Mediterranean sea. A military leader named “Pompey” of the Roman navy “worked hard to stop the pirates – and for a while it did”. The article went on to find that the first named pirate was in a Greek history book that was written in the fifth century BCE by Herodotus. In the book he said that a “naval commander by the name of Dionysius who was from Ionia” had set up a base on the island of Sicily. From there he along with other pirates plundered “ships that happened to sail past”. The most famous pirates lived during the 17th and 18th centuries, called the “golden age of sea piracy”. Some of those pirates were “Black Beard, also known as Edward Teach; William Kidd; Henry Morgan; Calico Jack; and Anne Bonny”. This took place along the Caribbean was “known as the Spanish Main”. The Bahamas, Jamaica and the North Carolina coast were “notable pirate havens”. Some men became pirated because of poverty other for adventure and world travel. The author ended the article by saying that efforts to end piracy has existed but without success and “will likely always exist.”

I think I have a Stouffers ravioli in the freezer for dinner tonight. 

Joy 

                                       peeling paint