March 24, 2026 thought for today, Virtue subdues power. German Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge upload for yesterday was “macro Monday.” This is one of the first flowers to bloom in my yard this spring. 

This next upload is “healthy.” Here I used a package of apple treats. This is
supposed to be healthy and it tastes good. 

The last upload for yesterday was “sunglasses.” I need a “fancy” background for these lonely sunglass, it is one of my crochet doilies. 

Life today. The early morning was not one with deadlines on mind so it was a “free thinking” kind of start. I worked on this letter , paid some bills, loaded the dish washer and tended to kitty things. I called about a refill on some meds for Bobbi’s eyes then realized I have a tube of the meds that I had put away. I called to cancel the order. 

I lost track of time tending to the chores I wanted to get out of the way. Getting ready to leave for food pantry was a little late. 

We had another slow day at pantry this Tuesday. There is a good side to that and a bad side. The good side is we get to chat and bond with each other in the slow times. On the other side is we are “inactive” for a time. We could help in other areas which some do if able to. But usually other things that need to be done are already tended to by other volunteers. All in all helping at pantry is worth it no matter the circumstances, busy or not so much. 

The rest of the afternoon is pretty much clear giving time to finish this letter and the photos. The photos need cataloged, keyworded and uploaded.

The word today is something.  I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. Galileo Galilei. Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche. Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example. Francois de La Rochefoucauld. Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. Thomas H. Huxley. There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it. Denis Diderot. When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice. Otto von Bismarck. Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. Plato. A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. Daniel Webster. A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. Friedrich Nietzsche. All things must change to something new, to something strange. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good. Thomas a Kempis. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. Henry David Thoreau. Riches may enable us to confer favours, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give. Charles Caleb Colton. The world is not yet exhaused; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before. Samuel Johnson. All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse. John Quincy Adams. In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Aristotle. 

Article summary. The copycat word has had a negative meaning for me but by trying to be open minded maybe I want to read the article. After all one of its meanings is “counterfeit.”  It may show me how it is a way to  experience new ideas and adventurers in life. Still, being stubborn, I need to check out the idea further. I can’t easily shake the idea that we are each meant to be unique like no other. Maybe we can have both by just adding to what we already are without losing our own given gifts? I am trying to see how it is interpreted here. The title is Being copycats might be key to being human. By Connor Wood, Visiting Researcher in Theology, Boston University. At theconversation.com. It started by saying that we share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. It went on to relate that compared to “other mammals” in the world we humans “dwarf” their combined number. Then the story goes on to mention how our “evolutionary successes,” is of course “our brain” and “raw intelligence.” Here’s a point I need to examine, “cognitive scientists and anthropologists are rejecting that explanation.” It explains that by saying we don’t think for ourselves, we “cope” with challenges by copying others. It related that chimpanzees are more “rational” than human children or adults because they “follow” without question. The article  said that an anthropologist pointed out that people have to learn to use many complex technologies by following the “wisdom” of experience others. (My question: is that being a copycat?). Also the best way to learn to make and use an object is to “copy” another human being who know how. The article moves on to talk about ritual and religion in the process of “copying” and how it bonds people to each other. It uses the example of students and the Pledge of Allegiance. It shows how when one refuses to stand it “telegraphs her rejection of authority” and the right to tell her how to behave along with all the others. Then it says that isn’t being committed to the group. As it progresses the article says humans “perform and imitate apparently impractical actions” so that they learn skills and “create and sustain the cultural identities” and “social rapport.” The article ends by saying  “mimicking another’s body language can induce them to like and trust you more. We’re not chimpanzees, after all.” This whole article gives me pause for thought. 

I think it will be beef and noodles for dinner. Since I no longer have the energy and gumption to make homemade noodles any more as I did for years and years I have been looking for packaged ones with close to the same taste and texture. 

Photos in my life today

My first photo challenge today is “patriotic.”  It is standing in a corner behind me and my desk waiting for the times it will hang on the front porch. 

The next upload is “a corner.” This is a corner of my living room. One of the outstanding parts of that corner is one of my sister’s paintings. 

The last upload for today is “a button.” For this image and assignment I used the buttons on the front of my microwave. 

Joy 

     

                                                               one of summer’s gifts