Small Things Count

My friend Justine has been active in San Francisco Bay Area Chinese culture and history, including her family. She put together a list of links to videos that take a look at that. I pass it on to you because this is not just about her family or local Chinese families but about the contributions that Chinese families and individuals have made in enriching our society. This Irish person (me) thinks it’s not only interesting but also important for people to get to know our fellow citizens from another culture.

Check out the last video, “Top 10 Chinatowns Across the World.” You may want to visit one.

______________________________Justine WONG | 黃美雲 / 黄美云
• 台山 白沙 六區 龔邊大隊 蝦嘴村   黃氏 / 台山 白沙   虾嘴 黄氏• 中山 大嶺 歐陽氏 / 中山 大岭 欧阳氏

Yesterday, July 25, was Parents’ Day.

When is the last time you celebrated Parents’ Day?  It’s a national observance that comes every fourth Sunday of July and emphasizes the important role of parents.  The Congressional Resolution, passed in 1994, established it for “recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children.”  It focuses on the family, which is the core of any society, caretaker of our religious beliefs, and hope for the future.  Parenting is a huge responsibility, entailing love, sacrifice, patience, and commitment to raising healthy children into caring, responsible adults.  So, visit your parents, step-parents, foster parents, or those who adopted you either formally or informally.  Reminisce about events in your life when you felt their influence, situations when their love or advice lifted you up, times when you really appreciated them.  Maybe you celebrated both Mother’s Day and Father’s day. But this is a special day, too, because it celebrates both parents and the adult their love helped create. If you missed it, celebrate it today.

Get the most out of that banana. After eating it, shine your shoes with the inside of the peel or make a more tender roast by putting the peel into the roasting pan when cooking the meat.

For more easy, money-saving, Eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. For a description of the book go to My Free Books).

Often, someone says or does something that radiates beauty. We tend to absorb and enjoy it but not otherwise respond to it. Today’s Thursday Thought quote addresses that.

Gangs take their toll in violence, promote anti-social behavior, and alienate young people from their families and their non-gang member friends.  Part of that life is tattoos, proudly advertising the youngster’s affiliation with their gang, as well as crimes they have committed or words and signs that others find offensive.  Unfortunately, those tattoos remain forever, interfering with the youth’s ability to re-enter non-gang society or get a job.  They mark him as someone to avoid.  Do you know a 14 to 25-year old with gang or prison tattoos on his face, hands, neck, or wrists?  And is he no longer part of a gang but trying to move into a meaningful, productive adulthood?  Give him the Homeboy Industries web address (https://homeboyindustries.org/services/tattoo-removal) to get his tattoos removed for free. Help him apply for the program and encourage his progress through it.  It will take only a little of your time but help one young person regain his future.  

I have an urgent request. Please, please, if you haven’t been Covid-vaccinated, don’t pretend otherwise. Whether or not I agree, it’s your choice not to get the shots, but it’s my choice to protect myself. I went to breakfast recently with a group of women who, we all thought, were all vaccinated. We were mask-less but outside. One talked to me up close. Now I see she’s spreading anti-vax messages and hasn’t been vaccinated. I deserved the choice of distancing and masking to protect myself, but she denied me that. I’m older and vulnerable to a Covid break-through, especially with Delta. So, please, if you choose not to be vaccinated, at least distance yourselves from EVERYONE and wear a mask to protect others from disease and fear. And don’t lie about it. Thank you!

“PEACE BE WITH YOU.”  When we say this to those around us in many of our churches each Sunday, we’re following the Biblical command (Matthew 5:24) to “be reconciled with your brother” before approaching the altar.  We are told to make peace with people, and to mean it.  Let’s expand the circle—stretching out beyond those right next to us at church.  Plan ahead and choose a seat close to someone we dislike, find unpleasant, are angry toward, or whose forgiveness we need.  At the Sign of Peace, we’ll be close enough to reach out to them, bringing about reconciliation within God’s family.  In fact, let’s take this attitude of harmony with us as we exit the church and interact in the rest of the world.   Might that not be what the passage calls us to do, to make a world in which we all try to spread peace?  If so, it seems like believing in and living out that Biblical ritual is a good place to start.

It happens, within families and friendships, acquaintances and strangers. Today’s Thursday Thought quote offers some reflection on how we handle it.

A thought-provoking article appeared on my phone’s newsfeed from HuffPost:  6 Psychologically Damaging Things Parents Say to their Kids Without Realizing It.  We hear (and say?) them often.  This article explains why they’re damaging and what we can say instead.  Click on the title to link to it. To sum up, though, here they are.

1. “It’s not a big deal.”

2. “You never” or “You always do XYZ.”

3. “You make me sad when you do that.”

4. “You should know better.”

5. “Just let me do it.”

6. “You’re a [insert label here].”

I’m no longer saying “As American as apple pie,” because I’ve learned that apple pie ISN’T so American!  The first apple pie recipe (1381) appeared in an English cookbook, and apple tarts and pies were common late 14^th century in England.   English poets wrote about them.  In the 1600s, those pies became popular in France, Italy, and Germany.  But apple trees didn’t come to America until later, making our apples not even native to our land.  Then it took extensive pollination, which was only accomplished after a length of time, when European honey bees were introduced to America.  If it hadn’t been for the legend of Johnny Appleseed spreading seeds, that phrase probably would never have been coined.  By the way, his mission was to grow crabapples to make into hard cider, not apples for food.

Eventually, Swedish, Dutch, and English immigrants introduced apple pies to their new home.  During off-growing season, pies could be baked thanks to Pennsylvania Dutch women, who, in the 1700s, devised a way to preserve apples.  At that point, Americans declared that apple pie was a unique product of American ingenuity.

Obviously, we know a good thing when we steal, er, see it.