I woke up to this view this morning.
Yesterday we had a huge canning session, wrestling our way through two bushels of tomatoes and 24 peppers. In this round of canning, I was ably assisted by N-son. He's been a bit of domestic whiz this week. He moved bedrooms, and he used his Senior Year Photo proofs (complete with the word "proof" emblazoned across them) to decorate his new bedroom door. I love it.
When I asked for help with the many, many tomatoes I'd brought home, I was fearing I'd wind up with a tale of the "Little Red Hen".
But instead, I got the "Little Engine That Could". N-son actually asked me if he could help, instead of me asking him. When I agreed, he grabbed his favorite ceramic knife, put on one of his favorite musical CDs (Reba McEntire's Greatest Hits, in case you were wondering), and got down to chopping.
(I do not know how many people who decorate their bedroom doors with homemade "Black Lives Matter" signs count Reba McEntire as one of their favorite singers. That right there is an interesting juxtaposition, I have to say).
N-son washed and cut up so many tomatoes that he joked to K-daughter that his hands were getting wrinkled "like old man hands". We also worked our way through a round of pickled peppers, which is one of N-son's favorite foods. And then I'd had enough, and we all went to bed.
This morning, I woke up to my ready-for-winter food congregating in my window shelf, waiting to take the ride together in their cardboard box bus down into the basement, where they'll bide their time before coming back upstairs, one by one, to remind me week-by-week of the sun that rose over these physical manifestations of a day well-spent.
 |
| Sunrise over canning jars. |
 |
| N-son's door. He's not usually so linear; I love the attention to detail here. |
 |
| Who will help me can these tomatoes? "Not I", said the big yellow dog. |
(I do not know how many people who decorate their bedroom doors with homemade "Black Lives Matter" signs count Reba McEntire as one of their favorite singers. That right there is an interesting juxtaposition, I have to say).
N-son washed and cut up so many tomatoes that he joked to K-daughter that his hands were getting wrinkled "like old man hands". We also worked our way through a round of pickled peppers, which is one of N-son's favorite foods. And then I'd had enough, and we all went to bed.
This morning, I woke up to my ready-for-winter food congregating in my window shelf, waiting to take the ride together in their cardboard box bus down into the basement, where they'll bide their time before coming back upstairs, one by one, to remind me week-by-week of the sun that rose over these physical manifestations of a day well-spent.
That interesting juxtaposition is a little bit of proof that color doesn't matter. My totally white husband loves R&B music and roller skates like a black man. People who see him skating are amazed. When we stop referring to color then we'll know we've overcome racism. Can't we all just be Americans? Or Humans?
ReplyDeleteThe juxtaposition is certainly proof that color doesn't completely define someone. But we know for a fact that resumes with the names "Jamal Miller" and "Lekeysha Miller" get ranked lower than similar resumes with names like "Johnathon Miller" and "Laura Miller". So our color matters to other people, even if we don't want it to.
DeleteI wonder what your thoughts are on implicit bias (for example, have you tried this: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ ??). I know that color SHOULDN'T influence the way I see someone . . . but I know it does, in ways I don't like. Do you feel the same?
I finally got around to trying the "implicit". Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. I did the skin tone one, in keeping with our subject matter. "I have a slight preference for lighter skin tone over darker." Not sure it is a good test for me, as I have trouble with left and right! And then they changed things up, sure had to keep thinking and going slow. But it was fun, nonetheless. The best way to overcome biases and prejudices is to spend time with people, we are usually more alike than different.
ReplyDelete