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Day’s Verse:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

James 1:2-4

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Here I offer a picture I took of the baby sparrows (?) that hatched in one of Deborah’s hanging flower pots. The camera did not want to focus, so this is the best I got. They’re quite cute. I think the parents were concerned about my meddling with their chicks, though.

I spent the weekend – Saturday, at least – feeling quite queasy. Some 24-hr bug got me, I guess, because Friday evening I went down for the count and by Sunday morning I popped back up again, feeling good enough to accompany Ian and Ben to Ryan’s college graduation.

Let me say these few words about it: first, I want a red and blue renaissance gown and a jaunty, puffy, round hat to match when I graduate from college. One of the professors wore such a gown and I amused myself by watching her. Very noticeable, a red-and-blue gown amongst all those black-robed graduation-capped students. Second, the prayer made me want to laugh and I certainly couldn’t take it seriously when the theology professor praying said, “The students, like the rising sun, came into our lives burning brilliantly and full of energy,” then followed that up with, “the students, like the North Wind, studied powerfully and with concentration” and added for good measure, “the students, like the sedate South Wind, completed their college careers with warmth and [something].” I swear, I did not laugh even as he offered these terrible similes…at least, not much. Third, the student speaker sounded terribly nervous, talking double-time even after explaining, “I’m nervous, so I’ll try to talk s-l-o-w-l-y and enunciate clearly.” Wrong! Nary a slow or clearly enunciated word emerged from his mouth. I felt badly for him, although that vanished somewhat when I listened to his speech and discovered all he’d done was string trite phrases together into a nervous jumble. Also, his speech covered ground that the president of the University’s speech had done already: “Imagine the world was a village of 100 people. Fifty-two would be female; forty-eight would be male. Fifty percent of the prosperity would be owned by six people, all of whom would be US citizens…” –etc. So trite there are even several web sites for it (Google search results: here.) Though this probably will not change anything, I beg you: if you ever, ever have a speech to do, don’t use heavily-quoted, widely internet-available statistics. Just a thought.

After a brief respite at Ian’s house we spent the rest of the day hobnobbing with his relatives that I don’t know and family friends of theirs—plus some friends of the family friends—that I also didn’t know. Caitlyn and I fled early and I retreated into Robin Hobb’s excellent Liveship Traders trilogy.

And thence, to bed, and awakening to discover with dismay I needed to find a life. In the works: a three-night-long backpacking trip with Dad; Harry Potter 3 with Zoe; a hike with Zoe; a job; volunteering at the Bellevue library. Not necessarily in that order. How’s everybody elses life out there?

…Is there anybody out there?

– KF –