sunday saves | 8.4.24
A weekly catalog of things that brought me joy, resonated, made me mad, or caused me to think
This is the stuff of nightmares! I talked to my husband about this multiple times this week because it boggles my mind. Iron-coated, serrated teeth?
I was more a fan of Keroppi than I was Hello Kitty, but I still couldn’t help but feel exactly this way upon reading that Hello Kitty is Not a Cat
While Yano seems tickled by this Hello Kitty surprise, the world is reacting in shock. We’ve been duped by a strange, dead-eyed child, who has been a “kitty” only by name for four decades. What’s next? Is Mickey Mouse a big-eared boy with a shirt aversion? Is Bugs Bunny just a retired comedian on a strict vegetarian diet? One thing is certain, cartoon characters can no longer be trusted – no matter how many lunch boxes they’ve graced.
I guess Keroppi is not a frog, either.
This video brought me SO MUCH JOY this week!
I get emotional every time I watch it (and I’ve lost count). There’s so much joy on the face of every single person — it’s a small glimpse of heaven.
And then Dave Grohl’s response in seeing it made it that much sweeter.
As did his message to the fans (spoken in Italian for them) that the Foo Fighters would end their tour in their city was just the cherry on top.
What a cool guy! The best part, his response here is in keeping with who he is. He’s genuine and sincere, and expresses gratitude for his success and the fans every chance he gets.
Then, of course, I watched so many other performance from Rockin’ 1000 — they’re all just SO good, and I continue to be stunned that that many musicians are playing in SUCH UNITY and are completely in sync! Wow!
One more —
I am working on incorporating a habit of mindfulness meditation into my daily life because I am noticing more anxiety, stress, and sleeplessness. I think it’s a combination of the climate (and chaos) of our nation and the world, coupled with walking through perimenopause. Both are no joke on their own but together!?? It is too much some days.
I’ve been using the Ten Percent Happier app to help me learn to breathe, to be more aware, and to rest and sleep — mostly because I have always respected Dan Harris.
And then this article came into my inbox this week and was exactly what I needed:
Compassion is the heart-opening feeling that occurs when we witness the ways we are interconnected with every being and thing in the world. Recent research has shown that meditation increases compassionate and altruistic behavior, but personally, I find that the more I meditate, the more I feel motivated to fight for justice and, perhaps more mundanely, to treat the people in my life with everyday kindness and care. Meditation cracks my heart wide open and softens me towards others. It is not something I logically think through. It feels more like a chemical response—a rush of love—that bypasses my defenses and tenderizes me for a period of time.
Meditation opens the heart, builds compassion, and has the potential to inspire loving action which fosters positive change.
This article about how Tahiti’s location and sea floor help create one of the world’s best spots to surf was so much fun to read! Bonus: I learned a ton!
3200 words added to the Cambridge Dictionary — I love this because language is alive and changing!
Three of my favorite new additions are “chef’s kiss”, “boop” (which is my favorite of the list because I used to “boop” Ollie all the time), and “face journey” (because this describes me to a T).
Hedwig is alive!
These animal portraits are striking! And some are so human-like.
Two of my favorite things from the Paris Olympics this past week (aside from the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team’s performances, which I always tune in for) —
The New Zealand Women’s Rugby performing the Haka after winning gold
The meaning behind pommel horse specialist — now known as “Pommel Horse Guy: The Clark Kent of Men’s Gymnastics” — Stephen Nedoroscik’s ear tug
As with last week, and forever going forward (er, at least until the threat of Trump and his ilk and yes-men are a thing of the past), certain types of sunday saves will be reserved for the end of my weekly catalog —
His response to Rachel Scott — senior congressional correspondent for ABC News —at the NABJ convention this past Wednesday is just ridiculous. But not really unexpected, right? It’s so in keeping with his M.O.: Always offended. Always outraged. Always entitled. Same “birther” and race song and dance.
He’s already proven he can’t unite the United States, so he continues to attempt to divide us.
“This was an inaccurate slur as well as a bizarre one,” Susan B. Glasser writes. “Harris has always been proudly biracial.” But the racist attack was no accident. With it, Trump has resorted to his favorite trick: changing the subject to something even more outrageous. “The point here is simple: Trump’s efforts, over the past 24 hours, to shift the political debate to his own untrue and offensive assertions about the Vice-President’s race may well be a political disaster, but they are not an accident, a flub, or an undisciplined lapse,” Glasser writes. The attacks represent a textbook example of his approach to politics. “Nine years into Trump’s political career, the mystery is not that he keeps doing it but that so many Americans keep falling for it.”
— Susan B. Glasser (emphasis mine)
I love the way Rachel Scott wove his own words into her question. And although he didn’t *really* give a direct answer, I’m pretty sure his words did enough for the people he was there to “convince”.
Seriously, if you aren’t already reading Steady by Dan Rather and his team, you’re missing out. One of his most recent — Freedom — was such a highlight for me this week. Especially these words —
Beyond all the energy and enthusiasm of the Harris candidacy, also think about the possibility that we’d never again have to hear Trump’s outrageous demagoguery. At a rally in Florida last week, he told the crowd to “... get out and vote! Just this time — you won’t have to do it anymore. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”
Because Trump and his campaign aren’t sure what to do about Kamala Harris, he has doubled down on authoritarian tropes — you won’t have to vote again, because we will no longer have elections. As predictable as the sun rising, he and his allies have fallen back on their most basic instincts — a mix of denigration, disparagement, and belittling.
…
Before last week, the Trump campaign was trained on Biden. Now they have had to pivot to a very different candidate, one whose story is not well known despite her having been in public life for decades. In a rush to define her before she could, the Trump/Vance campaign went with hate. It’s hate from scratch. Trump himself is all-in, calling Harris “evil,” a “bum,” a “liar” (that’s rich) and a “crazy liberal who would destroy the country.”
From his surrogates, it’s even worse, exploiting white male grievances and fears of women and people of color in power. Some have called Harris a “jezebel,” an immoral woman. Her citizenship has been falsely questioned, a la Barack Obama, because her parents are immigrants. Some Republican leaders on the Hill are calling the vice president a diversity hire. These misogynistic and racist slurs have no place in America today or any day.
In other words, they are claiming that all of her accomplishments have come only because of the color of her skin and her gender. Her successes as California attorney general, a United States senator, and vice president derived not from her ability, her hard work, her intelligence, her experience, or her education, but because she was given an unfair advantage.
…
Trump and company’s denigration of Harris aligns with their agenda. As they keep saying, they want to “make America great again.” The America that they want to revert back to was one where women, people of color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community were considered to be lesser people. The idea of freedom was reserved mostly for white men. And the laws of the country supported that view. Since then we have made considerable progress. A second Trump administration would undo much of it.
Since Donald Trump entered the political arena, the American people have been subjected to nine years of chaos, gaslighting, and lies. If the Harris campaign can effectively promise freedom from the instability and regression that define Donald Trump, Democrats and others believe that alone may be a winning platform.
— Dan Rather (emphasis mine)
Oh, how I hope we can move on and away from the MAGA rhetoric and their plan to undo so much of what the United States is about — or used to be about. Trump has told us what he intends to do with a second term — are we even listening?
And he’s shown us who he is and what he does over the course of his entire life, not just in his first administration.
The fact that people continue to support him still boggles my mind!
Shane Claiborne says this below in response to Trump’s recent (ridiculous and dark) plea to Christians to get out and vote —
Christians — please do get out and vote.
And as we vote, let us vote with love in our hearts, and the Sermon on the Mount in our minds, and the Beatitudes on our lips.
Voting is not the only way we put feet on our prayers, but it is one way. Voting is a way of showing solidarity with the most vulnerable. Voting is a way of standing against the principalities and powers that are crushing people’s lives.
Let us vote against fear and hatred and xenophobia and arrogance and inequality and racism and militarism and genocide.
This November - let us vote for love. And compassion. And justice.
Let’s vote for the poor and homeless.
For refugees & asylum-seekers.
For the widows and orphans, and all those who Christ called “the least of these.”
Vote. For. Love.
Shane’s words are my heartbeat! These words align with my Savior’s words.
I’ve had people say to me “oh, you’ll get more conservative the older you get”.
I’m not (and I won’t), and that’s never a given.
What I pray and what I want is to be more and more like Jesus the older I get.
What made you think this week? What made you happy or brought a smile to your face? Did anything make you mad or frustrate you? I’d love to know about any of it — or all of it!
Please share in the comments!
