Category: Fourre-tout

When I am feeling challenged by what I call our “Brave New World” I tend to return to the past in my souvenirs. This is a sign of aging I am sure, but I love to pick out one of my large collection of photo albums and revisit the scenes of years past.

Photos are so satisfying, much more than viewing them on the computer. I have saved matchbooks of restaurants that are long gone, greeting cards, and other bits of the past and I love to read old letters as well. Even perusing my box of old passports, drivers’ licenses, and my children’s art projects from grade school is a simple pleasure of mine.

I don’t own a Kindle, somehow, I can’t derive the same pleasure of reading electronically and I revel in losing myself in a good book, one that I can feel, smell, and put a bookmark between it well-turned pages. I hope that I will never go to a museum and view the last book in a glass case in the future!  Even handwriting is on its way out and I know that no one will need to sign a checkbook but will we block print our signature in the future? Perhaps we will sign with a fingerprint or a scan mark imprinted on our skin!

Some of my favorite pleasures are seldom available but I long to experience them again. Lying on the warm sand on a beach, swimming underwater, and diving into a deep still pool or riding the waves on a surfboard. Dancing with abandonment and flexibility, and singing with the Sweet Adelines. Enjoying the excitement of a dramatic thunder and lightning storm and smelling the aroma of the lavender fields in the aftermath.  Hugging my favorite dog Simba, our departed faithful German Shepherd.

Eating with my husband’s large loving family with much laughter, animated conversation, and wonderful simple food of the past with delicious stews that simmered for hours, young lamb chops grilled on branches from the vineyard, sweet home-grown tomatoes and succulent tree-ripened fruit, crusty French baguettes, and enjoying several glasses of chilled dry rose wine under the warm Provençal sun.

We are so blessed

to have a store of pleasurable experiences to weave into the fabric of our lives, I am forever grateful.

Jan Toulon

Do I believe in miracles? I didn’t, but now I do… although this epiphany occurred recently.

I have been plagued intermittently with a painful condition called “plantar fasciitis”. According to the Mayo Clinic:

“Plantar fasciitis commonly causes stabbing pain that usually occurs with your first steps in the morning. It is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes (plantar fascia).”

To sum it up, it is a miserable condition that greatly impairs your mobility, and if deprived of it, any human will wither and fall into decline.
I am not ready for this. My best years are still ahead of me.

This pain initially started on the right foot. After numerous and costly visits to a chiropractor it suddenly vanished… and I don’t think that the chiropractor had anything to do with it.

Then one year later, I woke up with the same condition, on the left foot this time. Drat, double drat! I am going on vacation soon and I urgently need that damn foot.

Upon my friends’ advice, I tried all kinds of remedies… without great success. The pain loved me and clung to me like a sick puppy. Some pills provided a temporary relief, but I don’t relish becoming a perennial pill-popper.

Then I started to think about massages… foot massagers. After a little research, I purchased a Shiatsu Foot Massager (with a customer approval rate of 73%) from Amazon.

To be truthful, I was a little skeptical, but Holy Mackerel, the elusive miracle occurred. After a fairly short infrared massage the pain subsided… Not before I chanted “pain be gone, pain be gone, pain be gone” though.

“It is always by way of pain that one arrives at pleasure.” – Marquis de Sade

 How true Marquis! You appreciate life so much more after going through pain. Pain is a companion, but a nasty companion. It nags you constantly, and like a high-maintenance girlfriend, it demands constant attention.
Just remember how great it felt, after giving her the boot. Yeah!

So far, so good. After going for a (relatively pain free) one-mile “constitutional” I feel OK. After that, I used the machine again and I feel good.

Pain (like deceased people) leaves a beautiful memory… once it is gone.

 Alain

“Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; justice is what comes out of a courtroom.” Clarence Darrow

Justice is supposed to be blind, but for many it is only a one-eyed lady. They feel that once in a while she is lifting her blindfold to sneak a peek at the people appealing to her.
Is the good lady totally unbiased? She might be full good intentions, but she has to contend with some very clever lawyers bent on bamboozling her.

Things are not always what they seem to be. Ultimately, it is the version the most cleverly presented to the jury that will prevail.

In Jussie Smollett’s notorious case, initially, good people jumped on the bandwagon to rally against this blatant racist attack.
But from the beginning, things looked pretty fishy. First of all, for a man who had been trashed by two thugs, “Juicy” showed very few marks of physical violence.
Secondly, if this was a random attack, it is very unlikely that the assailants would carry a noose with them. And what about the bleach? And no witnesses…?

While at first everybody sympathized with the actor, it turned out that the purported attack was quite different than previously reported. After a detailed police investigation, Smollett’s story unraveled and most people concluded that his account of the story was a hoax.
Despite his claims of innocence, public opinion considered him guilty.

Suddenly all charges against the accused are dropped and the man is mysteriously exonerated. Lady Justice, what happened? Are you privy to something that we don’t know? I feel that some very strong emotional currents running under this story derailed the affair and that justice was misled.

By the way, “exonerated” does not mean “not guilty”.  More precisely, it means “relieved of a responsibility”. Significant difference.
The city of Chicago (plagued by crime) is less than happy about this conclusion.

Final thought

I am of the opinion that we should present this case to Judge Judy. The 76-year-old no-nonsense firecracker would decorticate this affair in less than 10 minutes. “Show me” she would say, and you’d better show her what she demands. And um… is not an answer!

Like many Americans hungry for justice, I think that she would do a great job grilling POTUS.

The truth shall set you free!

Alain