Roy’s Sunday Letter for January 15, 2023
TCU had a great season of coming from behind and magical wins by an unranked, over-achieving team of players, with a mascot no one understands or has ever seen. Thank you coaches and players.
** Do you have a clock radio? Do you go outside for the morning paper? We no longer have either a clock radio, home delivery of paper. We always have had both in whatever city or year, but no longer. Lifestyle changes of today’s world.
- Elected representatives of the US Congress and House Representatives in Missouri ran for office to support America, each in their own way and time. Being called Clowns, although maybe well-deserved, do not make their work and public service any easier. The election of House Speaker was messy. Missouri now requires women to wear sleeves when on the House floor. No doubt more to come.
** Way back yonder in Fort Worth at Englewood Center, 1975, Dave and I would often end a Friday at The Broken Spoke, a cowboy bar on Fort Worth’s east side. After our years of work and travel, Dave and I have reconnected even though states and miles apart. We are trading fictional stories of “The Broken Spoke” as our way of remembering the good days.
- We all have seen couples and families on their individual phones at a restaurant, with no one looking, paying attention, or talking. I saw this sign on Facebook: “We do not have Wi-FI – Talk to each other – Pretend it is 1995.”
** Cities are a mix of achievements and other times hard to talk about. Savanna has a 2008 marker dating the 1859 sale of 436 black salves (male, female, & youth). Savanna is attempting to address their past and also their future. In 1924, Fred Rouse was a butcher at Swift & Co. in Fort Worth’s historic stock yards. He crossed a union strike line in order to work, and he was Black. The KKK came to his home and badly beat him. These same white men took him from his hospital bed and lynched him. HIs grandson, Ralph Rouse Jr. was 46 when he learned of his grandfather’s treatment and death. I was 76 when I heard this story. The Tarrant Couty Coalition for Peace & Justice, like Savannah, is addressing both our past and our future,
** Mary Oliver is a favorite poet; a writer of the history and afternoon walks in the woods. In “DOG SONGS,” she describes deciding on a puppy this way:
A puppy is a puppy, probably in a basket of other puppies
Then someone picks a puppy up and says, “I want this one.”
Jazz, our 5th dog, is now 13. We remember saying “this one” to a breeder’s web page. Still a special memory.
Roy, with special friends of Richard, Jerry, Cinda, and Dave (& always Beth)
Roy, I always steel myself when it is time to call the Star-Telegram and haggle over the price, but after I learned that George Santos’ lies were discovered by a local paper, I made the call and signed up again for paper copies. Leftovers go to Westcliff Animal Clinic to line cages, so no waste!
Sandra, as prior executive director I can assure this poor example of everything could not be a volunteer at any nonprofit
We cheeck references and employment, something that seems beyond congress……how is your week ahead????
Good Morning, Roy! The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is tomorrow. I learned this week – or maybe remembered – that Stevie Wonder’s terrific song “Happy Birthday” was written as part of his support for the movement to establish a national holiday honoring Dr, King. That finally happened in 1986 during President Reagan’s term.
Here’s a link to a stirring performance by Stevie at a birthday celebration for Nelson Mandala held at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7iU1Sk2FDY
wonderful and thankfulness to and for you
you will like what I will be sending to you Monday.
Lots of reflection….decisoins being made this week.
Taking you wihs me all the way
Your writing assistant Jazz has a special place of honor in my heart. I love visiting her. And OH, I also love visiting you and Beth! X/O
Linda M, Gilbert Milanesi, Violet, Franklin and Maya all send greetings to Jazzie!
she is my hero….the better of the two I assure you.
Dear Roy, this SL moved me profoundly. Your deeply felt writing in the paragraph starting with: “Cities are a mix of achievements and other times hard to talk about,” tore open my heart in a good way. It is so necessary for the healing of humanity that we acknowledge and honor those who were (and still are today) so horrifically abused. I teared up reading your words. Thank you for including that so-so-necessary passage. It is one of the things that I respect and value about you, you open your beautiful heart with remarkable sensitivity.
I also immensely enjoyed the brief story of you and your friend at The Broken Spoke. I would love to hear or read a more detailed account of your time in that bar. Just the little you shared intrigued me, and made me want to read more.
Thank you, my friend, for another heartwarming and humanizing share.
Gratefully,
Robin….taking it one step at a time.