Archive for July, 2023
Because we all need the smile
Not one to compete against others, I find it hard to believe others care so little about each other to want to win. I have played board games with a group of people who cared more for teaching the game and strategies over pride of who came in first.
Once everyone felt confident in the game we laughed and encouraged each other. Often the newbie to the game won. What pleasure the whole procedure was. Even when others won.
On the other hand, I am always in competition with myself. I love learning something new and growing in confidence and control. When I feel I’ve mastered a stitch or game, I know I’ve won
I don’t think I did the arch 1 by 1 ribbing long enough. But I’ve learned my Continental knitting makes that stitch a lot easier than English (right-handed) ribbing. After much practice I can switch off so neither hand gets too tired.
My next pair of socks will be a stab at Fishlip socks. I bought the pattern. It seems complicated but folks seem to swear by it.
It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond by Julia Cameron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve been meaning to review this. I finally remembered. A friend and I have been working through the book as a sort of class to get our creative muses up and running again. We would do the tasks and work on our memoirs as homework. We both picked up quite a bit through this book.
We both had the paperback, and I had the Audible, which we would listen to on Zoom while we followed along in the paper copy. That worked pretty well. We both felt we got more in touch with areas of our lives we wanted to improve.
My biggest gripe was that I felt too old for the book. It seems if you are an early retiree, this would be perfect. We had already passed the floundering when you aren’t part of the workforce. If, in fact, you are at that stage, I think this would be the perfect book to start the next part of your life.
Heather Henderson (Narrator) was excellent in leading our little ‘class.’
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
First, the blurb:
From the best-selling author of The Lost City of Z, soon to be a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, and Robert Pattison, comes a true-life murder story that became one of the newly created FBI’s first major homicide investigations.
In the 1920s the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations, and the bureau badly bungled it. In desperation its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. Together with the Osage, he and his undercover team began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
~~~
The team of David Grann (Author), Will Patton (Narrator), Ann Marie Lee (Narrator), Danny Campbell (Narrator), and Random House Audio (Publisher) made quite the book. In this case, an audiobook from Libby. I loved how it was broken up between the narrators. It presented the story with the Osage, then the FBI, then the reporter. As you would hope, there is an overlapping of what happened, but from each point of view, it gives a more vivid picture of what might have happened so long ago.
This pulled me in even though I am not one for history or true crime. Probably because it centered on the non-white man, whom most history is about. I am ashamed of my history classes as there was no mention of the Osage Indians. See the above sentence.
I feel richer knowing the story though sadder to see what happened to this tribe, or any other non-white male. I highly recommend this read.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sap/spa/asp/pas/PSA.” Use one, use them all, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use them all. Enjoy!
PSA: This day has been dedicated to the following hat. Though I ran out of the colorway of the bottom of the hat, I think the one with brown still worked out. If you want details check out yesterday’s blog.
Darswords 
You must be logged in to post a comment.