Morning all:

Quote Of The Week:

” A Children’s Museum, however, is more of a Funatorium. You are encouraged to touch things; which is poor training for subsequent museum visitation.” James Lileks

The politicking has come to Ohio! Yesterday the wife of one candidate came to town. This caused the wife of the one who still wishes he could again be “top dog” to also come to town. Understand that the ‘Nati is known for its chili oddity called “Skyline Chili”, a staple for the college and ‘blue collar’ crowd, and anyone in between, and sold through about 100 smallish ‘greasy spoon’ restaurants. Yesterday morning the wife of the one who is pining because he’s not supposed to run, plus about 200 ‘Empty Suits’, piled into a closed Skyline restaurant for a raucous, but closed-door, event—until the fire marshal peeked in the door that is. Can we vote now? That way we won’t be subjected to any more ads, nonsensical speeches, and spectacles. Oh, and by the way, a whole lot of money would be saved. Ok, now the coffee is ready.

The other evening I got caught up watching our local Public Television station present a program entitled “African American Lives 2”. This was such an amazingly captivating presentation that yesterday morning I got up at 4:30 to watch the conclusion (which I had missed) when it was re-run (a major downside of not having Tevo).

Twelve well known individuals’ heritage back to the slavery of their ancestors and then beyond was traced. Among those whose history was unfolded were the likes of Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, Maya Angelou, and Chris Rock. Their stories, all similar and all different, became an amazing quilt. One family was freed by their owner as early as the 1790s. Another family was torn apart and split, when, as a child, their third great grandfather was removed from his family and sold to a settler heading for the wilds of western Tennessee.

What astounded me was how complete the records are. And, since slaves were ‘property’, even the enslavement voyages were well recorded and documented; more so than was often the case of an immigrant or of the many indentured servant girls who came from Europe during those early days.

Through gene mapping and DNA technology, for several their roots to a specific tribe and region was able to be established. But this is not really what I gained, since so far it was only an interesting history lesson. What became obvious is how mixed a pool of individuals we all really are. How Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. who looks much like many black men has cousins who are Irish. How author Bliss Broyard, who physically looks like any northern European has over 17% African heritage.

The reality is that one’s racial identity is governed by physical attributes but, to a large extend, also by the cultural experience of our family background and growing up. Could it be that since we’re primarily all hybrids, and since in today’s world ‘hybrid’ is the way to go, that, in effect, we’re all ‘green’? Maybe the stories about “little green men” do have a foundation; as Pogo once said so eloquently, “…..them are us.”

A couple of days ago it was St. Valentine’s Day, celebrated by Hallmark, the rose growers association, and people all over the world. Marcia was so shocked when I pranced into the house carrying a box of ‘haute’ chocolates boxed as a florist would package roses, that she blurted out that I was probably “re-gifting”. I attribute her reactive outburst to being overwhelmed and not to the way author Judith Viorst describes love; as being “much nicer to be in than in an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket, or a holding pattern over Philadelphia.”

Marcia and I will be traveling next week; this could mean a slight delay in posting a Saturday ramble. I’ll make certain that I stuff a twenty in my shoe for cab fare home. Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,

Dirk

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