Seens From The Backs Of My Eyelids

Fill In The Blank Friday

2012-01-27T01:41:00.043-05:00

We interrupt this endless winter weather...

...to bring you a taste of summer.

If you'd like to take a quick break to put on your shorts, flip flops and grab some lemonade, I'll be happy to wait.

Are you good to go? Well, alrighty then!

Wasn't that a breath of fresh air? And, hey, I think I even got a little suntanned!

Alphabe-Thursday

2012-01-25T17:20:00.055-05:00

This session of Alphabe-Thursday will feature weekly excerpts from the book, "An Animated Alphabet", written by my late mother, nanciellen Dorler.

J -- j

Juliet Jaguar thrives on enjoyment,

her jokes don't jeopardize, injure or shock.

She rejoices in things that are Japanese,

though she shrinks from jujitsu; Juli's no jock.

What Juliet is, is a junk food junkie

who knows how to jump start digestive juices:

jelly doughnuts, Jujubes or Cracker Jacks.

She jestingly states, "Jell-O has its uses."

She adores jitterbugging and jamborees,

eating binges and jaunts with the 'jet set',

but she jogs judiciously every day

so she can justify what Juli-et.

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"An Animated Alphabet" was written by nanciellen Dorler.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including blog, photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without express written permission from PJ Johnston.

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Print History: 2001, 2011

Tall, True or Twisted

2012-01-24T01:54:00.001-05:00

The world is no longer a romantic place...

...but some of its people are...

...and therein lies promise!

Always looking forward, PJ

A Memory For Monday

2012-01-23T01:16:00.000-05:00

Straight from the archives of the Library of Congress, come these photos of World War II, photos the likes of which should be in the school history books.

Wouldn't photos of the utter devastation of Pearl Harbor be more effective in teaching our American youth than simply memorizing the 12/7/41 date?

Pearl Harbor

USS Arizona topples in Pearl Harbor

Wreckage pulled from Pearl Harbor

US Marines pause at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands before advancing on the Japanese

The marines advancing at Guadalcanal

Look at how brave they were!

Crewman on an aircraft carrier.

US Navy scout planes

US Army Air Force planes with Mt McKinley as a backdrop

Infantryman at Guadalcanal

After three days of fighting in Munda

My friend, Jake, and I watched the TV mini-series, "The Winds Of War" last year. Do you remember it from the 1980's? It's the story told during World War II and it was just as good last year as it was in 1980. It's stream-able on Netflix.

They say if we don't learn from history, we're doomed to repeat it.

Sabbath Peace

2012-01-22T01:32:00.003-05:00

Fill In The Blank Friday

2012-01-20T01:11:00.000-05:00

Letters to My Children

This is the 46th part of Letters To My Children. Some

might call me prolific. I think mothers tend to feel

there is always something more that could have been

said. ;)

For those of you who've been following along, you'll

recognize'Sometimes You Need A Base Hit'.

For those of you who are new, first - WELCOME!

Here's a bit of background:

When my grown daughter, Kaitlin, was a baby, I

started to make notes of things I wanted to tell her

when she got older. Part of me was afraid, if I died

while she was still young, no one else would know to

tell her these exact things.

(ButIwasn'tneuroticoranything!)

That note-taking process continued for fourteen

years and then I began to write a series of short

letters to both of my children, each letter containing

one important message. When I had completed the

series, I copyrighted them and they were printed in

three short books called"Sometimes You Need a Base

Hit" (volumes 1-3). Remember, short letters for even

shorter attention spans!

Dear Kaitlin and Casey,

About wanting versus needing ~

Look around you and tell me if it doesn’t look as though America’s favorite pastime is acquiring things. Okay, so maybe it’s second to worrying! If you ask me, acquiring things is a symptom of a human need to fill a void that can’t possibly be filled by any material thing. (But that's a subject for another time!) It’s all-consuming and it’s wasteful.

Many people define themselves as the sum total of what they own, live in or drive. There are even people who are only interested in how much everything costs and how much everything is worth. All of this nauseates me. I gave up “keeping up with the Jones’s” in my twenties, when I realized that the Jones’s were boring and unimaginative, and I didn’t want the same things they did anyway.

There is a different between “wants” and “needs”. “Needs” are essential to everyday life and survival; “wants” are be anything else.

You know, you're not going to have everything you think you might want in life. As a matter of fact, I'd bet most of what you think you want, you only think you want. If you hold off in your efforts to obtain things, you'll find that, over time, you'll lose interest in them or they become less important to you.

If you can avoid getting caught up in this syndrome, you'll save yourself a lot of time and money.

Love, Mom

Dear Kaitlin and Casey,

About who you are ~

You are who you are today BECAUSE of everything that has transpired before in your life, not DESPITE it.

Do you think you can make it all the way through your life and not blame your parents, a teacher, a boss, SOMEONE, for how something turned out? Well, you’d be the first! Can you imagine never having the thought, “THAT’S NOT FAIR!”? I can’t. Would it be possible to never once wish for a different ending to some situation or experience? Possible? Maybe- but highly unlikely.

You won’t be the first one to experience bumps and bruises. But guess what? Those unpleasant things, those failures, provide us with the lessons upon which we build our individual character. You bring all of your experiences to the table with you everywhere you go in life. The more you learn, the better prepared you will be for the next hurdle.

Love, Mom

Alphabe-Thursday

2012-01-18T17:20:00.042-05:00

This session of Alphabe-Thursday will feature weekly excerpts from the book, "An Animated Alphabet", written by my late mother, nanciellen Dorler.

I -- i

It is true that I don't think I wanna

hold Iggy, your pet iguana.

I won't ask you to implore me.

Make my day and just ignore me!

At the risk of sounding picky,

I think Iggy's looks are icky.

I am miles from elated

when your darling boy's inflated

and those times when Iggy's snoozing,

leaving him is what I'm choosing.

If holding Iggy wins your favor,

let another guy be brave, sir.

In do way do I adore him.

Put quite simply, I abhor him!

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"An Animated Alphabet" was written by nanciellen Dorler.

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Print History: 2001, 2011

Tall, True or Twisted

2012-01-17T01:37:00.000-05:00

Show me the friend...

...and I'll show you the person.

Always looking forward, PJ

A Memory For Monday

2012-01-16T01:28:00.027-05:00

MY FIRST-HAND INTRODUCTION TO CIVIL

RIGHTS: THE 1967 RIOTS IN DETROIT

If you've been following my blog for a while, you probably know that when I was growing up, my parents took the five of us kids all over the United States during summer vacations. Our mode of transportation was a station wagon and it pulled an Apache pop-up camper behind it. The list of places we went and things we saw was endless, entertaining and educational, but nothing impacted the 10-year old me more than the 1967 Detroit Riots.

In the early to mid-1960's if you were brought up in my white, middle-class hamlet, where there was one black family, civil rights wasn't discussed and the riots and unrest went largely ignored because, guess what? The adults felt safe, untouched by it all. Current events were not part of the early elementary school curriculum and children didn't watch the news, or much television at all, so I was totally clueless as to what was happening in major cities throughout the country.

Apparently my father wasn't deterred by the news of the riots; his planned vacation route, through Detroit, went unchanged, although we did travel in the morning, after sunrise. I'm guessing that night travel through the city was prohibited and a curfew was in place because there were armed soldiers EVERYWHERE, not just at street corners, EVERYWHERE!

My three younger siblings were sleeping because it was early in the morning and a car ride will do that to a kid, but my older brother, Randy, and I were awake. My mother, wanting to shelter us from seeing anything bad and keep us quiet as dad was navigating his way through the city, told us to put our heads down. (Remember, we didn't use seat belts in the 1960's, so we could lay down in the car.) Well, geez - we were 10 and 12 years old! We weren't putting our heads down, we just stayed very quiet so we didn't get caught! It wasn't too difficult really. My parents were both nervous and their attention was on what was going on in the streets.

Traffic was directed by soldiers because traffic lights were out. So, while the city was traversable (that should be a real word) for the most part, there were plenty of detours and it was slow going. This made it even better for me because it gave me more opportunity to take in my surroundings.

And all I could think during that ride was, "There was war here. Was there a war here? Do we still fight wars against ourselves in this country? Yeah. This was definitely a war! I'm in a war!" And because my head was supposed to be down, who could I ask without getting in trouble? No one. It wasn't as if my brother could shed any real light on it. He told me later it looked like fighting and a riot had taken place. But that made no sense to me because it had obviously been a war.

"1967 was a year of widespread urban violence, sanctioned by some Black militant leaders while abhorred by moderates who saw the uprising as ultimately counterproductive to Black interests. It appeared to some that the phase of the Black protest movement characterized by nonviolent demonstrations led by Dr. King was coming to an end. Many civil rights leaders thought violent upheaval inevitable. In an April 16, 1967, news conference, Dr. King warned that at least 10 cities "could explode in racial violence this summer."
"Urban racial violence did plague over 100 cities in 1967. During the Spring, minor disturbances had occurred in Omaha, Louisville, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Wichita, Nashville, and Houston. Then in June, Boston and Tampa experienced serious disorders. The most devastating riot since Watts in 1965 occurred, however, in Newark, from June 12 to 17, 1967, an outburst that resulted in 25 deaths, 1,200 persons injured, and over 1,300 arrested. The following month Detroit was the site of the worst urban race riot of the decade, one that left 43 dead, over 2,000 injured and more than 3,800 arrested. Rioting continued around the country, with outbreaks in Phoenix, Washington, D.C. and New Haven, among other cities. According to a report of the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations released in November 1967, 75 major riots occurred in that year, compared with 21 in 1966; 83 were killed in 1967, compared with 11 in 1966 and 36 in 1965."

"The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers executed a raid in the early morning hours of July 23, 1967 on an after hours drinking club or "blind pig" in a predominantly black neighborhoods located at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue. They were expecting to round up a few patrons, but instead found 82 people inside holding a party for two returning Vietnam veterans. Yet, the officers attempted to arrest everyone who was on the scene. While the police awaited a "clean-up crew" to transport the arrestees, a crowd gathered around the establishment in protest. After the last police car left, a small group of men who were "confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go" lifted up the bars of an adjacent clothing store and broke the windows. From this point of origin, further reports of vandalism diffused. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side."

"The protests became so violent that neither the Detroit or Michigan State Police could contain them. Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh appealed to the Governor. Governor Romney called out the Guard on July 24th by ordering the 2nd Brigade, 46th Infantry Division to state actual duty. The other two brigades of the 46th were at Camp Grayling conducting annual training. Their training was cancelled and the troops quickly moved to Detroit. The situation worsened and by July 26th, twelve square miles of Detroit were burning. As police and military troops sought to regain control of the city, violence escalated."

"Mayor Cavanaugh and Governor Romney consulted with U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey; they decided to commit more troops to Detroit. At the same time, the Michigan National Guard was federalized and placed under command of the U.S. Army's XVIII Airborne Corps from Fort Bragg, N.C. One brigade each from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were flown to Selfridge Air National Guard Base and joined Task Force Detroit under the command of Lt. Gen. John Throckmorton. A total of 10,253 Michigan ARNG federally mobilized from 23 July - 2 August 1967; authorized by EO 11364 of 24 July 1967."

"The task force cracked down on the rioters. By July 29th, the situation was calm enough to pull regular army troops out and leave the city in the hands of the federalized Michigan National Guard. The Guard returned to state control and demobilized on August 2nd. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested. There was over 22 million dollars in damage done, not including much of what was lost by people to charred and water-logged conditions, and that's 1967 dollars, not 2012 dollars. During the Detroit rioting, fatalities included one Guardsman -- Corp. Larry L. Post of the 182nd Field Artillery. In all, 8,500 Michigan National Guardsmen were involved in quelling the rioting."

The origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change

On July 27, 1967, President Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, chaired by Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, to investigate the origins of the disturbances and to make recommendations to prevent or contain such outbursts. On July 26, Dr. King, with Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and A. Philip Randolph, issued a statement from NAACP headquarters calling on blacks to refrain from rioting and urging them to work toward improving their situation through peaceful means. "

By the time 1968 rolled around, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated and we'd started to discuss civil rights in school. It was then that I put the pieces together and realized that violent riots are, in fact, war and I had, indeed, been through my first war zone.

Today we remember Dr. King and his work for civil rights, but I am also reminded of his preaching about peaceful resolutions to our differences.

Do you share his dream?

(Today's photos and some of the historical details are from google.com)

Sabbath Peace

2012-01-15T01:28:00.000-05:00

Fill In The Blank Friday

2012-01-13T01:58:00.001-05:00

(Unrelated snippets of thought, odd

questions, short rants, news items

otherwise unworthyof print,

comments, criticisms and harsh,

radical statements in one blog post)

This week's bleats:

1. Recently, I dreamt that I was marketing a

black vinyl sanitary napkin. How hilarious is that?!

2. When we were little, we would buy my mother

30 ounce bottles of Jean Nate' After Bath Splash

for Mother's Day, her birthday and Christmas. She'd

open them, smile and thank us profusely and then

add them to her existing stockpile.

3. I've had separate dreams in which the male lead's name was "Inth Essence Kiln" and in which my neighbor Henry's name was "Gah Bah".

4. Remember when 'watered down' cologne used to be called "Toilet Water"?

Whose idea was that?

5. The George Washington Bridge is a rather huge ~~parking lot~~
famous bridge that across the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan (NYC). It has two spans, upper and lower. My friend Pam calls the lower span, "Martha".

Always looking forward, PJ

Alphabe-Thursday

2012-01-11T17:20:00.026-05:00

This session of Alphabe-Thursday will feature weekly excerpts from the book, "An Animated Alphabet", written by my late mother, nanciellen Dorler.

H--h

Horrendously round and hairy,

that's Heironymous* Hedgehog the Third.

Heironymous behaves quite well;

he'll not do a thing that's absurd,

and he's never in a hurry;

he shuffles because he's well-furred.

His hype makes up for his lace of height.

He hollers and hoots 'til he's heard.

It's sure that whatever happens,

Heironymous has the last word!

* pronounced "Hy-ron'-eh-moos"

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"An Animated Alphabet" was written by nanciellen Dorler.

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Print History: 2001, 2011

Tall, True or Twisted

2012-01-10T03:42:00.000-05:00

*image from google*

Always looking forward, PJ

A Memory For Monday

2012-01-09T01:42:00.040-05:00

I'm pretty angry as I sit down to write this. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I'm angry enough not to truly be able to capture what I'm feeling in words. But I'm going to try. Do me a favor, won't you? Please think about someone you love or have loved that has broken trust with you. Think about how it made you feel and please read the following with that feeling in your heart.

What's the biggest lie you've ever been told? Chances are you don't know the answer. That's a heartwarming thought, isn't it?

Oh, you can probably think of some whoppers that have come your way, but the biggest lies, the ones that could devastate our very souls, often go unspoken, undiscovered. The perpetrators are either skilled story tellers or masters of evasiveness - lies of omission - sometimes both.

Studies say that up to 25% of all people are sociopaths - people with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial behavior and a lack of conscience. I'm betting that the biggest, most compulsive liars fall into this category. I'll bet you know and have identified some of the sociopaths that have come your way.

Those of us who have friends and/or family with addiction problems have had a good deal of experience dealing with liars.

My latest personal experience with a compulsive liar had me overlooking things and making excuses for a long-time gambling addicted friend who I'd had no idea had any kind of addiction problem. Shoot, I'd never even known a gambling addict before, so to say it was the furthest thing from my mind is no exaggeration.

Unbeknownst to me, my 'blindness', my ignorance, had me enabling her, time and time again, whenever she'd been short on cash/needed gas/couldn't make the rent/couldn't pay her car insurance on time/etc. I only discovered the truth once she was 'cornered' on a specific occasion and had to explain to me where $1200 had disappeared to. She actually told me that she only admitted to her problem because she'd been cornered.

It was devastating to learn she'd broken trust. And I was furious when I looked back over our friendship and began to see how often she'd lied to my face. It had been more times than I could count...and those were just the times I could identify in retrospect.

So, what did I do in that circumstance? Me, the person who raised her children with this as advice: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." I forgave her. I asked her not to ask me for any more money, ever. I told her I didn't want to know anything about her finances. I 'edited' our friendship and we moved forward. (Let me say it for you, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!")

Prior to this BFL (Big Freaking Liar) incident, Stu, Shirley and I had given her a car... this person who had always driven cars that barely and/or rarely ran. And it was a really nice car - only a couple of years old, perfect body condition, low mileage...

Back at the time my friend and I had decided to move forward with our 'edited' friendship, I'd made one single request. I'd said, "Please give me your word that you will never take a title loan on your car without first coming to Stu and me." She'd looked me straight in the eye and said, "I give you my word. I promise that will never happen." She'd been quite emphatic. I chose to believe her. (Let me say it for you, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!")

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I received an early morning phone call from this friend that began a string of obvious lies. The string of lies included lies of omission, as well as look-you-directly-in-the-eye-and-lie lies.

This time around, I knew with her first breath that she was lying to me. When I called her on it, she kept right on lying, changing the way she presented the story to me a little each time she told it.

You've probably guessed that she'd taken a title loan on her car. The 'shop' was holding the car until she paid the loan back.

The web she wove was, indeed, incredibly tangled. Yet, she insisted that it was all okay because she was going to get the car back. Um, HELLO, it wasn't about the car being gone for me. HELLO, HELLO BF liar, you are compulsively lying to me and doing it about something which you gave me your word you. wouldn't. do.

That was the end of our friendship. Lest anybody wonder what types of things will end a friendship for me, this was one of them. Please just don't lie to me. I guess that goes without saying. Addicts and other liars are toxic.

I was an unbelievably poor judge of character - twice - and each time was for an extended period. This actually concerns me because I've always been able to trust my gut.

And the whole scenario has left me gun-shy. Who do I help out? Who do I trust? Who do I befriend? How do I forgive myself for being so clueless? How do I stop kicking myself in my own behind?

I can still feel myself building up cement walls - thick and high. I almost feel like I should hang a sign on my cement walls that says, "No New People".

Have you ever discovered that someone told you a big lie? What did you do? What are some good ways to begin trusting new people as you get to know them?

Thanks for letting me vent. You guys are great therapists!!

Sabbath Peace

2012-01-08T05:21:00.008-05:00

Fill In The Blank Friday

2012-01-06T01:48:00.000-05:00

1.) 11% of people are left handed. I used to be married to one who said, "Left handed people are the only ones in their right mind." (Think about it.)
2.) August has the highest percentage of births. My guess is that people are exceptionally thankful around Thanksgiving time the year before.
3.) Unless food is mixed with saliva you can't taste it.

4.) Your sweet taste buds are the last ones to function in your old age.
5.) The average person falls asleep in 7 minutes. And then there are people like Matlock, Sue and myself who only sleep for 7 minutes at a time.

Alphabe-Thursday

2012-01-04T17:20:00.016-05:00

I mistakenly posted my "G" post for this session of Alphabe-Thursday on December 22nd. If you missed it, just click here.

My letter "H" will appear on schedule, next week. Thanks for stopping by!!

Tall, True or Twisted

2012-01-03T02:22:00.001-05:00

“There are 7 levels of hell”, she said, “and I think one of them is reserved for people who bring jello salads to every potluck meal they attend.”

(from a collection of note cards from the 1990's)

Always looking forward, PJ

A Memory For Monday

2012-01-02T01:55:00.000-05:00

From the archives of the Library of Congress comes this series of photos of America between 1939-1943

If you missed part 1 or part 2, they can be found on my 11/28/11 and 12/5/11 posts.

In this set are some of my favorites: women working while the men were at war and a couple shots of soldiers.

My absolute favorite -

More to come soon!

New Year's Day 2012

2012-01-01T01:48:00.002-05:00

*images from google.com*

Always looking forward, PJ