Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday All!

It’s a scorcher in Spokane today…110 degrees in the shade predicted.  Wow!  Talk about global warming!

Today we celebrate the birthdays of high school friend Bill, former yell king for the Olympia High School Bears extraordinaire and a personality bigger than life; and good friend Luci, recent graduate of Lewis & Clark High School and lovely young woman inside and out…she’s 18 years old today (she gets to vote now!).  Here’s to you two!  Have fun today and eat lots of cake, won’t you?

Speaking of birthdays…yesterday marked the birthdays of our dear friend (and adopted family member) Sheryl in Salt Lake City, lover of souls extraordinaire and good pickle ball player, from all reports; and Liz, best friend of my oldest daughter Andy…hiker, accomplished business woman and loyal friend extraordinaire.  Happy Birthday to you two!  Bright lights shining in our world for sure!

 

Here are some culinary tips for the day…

Don’t try to find a top quality restaurant open on Monday nights in Spokane right now…Judy & I wanted to take my mom and my brother out for a nice meal on a recent Monday night and darned if we could find anything open.  We thought we had scored with one of our favorite restaurants, HayJay’s in Liberty Lake, but alas…we tried their door (Yelp didn’t say they were closed Mondays) and lo and behold, it wouldn’t open!  Well, in a moment of desperation, I turned around and saw the sign “Piccolo Bar & Kitchen” which happened to be right next door to HayJay’s and the door was open!  So I walked in and asked a very friendly waitress if we could look at a menu and she was VERY accommodating & welcoming, so I took a risk and said to the rest of our party…”I found a good place!”.  Well, we found out just how great the food and service were there.  They prepare all of their dishes in a brick oven and everything was superb.  The “piece de resistance” (my French isn’t so good) was the crescent roll bread pudding with a generous scoop of salted caramel ice cream on top…ummmm….good!!!!  10 stars on a scale of 1 to 5…Be sure you check this place out…you’ll be glad you did!

Speaking of terrific food and excellent service, you’ll want to stop by “The Little Euro” restaurant in the Spokane Valley on North Pines Rd. and try out their “Eggs Benedict Florentine with Avacado”…out of this world (be sure to order it with the scrumptious hash browns).  What a breakfast!  Their chef really knows how to put out a spread!

 

I looking forward to checking out two books over the 4th of July holiday while we’re on the Oregon Coast…”Grounded:  A Senator’s Lessons On Winning Back Rural America” by Montana U.S. Senator Jon Tester (who I think is one of the “good guys” in politics right now) and “Lincoln In Private” by one of my favorite historians, Ronald C. White.  It’s about the private notes that Lincoln wrote to himself & kept in his office and never made public.  I can hardly wait to crack these books open.

Another book that I’m looking forward to getting sometime soon is Douglas Chadwick’s “Four Fifths A Grizzly.”  He’s the author of a favorite book of mine “The Wolverine Way.”  He’s a great researcher and an even better writer.  Always a good read with him.  As he writes:

“There are 8 billion humans on Earth today, which is about three times as many as when I was born, and we monopolize 83% of the habitable land space on the planet.  And about 96% of the living weight, or biomass, of vertebrates—that’s animals with backbones, the big guys, the sexy species that we all pay attention to—consist of humans and their domestic livestock.  So that leave about 4% of the planet for all the other animals that we care about.  And I told myself I can’t keep writing books about one species at a time or one place at a time where they need more attention or care, which is kind of where we’re caught in conservation as we undergo a transformation of our seas and the air and the land because of a massive explosion of humans.  Those resources are disappearing so quickly, and we can’t just keep rushing from crisis to crisis and putting our finger in the dike before another hole needs to be plugged somewhere else.  That’s not going to cut it.  So I wanted to write about how we think about ourselves and how we think about ourselves in relation to nature, and I wanted to try and change people’s view of us as separate from and superior to and kind of liberated from nature.  We tend to think of ourselves as being entitled to do whatever we want, as much as we want for as long as we want. And we can’t keep thinking like that.”

—Douglas Chadwick, “Four Fifths A Grizzly:  A New Perspective On Nature That Just Might Save Us All” (2021), interview in the Flathead Beacon, June 16, 2021, page 46.

While as a believer in an Intelligent Designer of the Universe, I would have to take issue with Doug’s portrayal of humans as not being separate from nature, as it’s my belief that we were made in the image of God and placed here on Earth with the responsibility of being good stewards of what the Creator designed and built.  Since we have the ability to be self-conscious and our brains are far advanced from the other creatures the Creator made (we have the ability to think and realize consequences for our choices/decisions), we have a higher responsibility to all of Creation to look after it and make wise choices to help it be sustained.  However, having said all that, I do agree with the premise of Doug’s thesis…we can’t keep thinking that are entitled to do do whatever we want, as much as we want for as long as we want…after all that’s putting ourselves in control of Creation and not submitting to the will of the Intelligent Designer (“being in rebellion to God”, if you will) who made our life possible, as well as the life of all other parts of Creation.  What do you think?

 

Here’s the funny thought for the day from one of my favorite comics, “Dilbert”:

Dogbert:  “I invented a device that can detect losers.”

Dilbert’s boss:  “How do I know it’s accurate?”

Dogbert:  “Point it at a known loser and see if it pings.”

Dilbert’s boss:  “Hey! it knows Ted is a loser!” (Ping!)

Dilbert’s boss:  “Ha Ha Ha!!!  It says Dilbert and Alice are losers too!” (Ping!…Ping!)

Dilbert’s boss:  “And Carol and Wally too! (Ping!…Ping!)  Ha Ha Ha!!!  This thing is totally accurate!”

Dogbert:  “You’re holding it backward.”

Dilbert’s boss:  “How exactly does it detect losers? ”

Dogbert:  “They’re the ones who hold it backward.”

 

Here’s the word for the day:

“Propinquity:  A French word from Latin origins meaning “the state of being close to someone or something; proximity.”  Isn’t it so that we all have a “propinquity” to others whom we love and/or enjoy their company?

 

Here’s the thought for the day:

“Is it my imagination or is it my iron pride?  I wonder it it matters much if time is on my side…

I’d rather press on, I don’t wanna rest easy…Anywhere I stray, I will make it a brand new day…

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say.

I’d rather be by the seaside, than be playin’ a one night stand

I’ve been too wrapped up in my own dreams…I will change things if I can.

I gotta press on, don’t wanna rest easy…Wouldn’t it be fin to return to the women and the wine

And all of the sunshine that we knew.

 

You will never know that blue is until you have played the game

Till you live your life in solitaire where no one knows your name

I’d rather press on, I don’t want to rest easy

Have it anyway you will, I will be with you right up until

The spell is broken and all is well…”

—Gordon Lightfoot, “I’d Rather Press On,” from the album “Waiting For You” (1993)

 

Here’s to a great Tuesday and Happy 4th of July holiday everyone!  Happy Birthday America….”land of the free and home of the brave”!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)