Art of Gracious Living #38 - Being "Bigger"</

My friend, Trish, recently returned from a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon with her son, Nick. It was a life-changing experience for them, and a time for real bonding between mom and 20-something son.

When she was telling me about it later, she remarked how it took some initiative on her part to make the trip happen and how she felt more herself as a result. That is the essence of gracious living.

Leading a gracious life requires effort on our part, but the rewards are great.

We must always be conscious of our role in creating situations that help us live fully.

Hear more about it by listening to the Art of Gracious Living Podcast #38.



Art of Gracious Living RSS feed

Art of Gracious Living Webpage

A Sheep in Sheep's Clothing

Tonight I was leaving the fair a little after 10 and noticed a sheep was being sheared. Greg had gone to shoot some other things, but I called him on the cell and said, "Hey, there's sheep shearing going on." He trotted right over. Why? Well, because neither of us know anything about sheep or shearing them. So, obviously, we needed to learn.




For the next hour to ninety minutes, we questioned this very nice lady, Carolyn, who was working to get the sheep ready for judging in the morning. Carolyn lives near Newton, so didn't have too far of a drive tonight, but it was after 11:30 when we left and she wasn't done cleaning up yet so I'm sure it was a late night for her.

Technically, the sheep belongs to her son, Aaron, but he's in college so mom is helping out. And it takes awhile to complete this process.

First is the shearing with a clipper that has 20 teeth, so you're less likely to cut the sheep. Professionals use ones that have 9 teeth and are flared, so they are quicker to use.




After shearing they "card" the sheep, which is somewhat like brushing out the hair that's left on it. The sheep really likes this. He was vocalizing his displeasure at the shearing, but when Carolyn and Larry, a neighbor farmer from Oklahoma who was helping out, were carding the sheep he was standing still and enjoying it.




After that, they did what's called "blocking," which meant they were doing a lot of hand trimming with these large scissors. The sheep's left side is where they stand when holding the sheep and the right side is what they consider the "show side" so they are paying very close attention to it.




This is a Dorset sheep, named for the place in England where they come from. This is a common domestic breed. When they are judged, they look for a variety of physical characteristics about the sheep.

And, lets just say that "all" the parts get sheared.




I was commenting that I knew some knitters who would love to have this wool. But, don't despair. I'm told this particular wool wouldn't be of any use because it's too short.




Last, he got his face groomed - sheared, carded and trimmed.




He was then covered, as were many of the other sheep already in the pens. While the irony that jumps to mind is that we're shearing their wool, and then giving them new "clothes," the reality is that it's just to keep them clean for the judging tomorrow. Because before the shearing, the sheep has to be bathed. And just like with a kid, you want it to last a little while.




In many of the livestock barns, people camp out to be with the animals. Some are more elaborate than others.

Spotted in Traffic

This begins a new, occasional, irregular series on the blog - things "Spotted in Traffic." Now, bear in mind, I live in a small city of 50,000 where "rush hour" means it takes about 12 minutes instead of 10 to go from one end of town to the other. And it's a very conservative red state. So, it's not going to be often I'll spot something in traffic worth sharing, but here's the first entry.

I was behind this driver on 11th street, waiting to turn onto K-61. It was all the more interesting because I'm slated to visit a school on Wednesday.

9-11

Tomorrow is the five year anniversary of 9/11 and the "remembrances" just won't stop. I use "remembrances" as a kind adjective because it often feels more like "celebrations" to me when I see FDNY shirts and hats as fashion statements. However, I'm sure those who have a personal connection with the tragedy do not feel it's a celebration at all. Regardless, I've had all I can take and we're not even to the day yet.

It was a horrible thing, but far more people have died in the wars we've started since then than died that day. Why don't we grieve for those civilians? Oh yeah, they're not Americans, so their lives don't matter. I keep forgetting that.

I don't dispute that 9-11 was a terrible thing and changed how we view the world, but lets move past it. Some of the widows are remarried and have children with their new husbands, which means they've been remarried for awhile now. In five years they have grieved, dated, married and had a baby. They've moved on. People should be allowed to move on. Please, let them move on. Let us all move on.

I saw a Colonel on CBS Sunday morning who was at the Pentagon and almost died that day. He was saying he is not going to any of the events tomorrow that he just wants to move forward. Surely he is speaking what many of us are thinking. Please, let us move on. We have plenty of reminders every time we try to fly anywhere and they want to take our toothpaste away from us.

My biggest beef with airport "security" is that it's reactionary and all happenstance. No one cared about my toothpaste until a terrorist decided that would be a good way to make a bomb on board. No one cared about my shoes until someone tried to use their shoe to take a weapon on board. Is this a smart, well thought out plan? No, it's completely reactionary and that means it's useless. Either check everyone for everything or don't bother. And put a little thought into what people might do, as opposed to just reacting to the last thing someone did.

It gives the impression that terrorists are far smarter than the people who are supposed to be protecting us from them. We have thousands of people who are supposed to be protecting us and they don't come up with these ideas like putting a weapon in a shoe heel?

We are fast approaching the same number of American soldiers killed in the Iraqi war as were killed on 9-11. And that's not counting soldiers of other nations and civilians. Does that make it "right," somehow? That 2600 plus men and women, many of them very young, who signed up to serve their country were shipped out in a doomed war? Is it somehow good that those deaths in the attacks have been doubled by our choice? And, it was a choice. A choice made by the government. And the government was a choice made by the people. Not a choice I ever supported, but a choice nonetheless.

Don't email me and tell me how it's not your fault because you didn't vote. If you didn't vote, you voted for the winner - whoever that was. So, you voted for Bush. You voted for war. You voted for death - death of soldiers, death of civilians, death of people in flooded New Orleans streets - death. This is what you created with your vote, whether you went to the voting booth to cast it or not. This is what you get when you vote for someone who has no compassion - sending other people's children to die in war, Katrina victims dying on their rooftops while the President is on vacation, and constant lies to justify it all - from "we didn't know people were at the Convention Center" to "there are weapons of mass destruction."

To Bush's credit, he never lied about being a compassionate person. You wanted him anyway. Please, remember, this is what you get when you put someone without compassion into office - lots of people dying - many of them 19 year olds who signed on for the military to do something good, believing they were invincible as most 19 year olds do. I've heard the word "victim" way too many times in the last five years while we've been busy creating another generation of potential terrorists who hate Americans.

Just Friday, the Senate intelligence committee, Republican controlled by the way, reported that there was never a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. We're all acting like this is a big news flash when it was obvious that was the case from the get go. Bush wanted to go to war with Iraq and just did. He knew he couldn't get congress to agree to it on his personal vendetta agenda so he lied.

Why is it that lying about having sex with an intern where no one died is grounds for impeachment, but lying about weapons of mass destruction and killing thousands of people in the process is acceptable? I will take responsiblity for my votes - I voted for Clinton twice and I wish I could vote for him again. So, it's my fault that our president was getting head in the oval office. But, I wash my hands of the war and destruction the Bush administration has wrought on the world. I had no part of that. I don't hold anyone in congress responsible for voting to go to war, since they were lied to as well. But, those who blindly support the Bush administration's policies - they need to go.

Lets not be selective in who we remember that died as a result of 9-11. Lets not forget the first casualty in the Iraqi war - a woman and her child, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Blair Leaving

Experts say it won't be nearly a year before Tony Blair steps down. I cannot wait for this to happen. I'm betting he's trying to hold on until after the US elections, because when he leaves, Bush will have NO world support for his wars.

Americans seem to be slowly awakening from their deep oblivion, but anything that can hasten that is good in my book.

I've been enjoying seeing clips on the news of the British ditty sung to the tune of that little song we all sang as children. Only this time the words include "Bush and Blair, sitting in a tree, K-i-l-l-i-n-g." Isn't that the truth?

These allies will be split up when Blair doesn't have the power he has now. What a glorious day that will be.

Saturdays are for Fairs

Saturdays are for the Kansas State Fair in early September. But Saturdays are also for painting, which I did some of today. Finally. I've been ignoring the library, and today I got up there and did some work on it. There's still plenty to do but it has just been sitting there forever, with me doing nothing on it. But, I did get a little bit done in there today and hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow.

I'm doing a complicated painting technique in there - why, I'm not sure, since I'm going to put up shelves and cover it all up. But, there you go. Even I don't understand myself.

I had to stop and run out for more of the little bottles of metallic paint I'm sponging on in there. I think I overbought - at least I hope I don't need as much as I purchased. I'll take it back if I don't need it but with Hobby Lobby closed tomorrow my options were limited.

When I got home I was torn between working more in the studio and going back out to the fair. Guess which won out? That jar of pickles was not from my library.

What really prompted me to head out to the fair was using Greg's pass since he wasn't using it today, and seeing Ron Diamond, the hypnotist. His show is always funny. There was a guy in it tonight that I think did it last year too. Anyway, it was fun.

After the hypnotist I went over to domestic arts to look around. There were less than a half dozen entries in the Governor's cookie jar contest and considerably fewer canned goods. But I think the number of needlework entries has gone up. I could be wrong, but it seems like there's more of that.

The cooking things continue to decline and I hate to see that. There are a few contests sponsored by companies where there's actual money to be won and those seem to be generating a significant amount of entries.

I don't know what to think about our society. We obviously love to watch people cook, otherwise the Food Network wouldn't be on. But, apparently, few of us can actually cook. Maybe I've been approaching the tea all wrong. I should sell tickets for people to watch me cook instead of to eat the food.

But, there was lots of needlework from crochet to cross stitch to knitting. And, of course, the quilts.

As I was looking at knitting I wondered if Andrea had submitted anything and then I spotted it, complete with ribbon on it. Congratulations, Andrea!




They have a whole section just for people like me - a Christmas area. You gotta love it. There were some beautiful pieces. Leah should enter some of her cross stitch stuff. I am so honored to have some pieces she made for me, including some Christmas ornaments and an incredible stocking she did.

I really treasure those things that people make for me. I'm already thinking about how fun it will be unpack all the Christmas things and enjoy the memories of them. A month from now I'll be getting serious about getting going on that.

Tomorrow I'm not going to the fair. I hope I'm motivated enough to get more done in the library. Goodness knows there is plenty in my world to do. As always.

Where Has Patsy Been

This is a fun little toy. There are a few states I'm not sure if I've visited or not, so I left them off the map. I'll be able to update it soon as I'll be traveling to Washington and Oregon next month. At the moment it says I've been to 35 states. I think I've also been to West Virginia, but I'm just not sure. Obviously, I need to go. And to Wisconsin, which I think I would really love. Just hasn't worked out yet. One of these days...



create your own visited states map