It’s so easy today to get swept up in celebrity fixation and materialism and searching for some validation outside of yourself when we know it’s really found within and through meaningful connections with other people. —Geoffrey S. Fletcher
Weeks so full of disappointment leave us searching for good news in hopes that , maybe, there might be some left.
My body didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. This week has seen more disappointments than I care to enumerate. Searching for even a moment’s rest has too often proven futile. I don’t like much that has happened this week. Neither do I care for most of the reactions to what has happened this week. I expect better from the world and that just hasn’t happened.
Every morning I wake up and start searching all available media sources to see what if I missed anything important while trying to sleep. I fear that one day I might wake up and find half the world has been blown away and, somehow, I managed to sleep through it. As I read through the headlines, I wonder what their long-term effect might be. I see a world changing around me and, at times, wonder if we are dooming ourselves.
Searching this morning, I desperately wanted to see something good, something that didn’t involve anyone getting killed, something that doesn’t reak of humanitarian or financial disaster. I found three things that I think are worth sharing. I consider them good. You, perhaps, may not because they each have the potential to change your world. If they do, though, that change is for the better. We need something good in our lives. Perhaps one of these stories works for you.
Changing The Common Language
Pronouns. If you went to public school in the United States, you were probably taught what they are and how to use them in the first grade. When referring to boys, we use the pronoun “he.” When referring to girls, we use the pronoun “she.” When referring to more than one person, we use the pronoun “they.” We’re all comfortable with that, aren’t we? Perhaps not for much longer.
You see, the pronouns “he” and “she” are problematic at times because they inherently assign a certain gender. We assume that the person we see who dresses masculine is a “he.” We assume that the person who dresses and styles themselves effeminately is a “she.” Chances are high that we don’t realize how often we are wrong.
A couple of the nation’s leading newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner and the Washington Post, have adopted use of the singular “they.” In the case of the Examiner, they have instructed their reporters to ask a subject whether they prefer to be referred to as “he,” “she,” or, “they.” Reporters are to make no assumptions and give the individual the right to be identified by whichever gender, or no gender, with which they are most comfortable.
Michael Howerton writes for the Examiner:
Our intention is to celebrate, dignify and respect the affirmations people make about their identities. We want to honor the identities of those we write about, not enforce gender binary language or diminish anyone’s right to their own.
As we are searching for ways to be more inclusive in our daily involvement with people, using the singular “they” might be a start. The challenge: getting English teachers and school curriculum to go along. What we learn first is what sticks with us the longest.
See-Now Buy-Now Might Be Working
The early numbers are in for Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Rebecca Minkoff and Burberry and other designers are going to want to take notice: the new see-now, buy-now strategy seems to have worked. Looking at sales figures, especially online sales, for merchandise purchased immediately after a runway presentation and the labels involved are reporting some of their highest sales ever. According to an article on Business of Fashion this morning, Tom Ford reported their biggest sales day of the year. Burberry has already sold out of three items. The Rebecca Minkoff flagship store in New York reported its best day ever by more than 25 percent despite only being open half the day.
None of the labels reported a downturn and most department stores, such as Bergdorf Goodman and the Neiman Marcus Group, all reported significant increases in sales around the labels that had just shown their lines. What may be even more interesting is what people are buying. As of the article’s writing this morning, Ralph Lauren only had one remaining SKU for it’s $15,000 “Houston” overcoat. Burberry’s $5,249 Cavalry jacket — a deep red wool jacket with military-style braided stylings, was the brand’s top seller, surprising even chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
The time to declare complete victory for the marketing shift is still several months away. If there are not new pieces coming into stores, if brands are unable to replenish looks that sell out early, then sales may not hold and could potentially lead to a downturn in lagging months. The fact that we’re going into the holiday season helps, though, and even if January sales are not stellar, chance are pretty strong we’ll see more labels switching to this approach next year.
We Really Are Family
We’ve known for some time that all humans migrated from Africa. What has been more of a mystery has been the timeline for that migration. While paleontologists have claimed to find skulls, skeletons, and tools scattered across Europe and Asia dating back over 100,000 years, it has been difficult to establish enough evidence to support the concept of any migration that old. While there is evidence of group splintering and separation within the African continent and the development of language as much as 200,000 years ago, there has not been a DNA study that supported a specific migration period. Until now.
Actually, what we’re looking at is three separate studies from three different sets of universities, that all came to roughly the same conclusion: We all left Africa about the same time, some 50-,000 to 80,000 years ago. Changes in climate and the search for food seem to be the primary reason for the exodus. What’s interesting, though, is that everyone, including aboriginal populations once thought to have migrated separately, left Africa at the same time.
Center to this hypothesis is the testing of indigenous groups of people around the world, something that had not happened before. Prior to these three studies, most DNA sampling had occurred among Africans and Europeans. Researchers expected that studying indigenous people would provide deeper insight into migration patterns. What they didn’t expect was evidence that everyone pretty much up and left at about the same time.
This research also shows that we are even more interconnected as a species than we ever thought. We are one race. We all descended from one people. We are all part of a family. We left Africa together and scattered ourselves across the globe in search for the resources we need to live and to grow. From there, we simply adapted to our environments. There is no race that we have not concocted of our own doing. We are one.
Searching For Something Good
Our searching this morning came up with some very interesting topics for discussion. They are good topics, I believe. We are improving how we treat each other, how we do things, and how we view the world. Despite frequent evidence to the contrary, on the whole we are moving in a positive direction.
It’s Friday. Take this information into the weekend with you and continue searching. There are good things out there. Embrace them. Enjoy them. Learn something.
Morning Update: 08/15/24
There are mornings when I struggle with how to start this update. This is being one of those mornings. At 4:00 this morning, Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, decided that he needed to give himself a bath. For any of the other cats, that wouldn’t be a big deal as they’re rather quiet about it. Not Frankie. Thanks to his collapsed sinus, Frankie’s baths sound more like a piece of cellophane trapped at the end of a vacuum cleaner. It’s loud. I’ve been awake ever since and my brain is having difficulty forming words, let alone sentences that make any sense. We’ll see how far we get this morning.
Yesterday afternoon was exciting as Tipper brought home her new friend from school. We’ll call them R for now. R is the friend who took her to the fair last Saturday, and the one who threw up at school on Monday. While they’re older than Tipper, they are several inches shorter and incredibly thin. They do have some cool piercings, though. They hung out in Tipper’s room until after G’s violin lesson, then Kat took them to her favorite hiding spot at Eagle Creek. I’m not sure what time they got back as I was already asleep, but Tipper’s report this morning was that R had a really good time.
The only issue we had was that Hamilton really wanted to be R’s friend. I’d kept the dogs in the Recovery Room when the kids first got home so that they wouldn’t jump on anyone and that worked well for Belvedere. Not so much for Hamilton. He knew that someone new was here and he was desperate to meet them. I took the pups outside and the kids joined us. Hamilton refused to leave R alone, not in an aggressive way, but more of an “I love you please pet me,” manner. Even after we came back in and they retreated to Tipper’s room, Hamilton sat right outside the door, waiting, in case they might come back out.
We all like R, but the details of their life are… challenging. Having Tipper as a friend is good for them. She takes extra snacks to school to share and gives them emotional support when they’re having trouble. It will be interesting to see how their friendship develops.
G is finally getting into the full swing of school. The D&D gang is back together. He likes what he’s working on in class. He’s getting back that rhythm and structure that he missed during the summer. He’s often exhausted by the time he gets home. His days are long, starting at 5:00 AM and often not getting home until after 6:00 PM. We’re having to re-think the whole chore and dinner scenarios because both kids tend to want to hit their bed when they finally get home.
There’s an interesting amount of news related to kids today, too. Associated Press is reporting this morning that chronic absenteeism remains a problem, having never recovered after COVID-related school closings four years ago. Every state except Arkansas has absentee rates that are still higher than they were before COVID. Different schools are trying different things, such as “recess” for high school and paying students for perfect attendance, but not all of those programs are sustainable. I think there are probably a lot of places that could benefit from a micro-school model such as what G has at PPHS, but even that isn’t going to work for everyone. One universal thing, though, is that it takes highly qualified teachers to keep kids in their seats and you’re not going to get that for the meager wages teachers are paid. Schools need more funding. Period.
What happens when kids get bored? One Detroit girl ended up in jail clothes and wearing handcuffs. The scenario is that the girl’s class was on a field trip to a Detroit courtroom. The judge, Kenneth King, saw the girl falling asleep and was offended, finding her inattentiveness disrespectful. The judge told a Detroit TVV station, “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.” Obviously, that action didn’t go over well with the environmental group that sponsored the field trip. The Greening of Detroit released a statement, saying the “young lady was traumatized. The group of students should have been simply asked to leave the courtroom if he thought they were disrespectful.” The judge talked to the girl’s parents and offered to be a mentor, but something tells me this situation is far from over.
Not all kids get to go on field trips, though. The World Health Organization has, for the second time in two years, declared MPOX a global public health emergency. This comes after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to other countries. A new variant, clade Ib, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact, and is being blamed for the problem. Without a coordinated international response, the disease could easily spread over the African continent and beyond. Yes, doctors and scientists are a bit frightened by how easily this strain is spreading, so expect it to stay in the news for a while.
Sexual abuse is in the news again, too, because we still haven’t fixed the systems that allow for it to happen. The Vatican expelled the founder of Peru’s Sodalitium movement after severe charges of abuse and corruption. While we appreciate that action was taken, it took the Vatican over ten years after first being made aware of the problem before reaching this decision. Why? “… canon law didn’t precisely cover his alleged misconduct.” What the fuck? Perhaps God needs to throw a brick at someone’s head to convince them that abuse is not acceptable. Ever. Period.
This date, August 15, has some history to it. Macbeth was killed in battle in 1057. Panama Canal opened on this day in 1914. And in 1969, this was the first day of the Woodstock Music Festival! Ah, those were the days!
There’s more stuff but my brain has reached its limit for combing through any more stories. I’m thinking that an early nap is absolutely mandatory. Coffee alone just isn’t cutting it.
Weather’s moving in, too. I think the worst is going to our South, but there’s enough here to have me feeling miserable.
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