Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2026

• Diplomacy Kicks Butt

  Posted at 6:35 pm by kayewer, on June 27, 2026

  With international soccer now having their elimination rounds being played here in the United States, on the brink of our 250th birthday on July 4th, many questions are being answered that we didn’t expect.

  First, visitors from a variety of countries are finding that Americans make great hosts. We are conversationalists when some countries don’t normally engage in casual talk with strangers. We have national parks filled with trees, navigable roadways also surrounded by trees, canyons and mountains and vast oceans. We have Buc-ees and Targets and Walmarts. Footballers from Ecuador visited the Rocky Statue, and the Scottish were so happy in New England at our bars that beer supplies ran out (apparently, they happily guzzled it like water at a 5K), and for the non-alcohol crowd, 7-Eleven’s Big Gulp drinks are also famous (not to mention free beverage refills).

  The biggest thing visitors have discovered in America?

  Ranch dressing.

  The Holy Grail of toppings for veggies and a dip for anything on which you want to experiment (please, no ice cream or adding it to Everclear or something) is not available overseas, so Kraft set to work and is supplying 3.4-ounce TSA compliant kits so visitors can take the experience home. Whether they will set up permanent manufacturing in some overseas destinations is still an unanswered question, but they would be foolish not to cash in. If they don’t, Hidden Valley will likely jump on this opportunity.

  The overall experience has been positive. Visitors are discovering that America is not just the tourist attractions in photos. The Grand Canyon, Times Square and other destinations are being given a new appreciation by soccer fans. They’re enjoying our roads and roadside stops, our grocers and specialty shops (one visitor to The Container Store was amazed that such a concept exists). They had the chance to see our yellow school busses, and in extreme heat they relaxed in air conditioning.

  Once they leave after the July 19 finals, all the hullaballoo pre- and post-Independence Day may well go with them, but they will take with them memories more valuable than any expensive ticket event. They will see that America is a collection of places and people grown over 250 years to be what they have seen in us. We should continue to see those positive aspects of ourselves as we move into year 251 and beyond. We’re part of a big and wonderful world, and it doesn’t take much to bring us together.

  Share this:

  • Facebook

  Like Loading...
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

• All I Ever Wanted

  Posted at 8:01 pm by kayewer, on June 20, 2026

  I just returned from a week’s vacation, and I can honestly say that it is the first one in which I have truly been able to relax.

  The average vacation is not one hundred percent leisure and endless carefree hours (especially for parents), but planning and common sense can make the process easier whether you are a single traveler or a family of four. I started the process early, and from prior experience was able to keep my packing to a minimum (and the return trip even less). My goal was to eat out for dinner, so with my brunch schedule already accounted for, my provisions took up one bag.

  I brought my journal and a crochet project, along with my writing tools. My amusement came mostly from where I was staying, walking and enjoying the various joys of a different place after a winter of unmelting piles of snow.

  I had towels and sheets I keep for just the vacation, which took up one bag. My carry-on bag was already outfitted with my basic flip-flops, sun hat, and various swim gear, and I added daily clothes on top. In the end I only needed to make three trips from the car, and it took me about twenty minutes to unpack and set up.

  What truly surprised me was how well I slept. Without the pending knell of the alarm to answer to, I found restorative rest every morning, which was a prescription no doctor can truly offer if the mind and body are unwilling. Even though the room was as light as mine at home is dark, and sounds unfamiliar to me were easily heard, I found that this past week was helpful beyond the cost of the week. I hadn’t truly realized how the weeks of work and driving (which increased when I was asked to return to the office in February at the height of the brutal winter) had enervated my spirit.

  Now that I’m back home and anticipating the catching up I will need to do (including an amazing amount of laundry in spite of the little I took with me), I realize that such respites are even more necessary at my age, and I will be sure to find another week of rest this year. Whether I stay home or go elsewhere, I know that I owe myself a break from the ordinary.

  Happy summer everybody.

  Share this:

  • Facebook

  Like Loading...
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged family, life, travel, vacation, writing

• The Graduation Ladder

  Posted at 9:49 pm by kayewer, on June 13, 2026

  As a late generation Boomer, my education milestones were measured the old-fashioned way. You went through kindergarten and twelve years of elementary school and high school, and then you received a diploma. Afterwards, you went to college and received a two- or four-year degree, so depending on when you stopped your secondary education, you received one or two more diplomas.

  Today children graduate pre-school, Kindergarten, elementary school, possibly middle school, high school, and finally college.

  The youngsters under the age of five or six have no real idea what is going on. The pomp and circumstance mostly satisfies the adults, who aim their cameras and cell phones at the little darlings with pride. The kids are going to all-day schooling at last, but the relieved parents don’t get any reward for their hard work.

  I’m not certain who invented the concept of middle school, but it seems to be a variety of purgatory meant to show the sixth through eighth graders that they are not young children anymore, but neither are they full-fledged teenagers. My school system adapted a middle school well after I had left. Apparently, they have a full ritual introducing the incoming ninth graders to the rest of the building when they are ready to leave the middle school behind. How do the fifth and ninth grade students perceive these transitional folks? Are they in a–dare I say it–class of their own? Are they the subject of awe or disdain?

  I remember our junior high school choir visited my old elementary school for an event of some kind, and when we walked through the doors leading to the auditorium, I felt like a giant entering Lilliput. When did the hallways, chairs and common room shrink? Or maybe when did I sprout so tall? The walls closed around me as if to say I should not have returned, that I no longer belonged.

  Graduation means more than just a commencement and diploma. In each phase of our younger lives, we are transitioning from one incarnation into a new one. We may not look the same in one 24-hour period. Or act the same. We are constantly entering a new room with new people and learning different things about the world and about ourselves. So, is it vital to offer a ceremony for each of those milestones? Are we overindulging the reward over the patience needed to earn it?

  I waited thirteen years to get my high school diploma (counting kindergarten). I got the cap and gown and “Pomp and Circumstance” and a baccalaureate just one time. After the hoopla was over and I went home with my family, the next day I started a job and have been working ever since. I did complete my bachelor’s degree but didn’t attend commencement except online. The diploma came in the mail.

  So much for tradition.

  Share this:

  • Facebook

  Like Loading...
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

• And I As Well

  Posted at 3:29 pm by kayewer, on June 6, 2026

  June is Pride Month, meaning that like any other period of the calendar year devoted to awareness, time is taken for 30 days to recognize the existence of those human beings we see every day who are part of a more diverse (and before present day, unacknowledged) population.

  These are people who take public transit, or a bike or motorized scooter, to a job every day, or they drive a vehicle on our roads. They work several hours providing their talents and services, whether it’s in the labor, retail, executive or medical fields. They then collect a paycheck, and return to wherever they call home.

  Some of them walk through the door to a partner of the same gender as they, and get a kiss and hug and a “How was your day?”

  No different, really. Don’t we all deserve somebody to go home to, and what difference should it make to anybody else?

  But even among the many religious groups in the world who stress honoring each human being for who they are individually, there are those who would rather wag their fingers and invoke shameful words to members of the LGBTQ+ group.

  Our town held a parade this past week, and a group of Christian adherents with an extreme conservative lean were there to make their voices heard. Words about committing sin were sent into the air over a private microphone as parade participants marched down the main street and celebrated just being alive.

  There was, however, another noise being heard. Several musicians provided a counterpoint of equal volume or louder to take some of the negativity out of the protestors’ hi-fi rhetoric. Large Pride rainbow flags were hoisted nearby. Nobody got angry and told the protestors to take a hike. They were allowed to remain, though it’s doubtful anybody was truly paying attention to anything but the music from the small instrumental group and the applause from the appreciative crowd at the fun being displayed in the center of town on an early pre-Summer night. It was an evening for inclusion, and include they did.

  The definition of “pride” is twofold. There is being arrogant about who you are, or there is being humble and self-respecting. Many faiths stress that one should not be boastful, and that we should regard each person by their individual worth while also honoring that within us.

  If we were to remove every person who was LGBTQ+ in our history out of memory, we would lose classic movies from actors such as Rock Hudson, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Cary Grant. We would also not have inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sir Francis Bacon (the “Father of Modern Science” without whom our observational methods would not exist), not to mention Florence Nightingale and George Washington Carver.

  Yet we only want our talent to come from what we consider “normal” or “safe.”

  News flash. None is us is completely normal or safe, yet we contribute.

  Pride Month is not so much about what is unusual about human behavior as it is about realizing that the behavior comes from a variety of souls with stories enough to fill Earth with a library in which no two books are the same.

  Would we reject a cure for cancer if it came from an LGBTQ+ person, just because somebody who is not an opposite gender companion is waiting at home for them after their research is done?

  I’m glad our town’s parade was a success, and that everybody got a chance to say their piece in their own way. And I hope the protestors came away with some well-grounded afterthoughts about what happened to them. Which was nothing. Because “Pride Month” is not a threat to them or anybody, but a call to reason and a reminder that we all have something to offer in life.

  Let us all live to the fullest.

  Share this:

  • Facebook

  Like Loading...
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

• Feedback

  	Eden on A Good Rabbit Hole
  	Eden on Free Secretary
  	Eden on Getting the Message
  	Eden on The Unasked Questions
  	Eden on And Her Shoes Were #9