Broadway

The other night I attended a dinner/theater production at my church called Broadway Bound. It was outstanding. Almost everything my church does is over the top good. Why?

Excellence attracts excellence - and, of course, the motivation is the highest.

The music was mostly from three old time Broadway musicals, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and Oklahoma.

Of the three, Oklahoma is my favorite. It is the quintessential American musical. It changed the way musicals were done.

Produced in 1943, Oklahoma was the first musical to tell a story. Prior to that musicals had little or no plot. Oklahoma was a love story full of realism and tragedy.

Prior to Oklahoma the concept of a dream ballet was completely unheard of.

Oklahoma ran for over five years on Broadway and broke all records up to that time.

Many years ago I heard lyricist and composer Sylvia Fine speak. (She was also the wife of Danny Kaye.) She told this story about Oklahoma.

A few years after World War II the America company of Oklahoma appeared in London. The show was already well known in Europe by then. All of London was still feeling deeply moved by what the Americans had done in the war. When the play was over there was thunderous applause and then the London theater goers continued to thank the American Oklahoma performers by singing the entire score back to them.

Oklahoma is America - and it's my second favorite Broadway musical.


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Popcorn

The Orlando Sentinel runs ads occasionally for people to sign up for test trials. The Rippe Lifestyle Institute hires participants to be part of a study on diabetes or smoking or snoring or high blood pressure.

The last few days the ad has stated that the institute is conducting a study for overweight men and women to assess the effectiveness of consuming popcorn as part of an overall approach to a healthy diet.

They wouldn't hire me for this study because I'm not overweight.

One of the big reasons for that is because I am a lifelong DAILY eater of popcorn. It's my fallback food. If I have the munchies, I eat popcorn. If I'm not hungry or feel a little queasy, I eat popcorn.

The last few years I've eaten Kettle Corn from the farmer's market. The popcorn lady and I are best buds. We're both sad that I'm leaving for the summer and will be Kettle Corn deprived - but my boyfriend plans to make it up to me.

This popcorn is lightly salted and sugared. It's low in calories and high in fiber. The taste is to die for.

I've weighed about 114 pounds for over 30 years. What's my secret? (Besides watching what I eat and exercising every single day.)

Listen up Rippe Lifestyle Institute. It's popcorn.

***

I Love a Guy With a Sense of Humor

My boyfriend and I have been separated for about 3 weeks now - and we have one more to go!

I miss him.


One of the best things about him is that he "gets" me. I hope he thinks I "get" him too.


Sometimes when we're in the mall or the park and I occasionally see a parent with a toddler on one of those "leashes" (I'm sure they must have a better name for them than that) I go into my little speech about how nobody likes them but I like them and I wish they were more popular - or even acceptable.

It seems to me that the toddler is free to run around and not hold his arm straight up in the air to reach his parent's hand - but is still safe.



My boyfriend doesn't say much about this. I wouldn't blame him, if, when I sometimes go off on my little tirades is, what he hears is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.



Today I received a comic strip in the mail. It came with no explanation. (My boyfriend knows I love comic strips.)

This was the "Pooch Cafe" strip from May 21st. The dog is applying for health insurance. He answers all of the questions correctly and then the interviewer asks:

And are you currently attached to the end of a retracting retractable leash?

Of course, he knows the answer to this is going to get him denied his insurance. The last caption says:

My mother was on a retractable leash when she was pregnant and I turned out fine!!

This says so much about society, our health care system, leashes for dogs and people - and my boyfriend's sense of humor!

Not to mention the fact that he "gets" me.


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Ain't I a Woman?

In the posting below, titled "Powerful Women," I addressed this morning's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the supreme court.

Also this morning, as I read my devotional, it spoke of Sojourner Truth. An African American slave turned abolitionist and woman's rights pioneer, she was a powerful woman of another era.

But I'll let her speak for herself. Following is a small portion of her famous poem:

Ain't I a Woman?

Look at me!
Look at my arm!
I have ploughed,
and planted,
and gathered into barns,
and no man could head me!
And ain't I a woman?

I could work as much
and eat as much as a man--
when I could get it --
and bear de lash as well!
And ain't I a woman?

I have borne thirteen chilern,
and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery,
and when I cried out with my mother's grief,
none but Jesus heard me!
And ain't I a woman?

If de fust woman God ever made
was strong enough to turn de world upside down
all alone,
dese women togedder ought to be able to turn it back, and to get it right side up again!
And now dey is asking to do it,
de men better let 'em.


***

Powerful Women

This morning the president announced his choice for the next supreme court justice - Judge Sonia Sotomayor. In case you never heard of her, don't worry, you will.

She'll be a household name within 48 hours. She'll be scrutinized beyond reason. She's already been accused of not being smart enough (Princeton and Yale!!,) of being too conservative and of being too liberal.

She's a former prosecutor. One of my children is a former prosecutor and it has served her well in every other endeavor she's undertaken. So I'm prejudiced for prosecutors.

Judge Sotomayor appears to be a powerful and an "empowered" woman - so I think she's up to the rigorous process that has already started.

I call my circle of close personal friends "Power Rangers" because it's my belief that we've been empowered by the Holy Spirit in various ways so that, as we get older and our bodies start to fall apart (not to mention our minds) we will still know and have that power.

It will just express itself in different ways.

Pentecost is coming up this Sunday. It's the time that Christian folks celebrate the day the disciples and others were empowered. The symbolic color for this is RED. (For FIRE.)

A lot men (and women) of my generation weren't comfortable with the concept of women being powerful. But most have had to get over it - because we are. Period!

Years ago, one of my Power Rangers, who is a retired Methodist minister, celebrated Pentecost in her church by having people at each end of the aisle wave billowing red sheets over the heads of the congregation.

A gentle reminder that we're all empowered if we choose to be.


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Oldies and Squirrels

My Oldies keep me constantly entertained. For a while now Mr. Oldie has fed the squirrels in his condo garage. His neighbors aren't happy. I think that's part of the thrill.

Things got so that when we ate out he would wrap up the bread and other goodies to take to the squirrels.

When I visited them in their luxury condo, big jars of nuts from Costco lined the kitchen counter.

And then several weeks ago a squirrel nipped his finger. He immediately drove to his doctor's office where his doctor's nurse applied a band aid.

I don't know if this was the beginning of the end but he eventually lost his need to serve up scrumptious meals for the squirrels.

So he explained to them that the gravy train was over. Eventually most of them quit hanging around but one wouldn't leave and besides that he was caught chewing things on the underside of my Oldie's car.

What to do! My Oldie bought a cage and trapped the squirrel. His plan was to drive the squirrel a long way to a wooded area (OK, he lives in a wooded area with about a billion squirrels but that's beside the point) and release him.

But first he went inside to rest.

Three days later he remembered the squirrel in the cage. No food or water, not to mention gourmet nuts. He knew he'd done something terrible to one of God's creatures.

But when he got to the garage the squirrel was fine. Frisky even. So my Oldie gave him a stern lecture, raised the door to the cage and the squirrel scurried away.

Another time I'll entertain you with the story of my Oldie and the pigeons.

***

GPS Crisis

Apparently the GPS signals are deteriorating because the satellite has gone kafluey. Without an upgrade we may all have to stay home for the unforeseeable future.

What a minute! My 2000 Camry didn't come with a Global Positioning System. When I'm trying to find a new address I have to resort to asking directions or use the dreaded Map Quest which doesn't always know what it's talking about.

Of course I understand that there's a little more going on here than my personal needs.

A couple of years ago I took a car service from the home I was visiting to the Atlanta Airport. The middle eastern driver had been in this country only seven months. How could he drive for a car service in Atlanta - one of the craziest driving cities in the world?

He bought himself a GPS for $700 and was hired. And he got me to the airport just fine.

But, as for me, even if they get the satellite fixed, which they will, I doubt that I'll have a GPS anytime soon.

I'll just continue to allow a little time to get lost.


***

Graduation Day

I attended my grandson's high school graduation this morning. (Three down and seven to go!) It was a blessing and a privilege for me to be there along with his parents, his sister and his other grandparents.

Over the years I've attended scores of high school and college graduations. They all have one thing in common. They're LONG.

At least the main speaker stayed for the entire time. It has seemed to me that the more prestigious the speaker the more likely he or she is to skip out after the speech. The one big exception to this was several years ago when Bill Cosby spoke at a black college. I watched him not only stay to the end, but hug each and every graduate as they received their diplomas. (Yeah, that took a while.)

Sometimes the speaker is such a distraction that it takes away from the graduates being the rightful focus. At one of my kid's graduation from college Ted Turner spoke. He was good - but his wife at that time, Jane Fonda, was the focal point for the morning.

I'm not sure that graduations should be much shorter. The graduates need to be encouraged and feel important. But a few corners could be cut.

For instance, the speakers could cut it short. The kids aren't listening anyway. But I don't have my hopes up. Politicians and religious leaders never met a pulpit they didn't like.

In my grandson's ceremony this morning the kids were allowed to write out for themselves what was to be said of their accomplishments as they walked. That got a little out of hand. For instance, I don't believe "Self Taught Ninja" is necessary for me to know nor "Tried Out for the Basketball Team." We all could "try out" for the basketball team!

But, all in all it was a beautiful experience. I'm proud to be related to one more high school graduate.

And I don't think many people were suffering from the length of the program because at any given time half of the audience was playing with their phones.


***

Angels and Demons

Yesterday, along with five good women friends, I saw this movie. I really liked it. I was a bit afraid that they'd prefer to see a romantic comedy (chick flick.) I would have gone because I love being with them but my eyes usually glaze over after about 20 minutes when I watch those things. So I was happy with the choice we made.


I did not like "The Da Vinci Code." Way too confusing. This could be because I am one of only about three humans in the Western Hemisphere who didn't read the book.

Didn't read "Angels and Demons" either but it didn't matter.

Here's what I liked:

1. The breathtaking photography. Now I really, really want to go to Rome. This movie captures the city in the way no other movie I've seen - including one of my very favorites "Roman Holiday." Even though I understand it was filmed in Canada. I don't get it. Movie magic I guess.

2. The fast moving but very understandable plot. Unlike "The Da Vinci Code" mish mash, we knew exactly what Harvard symbologist (does Harvard really have a symbology department?) Robert Langdon was doing at all times.

3. Tom Hanks.

Being caught up as I am with theology and religious history and church politics and such, you might ask me "Is 'Angels and Demons' an important movie?"

NO.

It's a fictitious murder mystery with a twisted ending. Fun!

It goes over my two-hour limit by 18 minutes but I didn't mind much. I was entertained the whole time.


***

They Don't Know What to Do With Us

A couple of weeks ago I was sad to read Anna Quindlen's last column in Newsweek. She's making room for newer, younger columnists.

Many young professionals would appreciate it if we oldies would just go away.

In 1952 the average life expectancy of an American was 65.

Now 65 year olds are hogging all the best jobs, wearing the tight jeans and, in some cases starting whole new families.

More than a few people have questioned my referring to this wonderful man in my life as my boyfriend. After all, he hasn't been a boy for several decades. One reason I use it is because it's so silly to refer to ourselves as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" that I find it fun. But what other term is there? A couple of times over dinner or whatnot people have offered alternatives but most were not appropriate and some hurt my feelings.

But I understand. For the first time in history I and my peers are traveling abroad to be Peace Corp Volunteers, building Habitat houses, working full time and (cringe) dating.

I visited my grandmother once when she was my age. I noticed she was wearing broken glasses and when I asked her why she told me that she was probably going to die soon so why get a new pair?

I don't wear glasses. I wear contacts - and I'm thinking about laser eye surgery so I won't need those.

It's a whole new time in history. We need to make room for all these new graduates but I'm still here and and have big plans for the future.

So does Anna Quindlen.


***

Comfort Food

The entire country is stressed. We need comfort food. What's your favorite?

Sales are way up for:

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Hershey Candy Bars
Spam
Dinty Moore Beef Stew
Hormel Chili


Also Alka-Selzer, Pepto-Bismol and all kinds of anti-acids.

One of my favorite comfort foods when I was feeling bad used to be Kraft mac 'n cheese. I say "used to" because I haven't eaten it in years. I have no interest in the homemade kind. No chopped ham inside or bread crumbs on top for me.


I wanted Kraft Deluxe. The box with the can of processed cheese inside (not the packet of dried stuff.) I liked it hot, really cheesy and eaten from my favorite cup, while sitting on the couch.

Years ago radio talk show host, Jim Philips used to have a mac 'n cheese recipe for women who wanted to go into labor. He pretty much guaranteed that it would work within 24 hours.

The requirements were precise. (The first one was what made it work.)

- You had to be at least a week overdue.
- You had to have your suitcase packed and by the door.
- Your husband had to make the recipe using Kraft mac 'n cheese.

I've forgotten the other ingredients. No, wait, one was Worcestershire Sauce.

Anyway, macaroni and cheese is back in favor with adults - as well as children. Like many things, it doesn't cure what's ailing you - but it does make you feel better.





***

I Love Florida Crackers

Two of my very best friends (Power Rangers) are Florida Crackers. I'm not. I'm a Hoosier.

One of these friends is also one of my favorite writers. She responded to yesterday's blog posting about the definition of the word "Cracker" by giving us the best one ever.

Following are Julia's words:

My family, way back, always liked to call themselves Crackers. Probably every family has its own spin on what it means.

We took it to mean people who had an "insiders" view of the real Florida. That meant the natural Florida that we had learned to cope with and fully appreciate and call beautiful.

Someone who found squirrel and quail stew and swamp cabbage a very superior rendition of a Thanksgiving feast. A Cracker kid knew that you could pick up and play with a king snake but not a coral snake - and never mistook which was which.

Crackers, to us, usually made their living in some earthy way such as raising oranges or cattle, turpentining or timber, or fishing. There was a certain resourcefulness and resilience involved.

There was a lot of the outdoors in a Cracker. Even housework was done outdoors or on the porch. Rain would call one to the porch rocker from the interior of the house.

There was also a facet of being Cracker that meant you knew how to hold your own on the evening front porch story-telling time. Those blow-hard stories usually had a teasing quality which ended in a joke being "cracked" at somebody's expense but in a gentle way.

I do think Crackers were always a bit smug to "outsiders" but not so the outsider would know it because that wouldn't have been charming.

Other times I think that isn't so because I remember Crackers extending a helping and inclusive hand to newcomers. It's just that no matter how many decades passed they were still newcomers.

We didn't much cotton to someone from the North calling us Crackers because we had an innate sense that a Northerner did not hold our same exalted definition of the word. To them it might have meant an inferior and small view of the world, inferior taste and intelligence which we knew was not true but sort of hard to prove standing there in one's bare, sandy feet so rooted in the earth.

And, yes, it is a kind of architecture that is very comfortable, oriented as it is to cross breezes and hunting dogs. Most Cracker houses have a dog trot through the middle and a porch - preferably a wrap around one. The roof has to be tin, the ceilings high and the windows long and open.

Thanks, Julia, for this definitive - and fun - definition.


***

Does Tragedy Ever Change Us For the Good?

A couple of weeks ago I started reading the book, "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb. Now I'm reading "Maybe a Miracle" by Brian Strause.

Very, very different books.

But they have this in common: In Wally Lamb's book a couple, both from very dysfunctional families and subsequently both making huge painful mistakes as adults, find themselves reeling from the tragedy of the Columbine experience. He was a teacher at the school, she was a nurse.

In Brian Strause's book, an 18 year old boy, living in a very dysfunctional family, has to deal with the near drowning of his little sister in the family pool.

I haven't finished either of the books. I'm on the way with Strause's book. Wally Lamb's book will have to wait for a couple of weeks.

I'm hoping that both families fine redemption in their separate and very different tragedies. I'd like to be reminded that this is possible.

***

Florida Cracker

A while back my boyfriend asked me the definition of the word "Cracker" as it applies to Floridians. I gave him some background but ended up saying:

I don't know.

I don't think anybody has the definitive answer to that question. In this morning's "Florida Flashback" column Joy Wallace gives it a try. So here are a couple of hers and a couple of mine.

DEFINITION OF THE PHRASE "FLORIDA CRACKER."

A person born in Florida.
A Florida cowboy.
A bigoted backwoods Southern white.
A self-reliant, independent, and tenacious settler.
A kind of Florida architecture.
A person who "cracked" rawhide whips.

My favorite definition is the one of the early settlers. Not the Northerners who came down for the winter and stayed in grand hotels - but the men and women who hacked their way through the jungle and tamed the land. And who stayed through the miserable, mosquito infested summers. For them, Florida was - and is - home.

Be careful who you call a cracker unless you mean it as a compliment.


***

The Entrepreneurial Spirit Lives

Joshua Witter is a true entrepreneur. He should be an inspiration to the millions affected by our economic downturn.


According to today's paper (that I read while waiting for my Oldies to show up for breakfast this morning) Joshua is into making "Told You So" cards for those who are taken up in the Rapture (soon) and will delivered by Joshua afterwards to their friends and family who are not completely sold on the concept of the Rapture coming right around the corner.


His concept works this way: For a fee he will deliver cards from the "Raptured" to those left behind. Since he's read The Left Behind Series Joshua knows he'll have to deliver his cards while he's covered with boils and will have to fight his way through perpetual darkness, clouds of insects and meteors falling from the sky. But he says he's up to it.

And he has several orders.

The basic message is: "I Told You So!"

I guess some other themes could be:

It's too late for you now.

You should have listened to me when you had the chance.

Na, na - na - na, na.

I'm Raptured and You're Not.


As we all know, some of the current sure signs of the fast coming Rapture are Swine flu, the economic collapse and, of course, the election of Barack Obama.





***

Prehistoric Woman

For years Hollywood has presented us with cheesy movies of prehistoric women.

One of the cheesiest was the insanely brutal "One Million Years B.C." with Raquel Welch who is, by the way, my age.

Were we ever really supposed to believe that prehistoric woman looked like this?

Now archaeologists have discovered a 40,000 (that's 40 thousand) year old figurine of a woman. She's pictured above and, while it's difficult to make much of this picture, we can tell that she's not Raquel Welch.

Carved from ivory, this figurine sheds new light on the origins of humans and the origins of art.

I was seriously excited when I read about this find in a cave in Germany. They also discovered other items like the remains of horses, cave bears and mammoths.

Besides learning something about this early time, we might even learn something about ourselves.

***

The House of Salt

Years ago when my husband was suffering with several illnesses including dementia he would occasionally tell me that he wanted to go to one of his favorite restaurants. But he couldn't tell me the name. I would tease him by saying, Oh you want to go to "The House of Salt."

Is it wrong to tease a person with dementia?

Anyway, he would laugh because he knew that I knew he wanted to go to Red Lobster. That's what I called it, The House of Salt.

This morning's paper has an article titled "Report Blasts Red Lobster, Olive Garden for Salty Food." Darden Restaurants serve salt laden food? Really?

Is it wrong to tease a restaurant chain in this economy?

The article went on the say, and I quote: Who knows how many Americans have been pushed permaturely into their graves thanks to sodium levels like those found in Olive Garden...

In my opinion Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze serve delicious food in a nice atmosphere at a moderate price. I love eating at all three of these places. There is a Longhorn's Steakhouse close to me but I don't eat red meat so I've never been there.

I watch my salt intake. Likewise when I go to McDonald's (Yummy) I watch my calorie intake.

It's no secret that Red Lobster pours on the salt. Their baked potatoes are encrusted in it. The cheese biscuits are sparkling with it. I appreciate having the freedom to decide what to order.

One of my kids gave me a Darden Restaurants gift certificate for Mother's Day. I can assure you I will use it.

Unless the salt police have shut them down.

***

Cultivating Contentment

I was away for a few days but now I'm back home.

The last couple of days I've been going over the material for a class I'm getting ready to teach. It's called "Cultivating Contentment" and it's about money and possessions and soldering through this crazy ongoing economy. But reading the material has helped me in other ways.

Because I've had an interesting week.

Some might say a tragic week. But great good has come from it. Good for my family and good for the community. Great good usually comes from tragedy if we look for it and cultivate it.

OK, here's what the material says: Contentment is found in relationships.

So true. But heartbreak is found in relationships as well. The writer, Adam Hamilton, in makes the following statements. They've helped me in my journey this week.

1. Remember that it could be worse. Yes, our situation could have been so much worse. A fraction of an inch would have made it an unbearable situation for me and many others, including most of the people I love.

2. Develop a grateful heart. I have a very grateful heart. I'm grateful to God. I'm grateful for every member of my family. I'm grateful for my boyfriend. I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful for my ministers and others in authority in my community.

I'm grateful for my quiet happy home where healing is taking place.


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