Talk About Great Branding (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, i am providing the prompts.  You can write your story on your blog and leave a link here, or write your story in the comments, your choice.

Pick words from one list, or both, use them all, or use none.  The whole point is to get us writing, so please have fun with it!

The words for this week:

union

holiday

rational

recover

collect

headline

and/or

global

perception

sin

wrong

finance

gaffe

When i am asked to provide the Words for Wednesday prompts, which i found out last year i really enjoy doing, i sometimes turn to an internet random word generator.  That’s what i did this week, and the resulting list up there has me wondering just how random it is, but that’s a discussion for another time.

With the word HEADLINE and the others in the mix, this is something i just cannot avoid.  It’s a topic i addressed once before, in a different way, and my opinion has not changed.      

Racism is, pure and simple, WRONG.  It’s not a minor problem, not a social GAFFE, not acceptable in any way, shape or form.

It is, to use an old time word a lot of people do not like any more, a SIN.

Science tells us that every single one of us, when we look at a person for the very first time, make a snap decision about that person based on what we see.  The mind does this in less than one second, before RATIONAL thought can kick in.  In a case where our lives might be in danger, this can be a good thing.

In a case where we are more than likely not in immediate danger, this PERCEPTION needs to be grabbed and consciously suspended until we can RECOVER our higher thinking selves and actually COLLECT pertinent information about the person.

It is a GLOBAL and universal reaction we can’t help to form a snap judgment based on what we see.  It is the right and good and proper thing to realize what this reaction is, a fight or flight programmed brain making sure there is no danger.

Then unless the person is brandishing a weapon at us or threatening in some other way, throw that preprogrammed response out and make the intelligent choice to learn more about the person.

For the sake of this country remaining a UNION, something has to change.  We have to learn to nip every thought of discrimination of every kind in the bud and bring our higher thinking selves to the front.

To put it in Bible words, it’s called taking every thought captive to obedience to the law of love.

In a couple of weeks, we will go on HOLIDAY as people used to call going on vacation.  Grandpa will FINANCE it, as he does each year for the whole family.  We were not sure it would happen at all this year, with the quarantines.  For the most part, that is no longer a concern.  We will be careful and stay safe distances from others and i go mostly to nap in the ocean breezes anyway, something best done alone.

The pandemic may not stop our vacation, but now i have to worry that the problem that should have been licked a generation or more ago, racism, might.

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Today is:

Broken Dolls Day -- Japan (all broken dolls are taken by their children to monks for burial)

Callynteria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a service of atonement and cleaning Athena's temple; date approximate)

Chimborazo Day -- to publicize that while Mt. Everest may be the highest, the top of Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the furthest from the center of the earth

Clean Air Day -- Canada

Dr. Charles Drew Day -- honoring the man who made blood transfusions possible

Festival to Bellona -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of war)

Global Running Day  

Impersonate Authority Day -- at your own risk, i will not bail you out just because i noted an internet holiday and you decided to celebrate it ;)

Jack Jouett Day -- Virginia (the "Paul Revere" of his day and place, rode to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson that the British were coming, 1781)

Mabo Day -- Australia

Martyr's Day -- Uganda

National Chocolate Macaroon Day

National Egg Day

Opium Suppression Movement Day -- Taiwan

Pull Your Pants Up Day -- internet generated, various dates given, and some are trying to make it a national movement; to encourage young men to pull up their pants for 24 hours and see if they enjoy having both hands free

Repeat Day -- i said, "repeat day" (no, i don't know who comes up with this stuff, sometimes; if i do, i try to place the blame appropriately)

St. Clotilde's Day (Patron of adopted children, brides, disappointing children, exiles, parenthood, parents of large families, queens, widows; against the death of children)

St. Kevin of Glendaulough's Day (Patron of blackbirds; Dublin, Ireland; Glendaulough, Ireland; Ireland)

Tailor's Day -- the first Wednesday of June is noted on many sites as the day to thank your tailor

Worst Day in the Fairy Year -- Fairy Calendar (must be nice to know when your worst day will be)

Anniversaries Today:

U.S. Air Force Academy first graduating class, 1959

The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson, 1937

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded, 17

Birthdays Today:

Lalaine, 1987

Rafael Nadal, 1986

Anderson Cooper, 1967

Charles Hart, 1961

Scott Valentine, 1958

Deniece Williams, 1951

Suzi Quatro, 1950

Curtis Mayfield, 1942

Larry McMurtry, 1936

Norman Brinker, 1931

Raul Castro, 1931

Chuck Barris, 1929

Colleen Dewhurst, 1926

Allen Ginsberg, 1926

Tony Curtis, 1925

Leo Gorcey, 1917

Josephine Baker, 1906

Dr. Charles Drew, 1904

Ransom E. Olds, 1864

Jefferson Davis, 1808

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dragnet"(Radio), 1951

“Casey at the Bat”(Publication date), 1888

Today in History:

French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy, 1140

Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain, 1539 

Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins at Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 1620

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, 1770

President John Adams moves to Washington, D.C., to live in a tavern (the White House wasn't ready), 1800

In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, which prompts the First Opium War, 1839

In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, Cree leader Big Bear escapes the North West Mounted Police, 1885

The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner, 1888

The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway is completed, 1889

One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario, 1935

Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew, which included the first space walk by an American, 1965

A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill ever recorded, 1979

SkyDome is officially opened in Toronto, Ontario, 1989

Aboriginal Land Rights are granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought by Eddie Mabo, 1992

USS Carter Hall engages pirates after they board the Danish ship Danica White off the coast of Somalia, 2007

A pageant on London's River Thames marks the highpoint of a series of events celebrating The Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 2012

Three of the most extremely well-preserved and most complete triceratops specimens ever found are unearthed in Wyoming, 2013

The Amazing world of Dr Seuss Museum opens in Springfield, Massachusetts, 2017

Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupts, causing widespread death and destruction, 2018

Wednesday Night Prayer

With rare exceptions, we have a prayer group that meets every Wednesday evening at our church.

(The rare exceptions would be nights like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, when the church is otherwise occupied, and that only happens every few years.)

Last night, the topic of race relations came up for prayer.  Our prayers were these:

That all of us would be united, not divided.
That those people who seem to be fostering division would come to see the harm they do, and stop.
That churches would be at the forefront of fostering peace, harmony, and unity.
That our country would not revert to being like times past, but would move forward into understanding.
That the upcoming movie Selma would start a good dialog that would help us see what we do not want to revert back into.

Eight churches in our area work together year round in several areas.  Some are traditionally African-American congregations, some traditionally white.  We are Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Catholic.  As a group, we have an ecumenical Thanksgiving service each year, with the churches taking turns as hosts.  We have a pilgrimage at Christmas, where we move from church to church, singing carols and enjoying each other's choirs.

Most of all, we all work together to fund an outreach center for the homeless, and take turns assisting Pastor M. at the outdoor church ministry each week (our church does the first Sunday of every month).

Such sharing and working together is how it should be.  Our prayer is that it continues and expands.  That's just the way it should be.



Today is:

Bubble Bath Day -- remember how much fun it was as a kid?  enjoy that again today

Day Sacred to Justicia -- Ancient Roman Empire (personification of justice)

Emperor Norton Day -- E. Clampus Vitus Society puts on a party in San Francisco's Chinatown in honor of the passing on this day of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Feast of Hathor and Sekhmet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of St. Gudula (Patron of single laywomen; Brussels, Belgium)

Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (a/k/a Babin Den; celebrating Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (fertility festival of Demeter and Dionysos called after the halos, or threshing floor; date approximate)
     Rural Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the fertility festival of the countryside)

It All Adds Up Day -- anniversary of Hollerith's tabulating machine patent

Kim Jong-un's Birthday -- North Korea

Male Watcher's Day -- often listed as a day for the females to get even and do a little guy ogling, but no site gives any reason behind why this day was chosen

Midwife's Day / Women's Day -- Greece (women get out and go to a cafe or shopping, and the men must stay home and do the chores and care for the children, and in some areas, men caught shirking will be stripped and drenched in cold water; on the approximate date of an ancient Greek celebration of midwives)
     Gynaecocratia -- Macedonia

Milk Carton Day -- Sheffield Farms began packaging milk in parafin lined paper cartons on this day in 1929

National Eat Something Raw Day 

National English Toffee Day

National Joygerm Day -- a day to infect others with joy; begun by Joygerm Joan, whose motto is "The only thing Joygerms allow to get depressed are their tongues!"

Old Hickory Day -- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson leads the victory in the Battle of New Orleans

Rock 'n' Roll Day -- on Elvis' birth anniversary, of course

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another Wellcat Holiday to observe carefully if at all

St. Severinus' Day (Patron of Austria and of San Severo, Italy)

Toka Ebisu Matsuri -- Osaka, Japan (Festival of Ebisu, god of business and prosperity; through the 11th)

Ultimate Fishing Show -- Detroit, MI, US (through Sunday)

Winterskol -- Aspen, Colorado (Aspen's annual "toast to winter", through Sunday)

Birthdays Today:

Ami Dolenz, 1969
Vladimir Feltsman, 1952
Don Bendell, 1947
David Bowie, 1947
Robbie Krieger, 1946
Kathleen Noone, 1946
Stephen Hawking, 1942
Yvette Mimieux, 1939
Bob Eubanks, 1938
Shirley Bassey, 1937
Elvis Presley, 1935
Charles Osgood, 1933
Soupy Sales, 1926
Ron Moody, 1924
Larry Storch, 1923
Jose Ferrer, 1912
Galina Ulanova, 1910
Wilkie Collins, 1824
James Longstreet, 1821
Nicholas Biddle, 1786


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Symphony No. 15 in A major (Opus 141, Dmitri Shostakovich), 1972
"Almira"(Handel's first opera), 1705


Today in History:

Monaco gains its independence, 1297
Genoa, Italy expels Jews, 1598
The oldest surviving commerial newspaper begins in Haarlem, Netherlands, 1675
The New York Fishing Company is the first American commercial corporation chartered, 1675
Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1734
US President George Washington delivers the first "State of the Union" address, 1790
Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, emerges voluntarily from the wild in southern France (he had been captured and escaped before), 1800
The Battle of New Orleans, 1815
The first US music school, the Boston Academy of Music, is established, 1833
The US national debt hits $0 for the first and only time, 1835
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code), 1836
French physicist Jean Foucault proves, using his "Foucault's pendulum," that the Earth rotates on its axis, 1851
Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain in Montana Territory, 1877
Dr. Herman Hollerith receives the first US patent for a tabulating machine, considered by some to be the earliest computer, 1889
The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system, 1904
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963
Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched, 1973
The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, 2004
Some scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded, 2013