Upside Down Cats

I am inspired to share a photo I took today of our Winter Wonderland. We are currently situated inside an "ice sandwich" - packed snow on the ground covered in a tasty solid layer of ice from last night's ice storm, topped off with a fresh dusting of today's snow. I am so moved by the weather in fact, that I am finally going to put the finishing touches on the following Holiday post and share it already!

There are several subjects I won't broach here on Upside Down Cats, namely, religion, politics and sports. Simply stated I have nothing good to say about any of them and Mom always told me" If you can't say something nice..." and well, you know the rest.

I do believe, however, that a person's Christmas song preferences are every bit as personally subjective as her opinions on the aforementioned subjects. Yet in the spirit of the season I am perfectly willing to divulge my favorites, knowing full well that they are likely to spark as much controversy as my opinions on those other highly-charged topics of discussion.

Sadly, an appreciation of Christmas songs is not a memory Scott and I can share. Not having been raised celebrating Christmas is a bulletproof excuse though, so I really can't fault him for not waxing nostalgic when it comes to the seasonal tunes. Recently Scott has posted an awesome list of his favorite Non-Traditional Christmas songs on his blog. Although he has developed an appreciation throughout the years for songs about Christmas, Scott would be the first to note that it is different than the songs being ingrained in one's psyche since day one.

It's OK, though...fear not for our shared cultural reference quotient. We'll always have Trilogy of Terror and Caddyshack, so we've got that going for us...

Continue reading "It's Beginning To Sound A Lot Like..." »

Several months ago we were honored to attend our nephew, R's, Bar Mitzvah.

What a special event it was!

It was only the second such event I'd attended (the first being Scott's cousin J's Bat Mitzvah, which is the same ceremony for a 12-year-old girl). It was Scott's third, and that dates back to his oldest brother's Bar Mitzvah when Scott was only six years old. So even in this Jewish family they are rare occurrences. I'm sure they are much more common in more devoutly religious families.

To those who may be unfamiliar with the Bar Mitzvah, allow me to explain. Strictly speaking, it is a term for a young Jewish man when he reaches the age of thirteen. Bar Mitzvah translates as "son the commandments." Bar Mitzvah also refers to a religious ceremony which marks and celebrates a young man's "coming of age" as a Jew. In preparation for this special event, a young person undergoes personalized instruction with a Rabbi in which he studies the Torah, the Jewish Holy Book. He prepares to participate in this religious service in which he reads portions from the Torah he has chosen to study. He is thereby welcomed as an adult member of the faith, promising to live a virtuous life. Similar to a wedding, there is a religious ceremony, followed by an awesome party.

To my Christian-raised mentality, it seems this ceremony serves a function similar to that of Confirmation - but much more of a celebration, featuring more fanfare, a deep sense of tradition and much better gifts!

Continue reading "Ceremony, Celebration And Chivalry" »

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)



As a daycare provider I eagerly take on the responsibility of teaching children the basics of how to be nice people. Now that the youngest of our little daycare family is two years old, we are focusing more on behavior - and less on diapers (and I am not complaining about that!).

I am currently trying to teach my group of daycare children to choose to do the right thing...cooperation, altruism, the golden rule and all that rot...

Continue reading "Gina's Quotes Du Jour (Wordsworth & McCartney)" »

Today I'm revisiting an old friend...my Favorite Words series. The inspiration to write about today's word came from my Sweetie, Scott's recent post titled, Build Your Own Best Of - Steely Dan. His post is part of his series where he compiles a list of his personal choices for a Best Of collection of a musician's or a band's recordings.

I always have a running list of favorite words and this one has been on the list since its inception...

Continue reading "One Of My Favorite Words 3/27/08" »

"Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own." - Sidney J. Harris.

I love to learn about history, and the more I learn, the more I know that there are very few new ideas under the sun...just ones I haven't heard before. I have definitely noticed this happening as the years go by...especially in fashion. The younger girls think they are the first to look so cool, but I wore virtually the same thing in the '70s...!

Of course it happens in every area... music/arts, science, politics, philosophy/religion...but I automatically think clothes because I am shallow and vapid...

...the words just may be absurd! I don't understand. What is up with seeing images of Jesus or Mary in things? It seems to me that God would have better uses of his time than playing some elaborate Where's Waldo game with us...

 

I came across this list of places Jesus has been spotted recently in an online feature called "News of the Weird." You can find the full article here.

There seems to be a neverending supply of weirdness in the world. I was looking for an alternative to the frustration of mainstream news, but this news doesn't make me feel any better about the fate of humankind...