Sophie's Story

I have a love/hate relationship with communications technology. On one hand I like the ability to get messages to and from people quickly, the ability to write and send this column and the ability to share things and keep up with people who live far away. On the other hand I miss letters, phone calls and worry about people I know who will not use any form of communication that isn't electronic. While the technology we have does a wonderful job at keeping us in touch with each other, I feel we are losing a few things. One of them is the ability to spell, but that is a topic for another day. Another is the ability to think before speaking. I first noticed this about a month ago when I saw a story on Yahoo. Actor Ryan Dunn had died in a car accident and film critic Roger Ebert tweeted a comment about drunk driving. The story was about how people were hurt and angered by this remark and felt it was insensitive. At the time of the tweet factors surrounding the accident were unknown. Man...

As we were driving to Highland Park to drop off some guitars for restringing, C mentioned that the weekend was going to be a washout. He had checked the weather and it was supposed to rain. I was shocked. Normally C is optimist in the family. I'm the one that tends to see the half empty glass and the dark clouds on the horizon. I asked him what the forecast said. The chance of rain was 50 per cent. 50 per cent? To me, that isn't even close to a washout. 50 percent means that there is also a 50 percent chance that it will not rain. I don't worry unless I hear 80 or above. I've been living here way to0 long to let such petty things like the weather get in my way,especially when C and I have a rare day off together. He said he liked my attitude and we went on to do our errands. I think my rare show of optimism was rewarded. We went to Trader Joe's for some dry cat food and they had it in stock. It seems like half the time we go there they are out of it. They must have ...

Yesterday I drove to the Small Town Toastmasters meeting wondering who would be speaking. I hadn't had time to look at the agenda that was emailed. Hopefully I wouldn't have a role that needed much preparation. To my delight my "big brother", Paul was going to speak. I was excited. Paul has been in Toastmasters for many years at several different clubs and is always someone worth listening to. His speech did not disappoint. In fact, it was so good that I would like to share it with the rest of you. The speech was about three things that we all can do to make ourselves feel happier. These three things cost very little and take up very little time. If followed they can make a difference not only to you, but to those around you. The first thing is to thank someone. It can be a card in the mail, an email,a voice mail, a post on Facebook or face to face. It doesn't matter how or even why. The important part is doing it. Paul gave several examples. One of them was to th...

This morning after doing an On Demand workout video, I caught a glimpse of the local public television station. It was a debate in the House of Commons over the recent phone hacking scandal. I watched wistfully for a few minutes as David Cameron and the oppositon leader (I don't know what his name is.) got up, spoke and then sat down to let the other person speak. I remember when C and I used to watch the Prime Minister's Questions on C-Span. We used to enjoy it quite a bit. I liked to the see the political leader of the UK be required to answer questions and often wished the the US government had something similar. I also liked that they were (maybe still are) respectful of each other. They may boo and catcall, but they do so between speakers. I miss that too. I doubt that anyone has required David Cameron to publish his birth certificate to prove he is really a citizen. A few days ago I was washing clothes. I wanted to find out if a shirt of mine could go into the dryer. I lo...

I had to make sure I went to the dry cleaner yesterday. C had two shirts and two pairs of pants there. I had already forgotten to pick them up twice. I needed to get home to do some laundry and maybe even pick up the house a little. Picking up these clothes would not take long. So I thought...... There was a woman tending the store. She was short, a bit stout with well groomed white hair and glasses. She was wearing a colourful green outfit. I gave her C's name. She found the order and I paid for it. She told me to have a nice day. I said that I'd planned to. I had just finished filling in for my boss while he was at a meeting and was on my way home. She told me that she was retired, but worked at the dry cleaner because she liked to stay active. She told me, very firmly, that one must stay active or decay will set in. I told her that my uncle feels the same way. He retired from Northwest Airlines (before it became Delta). He found a job that has turned out to be about full tim...

The Toastmaster year has ended which means that the Small Town Toastmasters has new officers. The new president announced that the officers would be installed in two weeks. I've never understood the installation of officers. I've had microwaves,dishwashers and a furnace installed. Why do we use the same word for the officers of an organization? Does someone need to plug them in and make sure that they work? The words we use for certain things has always interested me, even when I was quite young. For instance, a politician is assassinated. A normal person is just killed or murdered. Why is that? The politician is a human just like me (or that's what they want us to believe), so why do they get a special word if one of them is killed? A less gristly term is "calling". When I was a kid, one of our pastors quit to take another job. Several ministers came to be interviewed and conduct a service. In the end the church board issued a "call" to one of them to s...