What Hatred Looks Like:
What Love Looks Like:
As HR and I approach our anniversary next month, here are a few photos from our 2016 wedding.
Looks Like
Tag: Family
My Saturday Evening Post: 11/1/25 “5 Weeks and Día de los Angelitos”
Robert and I had a quiet, meaningful couple of hours the other evening setting up our annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) ofrenda (altar), remembering our parents and other loved ones who have passed on before us.
The time was especially dear for me this year because I thought to pull out some old files that, along with other paraphernalia, stayed for decades in my parents’ safety deposit box before they died (my mother in 2016 and my father in 2020).
In one file was the funeral information about a brother, Jimmie, who was born in 1946 and only lived for five weeks.
My mother dried and kept some flowers from his little grave.
These old flowers are now 78 years ago—three quarters of a century!
I love the Day of the Dead season. “Nov. 1 is known as Día de los Angelitos, which honors the souls of deceased children, and Nov. 2 is Día de los Muertos.” usatoday.com
So today HR and I remembered little Jimmie and his brief life.
And that’s my Saturday Evening Post.
Five Friday Happy Bringers 4/2/25
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Sweet Tea, or as Dolly Parton calls it in Steel Magnolias, “the Champagne of the South.”
2. Walking by this “wall of green” covering a building near us here in historic district Savannah.
3. Toenail clippers.
4. The absolute, joyful contentment that kitty cat Benny finds in (literally in) cardboard boxes.
5. Grandson, Daniel and his “Senior Bike Ride” this morning at his school.
On the last day of school (for seniors), Country Day has this tradition for their soon-to-be graduates to ride bicycles onto campus, where they are over-enthusiastically greeted by their families and loved ones, holding up posters and pictures and joyfully cheering (probably because those soon-to-be graduates will also soon be leaving home).
May you have something this weekend to scream joyfully about. (If not, just scream anyway.)
Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 3/3/25
Marveling this morning at my grandson Daniel‘s convincing performance as a REALLY messed-up teenager in his latest play, this time at the Tybee Arts Association Black Box Theater on Tybee Island near Savannah.
The play: Marvin’s Room.
Daniel’s character: Seventeen year-old Hank. (D is also seventeen.)
Here’s what Google’s AI says about Hank:
Whew!
Hank, onstage, with his psychiatrist on the right and his emotionally distant mother on the left:
As a grandfather, it was actually (and probably foolishly) somewhat difficult to see the normally exuberantly positive and usually smiling Daniel portraying such a severely damaged young man. (Hank doesn’t smile very much in the play.)
For a moment, I forgot what actors actually do. Act.
Daniel’s now been in over thirty plays, and his specialty seems to be the romantic lead in musical theatre (Prince Topher in Cinderella, Marius in Les Mis), Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.)
Sitting in the audience for Marvin’s Room, I kept having a bit of conflict between watching that mentally challenged CHARACTER I just met and denying to myself that the young ACTOR I knew so well could have ANY of Hank’s negative qualities.
But, uh oh. Maybe we haven’t burned down a house, but haven’t we all pushed a button or two to provoke a reaction from someone else?
Haven’t we all occasionally struggled to express our emotions openly?
Haven’t we all used sarcasm?
And haven’t we all felt (or acted) a little … crazy from time to time?!
The play ends (thankfully) on a positive note with Hank seemingly on his way to a better life.
And here’s Hank — I mean Daniel (!) — smiling his usual smile with HR and me after the performance.
Chatting and joking about his crazy character, we asked Daniel what he was going to be doing after this play ran its course.
“Oh, I’ll probably burn down my high school.”
O
Shhh … Silent Sunday. 12/8/24
Five Friday Happy Bringers 11/29/24
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. This old tree we saw near us on a Thanksgiving morning walk in Savannah’s Colonial Park Cemetery.
Do you see what I see on his trunk?
In the lower half, there’s a Big Bunny with gigantic upward ears!
And if you forget the bunny and look again at the entire trunk, there’s a Brown Monster with a three-pronged crown, green tongue and menacingly raised arms! Watch out!
2. On the other hand, here’s a quartet of happily handsome fellows: son-in-law Scott and three grandsons Jack, Gabriel and Daniel searching for the perfect Christmas tree.
3. A bountiful Thanksgiving Feast yesterday.
4. Moments in life when you feel JOY.
5. And finally, I’m happily thankful for HR.
May you have a BIG weekend ahead!
Five Friday Happy Bringers 11/1/24
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Grandchildren Trick or Treating last night …
Or going to their first high school homecoming game and dance …
2. Our Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration and meal today.
Robert and I were especially celebrating the lives of our parents.
3. Memories.
4. These incredible lacquered flower pumpkins in front of a Savannah Historic District home near us.
Look!
5. Incredibly good-smelling fall candles.
May you “fall” into a great weekend ahead.
Gentle
Robert’s Hand, Benny’s Head.
Oh Baby!
So a while back, grandson Daniel (young Savannah actor/singer—and now high school senior) played one of his most serious and evil roles so far. (And he’s been in over three dozen plays, since he started acting as a little kid.)
For this play, Daniel did not get a leading role. He was a supporting actor, the dastardly Mayor Josiah Dobbs, in Steve Martin’s very serious musical Bright Star.
Here he is (far left) in a light moment during rehearsals with his three best buddies, all in the play.
But Daniel’s character was anything but light. When the mayor’s son got a girl pregnant, Mayor Dobbs intervened and stole the baby from the mother’s arms. (More about THAT hideous heist in a minute.)
Robert and I went to opening night, and the play was VERY well done, especially for a high school performance.
Here’s D with Mom and Nana, after the play.
The second night, too, went swimmingly.
But the closing matinee, well, was quite a different story.
Let me have Daniel explain. The short video below is actually part of D’s prescreens/prep for musical theatre college applications. For a portion called “the wildcard,” Daniel took a risk and decided to explain about what went wrong with the closing performance of Bright Star.
Yes, at least Daniel got to keep the head as a bizarre “souvenir”!
Next up, Daniel is Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love here in Savannah.
P.S. Here’s the feedback Daniel got about his “wildcard” from the folks he’s working with in New York:
NealEnJoy 