A dreary sunday laying about...
Jan. 19th, 2025 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt's supposed to snow sometime today, but all I've seen is sleet and rain. Also, dreary like yesterday. But the temperatures are moderately cold as opposed to frigid. So I went for a walk and bought more stuff from the grocery store - mainly toilet paper, and a rotesseri chicken and soup. I want soup tonight - I think.
I've a window open and the A/C drifts on and off as needed, since the apartment is about fifty degrees warmer than it is outside - yesterday and today that meant between 76-86 degrees, without a window open or the A/C drifting on and off along with air purifiers. With them on? It's 75-77 degrees, sometimes drifting down to 69-71.
Ah. Apartment living in big cities. I'm not complaining - I like living in an apartment. I do not want to live in a house. Too high maintenance. I like having someone else be responsible for the exterior maintenance costs.
And it's a well maintained building.
Missed getting print magazines, so I subscribed to the New Yorker and New York Magazine (which includes the onzine Vulture in the subscription). I also get tote bags to add to my alarmingly large collection of tote bags. Everyone wants to give me a tote bag - including Wales. I do not need any more tote bags. They have taken over a corner of my kitchen and appear to be multiplying like rabbits and having tote bag babies. I like the New Yorker and New York Mag because they are "culturally focused" rags and not politically focused ones. Also regional - focusing on the area that I happen to live in, and written well - so have journalistic integrity to an extent, plus intellectual and progressive, not conservative. It helps that the writers can actually write - so many can't. I've grown weary of the typos on all these allegedly professional blogs and web sites. Folks - if it isn't on a social media platform and you are actually being paid to write it? Learn how to proof-read.
I subscribed to them - because I want the print publications delivered weekly.
Started watching:
1. Ally McBeal on Hulu (I never really watched it when it aired, just episodes here and there. It's vaguely amusing and holds up better than I expected.)
2. My Lady Jane - which is fun, but alas one season, so not sure about continuing.
**
Today the Interim Minister challenged the congregation to discuss race. Saying it is uncomfortable to talk about. And how, several years back upon entering college - they had decided just to refer to themselves as American not Chinese-American or Asian-American, but to identify as American - only to discover to their considerable shock and dismay that everyone else saw them as either Chinese or Chinese-American, and only people who were White could be referred to as just American. (Me: yeah you can blame the British and French, and White Western/Eastern Europeans for that. The Native Americans actually aren't White - they came over over a thousand years ago.) They said, that older Black Americans rolled their eyes, and said, really, it took you that long to figure that out?
They said that MLK's dream was to be multi-cultural and for it not to matter. And it is important to discuss for spiritual development. I agree with them. I keep bravely discussing it with folks - and keep paying for it. People don't like to discuss topics that make them uncomfortable and squirm. Doesn't matter what it is. And alas, I do. Because I'm curious (see title of this journal? "Spontaneous musings from a curious soul". That's not false advertising - that's exactly what this journal is about.) I just need to get brave enough to venture back to the church. Instead of safely watching it on Facebook.
And they said, which I found amusing, is there are million different languages that everyone speaks - and all of them are spoken in New York City. This is true. They are.
They also said, that it is important to ask what it means that a mostly white congregation is doing Jazz Sundays, or holding Juneteenth celebration, or a white man is reading a children's book about Ruby Richards in Ruby's point of view - and what does that mean? And how do we feel about it? And does it make us uncomfortable? It's important, they said to ask those questions. I agree - it is important to be brave enough to ask them. I have. I asked them of People of Color and those who identified as Black. And in doing so? I've learned a lot and gotten a wide range of responses, few the same and some that surprised me.
At the grocery store today, two of the folks behind the register were discussing ethnicity as well. They both identify as Latino. One was upset when someone referred to them as Mexican. The other responded: That's a trigger for you? I'm so sorry about that. I just shrug it off.
And I thought - why can we just look at people as individuals, why do we have label them and put them into boxes, where we make broad generalizations? Every living thing is uniquely itself after all?
Sharing two U2 songs in memory of Martin Luther King.
1. Pride: In the Name of Love
2. MLK
They sung MLK today at church. It's a deeply beautiful song.
I've a window open and the A/C drifts on and off as needed, since the apartment is about fifty degrees warmer than it is outside - yesterday and today that meant between 76-86 degrees, without a window open or the A/C drifting on and off along with air purifiers. With them on? It's 75-77 degrees, sometimes drifting down to 69-71.
Ah. Apartment living in big cities. I'm not complaining - I like living in an apartment. I do not want to live in a house. Too high maintenance. I like having someone else be responsible for the exterior maintenance costs.
And it's a well maintained building.
Missed getting print magazines, so I subscribed to the New Yorker and New York Magazine (which includes the onzine Vulture in the subscription). I also get tote bags to add to my alarmingly large collection of tote bags. Everyone wants to give me a tote bag - including Wales. I do not need any more tote bags. They have taken over a corner of my kitchen and appear to be multiplying like rabbits and having tote bag babies. I like the New Yorker and New York Mag because they are "culturally focused" rags and not politically focused ones. Also regional - focusing on the area that I happen to live in, and written well - so have journalistic integrity to an extent, plus intellectual and progressive, not conservative. It helps that the writers can actually write - so many can't. I've grown weary of the typos on all these allegedly professional blogs and web sites. Folks - if it isn't on a social media platform and you are actually being paid to write it? Learn how to proof-read.
I subscribed to them - because I want the print publications delivered weekly.
Started watching:
1. Ally McBeal on Hulu (I never really watched it when it aired, just episodes here and there. It's vaguely amusing and holds up better than I expected.)
2. My Lady Jane - which is fun, but alas one season, so not sure about continuing.
**
Today the Interim Minister challenged the congregation to discuss race. Saying it is uncomfortable to talk about. And how, several years back upon entering college - they had decided just to refer to themselves as American not Chinese-American or Asian-American, but to identify as American - only to discover to their considerable shock and dismay that everyone else saw them as either Chinese or Chinese-American, and only people who were White could be referred to as just American. (Me: yeah you can blame the British and French, and White Western/Eastern Europeans for that. The Native Americans actually aren't White - they came over over a thousand years ago.) They said, that older Black Americans rolled their eyes, and said, really, it took you that long to figure that out?
They said that MLK's dream was to be multi-cultural and for it not to matter. And it is important to discuss for spiritual development. I agree with them. I keep bravely discussing it with folks - and keep paying for it. People don't like to discuss topics that make them uncomfortable and squirm. Doesn't matter what it is. And alas, I do. Because I'm curious (see title of this journal? "Spontaneous musings from a curious soul". That's not false advertising - that's exactly what this journal is about.) I just need to get brave enough to venture back to the church. Instead of safely watching it on Facebook.
And they said, which I found amusing, is there are million different languages that everyone speaks - and all of them are spoken in New York City. This is true. They are.
They also said, that it is important to ask what it means that a mostly white congregation is doing Jazz Sundays, or holding Juneteenth celebration, or a white man is reading a children's book about Ruby Richards in Ruby's point of view - and what does that mean? And how do we feel about it? And does it make us uncomfortable? It's important, they said to ask those questions. I agree - it is important to be brave enough to ask them. I have. I asked them of People of Color and those who identified as Black. And in doing so? I've learned a lot and gotten a wide range of responses, few the same and some that surprised me.
At the grocery store today, two of the folks behind the register were discussing ethnicity as well. They both identify as Latino. One was upset when someone referred to them as Mexican. The other responded: That's a trigger for you? I'm so sorry about that. I just shrug it off.
And I thought - why can we just look at people as individuals, why do we have label them and put them into boxes, where we make broad generalizations? Every living thing is uniquely itself after all?
Sharing two U2 songs in memory of Martin Luther King.
1. Pride: In the Name of Love
2. MLK
They sung MLK today at church. It's a deeply beautiful song.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-19 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 10:49 pm (UTC)It could be worse - my next door neighbors are freezing. I remind myself of that.
So, I don't have to open windows or use A/C when it gets below 25 degrees at least.