How would your life be different if on the first day of school/kindergarten, you received a card or a note that said: “Happy Monday. Enjoy the rest of the week. I love you.” This card was from your teacher, and s/he explained everyone would make a card for the following Monday, to give to someone in the class, everyone would make a card, everyone would receive a card. And this card exchange would be every Monday for the rest of your school life, through graduation of High School.

How would your life be different if, every Monday through your K-12 school life, you learned to give and receive a gift, homemade or store bought, to one of your classmates? That’s thirteen years of giving and receiving gifts. 

Your brain would have probably been wired toward the perspective of compassion and pro-social thoughts. You would have a moral identity reinforced by friends and family. You would see yourself as a helper person, a caring person, and an ethical person, all of which would help you in decision making.

Your aggressive reactivity would probably be reduced, your social confidence and belonging built and shored up by the frequent positive reaction with strangers and neighbors. Social anxiety would not be nearly as strong, your community attachment and long-term civic orientation would be strengthened.

Children exposed to structured generosity are more likely to engage in volunteering, cooperation, and nonviolent civic participation as adults. The net gain effect of 676* structured acts of kindness during developmental years creates a durable pro-social identity, higher emotional stability, and stronger community trust norms that persist into adulthood. 

The immediately preceding paragraphs are paraphrased from:

America’s Real Threats – And Our Plan to Reduce Them (Without WASHINGTON0  Former Black Panther Speaks: Can America be Saved? This link is to his substack and is free. You can also find it on YouTube. I have his permission to post the substack link. I hope you’ll take the 23 minutes to listen to the whole talk. I hope you’ll subscribe, and watch/listen to all the videos in the series. 

And, as my final paragraph on this topic, please think where we, as a nation, would be if this had started say in 1900, or 1920, or even 1940. And, please, become part of the nationwide network to think and act with strategy, not anger. It is never too late to change.

*The Former Black Panther was counting on 52 weeks a year times 13, most school years are closer to 40 weeks, I think, which would make it closer to 520. But then, there’s no reason during summers and school breaks, that giving couldn’t be carried on with neighbors, which would bring it right back up to 676 or so 😉

Uncoupling, Poems by Margo Davis

All couples will uncouple at some point. Train engines are uncoupled from train cars, children are uncoupled from beloved pets, parents are uncoupled from children, and lovers and life partners are uncoupled through mutual agreement or death. With the (presumably) exception of the trains, the loss of uncoupling brings pain of varying degrees, as well as freedom (of varying degrees) and maybe guilt, and even joy as we acknowledge the happy memories of earlier days, that our beloved is free of pain, of agony and now Rests in Power with their God.

Davis has a marvelous sense of humor that comes through in many (most?) of these poems, from the very first poem, Southern Tradition, “A Southern woman could / lace a rat with garnish / and pass it on. // the mixologist’s cocktails /…/ hurricane comin’!” One of my favorites being Better Times about the old codger, Lassie, Timmy and a three-foot glass of milk. Her humor is anything but juvenile, as noted in her last poem, Breathless In Portugal, “Messejana sheep take me / as I am. Uphill downslide I traverse //…Sleight of Hand. Oh tongue / that I never knew. I knew.”

I found this book delightful and engaging and one with poems I have read more than once! I heartily recommend it. Available through your favorite bookstore or online through https://Bookshop.org

On a More Political Topic

I believe I’ve mentioned a time or two, my favorite political pundit is Keith Olbermann, (my second favorite pundit is David Reddish, but that’s another post). It isn’t just the politics, I enjoy Olbermann’s personal discussions, too. Especially when he talks about famous people, or not quite famous people, he knows or has met. Keith’s sense of humor is marvelous, at least over the air. He is one of the famous people I’d like to have a cup of coffee with, though I’d probably be so tongue-tied I wouldn’t be able to put three words together that made any sense. Anyhow, Thursday’s episode (His podcast, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, airs every Monday and Thursday morning) is a bit long, but the last part, where he talks about Robert Duvall and the movie Network is worth the price of admission. Network, for those of you who, like me, haven’t seen it, is a 1976 American movie about a fictional tv station, UBS, with low ratings, written by Paddy Chayefsky. Olbermann brings up 23 instances in the movie that were prescient to today’s tv networks that were not even thought of when the movie came out, and which when people saw it laughed because those things could never happen. Is it time for a movie? Starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Fobert Duvall, Wesley Addy, and a host of others. Although I could find places where it’s streaming, all the sites want money. Clap if you’re surprised.