NYMYSTERIES.COM January 30, 2022

I streamed Abigail Disney’s The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. 

Ms. Disney, known to all as Abby, is Walt Disney’s granddaughter. The video begins with Abby explaining that she’s wealthy because of Disney. For years she turned a blind eye to the workers living in poverty. When a worker contacted her and showed her how he and his wife, another Disney employee, and their two child live, sleeping in their car, surviving hand to mouth, not able to live in Anaheim because of the rent, Abby went into action. She started with courteous emails to the then CEO, Bob Iger. In return she received nothing. Bob Iger’s net worth is about $690 million. Abby appeared before Congress and was accused of promoting socialism. Her video is brilliant and heart breaking. She points out it’s all about money. There’s no concern for people. 

Many of the employees love working at Disney Land. It brings back memories of their childhood – meeting Mickey and Minnie and Pluto and Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. Many of them hold two jobs. Not Bob Iger.

NYMYSTERIES.COM January 23, 2022

Yesterday I went to Brooklyn to see a jacket made with turkey feathers…A small band of determined Judsonites met at the Greenpoint Library’s Lenapehoking exhibit. It was given in a dark room on the top floor, six people at a time. The exhibit included several articles of clothing made from wool, feathers and beads. They date from 1830 to 1850. There were displays of bean tapestries and of different kinds of corn and beans that the Lenapes introduced to the area.

For lunch we went to nearby El Born, 651 Manhattan Avenue. The food was based on Barcelona cuisine. We had many, many tapas of dates wrapped in bacon, brussel sprouts, grilled octopus, chorizo. A delicious outing.

NYMYSTERIES.COM January 15, 2022: Central Park Photos

Walking across Central Park yesterday didn’t happen. Warmly dressed and for once welcoming my mask’s coverage, the wind convinced me to take a bus to the upper west side.

NYMYSTERIES.COM January 8, 2022

Writing your obituary? Why not? What else would you do on a Friday night? 

GOT = Getting Older Together is a group of women mostly who attend Judson Memorial Church. The  meetings are held in our homes. There’s a moderator and/or an authority on the evenings’ subject matter. Yesterday at 6 p.m. we zoomed to Bethene Trexel’s and Jon Tenney’s house. Kay Cassell was the moderator who suggested we write our own obituaries. She listed three essential elements of an obituary: l. Name, age, date of birth and of death. Cause of death is optional. 2. Where you lived, single, married history, family, profession, hobbies, passions. 3. Listing survivors.

There were about 35 people attending the session. Many, like me, were flummoxed by our own ignorance. Kay suggested we keep the obituary to 200-300 words and include a recent photo. Read obituaries!

This led to other discussions about New York laws concerning burials and cremation. Several people recalled the death of a spouse or other family member and how dependent they were on funeral directors and the clergy. 

Many thanks to Kay for leading us through this process.   

HONORING THE SOUTH AFRICAN THEOLOGIAN,

DESMOND TUTUS

“THE CURE OF TROY“

SEAMUS HEANEY

Human beings suffer.

They torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong

Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don’t hope

On the side of the grave,’

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracles.

And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing,

The utter self revealing

Double-take of feeling.

If there’s fire on the mountain

And lightening and storm

And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing

The outcry and the birth-cry

Of new life at its term.

It means once in a lifetime

That justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme.