Day 208 Flight Path

July 5, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

A night walk in the neighborhood, admiring neighbors flowers.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” These are rare words that I hear. Usually I’m the one asking the question. “Sure,” I respond. Night walks in the neighborhood with my husband are special.

Tonight we walked down to Gray’s Creek and back—about 2 ¼ miles. The neighborhood was quiet except for planes taking off from BWI Airport. We must be on the flight path tonight. We heard a few frogs, one bullfrog, and maybe two tree frogs. The crickets must have been asleep and I heard no cicadas. Was the night too hot and humid for them? I’m looking forward to the songs of the tree frogs as summer progresses.

I like to sit on the community pier bench but mosquitoes attacked David as soon as we sat down so we turned around to walk home. For a change, it is welcome to have no background television sounds for our conversations but we could see huge flat TV screens in neighbors’ living rooms as we passed by—couples lulled to numbness and passivity with television substituting for conversation. On our walk, David and I talked about future plans and possibilities. Otherwise, we just enjoyed listening to our footsteps and watching our lengthening shadows. 

On the way back, my wrist tingled from the Fitbit vibration telling me that I had reached my 10,000-step goal. Today’s report: 11,425 steps, 4.69 miles and a half-gallon liquid consumption.

My gift today is a peaceful night walk with my love.

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> Day 209 Pink Fish Tongue

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 207 Defining Baltimore

July 4, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

Fourth of July fireworks from a rooftop in Baltimore

Baltimore has had a bad rap over the years, in spite of local efforts to brand its special charm with succinct catchy phrases.

Under Mayor Schaefer, Charm City became twisted to Harm City. Under Mayor Schmoke, the official slogan The City That Reads became The City That Bleeds and The City That Breeds. Under Mayor O'Malley, Believe was twisted into Behive, Blieve Hon and Behave. The next slogan, Baltimore, the Greatest City in America was painted on city benches, which ironically became beds for the homeless.

Present Mayor Rawlings-Blake came up with,  Baltimore: A Great Place to Grow which can be twisted into Baltimore: A Great Place to Die. The latest slogan branding is now Baltimore: Birthplace of The Star-Spangled Banner. It will be a challenge but I’m sure some creative person will figure out a cynical twist.

Baltimore is having a problem defining itself. In my experience, Smalltimore and Bmore are appropriate slogans. Or maybe a new slogan committee could be created with artists. Baltimore has a strong arts community that is succeeding with making small pockets of change all around the city.

Tonight we attended a July 4^th party at a friend’s Federal Hill home. Perhaps a good slogan for the city might be Quirky Baltimore. At the party children ran around in princess costumes and adults devoured beer and steamed crabs spread out on newspaper.  From our high vantage point, along with people from dozens of surrounding rooftops, we could see fireworks from the harbor. As I watched the light displays, I thought about how people from many different backgrounds in Baltimore all respond to fireworks in the same way, “Oooooh! Aaahh!”

My gift today is fireworks in quirky Baltimore.

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 > Day 208: Flight Path


can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 206 Curious Reptilian Sound

July 3, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

Today I was driving out of my neighborhood when I saw something in the road. I stopped, backed up and got out of the car to find that it was a box turtle trying to cross the street. It has been many years since I’ve seen a turtle meandering about although, at the Downs Park pond, I frequently see resident giant snapping turtles poke their heads up to the surface in search of food. These snapping turtles like to live in muddy water and are not especially attractive.

On the other hand, box turtles like this one have beautiful patterns on their shells. Unlike their cousins, they can pull their legs and heads entirely into their shell. I was concerned that the turtle I saw might be crushed by a car on the busy street. I reached to pick it up and it retreated into its shell with a hiss. I have never heard a turtle hiss and at first thought it was an aggressive action and quickly put it down in some nearby grass.

Upon further research, I discovered that turtles cannot hiss because they do not have vocal cords. What sounds like a hiss happens when the turtle is frightened and retreats into its shell, quickly expelling air to make room for its head and legs. It has no control over the sound—it’s just the physics of air displacement as its body retreats inside. I learn something new every day.

My gift today is turtle-inspired trivia.

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> Day 207 Defining Baltimore

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 205 Mortality

July 2, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

I see a cluster of new tiny orange mushrooms on my lawn and thoughts of my own mortality arise. Strange how these things happen. 

I ponder how these mushrooms popped out of the ground on their own, with no action on my part. They will continue to do this with or without me. Then I think of how life will go on—the sun will still rise and set, traffic jams will continue to irritate people, musicians will write new songs that I will never hear, artists will create new art that I will never see, fashions will continue to come and go, and teenagers will always rebel. 

Because, as a human being, I experience life through an egocentric viewpoint, it is difficult to imagine that life will go on without my perspective. I just ran across a video of my father—still on my iPhone from last year. I watched and reminded myself that the video is a representation of life but not real life itself. 

On the one hand, our powerful intellects come inexorably to the conclusion that we, like all other living things around us, must one day die. Yet on the other, the one thing that these minds cannot imagine is the very state of nonexistence; it is literally inconceivable. Death therefore presents itself as both inevitable and impossible…The fact is, whenever we try to imagine the reality of our deaths we stumble. We simply cannot envision actually not existing.” ~ Stephen Cave in Immortality

So today, I enter the moment and greet the tiny orange mushrooms, knowing that my photo’s life will probably outlive me.

My gift today is a cluster of tiny orange mushrooms.

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> Day 206 Curious Reptilian Sound

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 204 Among the Weeds

July 1, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

 

I am a lousy gardener. It seems impossible to me that I planted poppy seeds (at least that’s what the seed package indicated) and now only weeds are thriving in that pot. How can it be that not one flower appears but instead, an abundance of weeds? 

When I examined the small white knots (blooms?) along the plant stems, tiny ants were having a feast. I also saw a small green insect that seemed to be a baby grasshopper without wings. Its body was no more than ½ inch, if that much, but its hind legs and antennae were four or five times the length of the body. I am surprised that I even saw it as it was camouflaged on the green plant. 

However, what surprised me even more was that when I enlarged a photo I took of  it, the insect was more beautiful than I could see with the naked eye. Its vibrant green body contained beautifully patterned segments with black dots, dashes and partial stripes. Bright orange markings stood out on its upper body. The antennae seemed to grow from two small black beads near the round bug eyes. 

There is an amazing layer of life beyond the ability of my eyes to see closely. If there had been a rainbow this afternoon, I would have looked in the distance at a beautiful sky. But there wasn’t a rainbow, so I took a close look at weeds and was rewarded with a tiny wonder. 

My gift today is a tiny wonder.

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> Day 205: Mortality

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html