HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently completed my first year of retirement and find myself in a peculiar position where I am remembering, living in the present of all the things I am doing to contribute to the Thanksgiving gathering, and looking into the future to imagine what I would like to do in coming months as 2023 is drawing closer.

There have only been a few times in my life when past, present, and future sat down together with me and challenged me to make meaningful decisions.  I was too excited going off to college for such an internal discussion, besides, I think I was too young. 

The day I left a job I really disliked and moved to another state was my first experience of the big three coming together.  I had always planned to teach but that was not happening and I was hoping it would in the new location I had chosen for myself.  Looking back now, I realize I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into as my brother-in-law drove the UHaul away from my apartment.

The second time came only 4 years later when I chose to leave a job I loved, to return to school to follow a calling.  Again, looking back, I had no clue what was ahead despite my intense conversation with those three voices, this time chiding me a bit that perhaps I was making a wrong move.  It turned out, I wasn’t.

The most recent time previous to this when I felt the full weight of the before, now, and to come forcing me to assess what I really wanted in my life and that I might be able to have it.  The phone call from the Chester Upland School District offering me an interview, then a job brought past and future together and in the present, I cried because I had nearly given up on my dream of teaching in a school setting.

So, here I am.  I know where I have been.  I am thinking about what from that past can carry me through this immediate time, then into the future.  And, that’s where Thanksgiving comes into it.  I realize I am truly thankful for so many things, large and small.  Maybe after I experience the gratitude for my life, I can be prepared for the something that can bring an unexpected future as has happened before.

Maybe we all should try this gratitude thing now and then, and let our past, present, and future mull things over a bit.  Such a pause may provide direction or possibly, some resolutions or goals for the coming year, perhaps something even more profound.

Here is what I came up with.  I am thankful:

• For an amazing family who even with our ups and downs has made life possible and helped to shape the person I am,
• For unforgettable friends who brought joy, challenge, and lifelong connections that have made my life bright.  I am hopeful I have done half as much for them,  
• That music has been such an important part of my life from learning  pretty sophisticated songs before entering kindergarten to singing with amazing choirs and directors, performing in Philadelphia Revels, singing with Colonial Revelers, and best of all, singing with my family in many configurations. 
• For the ability to teach, to convey ideas to people of all ages from teaching neighborhood kids at age 10 to serving as a Girl Scout Leader, to earning money as a “teaching babysitter, to working as a volunteer kindergarten aide, to teaching cooking and other skills to blind youth and adults, to serving as an AIDS educator, to teaching Sunday School, to teaching computer-based document design, to substitute teaching, to tutoring, to the ultimate – teaching Gifted Support students.  How lucky!   
• For The chance to live in numerous places in this country and meet extraordinary people,
• For The blessing of leading worship and supply preaching in many different faith communities,

-For Access to a world of books that have opened my mind in a myriad of ways,

• For my enjoyment of all kinds of foods and for not being a picky eater.  I’m also glad I like to cook,
• For skill at writing that enables me to say clearly what I am thinking, well most of the time,
• For an awesome apartment in a really special part of Pennsylvania, 27 years in one home,
• For family, friends, colleagues, even strangers who have enabled me, as a disabled person to go where I needed to go and do what I wanted to do, and with companionship along the way.

There are so many more things I feel true gratitude for, but I think those are the biggies.  Those are the memories, the past.  The present is about Thanksgiving Day and the gathering of most of the Philadelphia area family while we devour air-fried turkey and the fixings.  Before the end of December, there are presents to prepare, shows to sing, a tree to decorate, and some goals for 2023 to set.  I think I am now ready to seriously contemplate the future, grateful for my past and present.    

So, let us all have a terrific Thanksgiving.  May we be grateful for this precious life with all its blessings, wonders, griefs, and glories.  May the rest of 2022 and all of 2023 be a treasure chest filled with joy, personal challenge, and satisfaction as well as opportunities to pay forward the many gifts we have been given.

ELECTION 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

As Election Day is near and the polls open just under 60 hours from now, I thought I would reflect on some things I have noticed.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been pretty.

I don’t remember an election in which so many candidates felt so free to display their racism, misogyny, homo/trans-phobia, ableism, and antisemitism.  Candidates said out loud what we have known they were thinking, but usually kept to themselves.  There may be a Democrat somewhere who has done this but I have not heard or read about them yet. 

1. Republicans put out ads showing images of Black characters while they claim Democrats are the cause of increased crime everywhere across the country.  They are tapping into the Willy Horton variety of ad that I first remember seeing used by Bush Sr. during the 1988 presidential campaign.  The goal seems to be, scare white people with those Black men who are going to come after them.  Dr. Mehmet Oz has PAC ads that accuse John Fetterman of releasing desperate criminals to terrorize the people (white people of course).  The truth of the matter is that the crime rates in cities and states with Republicans in charge are higher than in the “blue states and cities.  I admit I was surprised about that, so I had to look it up.  I guess the ads are OK, though since the terrified voices only imply that Black or Latinx people are committing the crimes.  Republicans claim to be the “law and order” party but we have learned that they don’t like the law much and only want order they can impose on the people they don’t like (consider January 6th and their attack on the police).

2. In primaries, many Republican candidates proudly stated their full approval of laws that make abortion illegal in all cases no exceptions, even calling for women who have had abortions given the death penalty (Missouri).  For the general election, they have either scrubbed their websites clean of any mention of abortion or just won’t talk about it or say “I’m pro-life” and naturally, no interviewers push for clarification of what that means.  Dr. Oz said who can get an abortion should be decided by a woman, her doctor, and local politicians.  During the primary he said there should be no exceptions to abortion bans.  In which case was he lying?  Doug Mastriano, running for Governor of Pennsylvania said “Women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.”  At least he said the same thing in both elections.  In general, the abuse female candidates are getting from male as well as female opponents is appalling and should not be permitted on the air, but . . . .

3. LGBTQ persons are targets of many Republican candidates who proclaim loudly that they should never have the right to marry.  The candidates can’t or won’t say why, but, who’s asking, no one I have heard.  The parents of trans children are being threatened with losing their children, jail, and more depending on the state.  Where is the why?

4. John Fetterman had a stroke just before the May primary in Pennsylvania and has been recovering well and on schedule according to his doctors and other doctors who work with people who have had strokes (including 2 sitting senators).  However, there are ads out implying he is incapable of doing the job of Senator because for now, his speech is impacted as is his auditory reception, very typical at this stage of recovery.  Fetterman agreed to “debate” Dr. Oz but the debate was clearly set up to maximize Oz’s glib talking skill and speed.  I am not sure why Fetterman agreed to the format unless he thought Oz would use a change of rules as Fetterman’s declaration of incompetence.  One would think a Doctor as Oz was, would know and do better, but alas, no.

5.  Antisemitism is still ugly, just as it was throughout history, but some Republicans have dragged it out again hoping to grab some voters who have some kind of grudge against Jewish people.  It appears it is working because more than one candidate has made antisemitic comments and faced only cheers from their audiences.  It appears they have just another group to hate aloud.  I guess their base’s hatred of everyone who is not rich, white, straight, “Christian” and male had to specifically include Jews.

We are in a deadly global warming crisis yet I have heard nary a mention of it by anyone.  Inflation has been blamed by Republicans on Democrats despite the fact that we have one of the lowest inflation rates in the world.  Democrats are finally trying to report on large corporate price gouging as a factor in today’s inflation, but can’t seem to get any traction.  I suspect it is because most candidates are raking in fossil fuel and other corporate price-gouger campaign money. 

Then, there is the large number of candidates running for the Republican vote who won’t publicly admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.  They and he know he lost, but since the Republican Party has decided lying works so well for them, they endorse “the big lie” and go with the flow.

Republicans and some Democrats claim Democrats are lazy and just don’t like to vote.  I hope Dems will prove them wrong on Tuesday.  Those who make those claims, though forget to mention the voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other obstacles a lot of Democrats and even disadvantaged Republicans face too.  It is growing more and more evident that those white men in power will do and say almost anything to keep power.  They even support a few people of color and women whom they think they can control and get to do whatever they want, but whose presence is supposed to let We the People think they are trying to diversify.  Republican full embrace of Donald Trump and the downplaying of the January 6^th insurrection can let us all know about their desire for diversity.  It doesn’t exist.

There are a lot of good candidates out there who live by a set of principles that include justice for all, working to build a nation that truly values diversity not just as a talking point, consider a woman’s right to bodily autonomy as sacred, and care about our future, the future of our planet, and the children who will live that future, candidates with character.  Find those candidates and vote for them.