As I woke up on this 29th day of October 2020, I was thinking about all the people who wake up and don’t know where they will find food to eat today. Over 3 million in Florida are food insecure and 1 million of them are children. I’m grateful for my good luck of never having been in that place. As you know, starting the day feeling grateful is an excellent beginning. This is Latina Women Equal Pay Day, National Cat Day, National Hermit Day, World Stroke Day and National Oatmeal Day. I’ll go with a bowl of the steel cut oatmeal with fruit for breakfast. Now we’ve done the present, it’s time to move to the past. On this day in 1390, the first witchcraft trials were held in Paris. Witchcraft trials would continue until 1731. This is the day in 1929 named “Black Tuesday” when Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the “Great Depression”. On this day in 1942 Nazis murdered 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union. Lastly, on this day in 1987 Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins unprecedented 4th different weight boxing title. I’ve met Thomas. He’s a Detroit boxer. He has enormous hands and can’t put 5 words together to make a sentence. This is what happens when you spend a decade getting hit in the head by professional fighters. Today is the birthday of Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland’s Opus). He said, “Happiness has a bad rap. People say it shouldn’t be your goal in life. Oh, yes it should.” I agree. This is also the birthday of the fuzzy headed TV painter Bob Ross who said, ““The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe.” Now it’s time to see what happened in the world since last night. Have a good day. Abide.
