This is December 29th, 2021. This morning I was trying to recall why I started writing these posts. I didn’t start saving them until 2019. One thing I do know is that I’m a different person now. Reading thousands of quotes from famous people, mostly poets and philosophers, has influenced me. Wayne Dyer said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” There isn’t much to throw a party about today: It’s Pepper Pot Day, Still Need to Do Day and Tick Tock Day (countdown to New Years Eve). George Washington ordered his baker to make a soup that would keep his troops warm and that’s how Pepper Pot Soup came to be. On this day in 1170 Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket was assassinated by 4 knights as he stood before the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral. This is the date in 1835 Treaty of New Echota was signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. The Trail of Tears begins as they are moved from the beautiful hills on Eastern Tennessee to the flat red treeless plains of Oklahoma. I would have cried too. In 1890 on this date, the US 7th Cavalry massacres 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. This is not a good history day for Native Americans. Today I’m going to introduce you to Don Marquis who was an American author, poet, journalist, and humorist who died in 1937 at the age of 59. Don said, “When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose?” “If a child shows himself incorrigible, he should be decently and quietly beheaded at the age of 12, lest he grow to maturity, marry and perpetuate his kind.” Remember I included “humorist” in his resume. I’ll end with “Life’s too damn funny for me to explain” and “An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience.” Now I will start this day. Abide.
