February 19,2021

Good morning everyone, today is Friday, February 19, 2021. I realize it might seem foolish to put the date every day but yesterday I said to myself what day is it Thursday or Friday . No I’m not losing it but one day just seems to meld into the next that’s why it is important to keep busy with something, anything. Well it seems we were spared from a big snowfall, thank god today at least we can move around. I hope everyone is feeling well this morning, remember the weekend is upon us, and with that brings something special to do.
As you know I was a teacher for many years and before that a student and even a shop keeper, I like that term it seems like a mom and pop term for a small business. The one thing I felt was the most important component of any learning is literacy, the ability to read and understand language. It is the basis of all learning. Being a child of early days of television my generation began to move away from reading for enjoyment to watching television, this was all well and good however I was still made to read at least an hour everyday, but my real appreciation for reading came about in college that is when I started to connect different idea and adventures to reading. If I read something I had to somehow experience it the best I could either by doing it or eating a related food. I had to make a connection. I followed this through with my own children, if I read a story to Amanda about a tea party we had one. To me this is how we learned to make the page to real life connection. As a teacher I always tried to impress that on my students. Today children shy away from novels , too busy, boring a million excuses so it is our job to make them come alive anyway we can. With remote learning that seems like an almost impossible task. Yesterday I came across a word I had never heard before so as I used to tell the kids write it down and look up the meaning. With technology that can now be done in a second. The word is Bookstagrammers, they are people who use Instagram to get people excited about the books they read. They are posting recipes that inspire the book. It is a way to connect characters and themes. You can Google images of where a book takes place but you can’t Google the experience the taste of something. I feel this is a great idea in a way. I have always done this, what better way is there to truly understand something unless you experience it. I have always done theme days I called them if we went to a museum exhibit example Russian art, we lunched at the Russian Tea Room. As a child I once read about a smorgasbord, I asked my mother what that was , so we went to one, now I learned what it was and the synonym buffet. In school when Chinese New Year came about we had a celebration and kids from all classes could attend if allowed, so it also helped behavior,so the would be allowed to go. I have believed this concept all my life even as a director when I did the King and I , it was my first adventure with Thai food. Every play I did the same thing. Now I told you for some reason I cannot find the strength to sit through a novel since the quarantine but I have become interested in immigration at the beginning of the 20 th century and the affect on American cuisine from every culture. Thank god for the internet, it is something that took me awhile to use now it is my life line to knowledge that and my new phone.
Today is Friday start to plan you weekend for enjoyment. Have a great day. Til Tomorrow! Remember if you are Catholic no meat today.