Category Archives: 1

For Me? You Shouldn’t Have! (But Thanks for the Compliment!)

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sunshineawardToday is National Compliment Day, and I’d just like to say that I think Margo L. Dill is grand! She gave me the Sunshine Blog Award because she thinks I’m a “blogger who positively and creatively inspires others in the blogosphere.”

Now, that’s quite the compliment. And I have to admit I’m feeling pretty warm and fuzzy inside right now. But there’s more to this award than a warm and fuzzy feeling. There’s favorites to ponder!

Favorite Things!

 

  • Favorite color: Okay, that’s tough. Really tough. I love SO many colors. But I’ll say blue, as in a Georgia blue sky on a summer afternoon in July.
  • Favorite animal: SO much easier. Dog.
  • Favorite number: I’m tempted to say my birthday number, but I’m rather fond of 5. I don’t know why.
  • Favorite drink: Oh. My. Gosh. Favorites are hard. Okay, Coke. No, unsweet tea. (Yes, I know. But it’s still unsweet.)
  • Facebook or Twitter?: Facebook.
  • Your passions: My faith, my family, my friends, my writing, my sports teams. Not necessarily in that order if one of my teams is playing.
  • Giving or getting presents: Giving is probably the nobler answer, but…
  • Favorite day: FRIDAY! I work at home now, but old habits die hard. I still get excited when Friday rolls around.
  • Favorite flowers: Why must you torture me with this favorites thing??? If I must choose, I’ll say hydrangeas. But now I feel bad for wisteria and bougainvillea and daisies and magnolias and camellias and forget-me-nots.

And now it’s time to pass along the lovely compliment. I’d like to give the Sunshine Blog Award to Debra Mayhew and Lisa Ricard Claro. Their blogs always brighten my day and make me so very glad I stopped by for a read.

But honestly, all of you brighten my day. And I’d say that even if it weren’t National Compliment Day.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Dorothy Parker (Yes, Dorothy Parker)

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ImageMany of you may be celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday today. After all, the third Monday in January is set aside to remember this man and his work for racial equality. But I don’t think you can top author, Dorothy Parker, and the way she chose to celebrate and remember Dr. King.

And now you’re probably starting to wonder. Do I mean Dorothy Parker, the acerbic wit whose poetry and reviews often showed up in The New Yorker and Vanity Fair? You’re remembering her satirical short stories, or perhaps her reputation as a party girl. That Dorothy Parker?

 

ImageYep, that Dorothy Parker. She was quite the wise-cracking writer, but she was a political activist as well. And though she never met Martin Luther King, Jr., she was a fan of the civil rights movement and social equality, and she admired what the clergyman from the South was trying to achieve. So she left her literary estate to him. 

Within a year, King was assassinated, and so the estate was rolled over to the NAACP. Eventually, Dorothy Parker’s ashes were interred at a memorial garden at the organization’s Baltimore headquarters (which is a fascinating story in itself), and her epitaph reads:

“Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) Humorist, writer, critic, defender of human and civil rights. For her epitaph she suggested “Excuse My Dust”. This memorial garden is dedicated to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness of humankind, and to the bonds of everlasting friendship between black and Jewish people.”

Today we remember Martin Luther King, Jr., yes, but we also remember that his dream of equality continues with each and every one of us. As writers, we might not have a big literary estate like Dorothy Parker to support the dream. But we have our words.

And words can change the world.