Thursday, May 12, 2005

Native plants, Mother's Day & the New York Times

Last Saturday Hoops and I attended the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center garden tour. The beautiful homes were beautifully landscaped, primarily using native Texas plants. At one of the homes we ran into Luci Banes Johnson, who gave Hoops a big old hug when she found out that Hoops had been volunteering at the Wildflower Center for nearly 20 years. In our brief encounter, Luci impressed me as being very gracious and down-too-earth.

I had a perfectly wonderful Mother's Day. My second son came over Saturday night and crashed at the cottage. Sunday morning I went and played with the toddlers in the religious education class at church, then attended the second service. The afternoon was stormy, so was able to spend several blessed hours sleeping and just vegging out. That evening #2 son's band played at a club on Sixth Street and I went down to watch my boy perform. My Mom is healthy and had a good day with my nieces, my kids are all doing well....and we all get along amicably...what more could a mother want?

I recently subscribed to the New York Times and now spend much of my time after work reading it. I have learned so much about what is going on in the rest of the world....most of it not good, but a smattering of good news here and there.

I've found especially interesting the articles about Sr. Lopez Obrador, the progressive mayor of Mexico City, who has a good chance of being elected the next president of Mexico (if some CIA spook doesn't assassinate him first). Lopez, Chavez, and Lula......maybe there's hope for this hemisphere yet. (Note to self: Learn to say "I'm seeking political asylum" in Spanish.)

I'm also loving that Luis Posada, anti-Castro terrorist, is possibly in the US. Whether Bush opts to let him stay, jails him, or allows Venezuela to extradite him, someone is going to be mighty pissed. Heh, it's a no-win situation for that rat bastid.

The most heart-rending articles have to do with the plight of women in the third world. Anytime I'm having a bad day, all I have to do is think of the women in Kyrgyzstan who, when they reach the age of 16, are subject to kidnapping by any man who wants to make her his wife.

Or the women from Sri Lanka who have to leave their children and go to one of the Arab countries to be housemaids, many of whom are virtual slaves and are horribly mistreated.

Or the women in Malawi, who when their husbands die, are expected to have sex with one of the husband's relatives as a way of "cleansing" to ensure that the village will be protected from evil spirits. This in a country where one in five people have AIDS.

It's no wonder that so many of us are looking for a "savior." There are too many heartbreaking things going on. We look on and feel helpless.

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