Today is Free Comic Book Day. Following the link will take you to their official website and use their location finder to find your local participating comic store. This is a family tradition for many families, ours included since the beginning.
Free comics, stickers, cosplay. It is great fun for all ages. Our comic shop collects for local charities as well, so it’s also a great community event.
Strength and beauty are virtues of the vulnerable.
– Katherine Ramdeen, If I Could Tell You Supernatural Calendar, 2018
Katherine Ramdeen as photographed by Illya Swan. Their copyright. (c)2018
[No copyright infringement intended and no money made.]
Today is World Free Press Day. Many of us know that included in the First Amendment is our sacred freedom of the press, but because this document is two hundred thirty-one years old we don’t always give it the respect and attention it deserves. In fact, a free press in the United States is something that i think many of us take for granted. We assume that if we need to know it, CNN or MSNBC or The Washington Post, etc. will let us know in big twenty point headlines and short, pithy, decible-breaking sound bites.
For Halloween in 2016, I dressed as a journalist with a notebook, 1940s hat, and press pass. I quoted Thomas Jefferson. I got a few nods and nice costumes, but it wasn’t just a cosplay or costume. I had been watching the 2016 election for more than a year, and what was happening from the Trump campaign was was distressing to me.
I can’t have been the only one to see what was happening in this country, but I felt as though I was screaming into the void.
After two years of this Administration’s trampling of journalists and the press, they’ve erased mention of a free press in the Department of Justice’s internal manual. This country was founded on basic tenets, none more basic than the First Amendment, and a free press to keep the government accountable.
Now, Trump’s Justice Department was chipping away at those basic tenets with a sledgehammer.
There are journalists around the world, trying to get the truth out, who are kidnapped, tortured, and killed. We need to shine a light on this epidemic, and the United States needs to go back to leading the way for the press to be free.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is one organization who shines the light and keeps the rest of us aware of what’s happening around the world.
Press Freedom is under threat – press release
Press Freedom is under threat – Mission Report. This includes a link to download the full report. I urge you to read it.
Free the Press: 2018 Campaign to Free Imprisoned Journalists:
It’s supposed to be warm. It’s May. But it’s still cold. We still have our heat on; the nights are still a bit too cold, but I’m about to cave, and turn off the heat. May’s a little ridiculous to still have it on. I might have to sleep in a sweater, but I need to draw the line somewhere, don’t I?
For those of us with school-age children, May is busy. We’re getting ready for the end of the school year, we’re making plans for the summer that hopefully don’t include eighteen hours of television and tablets per day.
Locally, it’s tulip season. There’s a festival in the capital. Flowers and music and food. Mother’s Day is the same weekend. So much too do, and not enough time, like most of the year.
It’s dance season. Proms, which my kids are too young for, but middle school still has their dances where the boys don’t think they need ties no matter what the dress code says, and the girls want to wear gowns even though they’re so, so young.
We’re catching up on our snow days and sick days. My son is already talking about Halloween. For gardeners, things are blooming, or at least beginning to. Weeds are being pulled, birds are tweeting, loudly; I don’t like the heat of summer, but really…when will the sun return?
Theme: Place
Prompt: Favorite place you’ve ever lived or traveled to
Readings
Acts 9:26-31
Ps 22
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
Reflection
It reminds me of James 3:26: Faith without works is dead. It’s not the faith that’s important; it’s what having faith leads you to do. From giving money to giving time, our works and their reception increases our faith which increases our good works. Similarly, when we love both truthfully and through our deeds, we, and they, come alive.
Journal Prompt
“Let us love in deed and truth.”
Prayer
Remind me, O Lord that faith and love are paramount, equally deed and works will lead us to fulfillment and a deeper faith and abiding love. Amen.
”People talk about ‘finding’ their lives. In reality, your life is not something you find – it’s something you create.”
– David Phillips
Recently, an acquaintance of mine left for a trip to Ireland on a group tour. Her travels were taking her to Ireland as well as Belfast in the North and as far north as the Giants Causeway. She had been asking for advice, and I thought it would be helpful to share some of those tidbits here.
1. You will not receive a bag with your purchases.
Not even at the grocery store. You will need to bring your own reusable bag or pay 5p to receive one. I did notice that there weren’t plastic bags swirling around the streets in the breeze.
2. Bring an umbrella and a lightweight jacket.
We visited in August, and we wore our jackets every day. It was colder than I expected. As for rain, it will rain every day. Sometimes it’s no more than a mist that you would feel at a waterfall, but we had at least two downpours, and without an umbrella, we would have been soaked to our skin.
As I joked with my brother-in-law: Ask yourself if you’re still in Ireland. If the answer is yes, then you need to bring your umbrella.
3. Across the street from City Hall in Belfast is a large information center with great pamphlets, maps, and a gift shop. If you can’t get to that one, try and find an information center before you start wandering around. They are very helpful. Visit Belfast Welcome Center.
4. Around the corner and down the road a tiny bit is Carroll’s, an Irish gift shop with clothes, magnets, mugs, candy, everything and anything at a price range that makes something affordable for everyone.
5. The candy selection is amazing.
Even if you find something similar to what we have in the States, the use of local water and milk in the candymaking makes it spectacular.
6. Toffee. Eat all the toffee.
We can’t get good British toffee in the States. It is my go-to when I can get it.
Also, eat all the cheddar.
7. Visit Titanic Belfast. It is an incredible museum dedicated to the building of the Titanic. I think they did a really wonderful job balancing their pride for building the great ship and the respect for the lives lost in the disaster. They also have plenty of on-site parking at a reasonable price, a cafe, and a gift shop.
9. Botanic Gardens. One word of warning, there is very little parking in this area.
10. Wear comfortable shoes. There will be a lot of walking regardless of your prime mode of transportation.
11. Download maps to your smartphone or prints them out. If you can’t do that, get them right away, especially street maps, if only to get your bearings. We tend to drive in circles the first couple of days.
12. Carry cash. The general consensus is £200 to start and then use an ATM as needed.
Visa and MasterCard are taken at most places.
Notify your bank that you will be traveling and for how long, so they don’t freeze your cards when you need them. (This includes your Debit/ATM card as well.)
From personal experience, I would not recommend Discover. In the two weeks we were there, we found two places that took them. Not even the petrol stations did.
13. £ Stores. Poundland, Pound World, All for a £. The same as our dollar stores, but everything’s £1.
14. Petrol is in litres; road signs are in miles. I have no idea why. If you find out, please let me know.
15. Leave space in your case to bring things back without having to pay baggage fees.
Titanic Belfast. Museum. (c)2018
Theme: Place
Prompt: Favorite Restaurant or Bar
Readings
Acts 4:8-12
Ps 118
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18
Reflection
The cornerstone is the foundation, but it’s more than that. It’s the beginning, the first step, the mark of remembrance; the placeholder for all that is to follow.
When seeing the cornerstone, we see where that space all began. Sometimes there’s an engraving, a year of commencement or sometimes completion. A symbol highlighting the buildign’s significance – a cross, an open book. Letters: an engraver’s initials, an artist’s signature, a person’s legacy.
We trace the marks with our fingertips; we photograph all sides with a camera or even our mind’s eye. We do a pencil rubbing on vellum, but there are still realizations hidden deep away.
We begin with the cornerstone and find our own way from there.
Journal Prompt
The cornerstone
Prayer
Jesus,
Show us the full meaning of the cornerstone,
Bring us there for the beginning,
And walk with us as we end there
At the end of our circle.
We pray to you, and thank you for being by our side.
Amen.
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 