“Try to remember the kind of September, when life was slow and oh, so mellow…” (Schmidt, Jones)
Autumn has finally arrived and whether your summer was wild and fuzzy or hot and hot, fall offers a more relaxed pace. Growing up on a farm, fall meant cotton picking, the mid-south fair, back to school, cooler days, and political campaigns.
Now with a 24-hour news cycle, everything is political, and the conversations are never ending. We’re days, not months, away from Election 2022, and it’ll be interesting to see who tells better stories about their victories, defeats, and intentions.
During a recent interview, a local legislator poignantly noted that people don’t like to talk about politics, but politics are a part of everything. From how much tax we pay, to whether it costs more to drive an electric car, to what we do with our bodies, it’s all political. He’s right.
With that in mind, it’s more important than ever that we, the people, pay attention, be better informed, and know who we’re electing, from the bottom to the top of the ballot. These folks should share our values, ideals, ethics, and agendas if they intend to represent us and do what’s best for our community, state, nation, and world.
I’ve been closely watching the Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial races since they were hotly contested during the last election and the state’s election officials and volunteers were the source of hostility and controversy. One person a reporter talked to about candidate and football great Hershel Walker said, “nobody’s perfect and we’ve all made mistakes,” when asked about the discrepancies in Walker’s statements.
As Imperfect Person #1, I know this interviewee was right, but we don’t have to know who’s who to know what’s what as somebody said, to know that if you didn’t graduate from a prestigious school, you shouldn’t say you did.
Being well informed and telling the truth top the important things list so I pray Mr. Walker will remember that as debate time quickly approaches. He joked that Rev. Warnock might try to make him look bad. This is no laughing matter–if he is untruthful and unclear about his positions, he’ll take care of that concern without any help from the good pastor.
Attorney Stacey Abrams who is running for Georgia governor, used her time of defeat to get thousands of people registered to vote, and for that she deserves a medal. When you think about everything people have been through to get and exercise this privilege and right, everybody and his cousin ought to show up at the polls, rain, shine, sleet, or snow.
Nobody much is picking cotton by hand nowadays, schools have been in session since early August, and most fairs and their prize pigs and heifers are gone until next year—so, as we welcome and enjoy fall, let’s remember this is National Self-care and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Month.
One of the wonderful things about COVID—ok, the only wonderful thing about COVID, was it showed us that we can live without a million meetings and being busy all the time. I plan to never go back to the bad old days, so here’s what I propose for this month’s national observances:
(1) Getting more sleep and rest rather than one and not the other.
(2) Getting annual screenings (mammograms, colonoscopies, Pap Smears, oral checkups) and check-ups so that if we have the heebie-jeebies, they find and treat them early.
(3) Eating more vegetables, drinking more water, walking wherever possible, and reducing stress and stressors.
Go ahead, create your own list, and live like September comes every month…
Looking for inspiration, empowerment, uplift, straight talk, an encouraging word to brighten your day? You’ve arrived! Meet Dr. Cynthia Ann Bond Hopson, best-selling author, educator, inspirational speaker, sistergirl–she’s all that and more. All the way from Stanton, TN (you can’t get there from here) to 50 states, six continents and everything in between, she’s wise, witty and altogether wonderful. She enthusiastically invites you to slow down, sit a spell, and share a giggle or two.
