Art Works - Richmond Virginia: Six new tapestries arrived for Maximo Laura's exhibit

Art Works - Richmond Virginia: Six new tapestries arrived for Maximo Laura's exhibit

Four Years Later

Here he is. All grown up. Taking care of business. Our youngest son graduating from JMU excelling in his studies, making us proud. Although we were happy when we took him to college on that first day, as we walked to our car we stopped on the street corner and Bill and I cried a little. Sometimes you notice milestones and this one was.

I remember crying another time. October 1988, we sat down to a steak dinner supplied by the hospital after the baby was born. We had to take the dinner home with us because we couldn't afford to stay more than 1 day in the hospital and have the dinner served to us there. So we sat on the couch with our new baby in his borrowed buggy/bassinet and felt our hearts fill with gratitude. Another milestone.

He was a sweet, sweet child and very loving. In first grade elementary school, he and little Coleen acted as mediators on the playground. Whenever there was an argument, Coleen would take one of the parties aside and Albert would take the other and they'd council with them. Coleen said when she grew up she was going to be President of the United States. I would so vote for her!

There were many milestones, like learning to ride the bike when he sat got up the next morning and smiled and said "I'm so proud of myself". And in high school when he got the Governor's award and most valuable senior chorus member and in little league when he got most improve player and went to All Stars in the Babe Ruth Lakeside Little League and when I'd see his friends gather round him and the girls would hug him and be so excited just seeing him.

He's a nice person, kind and smart and he's our son.

Searching for Citizen Good

August 30 morning, A couple eating breakfast in Cracker Barrel and the man got up, took off his sweater and wrapped it around the lady...It was chilly, i must say

Searching for Citizen Good

Here is an alternative news source, good news, people doing nice things for others. i plan on noticing you and capturing you on camera. So if you pick up someo one else's litter or let someone out in

traffic or any number of good citizen actions you will be noticed. I would like to invite people to participate. Send me your sitings of big or small good deeds,

My thoughts on National Health Insurance

What the Hell....

My friend sent this to me today. I thought I'd share it with you guys. Made me laugh - a lot!

The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry mid term , and an actual answer turned in by a student.

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The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

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Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

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Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

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One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely.. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

> Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

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This gives two possibilities:

> 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over..

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct, leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

It was such a clear, crisp, blue sky day in September

I just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer's " Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". My life is so less complicated than these characters. It was complicated early on but somewhere along the way, I found my way. I don't know how but I'm very grateful.

I think about the pain from my first marriage and now , 40 years later, the great joy of the fruits of that marriage - a grandson who kisses me and smiles sweetly and is discovering life. I delight in his discoveries.

But what good has come from the pain of 9/11? I don't go there in my mind because if I do, there is great sadness - that time and then the aftermath. But I am in that place this morning. Remembering the people with pictures and signs, looking for their loved ones. The great sorrow of all those fallen people. My father saw this kind of destruction in WWI. He was a brave man with 2 bronze stars to his credit and he carried the war with him every day until his 86th year. I always felt safe because he had fought the war but seeing 9/11 brought some of his horrors to my doorstep - only 1 generation away from him - too soon.

I watched on TV our troops invading Iraq. It was very dusty - long lines of tanks, hour after hour. In my heart I thought, there must be a very good reason for our country to do this and do it in such magnitude. As I watched, I thought, surely the President would not take us to this place unless he was absolutely sure that the weapons of mass destruction existed. And then there was none. What else is there to say about that? It's like going down a road, knowing that you took a wrong turn a few miles back, but you keep going because you think the right road will show up if you just keep going. And finally either you are hopelessly lost or you turn around and recover the same ground to get back on track. But there was no turning back from Iraq. Once something is torn apart, then you can't walk away from it and leave it in ruins - especially a country. I feel we are hopelessly lost sometimes. What is there to do but to go forward with the best of intentions to find your way.

There's no undoing the suffering or loss for anyone involved as there is no way of undoing our personal losses and suffering. Once hurt, the pain remains. But there is moving forward. And there is finding our way. There is much healing to be achieved. And I know for a fact that healing happens and happiness comes. It's not out of great suffering that happiness comes, but in spite of it.

For me, right at this moment, the happiness is the thought of that little grandson, waking up in his crib, smiling at the face over him, kicking his little legs - so glad to see whomever it is he sees. He's crawling now! Such a little thing, to bring such joy.

And I am sure that we will all find our way.