Happy Valentine's Week

-


 My Valentine's birthday is February 15, so this is a big week for us.  Why a Bear?  When my nephew, Danny, was about six he said to me, 

"When I was really little I saw Arthur in his bathing suit, and I said,

'Wow, Arthur, you have a lot of hair on your chest!' And he didn't even look up-he just said, 'Well, Danny, I used to be a bear.'  And I believed him for a long time!"

Arthur has told me that he also told Danny it was a secret.  Well, he kept it for three years.

Danny has grown up to be Senior Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  


This makes it exciting to watch confirmation hearings because there's always the chance of a Danny sighting, even if it's only his chin. In the Senate he's not called Danny but Dan.  However in our family, Dan Swanson is our uncle Dan, George Daniel Swanson, our Dad's baby brother.   He and I go way back.

Dan is also celebrating his birthday this week--February 14!  He was my grandmother's Valentine baby. She told me that well-meaning friends expressed sympathy at his birth because she already had three sons and they assumed she wanted a girl. She made it very clear that Dan was exactly the one she wanted. 

I agree. When I was too little to water-ski on my own he took me piggy-back. Yes, on waterskis, and no life jacket! He knew I was a good swimmer. Definitely a cool uncle.

so Happy Birthday, Dan!

In searching for these snapshots I found a Christmas card with an adorable blue-eyed white kitten sitting under the Christmas tree.  Inside it said, "Sometimes its hard to be my mom and Sams mom. But you have been doing a good job over the past 11 1/2 years.  Merry Christmas + Happy New Year, Love Jessie." It wasn't dated but I hope it was when she was eleven and a half. I'm not sure I appreciated this as much then as I do now, so I'm very glad I saved it.

You never know when something will pop up and give you a little bit of joy.  And you never know how you might do that for someone else.

So, four days late, Happy Valentine's Day! I searched for a platonic love poem appropriate for all ages and levels of friendship and came up with this by Shel Silverstein.  I've been hard on Mr. Silverstein for years because I have serious issues with his book, The Giving Tree but here's something we can enjoy unreservedly.

Hug O' War

Shel SilversteinBy  

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins



Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/hug-o-war-by-shel-silverstein


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Keeping' on the Sunny Side

-
Image
 Good Morning!  I was thinking about posting a reprise of an old post about PINK, to keep the Barbie vibe going; I understand that in London they've painted all the red telephone booths pink and the great Ferris wheel has pink lights in honor of Her Plasticness but I had a better idea--you could say the Sun came up! You know I have a granddaughter named Sunny, right? I wanted to do a drawing for her and what else could I start with? The Sun and sunflowers--not very original but she's two and a half--to her everything's new and it's her name! Filling in the sky I see that it looks like the way I draw water, but that's OK.  I added Batchelor Buttons beneath the Sunflowers and I like the way the blue makes the yellow pop.  I'm not sure how to handle the transition from flowers to sky so I won't think about it.  Remember Mickey Rivers; "I don't worry about what I can control because if I can control it why worry?" And I'm in control! I used som
Read more

Oh, Russell

-
Image
 I have to teach Russell that when I say, "I just devoured that book!" I don't mean it literally. However, I must admit that he has a discerning eye, and has brought some forgotten favorites back to my attention, like this -- Art Nouveau  by Martin Battersley, from The Color Library of Art.     Here is Symbolist poet Robert de Montesquiou, an aristocrat and a dandy, the original of Proust's Baron de Charlus. I placed him with this Barbie because she has a Belle Epoque kind of vibe.  The painter is Giovanni Boldini 1842-1931. "He fascinated his sitters by his method of painting, gazing at them intently as though to draw out their inmost secrets and then attacking the canvas with long brushes held at arm's length. He transformed his sitters into almost impossibly seductive creatures striking languorous poses and suggested that the slightest movement would result in the beautifully painted silks, chiffons, lace and chinchilla falling off to reveal them in writhi
Read more

Summer Reading

-
Image
What are you Reading?  I love it when someone asks me that. The Times Book Review has a column that asks what's on your night table?  Does everybody read in bed?  If I have a good book I can't wait to say good-night. But as reading and writing has made me focus on language an abyss of bad grammar has opened before   me and I cry out in anguish. Will I ever become inured to hearing Ivy League graduates on NPR saying, "Him and Me are gonna..." and "Please reach out to John or I?" Terry Gross never corrects anyone's grammar and I respect  that,  it's not a good interviewing technique,  but where are the mothers and teachers?  How has it come to this? And another thing! The misplaced modifier!   In a biography of Willa Cather I read, "At the age of eight, school began to bore Willa."  Really? School was eight years old?  Miss Cather is rolling over in her grave.  And this, from Elle Decor; "As a young girl, her father affectionately nickna
Read more