Future Forecast

Elijah Cummings, Representative of Maryland’s 7th District, died at age 68 on October 17, 2019.   He is someone I admire.  He was a strong supporter of civil rights, voting rights, and on maintaining protection of our Constitution.  He was the son of a sharecropper.

In the past year I watched him remain strong and outspoken despite his failing health.  One of my favorite quotes of his was from the Committee of Oversight and Reform (which he chaired) Cohen Hearing on February 27, 2019:

“When we’re dancing with the angels,
the questions will be asked, in 2019
what did we do to make sure we kept our
democracy intact?  Did we stand on the
sidelines and say nothing?”

📷 by geralt on pixabay

 Using that futuristic position to look back on our lives can either be unsettling or it can be of service.  Look at yourself in future years, or imagine the next generation pondering over our historical behaviors.  Or, as in Rep Cummings’ statement, consider how you will appear among “the angels,” standing before God himself, trying to explain yourself.

Take time now to look closely at what we are doing to ourselves, to each other, and towards all people.  The effects of our action or inaction ripple away further out than we can even imagine.  Not that we are in control of everything.  But we share in the control, we share with our influences, we share in developing outcomes.  Thus we are creating the future:  for improvement or destruction?

 Will the future be peaceful, with equality among us; will we have law and order, along with respect and justice?  What each of us does today does matter in transforming the outcomes for tomorrow.  You see, even the son of a sharecropper, Elijah, knew that power.  And he acted with that power until the day he died. 
Rest in peace, sir.    Theresa M

Elijah Cummings 1951-2019

*Elijah Cummings photo from his twitter account

Remind Me I Was Here

📷 Walnut Grove Cemetery by Theresa M
A delightful twitter account named Canadian Cemetery History (@CaCemeteryHist) sent a reminder that walking through a cemetery in the fall can be tranquil.

I really appreciated that reminder.  I have gone in previous autumns to visit cemeteries.  The colorful leaves and crisp air blended in so well with strolling in the sunlight, visiting mostly strangers laid to rest.  There was a sense of comfort, of acceptance, that we all have this in common:  We live.  We die. That’s okay.


But will anyone be around to visit?  It’s one thing to be alive and not have anyone visit once in awhile.  But to die, be buried, and left behind.  How sad.  No one to remember you.

📷 Riverview Cemetery by Theresa M

So even visiting gravesites of those you don’t know can be a heartwarming experience.  For you.  And for the dead person.  Remembrance - just read their name, say it aloud if you like, and let that spirit know you just wanted to say hello.  A little act that will likely brighten up their heart in the heavenly realm.


      👀  👀  👻  👻  🌙  🌟

📷 by yarmouthandacadianshores.com

Then later, when the sky is clear at night, look up into the stars and see your new friend smile.  Thanks for keeping in touch.          Theresa M



Erasing American Ancestry

If you could picture each and every person on earth as a pencil sketch--sure with colorful pencils to brighten everything--how would a giant eraser be used to change our lives?

📷 by Evan Amos Public Domain Wikipedia Commons

With all the talk about immigration, it has me imagining what it would look like to go back to change the past situations with today’s political proposals.

(Note:  We definitely need immigration reform.
 We definitely need to have people seek it legally.
 We definitely also need to treat all people humanely.)

Well, what would it look like?  Maybe many of today’s descendants wouldn’t be here.  Irish, Italian, French, German, Jews, Japanese, Chinese, etc arrived with very little, and maybe few skills.  But they had sheer determination to work.  And work hard they did.  How fortunate they were given a chance.  America needed immigrants then and still need them.  But apparently the chance to become an American is being removed by hard line politicians who don’t see many of them as even being human.

📷 by geralt on pixabay


Thus, erase this current generation, erase the kids, the grandkids, the parents, back to the grandparents.  Erase in the Northeast--such a heavily populated area.  Erase down to Florida, sweep toward Louisiana, which had many French, German and Spanish settlers before it was a state.  Many of the French there were kicked out of Canada  by the British.  Can they stay?

On to Texas where Native Americans and Mexican people have lived long before white settlers, so don’t erase them.  They do belong.  Erase on towards the West--California on up and back around through the plains, sparse-populated areas.  Erase the people, but again not the Native Americans all throughout North America.  There, give them their land back instead of shoving them into reservations.

Erasing now toward middle America and down to the South again, where slaves were brought against their will; their generations deserve to stay as they were born here.  But those immigrants--maybe not so much by the standard of today’s policies/proposals.  Erase.

📷 by kalhh on pixabay


Lots of erasures.  Wipe off the residue.  Clean off the map.  How far back do we go in generations with these policy proposals?  What does America look like?  Who are the people here?  Native Americans.  African Americans.  Some French, Spanish, German settlers--some from Acadia in Canada.  We have handfuls of people brought from China to help with the railroads.  They worked hard.  We have a handful from European countries--potato famine folks for one--but what can they do?  They failed their farms.  No Irish here.  No Italians.  No more Germans.  No Jews.  Just enough here, unless they can prove they don’t need a handout; unless they can prove they will work hard, pay taxes, and agree to receive little compensation; because the rich want as much as they can get.

📷 by Capri23auto on pixabay
But the rich weren’t willing to do the hard work or get their hands dirty.  Nope, they needed more cheap labor.  Oh, okay.  Bring in a few more immigrants.  Got to fill these jobs.  Got to make more money.  Got to be richer.  Oh, I see how that works.

Where will we go from here?           Theresa M. 


my tweet on Aug 13, 2019:
“America was never meant to be an all-white nation.  The greed and opportunities of many European settlers forced their hand against people of color.  Each generation seeks a better way of life.  The norm is naturally multi-cultural and much more diverse, white not so much.”