Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Sunday



Sunday is the day that I ramble. I'll write of this and that and maybe strike a chord here and there -- or, maybe not!
by Charlie Leck

Sunday Morning
What a day! It’s spectacular as I look outside from my tree-top study – more like an impressionist oil painting than real life. I love working here. It's a thinking spot and its beautiful all through the year outside these windows. This morning the birds are singing their incredible songs and I can hear Calamity Jane, the donkey, braying in the distance.

Mother's Day
And, it’s Mother’s Day, to boot. We’ll be off to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in a couple of hours to meet some of the kids there to celebrate the wonders of their mother. Do you celebrate Mother's Day. I hope so.

This morning, before the sun came up, I read a good piece in the Washington Post. It was about President Obama's mother and it is part of a series of stories about the President by David Maraniss, the author of a forthcoming biography called Barack Obama: The Story. This segment about Obama's mother was very nice reading on this particular morning. It seems to indicate that the President's natural instincts and characteristics are matrilineal. [You can read it here.]

The Farmers Markets
My friend, Sam, and I visited a couple of the local farmers markets yesterday. What a wonderful phenomenon they are. And, they spreading and growing like crazy. Then we stopped by Uncle Frankie's in Golden Valley for a little lunch. We had honest-to-god Chicago style hot dogs and they were wonderful. Sam, who seems to know everyone, introduced me to his friend, Uncle Frankie (his name is really Jay, and he's a veteran of the restaurant business and delightfully funny). Kind, generous people like Jay are fantastic to meet and enjoy. I chalked the encounter up as something special.

    A beauty working one of the pastry booths at
    the Mill City Farmers Market in Minneapolis (13 May 2012)


The Minneapolis Playwright Center
In the evening Anne and I went off to the annual fund-raising bash of the Minneapolis Playwright Center. It was a lovely evening, highlighted by four wonderful little (10 minute) plays written by some local playwrights while we munched on our dinner. The audience was in stitches as they were performed before us by some wonderful guest actors. (Wasn't it a terrific advancement in the language that we no longer need to add: "...and actresses" to the end of that previous sentence?)

Back to Mississippi in June
I'm pretty excited to be going back down to Mississippi in June (21-24) to participate in the annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service. I've written plenty about Mississippi in 1964 here on this blog and you can find those blogs by doing a Google Blog Search. I also published those blogs as The Mississippi Blogs and I'll be glad to send a copy of the little book to anyone who wants one.

For the last few years, the committee down there has been asking me to come down to speak at a couple of the memorial services and I've agreed to do that this year. Now I'm at work, struggling with what I can say in those speeches that will be meaningful and helpful. I wouldn't mind advice from any of you. I arrived in Canton, Mississippi early in the morning, less than 8 hours after James Cheney, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered by a group of Klan members outside of Philadelphia (MS). Those crimes have never been fully prosecuted. I'm still haunted by the awfulness of what happened to those guys 48 years ago. Many of us who can't let go may have been able to had the killers been tried and convicted.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers among my readers. I hope your day is wonderful and happy. You deserve it.


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1 comment:

  1. Anytime, Charles. Including Thursday for lunch at Windsong. I'm working at home Thursday and Friday. xoxo

    ReplyDelete