Peppermint Patty, My dad, and Remembering our Soldiers

Dear Dad, Happy Memorial Day, but is it happy that we remember the soldiers who died for … us? Or who died because they died, and that’s just sad.

I’m thinking of you, every breakfast I make. I made an olive bread/toast olive-cheese omelet sandwich and had bratwurst with that. But I remember your cinnamon-sugar bagels, and those are my favorite breakfasts, because they’re yummy and because they’re made by YOU! 😃 

Remember how Peppermint Patty would get angry with Charlie Brown, whom she would call ‘Chuck’, but then, when they reconciled they’d shake on it. But she wouldn’t let go of his hand. 🎼”You’re holding my hand, Chuck!” she’d sing gaily and she wouldn’t let go, watching him blush in embarrassment.

I think Peppermint Patty wanted to be loved, and I think she loved her ‘Chuck’ and wanted him to love her back, but she held all that inside her, this sadness, with a sly, winsome humor, joking with him, but still wanting to be loved.

I remember you here, looking out for me when I was sick, coughing during COVID, but you still took care of me, but then, I remember how home called you back. You were a visitor here, welcomed and loved, but still a visitor, not at home.

I hope you’re happy at home. Are you going to visit a Cemetery this weekend, and remember the soldiers? Connecticut is blessed in that you can walk down the road to a Cemetery and remember the dead. That’s what I do, when I visit a cemetery: I say their names and I pray for them. I pray that they are remembered and I pray for their peace in the next life.

Peppermint Patty: so good at sports, so cool, so confident … I think she’s the saddest Peanuts character: I think Charles Schulz knew that.

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A man's a man for a' that

I 'love' it when women occasional post that men should be more sensitive, caring, thoughtful, socially-outgoing, ...

That men should be women.

Look. Why do men never post the opposite?

Because men love and respect women as they are.

Ladies, you love your man because he's a MAN.

And, sure, it'd be great if he crafted you a crème brulée and massaged your feet and lovey-dovied you to death.

But don't wish your man to be a woman: you'd eventually hate him for his effeminacy, and you got exactly what you wanted.

The reason that he's quiet around other people, that he doesn't plan out Mothers' Day, that he has work so you have to go to that function or take care of the family is because he's a man, and he's doing his job, as a man.

Pining for him to be a woman only brings resentment.

Instead of finding fault of what he's not, maybe, instead, recognize, to him, verbally, what he is.

Instead of noticing when he doesn't do something, maybe notice when he does: he's making an effort, for you, to please you, because he loves you.

Women: you have the power.

You can build your marriage and your family, or you can wreck it with just one word or just one look or just one tiktok.

And, yes, it's all on him, too, but as a man, not as a woman.

Think on these things, then thank God your man's a MAN.