September 2020 Issue

Change Leads to No Change

Buddy, can you spare a dime? Can you find a nickel in the couch cushions? Did you just roll up the pennies in your jar? If so, you might help resolve one of the pandemic’s unpredictable predicaments: the Unites States is facing a coin shortage. That’s right. A shortage of change. With everything else under undulating rules, zigzagging restart dates, and clouds of masking, one would think that things that clink in our pockets and rattle in the bottom of our purses would be something we can count on. Not so. The Fed convened a US Coin Task Force in July because it was so serious. Closer to home, Dollar

Turning Your Home into a Tropical Oasis

The millennial curse is this: we are paid less than our parents’ generation, we are often living in apartments or smaller homes without gardens, and we often still carry debt from college. Kids and pets are a near impossibility while we struggle to provide for ourselves, much less for another living creature. But the need to nurture is still there, and it is strong. So I introduce to you the Plant Parents. Plants have the additional charm of creating a meditative place. They clean the air. They are living home decorations. Instead of purchasing tinkety decor items that will end up in a landfill, you now have plants. Feel powerless

Pocket Poetry

Changing the World – One Poem at a Time Having been graciously selected by the members of The Aiken Poets to serve as Poet Laureate, I wondered what I could do to make people more excited about poetry and to make poetry better appreciated, noticed, read, memorized, written, and shared. Then I came up with this idea I call Pocket Poetry — a few lines in rhyme or free verse, written in calligraphy on white or colored cards, and distributed at random to people I meet. They go to people I know, people who provide a service, like the cashiers at the supermarket, the teller at the bank, the postal

My Rocky Road From Analog to Digital

I’m an analog person. I admit it. As a young wife, I was content with my books, my three TV channels, and my corded telephone. Life was so simple! And then computers rocked my world! It’s my husband’s fault, of course. He became obsessed with them and his obsession spilled over into every corner of my life. First he bedazzled me with a sleek looking word processor — so cool! I could erase without erasing! Just backspace and it was fixed. How much easier than carbons and white out. One problem though — you could only see one line at a time as you typed. Not perfect, but wait! Soon

Paradise In The Pandemic

People flock to beaches for sanctuary, but are met with crowds and exposure to more than the sun. Myrtle Beach, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, Folly Beach, Edisto, Hilton Head — all are summer attractions for tourists from around the world. There are large homes available for rent right on the beaches of South Carolina; some can sleep up to twenty people, providing a great destination for family reunions and house parties. The local economy depends on these tourists, but the hometown people have been flabbergasted by the recent results. Recently, cases of COVID-19 have spiked to record highs. The more private beaches of Pawley’s Island, Kiawah, and Seabrook have

Greatest Generation – First Person Account | Sunset for Block Island

The USS Block Island (CVE-21), a “baby flattop” aircraft carrier, was struck by 3 torpedoes in the middle of the night of May 29, 1944. Once the order to abandon ship was given, Warren was responsible for locating and securing all classified communications in a safe, in the pitch dark — the power had gone out — before he could leave the sinking ship. The story continues in his words … We paddled to the destroyer Ahrens, which was standing by taking on survivors from the ship. On the way, we heard a loud roar and saw that the destroyer escort Barr had its fan-tail (the back of the ship)

Restless Morning

My daughter, Laura, left in early January this year to fly to Seattle to take a new job. It was exciting for her — a new opportunity in a new city. For me, not so much. I was feeling left behind. January 2020 was the beginning of a new year and a new decade. TIME passing — that’s what I saw and felt. Time passing, getting older. No way to stop that. My great grandfather, Rasselas Smith Mowry, knew that feeling and he left lots of stuff behind — maybe as a way for him to stop time. A box left in an attic contained yearly journals, photographs of his

Changing Times: What to Expect When the Flu and Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Collide

The best thing to do as we go into this potentially deadly season is to build our immune system to shield and help us fight no matter what hits us. My, how things have changed, and changed drastically, in a few short months. The corona outbreak has everyone scrambling from the way we socialize and practice healthcare to how we live day to day and more importantly how we see our future. Scientists and physicians are trying to figure out how to manage the beast called SARS-CoV-2 that causes the COVID-19 disease as it keeps evolving and changing. The problem now is that flu season is right around the corner

The Reality Of Change

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). On a first reading that phrase seems so peaceful, natural. It speaks to an expectation of change that is reassuring. The reality of change can be quite different, as, for instance, the dramatic upheavals we have faced in 2020. 2020 has taken a wrecking ball to our collective status quo and pushed us into places we would not have thought possible. What we did before, what others did for us, how we interact, our daily routines, childcare responsibilities, holidays, funerals, weddings, family reunions, vacations — all the momentous occasions and events we use