‘life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.’
*sarah louise delany
Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany (1889–1999) was an American educator, civil rights pioneer, and best selling author. She became famous at age 103 alongside her sister Bessie after publishing their life story.
First Black woman to teach home economics (domestic science) in New York City public high schools.
Earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Fought against racial bias and segregation in daily life and her profession.
he kindly agreed to let me share and reblog this wonderful lesson
i wonder if everyone read this and took it to heart,
would they understand more
about how lucky they are in this world
and begin to help others
who are not as lucky?
—
When I was a young kid, I was small for my age. We’d line up at the start of the year, smallest to the tallest, and I would always be one of the shortest boys in my class. I wasn’t the smartest either, I had to work hard for my grades. Every ‘A’ felt like I had run a grueling marathon to earn it.
On top of that, I would compete against my bigger, stronger brothers and always seemed to get my butt whooped. I write this to say that I didn’t feel special or lucky. When I was successful in school or sports, I would inevitably downplay my wins, assuming the test was easy or the challenge lighter than in past years.
My feeling of being just average persisted for a long time. I was curious about others, but I didn’t have great perspective. It took going off to college for me to see how fortunate I was. I walked in one day to my Economics 101 class and the prof started talking about how fortunate we were to be sitting in his classroom and to have the “luxuries” that we took for granted. He broke the world down into 100 people and called us some of the lucky ones.
Getting to the heart of the issue
We were supposed to be talking about some abstract economics concept that was going to be on the next test, but none of my classmates nor I were going to remind him. I was curious about this new topic and found it fascinating. With a few simple numbers, he showed that I was luckier than I ever could have imagined.
Here’s what I mean.
The 100 People Foundation, regularly uses World Factbook data to break the world into smaller more easily digestible numbers. If the world were a village of 100 people, of course, there would be an equal number of men and women. The majority of the people, 66 to be exact, would be between 15-64 years old, 25 would be between infant and 14 years of age, and 9 would be 65 and older.
From a geographic standpoint, 61 villagers would be Asian (of that, 20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian), 14 would be African, 11 would be European, 9 would be Latin or South American, 5 would be North American. As far as languages go, the largest number, 12, would speak Chinese, with 6 speaking Spanish, and five English.
One of the lucky ones
But here’s where it gets interesting. Less than 7 percent of the people would have their own home, eat full meals and drink clean water, have a mobile phone, surf the internet, and have gone to college. Yes, the devil is in the details. Let that sink in, less than 7 percent. Um, I get annoyed when the wifi goes down for a minute, 93% don’t have the Internet or a mobile phone? Really?
Of the 100, close to 80 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 22 would not. Can you imagine, no shelter? Nothing substantial to save them from Mother Nature’s slights including storms, hurricanes, fires. Eleven of the 100 would be undernourished and 1 would die of starvation. Of the 100, 86 would be able to read and write; 14 would not, with only 7 having a college degree.
I can’t speak for the rest of my Econ class, but when I started to view wins and losses from a different lens, I started to see how fortunate I’ve been in my life.
What about you? How fortunate do you feel when you look at your life from this perspective? Brian
—
“The Overview effect is a cognitive shift. You look down at the earth and realize that everyone who ever lived and died, every person that has ever been born was within this tiny blue speck in space. Divisions such as race, gender, country and language fall away.
The design is round because the world is round, and I wanted to make it a defined and pleasing shape. The colours are chosen from flags. It uses natural frequencies instead of percentages. This is a deliberate choice so that it can be as accessible to as many people as possible.”
credit: This graphic was tweeted byAstronaut Chris Hadfield, and reprinted in many publications.
not the ‘very long cozy blanket’ i made using one stitch
(mine was a few rows wider)
but it is the same daffodil yellow
—
i’ve written about
a knitting store
that i love
a couple of times
though i’m not
a knitter by nature
there was that one time though
when my first baby was coming
i decided to knit her a blanket
chose a pretty daffodil yellow yarn
bought the needles
not sure
how to knit
figured out
how to get
yarn on the needle
used one stitch
the garter stitch
it’s the same stitch
for the whole blanket
before too long
i realized
it was only as wide
as what would fit
on one
long knitting needle
oh well
i made it really long
kept working on it
not getting any wider
growing
still longer yet
not ‘finished’
by the time
she was born
so i picked it up again
for my second daughter
it continued to get longer
by the third daughter
it was finally done
not exactly sure
how to end it
somehow
i came up with
a finished row
it was like a
loooooooong
wide yellow scarf
i wrapped that baby up
in her cozy yellow
wide strip of knitting
the girls had it for years
i told them all the story
it was made
with one stitch
and
a whole lot of love
and
i decided
being a mother was great
and
i would not be
a competitive knitter.
—
Directions: Garter stitch is the most basic pattern in knitting, created by knitting every stitch in every single row when working flat. It produces a bumpy, ridged, and stretchy fabric that looks the same on both sides and lies completely flat without curling at the edges. When knitting flat (back and forth) knit every single stitch on every row. You do not need to use the purl stitch at all. Just slip as if to knit the first stitch on each row at the beginning and it will give a nice edge. Some will also knit through the back loop of last stitch but you don’t have to. (Help!)
—
“she wondered if she was doomed to be one of those people who spend their lives trying things.
she had tried being in a band, writing plays and children’s books,
she had tried acting and getting a job in publishing.
perhaps crime fiction was just another failed project to place alongside trapeze, buddhism and spanish.”
-David Nicholls, One Day, author/screenwriter
*David Nicholls (born 1966) is a British novelist and screenwriter. Initially an actor after graduating from college, he became a screenwriter, notably creating the television series Rescue Me and adaptations of novels, plays, and memoirs. He is the author of six novels.
‘It’s Not Safe To Talk’, David Hayward, Sumi ink and watercolour on paper
“It’s Not Safe to Talk”, it’s origin story – A woman contacted me to say she saw a young bright maple tree surrounded by dead and dying trees as if they were trying to silence it. She heard, “It’s not safe to talk!” How I feel! She said keep shining. So I painted it.
(Ink used to make calligraphy) – David Hayward
It’s not safe to talk, but as long as we talk, we’re alive.
Bio from the artist: I’m a lot of things. Pastor turned artist. Cartoonist. Writer. And other things I’m still figuring out. To be all these things is simply to be human. Complex, meaningful, creative, curious, and evolving. – DH
I didn't have my glasses on.... 