Blueberries and Thoughts

The pictures above are just some highlights of what I have done with some of the blueberries that we picked in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. The first one is of a batch of blueberry jam that I made yesterday that filled four jars and then another jar not completely full that is the in the refrigerator. However, canning is a process and especially if you don't have the official canning equipment, but the four jars did manage to seal, so that made me happy. At some point in the near future, I want to get the actual canner pot and rack. The second picture is of one of the blueberry pies that I made.

I recently saw a post somewhere online that Millenials are skipping the mid-life crisis and going straight to grandparent hobbies. I am an older Millenial, on that weird age boundary between Gen X/Millenial and I understand that the generational lines are significant in a lot of facets of life but do not agree so much on how we pit different generations against each other. Anyway, I don't know if I have or ever had a significant mid-life crisis but I have always enjoyed grandparent hobbies like gardening, knitting, baking, canning, taking walks, etc. I also remember life before all of this technology and think in some ways life was better.

The last picture is just a recognition that I received in the mail from Purdue that will be put in my office. I was also able to order an item from a catalog and picked a Purdue blanket as part of the recognition. It isn't an award for teaching or anything, but it is still nice.

I am still working on my novel and I am on page 204 right now. I feel like I am going to be able to finish this rough first draft before the semester starts and feel like I am starting to see the end in sight. However, this could change because as I am writing things may change and the characters might take me down a different path. One of the things that I try and think that I do with my writing is to show and convey some deep thoughts that characters have or conversations between characters that are deep, intimate, vulnerable that I think in some ways are universal, but not discussed a lot. This may be boring, but for me it is about the characters being authentic and getting to know them; their thoughts and how these affect their actions and feelings. This novel especially because it takes place in the late 2030s-early 2040s after climate change has changed the world in major and catastrophic ways and because of this the characters have all lost so much, living a life that they did not plan or want, but having to be resilient. I am not sure if I viewed all the characters in my novel as resilient, but after writing that, I feel that they all are because they have to be.

Like any novel that I have written from start to finish, it is an investment. Not only an investment of time, but an emotional investment into the characters' lives and story. I am grateful to my characters for allowing me to get to know them so intimately and opening up to me about everything because without them I wouldn't be able to write these stories. After I finish this rough first draft (hopefully before the semester starts), I will probably take a break before I start typing it and as I do that, editing and with that adding some things and taking other things out, and that takes a lot of time too! One step at a time. . .

I have been taking a bit of a break from the constant looking at the news or polls on the state of the presidential race even though I still do some and have been excited about the Olympics. If you know me, I am not much of a sports guy at all, but the Olympics is different and if you know me, I am also not super patriotic or anything. However, unlike a lot of other countries, where the athletes are all about winning, getting gold or nothing, many of the US athletes (even the kings and queens of their sports) are pretty humble and show good sportsmanship. For example, the men's gymnastic team who got bronze in the team event was fantastic. You would have thought they won gold! Then I am not sure if it is because of age, but I am such a sucker for the stories of comeback after injuries or personal adversity like American gymnast Brody Malone who had to learn how to walk again after a terrible injury last year to helping his team win bronze. Then the personal video his father had made that they showed on TV talk about waterworks. These are the athletes and stories that I want to see and for these athletes to go out there and even if they don't win a medal, it is like I am fully vested in supporting you because just making and competing at the Olympics should be a triumph. Not all athletes because of a lot of reasons (that are not always equal because they can't hire the star coach, work out in the newest elite training facilities, etc.) can be the elite athlete who is expected and does win gold, but to be able to compete with those athletes is a victory in itself and should be celebrated too.

Now the Paris Olympics have had some criticism like there always is in these modern times we live in like how there is no air conditioning and vegan meals in the Olympic Village. I have heard some teams and athletes have left and use their own money to buy street food to get meat, hotel rooms, or even rent expensive mansions as a team because their bodies cannot be in good shape with those conditions at the Olympic Village. I completely understand that and these are choices that each individual athlete or team has to make for themselves, but let's be real for a minute too. There are likely a number of athletes and teams that do not have those finances on their own, from sponsors, etc. to be able to move so that they can be comfortable. Also, can we talk about climate change for a second and why the Paris Olympics is trying to make a statement about this because the world is heating up and summers are becoming more and more severe and millions (billions?) of people aren't going to have access to air conditioning or proper shelter to deal with heat. Also, the amount of meat that we consume in this world is only fueling this by how much methane and carbon that commercial meat companies and consumption produces every day, month, and year. Yes, I understand that meat is important for protein and other important nutrients, but there are other ways to get those nutrients besides having to eat meat. In addition, there are places that cannot even hold the Winter Olympics anymore because of climate change and soon I fear that there will be many countries and cities that will be too hot to host the Summer Olympics unless they host them in the winter. I completely understand both sides of this, but I feel like there needs to be a bit of a mindset change that needs to start happening in the sports world from the governing bodies, coaches, all the way down to the athletes about how climate change is not just an abstract far off problem but has to be considered in their training plans, competitions, everything. This is my two cents on this and take it as you will.

Please continue to take care of yourself and those whom you love!