Sunday Thoughts

Today is Mother's Day in the United States of America.  It's a day that we have set aside so that we can celebrate all the wonderful things that our Mothers do for us - both known and unknown.   Our Mothers give us so many things - not just our birth mothers, but Aunts, Grandmothers, Great-grandmothers, and sisters, too - love, understanding, encouragement, the sense of right and wrong, public etiquette, a sense of wonder, a love of books, enjoyment of the small graces of life.  Having grown up in a fisherman's family, and having to grow her own vegetables, pigs, and chickens for eating, my Mom loved flower gardening.  The family ate seafood twenty-eight days of the month, along with home-grown veggies and any fruit they could purchase.  They ate chicken once a month, or twice, if one of the hens died, and had beef the other day.  My Mom's Mother died from cancer when Mom was 14; she had two younger siblings to care for, as well as her father and (for about a year) her father's widowed brother.  She learned how to "make do" with next to nothing.  She did her best to teach me how to do that, seeing that I was a dreamer, and, I think, knowing that I'd drift from job to job, getting bored easily, and preferring to be with animals rather than people.  She did a good job of that, I think.   Aunt Ruth taught me to party and to enjoy life, and my sister Kathy taught me to look at things from all angles - to recognize that each decision I made might adversely affect someone else.  I thank all of them on this day.

Greg Blasi catching Yodel

And this is a "hats off" and a bow to the outriders at all of the race tracks around the world.  Above you see a photo taken at Churchill Downs - Greg Blasi is the name of the outrider, who is leaning from his horse to grab the stirrup of Yodel, to slow her down and eventually take he reins and return her to the starting gate.  You can see Greg's hard hat flying of his head as he reaches for, and grasps, the racing saddle stirrup on the four-year-old filly.  Yodel had broken through the starting gate, and lost her jockey immediately.  Then she took off, as if in a race.  Greg was able to "run her down" and grab the stirrup, gradually slowly the filly, and took the reins and led her back to the starting gate.  Yodel was scratched from the race, but seemed well after her free run.  Outriders are un-sung heroes of the race track.