Trish Hermanson's Blog: Croutons - Seasoned Bits of Life, page 9

Racial Wisdom from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for Today

     That’s me at the Monroe, Alabama, courthouse that served as the inspiration for the setting of an appalling scene in the book and movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s where white lawyer Atticus Finch defended an innocent black man in 1930s Alabama. In that prejudiced culture, the man was found guilty of rape.     
     As we search our hearts about race these days, I’m drawn back to the wisdom of Atticus. When his young daughter wrestled with discrimination, he said, “You never really ...

Are We the 'Fractured' States of America?

     What a checkered history I discovered at Fort Morgan on the shores of Alabama. I’m proud of some events that occurred here through the years, from soldiers protecting Americans from the British during the War of 1812, to their surveilling German U-boats during World War II.     
     But at this same fort, the U.S. government forced more than 200 enslaved African American men, women, and children to build the citadel I’m leaning against. Then this fort became the stopping point durin...

Cudjoe "Kazoola" Is My Hero

     The last known survivor from the last slave ship to enter America is my hero.     
     At age nineteen, Kazoola and other tribe members were captured by fellow Africans and sold to white slave traders for transport to Alabama even though the trans-Atlantic slave trade had been illegal for fifty-two years. Kazoola became Cudjoe Lewis.    
     For five years, Cudjoe and his fellow Africans labored, even rebuilding Mobile’s fortifications during the Civil War. Then one day, Union forc...

How Do I Choose My Battles?

     Look closely, and you’ll spot me hiding in the roots of an oak tree where Confederate soldiers sought shelter after Yankees captured Fort Blakeley in Alabama. Unbeknownst to the Rebels, General Robert E. Lee had already surrendered. The Civil War was over. But because they didn’t know this, about 225 men from both sides died and 650 were injured.     
     It was senseless, which is how some of the battles I engage in tend to be. Verbal battles to make sure my voice is heard. Or to g...

I Gave My Daughter the Predisposition for Cancer - And She Got It!

     I gave my daughter the predisposition for cancer - and she got it.     This is not the legacy I wanted to leave.     
     Ashley was diagnosed with cancer at age thirty-seven just before the birth of her second child. My husband Duane and I ran some genetic testing to see where this propensity came from, and I learned I’m the one who passed a mutant gene on to her. So I’m the mutant, but not a ninja.     
     I felt wretched and apologized to Ashley for what she is experiencing -  ch...

If Table Clutter Could Talk...

     If the clutter on the table at our daughters home could talk, what story would it tell?     
     A pacifier - thats Eves, a tawny-haired two-month-old who gets drunk on milk until her eyes roll back and shes lost in la-la land.     
     A fire rescue truck - thats Oaks, the two-year-old brother of Eve who moves at warp speed around the house as he creates his own fires and needs rescuing.     
     A book on cancer - thats our daughter Ashleys, the mother of Eve and Oak. A week...

How Will We Pick Up the Pieces of Our Broken Lives?

     When I spotted this broken phone along a hiking trail, I thought about how our lives have been trampled upon by coronavirus: lost jobs, lost businesses, lost graduations, lost wedding celebrations.     
     And lost lives.     
     How easy it was in the past for us to believe that we are masters of our fate, captains of our souls. How wrong we were.     
     And how easy it was to be sidetracked from whats important. Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Dutch professor who wrote on modern...

What Beauty Did You Discover in Your 'In-Between Space?'

     Before mandatory sheltering began, Duane discovered this stairwell in a building and pulled me in to see it. As we climbed the three flights, we read along the way that muralists from a school turned this in-between space into an adventure of canoeing, camping, and skiing.     
     That prompted me to consider some of the in-between spaces in our lives. Places that are as blah and utilitarian as stairwells. Or stop lights. Or waiting rooms. Or elevators. Or hallways. Or job hunts....

An Old West Lesson in Covid Times

     When I read about the threat of deportation faced by some medical workers fighting corona virus I thought about a visit I made to Bents Old Fort. This Nineteenth Century Colorado fort thrived as it welcomed the contributions of Mexicans, Native American, blacks, French, and whites. In contrast, about 29,000 skilled health care professionals could be forced out if the U.S. Supreme Court rules with the Trump Administration to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)...

Give a SHOUTOUT for the Introverts!

     With sheltering these days, the trash goes out more often than we do. But give a shoutout to us introverts who are modeling what comes naturally: living in contented solitude.     
     Our calm ways are often underrated in this noisy world, yet author Susan Cain says introverts make this culture blossom. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inventions - from the theory of evolution to Van Goghs sunflowers to the personal computer - came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how...