K.B. Pellegrino's Blog, page 3

Resisted Recovery

Recently I have been surprised by many of my friends and neighbors who appear to be resistant to pandemic recovery. Some phrases I've heard recently have left me puzzled.
"Well, I've learned I don't need people and I think that's a good thing."
"Do my kids really need friends? We're doing well as a family."
What about this one, "Home schooling is really the way to go. It keeps your kids away from bad kids and gangs and drugs. If I protect them until college, they'll do better."
"I've used less gas this way by not driving to work and I don't have to listen to some of my idiot co-workers."
And many more phrases!
I am concerned for individual socialization and citizen investment in communities and a generation unable to work in concert with others.
I see a serious potential cost to our nation, our people, our culture, or our progress toward acceptance of diversity.
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Elon Musk's Biases List

I recently read Elon Musk’s list of 50 cognitive biases he believes we should all help children become aware of. The list is designed to assist in better decision making. I was at first overwhelmed with fifty biases to examine and wondered how on earth one could be thinking about so many biases to help children in our ordinary interaction with them whether as a teacher or parent or friend. A cognitive bias is a type of thinking that may result in distortion.
I decided to look at his list one by one solely with the goals of finding value in each one if I thought it was valuable, how I have implemented awareness in my own life, and if valuable, how to help children build awareness of the bias.
I thought today, I would examine a couple of those biases. The first of the fifty biases listed is “Fundamental attribution Error: We judge others on their personality or fundamental character, but we judge ourselves on the situation.” The inference here may be our self-judgment excusing or blaming based on the position we find ourselves in not on our intrinsic personality or character. In contrast, we excuse or blame others based on their personalities or character. Worthwhile to understand. Did experience or taught example teach me about this bias? I think both. Can children easily be taught awareness? Yes, awareness for children can be taught by example by teachers and parents and friends.
The second bias is called the “Self-Serving Bias: Our failures are situational, but our successes are our responsibility.” I’m right on this one and the first bias listed above plays a role in this bias as well. There are many opportunities in a child’s life for them to be made aware of this bias. However, our culture presents a problem here. For example, athletes often crow loudly when they’ve won a game, and find weather or other conditions to blame for loss. Teachers and parents often do and are able to remind children to look at their losses with a critical eye for lack of study or other work and be aware of the content that contributed to their successes.
There are forty-eight more biases listed. Some I find more complicated for implementing awareness in children’s lives. Others appear to be learned more by experience than by instruction.
Take a look at his list on the internet. It’s worth a read. Also, please pick one for discussion. I will answer your views from my perspective. Thanks
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

So This is Christmas…

So, This Was Christmas! What can I say? Did I have time to read? No! Shopping, get togethers, Christmas Eve with family, Christmas Day with family and a reminder of the times, I received my Moderna booster on Boxing Day and then I was deathly ill for two days. You would think I would have time to read if I was sick. Oh, no, everything was blurry. Television was not an option. But what could I do? I plotted. I invented characters. I dreamed of scenarios and conversations colored by my misery. I d...

So This Was Christmas...

So, This Was Christmas! What can I say? Did I have time to read? No! Shopping, get togethers, Christmas Eve with family, Christmas Day with family and a reminder of the times, I received my Moderna booster on Boxing Day and then I was deathly ill for two days. You would think I would have time to read if I was sick. Oh, no, everything was blurry. Television was not an option. But what could I do? I plotted. I invented characters. I dreamed of scenarios and conversations colored by my misery. I drank herbal tea, ate non-gluten toast, and sat wrapped up and begged for warmth from my fireplace. Could be worse you say, but two weeks ago I finished fourteen days of the flu. I must get back to reading and writing and I have just purchased a book to read. "Class Dismissed" by Kevin McIntosh is about a teacher's experience and since our family is ripe with teachers and I with twenty years as a college professor, it calls to me. I am back. I woke at four this morning and wrote two pages on my eighth mystery novel "Beryl Kent and Murdering Words" as well as edited thirty pages written during my flu era. Glad to be back.
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

I Heard the Word and It Came Through Song

I Heard The Word… And It Came Through Song   © 2021

A short story by K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Ms. Bitner sat in church two weeks before Christmas on a lovely Sunday morning. A habitual attendee, if for no other reason than to socialize, she appeared bored with the lack luster sermon. She noticed Maisey Morgan sitting with her husband and thought, well I avoided that situation. Single ladies often live longer than married ladies. That’s what I’ve heard, and I believe it. I’ve never wanted to clean ...

I Heard The Word… And It Came Through Song ©2021, A Christmas Story by K.B. Pellegrino

I Heard The Word… And It Came Through Song ©2021

A short story by K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Mrs. Bitner sat in church two weeks before Christmas on a lovely Sunday morning. A habitual attendee, if for no other reason than to socialize, she appeared bored with the lackluster sermon. She noticed Maisey Morgan sitting with her husband and thought, well I avoided that situation. Single ladies often live longer than married ladies. That’s what I’ve heard, and I believe it. I’ve never wanted to clean u...

"The Mission"

In "The Book of Mysteries" by Jonathan Cahn, Day 250, the Mission stated is: Take every need, want, emptiness, desire, or longing and direct it away from the world, to the Spirit and the heavenly.

Each day in this book is a lesson for living. I found it particularly difficult to accept taking emptiness or desire away from the world.... direct it to the Spirit/ How would that work? Prayer? Redirecting my brain or soul away from the world? I get that. We often are taught as children to redirect our wants. Mother told me about children starving all over the world and I should be ashamed to want so much. Is that what this means? No, the analogy stated here is the history of the "well" in the Old Testament, where Jacob, Isaac, Moses all met their spouses. "The well is the place where the thirsty come to drink, a place where needs are fulfilled."

The premise here is the Holy Lord will meet us at the well. I have been schooled in the New Testament more thoroughly than the Old Testament. But I was inspired to believe I should go in prayer for my needs. Not mind you, expecting them to be fulfilled. My needs would be assessed by the Divine and granted by the Divine's will not by mine. My parents insisted we do not know our needs. We only know our wants. A child's needs are assessed by the parent for the child believes a sleigh full of toys and candies are much needed, not piano lessons.

This one page in this book brought home to me my childhood, my mistakes in assessing needs in the past, and a fervent desire to pray more directly. Do not think because I write murder mysteries that I'm immune to good vs bad or wants vs needs. Murder is the most atrocious of sins and must be solved and punishment rendered. This type of fiction fits well into the great moral lessons of history and allows me the mission to write about suffering characters, base motives, and the wish to attempt to establish justice.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

“The Mission”

In “The Book of Mysteries” by Jonathan Cahn, Day 250, the Mission stated is: Take every need, want, emptiness, desire, or longing and direct it away from the world, to the Spirit and the heavenly.

Each day in this book is a lesson for living. I found it particularly difficult to accept taking emptiness or desire away from the world…. direct it to the Spirit/ How would that work? Prayer? Redirecting my brain or soul away from the world? I get that. We often are taught as children to redirect our ...

Party

In early December we celebrated one of our young people’s 30th birthday in a raucous celebration. Lots of folks in their 20’s and 30’s bringing their experiences to those older and younger. Attending was a 15 month old who thought this party was for her. Perhaps it was. She did have the most fun. Ideas flowed from wokeness to conservative values. Dress varied widely. Careers ran the gamut from medicine to human relations to retail to education to environmental science to cyber crime management. ...

A day for Thanking...

It is early this 25th day of November. November is a good month, in my mind an Edgar Allen Poe month. Cold and dreary at six in the morning, but I don't really see that. What I see and feel is the excitement of family coming for the turkey feast with all contributing. Two of those joining us are babies. Babies bring such loving responses from us all. My seventh book "Beryl Kent and the Bleeding Man" has just been published in time for my having received my first box of books to share with family yesterday. Christmas is looming before me and tomorrow boxes of decorations will be retrieved from the basement. I am thankful for the feeling of expectancy. I know the road ahead will be bumpy, as it has been in the past. I can't examine possible difficulties until they hit me right between my eyes. I am a dreamer and filled with hope while also being a logical realist. So I ask myself, who gave me so much in life? It is not me. My parents? Yes. My siblings? Yes. My spouse? Yes. My children? Yes and on and on. Not a complete answer. I am a speck in the universe. Despite all scientific studies building a knowledge of the source of life, I think the thanks must go beyond the universe to God or whatever you wish to call the Great Designer.
Thank you, K. B. Pellegrino, Author