Kathleen's Korner at TheStidhams.com

So a couple of college kids who made fools of themselves by behaving like insensitive twits on camera (in a documentary-style feature film, no less) now complain that they were set up and would never have behaved like that if they had known they would be seen in the United States.

Well, here’s a piece of advice from my great-grandmother:  if you always mind your manners, you need never be embarassed.

Nor, I might add, need your parents be embarrassed…

Coming  on the heels of this year’s election debacles, I can’t help but feel that these young people are merely demonstrating the lessons they have learned from their elders — how can youth learn how to treat others with respect and kindness when all around their role models are perfect examples of how not to behave?

*sigh*  I find that simple lessons on what used to be called social graces work for helping my children understand the difference between comedy and put-downs…  but you have to start young, and you must model the behavior and language you want them to acquire.  Though I have found my children’s friends can modify their normal words and actions when in my presence, when I observe them in other places they have reverted, and taken my own children with them.

Our children do not live in a vacuum…  and they do learn from others.  I hope that the lessons from home will eventually turn out to be stronger than the influence of ill-mannered, vulgar, self-centered hooligans.

Wind, rain, cold. We have it all, here in beautiful rural western washington…

We experienced a power surge this morning when a transformer down the road blew. The major items were spared, but the router for our LAN was toasted. One child chose to go play at a friend’s house and spend the night, though they were totally without power. The other is home, and was content to read and talk with us.

Good thing, too. We worked through some difficulties from earlier in the week. And had a good time.

And it is wet. It is dark. It is cold.  I must admit, it is worth it.  The clouds parted briefly tonight, and the stars that we could see were brilliant. Clear, fresh, untouched — unsullied — by man’s needs and hopes and fears and works. A reminder of how small is the world we inhabit.

And we are, obviously, back online.

The leaves littered, and no one cared, not even the street sweepers who leaned on their brooms with vacant expressions.

The rope hung limply, draped over the rung of a ladder, relieved of its years holding flag to pole, awaiting its final fate.

The flag, hoisted aloft once again, sagged against the pole and the stiff, new rope and refused to move through the treacly wet air.

A small nematode chewed thoughtfully on a length of fiber, considering its options. It could continue eating the fiber, it could stop eating the fiber.

It kept eating the fiber. As did its sisters and brothers. The rope, severed, fell…