Regarding Life, I think...by Regina Carey

Regarding life, I think we should remember what we have been taught by those who love(ed) us.  Let me elaborate. When I was young my father, or Daddy, as we called him, always took me places on Saturdays. We went all over the city, as far as we could. You see, I suffered from motion sickness as a child. I would ride two subway stops and get sick. My mother, who had no patience, decided that this only meant one thing; I would never travel anywhere. She felt that I would become one of those people who never left the neighborhood. My father, on the other hand, had a completely different view. He felt that if I was going to live in a city where you had to ride the subway, then I had to ride the subway. He would not settle for the idea of my becoming one of those people who never left the neighborhood; oh no. In fact, he was determined to make me into one of those people who traveled everywhere, saw and learned as much as I could and became stronger for it. There was just one problem;...

Regarding life, I think... It is a funny thing how many experiences turn out differently from how we envision they will be.  It's amazing how things can change.  Let me elaborate: On Dec. 3, 2011, I took a one-day trip to Washington because I wanted to do something different; in fact, I needed a change of scenery. I envisioned that this trip would be ordinary, that nothing different would happen.  Well, here is how it happened -- I spent part of the day in the Museum of American History as well as the National Gallery of Art.  I then went to Arlington National Cemetery to see the Changing of the Guard.  Here is part of the video I shot: Pretty cool, isn't it?   Anyway, as I was walking back to the Metro, a strange thing happened.   I reached the entrance and heard a man calling "Ma'am, ma'am, are you going to the metro?"   At first, I thought he was calling out to someone else; but then, I r...

My birthday is next Sunday, Jan. 29th.  There will be a parade in Greenpoint to celebrate the building and launch of the Monitor.  (Remember learning about the Monitor and the Merrimack in school?  I hope you do.)    It was built in and launched from Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  Maybe I'll march, but I don't have a civil war outfit and there will be re-enactors there.  Maybe I won't march.  But I will record it with my flip recorder.  It should be fun. Now, for something completely different.  (Did I just steal that from Monty Python?)  Someone looks at my blog almost every day, according to the stats, and never leaves me a comment.  I have no idea who it is, but please, say something.  Anything.  It can be good  or you can say that you don't like my blog, in which case I must wonder why you return every other day.  But say something.  That's all about that. Oh yes, and another thing, who i...

This is a tribute that to my father who passed away in 1987.  Recently, I have been thinking about him a lot; in particular, about one time when I did not honor him as I should have. Because of this, I am now trying to show him honor, coming up on 25 years since his passing, by attending as many military ceremonies as I possibly can.  This is also my reason for writing about him now. My father was military. He was born in New York City. His father was from New Jersey and his mother was from Limerick City, Ireland. When he was two years of age, his father died; so, his mother sent him to Limerick to be raised by his grandmother. There, he lived in poverty in a country that was in its own battle with England. When he was approximately 16 years old, he returned to the States. Of course, he was a citizen because he was born here and never became a British citizen while living in Ireland (there were no Irish citizens in those days). Up...

People hate us. They think we are evil, rude, ostentacious, obnoxious and conceited. They don't understand why we expect the best, they think it is egotistical of us. What they don't understand about us is that we are the descendants of those first immigrants; that we began as a nation of people who fled persecution and brought little or nothing with them; who had to work hard, starting from scratch with nothing, to build a nation, and, they succeeded. Another side to the story is the fact that we are not all descended from one group of people; people from nations that once warred against each other learned to live side-by-side here in the U.S., to become friends and neighbors, to work together for the same goals, be them monetary, political or religious goals, to become one people, one nation, one nationality. That coming together enabled us to create and innovate in ways the world had never seen before. That is American Exceptionalism. Other nations may consider them...

For most of my life, I have been getting uninvited visits from what I refer to as "the Just family." They are not a real family, that is a euphemism that I have created to describe know-it-all advice givers who always use the word "just" when telling others what to do. They make everything sound easy to fix; and, they never consider what the person they are talking to may have already done to handle a situation. No, they know it all. They have all the answers and they are more than willing to give them to you. Take, for instance, the situation of the family member with a drinking problem. This family member has stopped thinking clearly for some time, at least as long as they have been drinking. Anyone with an alcoholic family member knows that it is impossible to reason with them, mainly because they are not all there. They have been replaced by an alcohol-soaked brain. Now, let us imagine talking about this with some friends. Suddenly, someone overhears the convers...