Three articles caught my attention this week in various publications. I love reading something that makes me think about the world around me-thinking about subjects I might otherwise have not pondered.
In the March, 2017 issue of
National Geographic there is a wonderful article on the Vikings. This is of particular interest to me because of my Norwegian/Danish heritage. I did not realize that the Vikings started wandering because of climate change. A volcanic eruption, coupled with a meteorite strike in A.D. 536, sent debris up into the earth's atmosphere. That caused a cooling phase of the Northern Hemisphere for the next 14 years. The resultant cool summers impacted the ability of Scandinavians to survive in their northern region because of their medieval, limited agricultural knowledge. This led to the abandonment of
seventy five percent of their villages, as they succumbed to both starvation and the fighting that ensued. By A.D. 750, survivors had mastered the skill of making sleek boats with sails. This enabled them to raid, explore and plunder Europe and Great Britain, and subsequently Greenland, Iceland and parts of northeastern Canada. Interestingly, many took to wearing the plunder they captured as a status symbol. Portraying the story of their conquests with neck rings, dress pins, arm bands and finger rings, they dressed in colorful clothing and painted their eyes. They were the "Johnny Depps" of their time, according to Steve Ashby of the University of York.
"How I Grew Five Mothers" by Marc Peyser in the May, 2017 issue of
Reader's Digest is a hilarious story from the magazine's
"Department of Wit." He relates how his dad's matrimonial motto of
"If at first you don't succeed, tie, tie the knot again," yielded several mothers. Marc hilariously describes each using horticultural examples, for example his "aloe vera mother who fixed boo-boos." The story ends with the writer declaring that each of his mothers created her own maternal love area encompassing its own peculiarities. He adds,
"In spite of my father's dubious taste in wives, when it comes to moms, he sure knew how to pick 'em." I had to laugh while reading this little essay. Within my own life I myself have been one of those multiple "moms" over the course of several marriages. I also gained one stepmother, her children, and their extended families because of my dad's third choice in wives. Add to that the friends I have chosen as "family" and my world is quite full of wonderful people. And all because, like so many families in today's world, many members of mine (and I) "tied the knot again and again." So here's to blended families-a true blessing in disguise.
Finally, there was the May 6th "
Saturday Essay" in the
Wall Street Journal describing the new hashtag:
#adulting which denotes being engaged in adult behaviors, rather than embracing today's drift toward perpetual adolescence. Written by Ben Sasse, the junior U.S. senator from Nebraska, the essay is adapted from his new book,
"The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age-Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance", which will be published on May 16th by St. Martin's Press. I found the essay so thought provoking, that I intend to buy his book! One of my #adulting takeaways: to join
"The Century Club"-by meeting a challenge to read 100 books in a year. Here's a
link to the article-but you do need a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.
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