Late night ( for me) posting.

I realize it's been a week since I posted anything.  I've been super busy, doing something close to nothing, as the song goes.  But things on my mind this week are:

Today is the 9th anniversary of my Mom's death.  I didn't realize it until I got to work and went to change my voicemail message ( something I got into the habit of doing every day when I was in an out of my office a lot)  If you hear today's message, I think you can hear me breaking up a bit.  It didn't help that I haven't had a good night's sleep in about two weeks ( new meds, I suspect and I am going to give them one more week to kick in before I call my doctor- again- to talk about dosage.)  But today, I sat at my desk and sobbed.  Going through some changes and I really wish she were here to bounce stuff off of.  My mom died of Alzheimer's.  I know she would not have wanted to continue to live that way, but letting go was not easy.  I am glad she is not in that condition any more, but I do miss her.  My daughter got married recently and she carried the engagement photo of my parents in her bag.  She had wanted my father to walk her down the aisle, so that was the best we could do.  I  also wish my mother had met my husband; I am sure she would have loved him!

This week marks 50 years since MLK's "I have a Dream" speech.  The part of the speech that resonates most is when he talks about judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.  I wonder if people realize that it goes both ways.  I am personally tired of those people who look at my white skin and make a false judgement about who I am and what I believe, simply because of the color of MY skin.  I am tired of people trying to make me feel guilty for deeds done by people who share my ethnic background .  I cannot be responsible for what happened that I had nothing to do with, but somehow, people seem to hold us responsible for historic misdeeds.  I can only be responsible for my behavior and how I act to make change happen in my community and in the world.  We have come a long way down the road to civil rights, but we must recognize that we are by no means finished with the journey.