I received a phone call from an older gentleman and a letter from an older lady after my last column, so I must have hit a nerve with some people. I was unhappy with the lack of civility in the world today, particularly on television, but also the way our world today is affecting our children. I read a Newsweek just after I wrote that column, and they had a large article about the lack of civility everywhere, and mentioned that reality television was particularly raw and continued language and situations that would not have been allowed just a few years ago. As I stated last month, I can’t understand why anyone of any age is attracted to surly, negative, and crude behavior which is very evident in many cases and programs today.

I really wonder what my dear late husband, Jack who was a journalist, would have to say about the media today. He was already concerned about the way some newspapers were writing stories that were unethical and much was being said and printed that did not have to be printed. He was a very ethical person and always said he taught his students to remember their ethics when they wrote stories, and not allow sensationalism to color their facts. He also used a stamp when he corrected students’ stories that said FE meaning fact error. He thought that the most important part of any story was getting the facts straight and not embellish a story to make it more entertaining. He would agree with me I’m sure. The other person who agreed with me was President Obama who was quoted in Newsweek saying,” We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”

As I’ve said, caring and concern starts with each one of us and how we treat each other. It starts in our families, in our own homes, reaches into schools and churches and eventually in to the broad, outside world. And being kind and considerate to others makes us feel better inside, so I can’t imagine how people like Charlie Sheen and Jane Lynch must feel inside. And I don’t buy the argument that that it is what people want. People will, unfortunately accept too much from those who are in the public eye maybe because they don’t know any better or maybe they think it’s clever. It’s not. It’s stupid and demeaning to those who carry out these kinds of behavior and those who accept it.  We all need to teach our children well and accepting   this kind of insult on television and other media is not teaching, but abdicating our responsibility to set good examples. It takes only a simple wrist movement to turn off the TV on programs such as these, and ignoring magazines and newspapers who promote this kind of inconsideration.

It seems to me that we as a public accept anything that is printed or presented on television as appropriate behavior. No, not at all! I recently picked up a quote from a book I read that kind of says it all. “American culture obsesses about a sports figures’ broken ankle or the marital affair of a movies star but totally ignores the hundred million children in the world who sleep on the streets every night.” We need to change our priorities and make ordinary people as important as any celebrity or politician.

Well on to the weather! I do not have a very attractive yard this year because it has been too hot or raining again when I have time to get out in the yard, so I have rather a jungle in my yard. Actually I kind of like it that way, but it does look a little unkempt and most people like more order. It’s my yard, so I really don’t care what others think. I like it any way, and I’ll leave it the way I think is appropriate for me and my view.

I have got quite a lot of reading done during the rainy days, and I’ve gone back to some of my favorite authors. I read a novel by Anna Quindlen who is one of my favorite authors. She is a good story teller, and I enjoyed the book which was called Every Last One. It was a very good story about a family, and then Boom! Three of the heroine’s family were killed, and it really hit me in the gut. The only thing I could ever imagine being worse than losing three family members was to lose them at the same time. I learned again that what each of goes through is not so unique and that knowing how others got through the horror is helpful. It took me back to my losses, but I could identify with the characters, and could empathize without losing it all over again.

I also read a Judy Picoult novel about an autistic child and what it is like to live with and cope with an autistic child. The title was House Rules and it was quite well done. She is an excellent author who chooses various problems and then writes about them in an extremely realistic and informative manner. A lighter novel, but also well written was The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen. It was a fast enjoyable read. And then I got into two much heavier and more difficult books that were much longer. I read New York: A Novel by Edward Rutherford which was a tome of over eight hundred pages, and I had to slow down a bit, but it was a fascinating look at the development of New York from Fur Trading days to the Twin Towers going down. Each era that the author covered had an interesting and documented story of characters living at that time.

The last that I’m still working on is Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood. It will take me a long time to read also, because it’s written in a style similar to the bible. I have to think about each page a great deal more than much of my reading. Hope to get out soon, but it looks like the rain will continue for a while. Have a good spring and summer. With all the rain we should have beautiful flowers.