Martin Luther King Day

Living in the south, but coming from the north, I may have a view unlike some of yours....and an opinion unlike some of yours. In case you disagree with my belief or opinion, I wanted to tell you that it is ok. I may not agree with some of yours, but I love you anyway!!!

I moved to the south with no preconceived notions about any race other than my own, and totally open to friendships and relationships with any race of people. As I lived, and worked, and matured, and raised my family in this area, I developed stronger opinions and learned to disdain laziness, selfishness, dishonesty, and self-imposed ignorance. It did not matter to me whether the owner of these character traits was blue, or purple, or pink with yellow polka-dots...I developed, and have kept, a real attitude regarding them.

Now, unfortunately, I live in a community where MOST of the crime....especially shootings and murder, are committed by a race (and gender) other than my own. It does make me look at persons of that race and gender, through CAREFUL eyes. I could go on and talk about multiple children of one mother living in a household that has NEVER had a father figure in it and what that does to the children....and how I feel about that. I could talk about the amount of my tax money that goes to provide free breakfast and free lunch to children whose parents don't work, and don't want to. (And on and on and on) All of these things in my community have helped to form my opinions. But.....that is not where I am going with this post.

I want to say that I admire what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for. I have read some of his speaches and agree with what he said. I do not think ANY person should be judged by his outside appearance....and love what the poet and author Shel Silverstein once wrote:

Small as a peanut, big as a giant,

We're all the same size when we turn off the light.

Rich as a sultan, poor as a mite.

We're all worth the same when we turn off the light.

Red, black or orange, yellow or white.

We all look the same when we turn off the light.

So maybe the way to make everything right

is for God to just reach out and turn off the light!

ANYWAY......I say all of that to tell you that one of my favorite verses on my little inspirational calendar that I have had for years, is a quote from one of Dr. King's speaches. It says:

"If a man is called to be a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

I think this is one of the creeds that I live by....TO DO MY BEST AT ALL I DO. "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might..." (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

~

And TOTALLY changing the focus.....

We continue with the home improvement project. We have made progress.

Another thing that I am wanting to get done (ever since earlier last year when we moved the coat closet in the living room, necessitating the move of a closet in the adjoining bedroom. Before we bought this house, that bedroom belonged to a little girl and there is a teddy bear border around the top of the wall. I think it has been WELDED on. I removed ONE FOOT of this border with great difficulty last spring. Then, when we moved the closet, I was able to get THAT wall cleaned off by replacing the sheet rock/drywall!!!!! But I also painted that new wall a lighter shade of yellow and really would like to complete the project before my parents arrive this Thursday.

I have borrowed a wallpaper steamer with no good result. I have tried DIF, soap, 409, fabric softener, comet and a brush, a putty knife, HOT water, MINERAL SPIRITS and then even ACETONE to try to get the border down. The patterned surface does not hold together or easily pull off the paper backing....and when I do get the patterned surface down, the paper backing WILL NOT COME OFF.

As you may understand, you cannot work on a border (even from a ladder) for long periods of time without a stiff neck or other problems. So...I give it an hour here, and 15 minutes there. Last night I actually resorted to spraying the paper backing with hot water, waiting, spraying again, waiting, then spraying it once more and at that point actually SCRATCHING it off with my fingernails. Today we are going to pick up a wire brush!

I realize that the slightly textured walls underneath are adding to the difficulty....but I have put up and removed a LOT of wallpaper in my life. This is unbelievable! If the wire brush does not work, we are considering a blow torch! Or, we could just put all new sheet rock/drywall up. I promise you that I wish I had NEVER considered taking this down, but had either painted over it, or applied a new border over it. Now I fear, it is too late for either of those options!

As I worked on this yesterday, it DAWNED on me as to WHY the previous owners sold the house. SHE did not want to deal with this when her daughter grew out of the teddy bear stage!!!