February 1, 2019
Good morning friends.
The long march of what our fellow humans have done continues in The Daily Almanac, including the start of the British Invasion, still one of the great dividing points in our cultural history. Oh, and Philosophy 101 talks about the joys of being by yourself.
THE DAILY ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1960 – Four black students from North Carolina A&T University stage a sit-in at an all-white lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro. While not the first sit-ins of the era, they did inspire further sit-ins locally and throughout the South. Two of the Greensboro Four are still alive, and the Woolworth’s where the sit-in took place is now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.
2003 – The space shuttle Columbia disintegrates above Texas and Louisiana during re-entry after a piece of foam insulation breaks off and damages a wing. Seven astronauts died, though some worms one millimeter in length and housed in aluminum who were taken up did survive the breakup and crash landing.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1964:
Hot 100 – I Want to Hold Your Hand…The Beatles (1st of seven weeks; the Beatles first #1 song in America)
Soul Chart – No chart
Country Chart – Love’s Gonna Live Here…Buck Owens (16th consecutive and 17th of 17 non-consecutive weeks)
Album Chart – The Singing Nun…The Singing Nun (9th of ten weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,635: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
21.969: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
646: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
I’ve been alone a lot in my life, and I’ve never tired of it.
Robert B Parker
Playmates
There is no substitute for being content with ourselves. We do not have to be hermits, we do not have to shun others to the point of being anti-social, but we must be comfortable whenever circumstances give us time to ourselves, for however long that might be.
It isn’t easy. Us humans are social creatures and liking and being comfortable with oneself so that one enjoys being alone takes some cultivation. The best, only, way to do this is to be completely in touch with yourself, with who you are and what you are about. We must be living the life we were meant to live. When we’re not living the life we were meant to live, nature sees to it that we are antsy and out of sorts and not ourselves. When we are not ourselves being alone is difficult. It feels constricting and unnatural.
Time to ourselves should be treasured. If it’s not, we should ask ourselves why? It is probably because we are not completely at home with ourselves. We must ensure we have the wisdom to know the life we were meant to live, the courage to go and live that life and the patience to see it through to the very end. When we do these things, we will find time to ourselves to be completely natural and satisfying.
Robert B Parker (1932-2010) was an American writer, mostly known for the Spenser series of mysteries.
Many thanks for reading, and have a good day.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn