California Christmas 2023: Day Nine

I seem to be a little better today, but Sheila is miserable. I'm guessing she is about a day behind me on the rotten-old-cold cycle. My days and nights are all messed up. 

One bright spot is that I have been listening to Jon Meacham's And There Was Light, subtitled Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. 

I have been listening to parts of this for a while now and at least twice I have gone to sleep after forgetting to set a timer and so had it in my ears for long periods, having to then try to find where I left consciousness. So I have heard parts of it more than once! 

Meacham has given me a better understanding of Lincoln, I think, and a greater appreciation of the way he tried and often succeeded in guiding events toward his two goals of preserving the union and ending slavery. It often meant that those who should have been his allies were very impatient with him. He was acutely aware of the political realities, knew preservation of the union was a prerequisite of abolition and therefore many times progress toward abolition meant, paradoxically, that that cause had to be put on a back-burner.

Of course this book was written during another period of great unrest, fear, and right-wing extremism. Just as in the mid 1800s folks were justifying evil by reciting scripture, we are beaten about the head today with selected verses of Leviticus. (Never mind the abominable mixed threads and the whole New Testament!) So we cannot help but see the parallels. 

Brannon came by with the three girls to take me with them to the Agua Hedionda Discovery Center. Suz was sleeping when we got there so Brannon stayed in the car with her while Ruth, Clem, and I visited the center. Near the entrance we walked past enclosures for a kestrel and then the planet's fastest animal - a peregrine falcon. Inside Clem headed straight for the snakes, of course. 

Posing with a snake -- I've forgotten which one.

Hiding out

They've added this little stage since we were last here.

Wingspan

Tire snake

Striking a pose with fairy houses.

Watching a tortoise

Succulent wall garden

I made a donation then we looked around inside and out a while. Clem found a scavenger hunt sheet and we all worked on that till they both had found everything. They were rewarded with a Pokemon card apiece, and, of course, wanted something from the gift shop. I let them each pick something ($5 or less each); Clem chose a Black snake slap-bracelet --

 and Ruth a "fossil-embedded" chunk of plaster with a tool for scraping and brushing the plaster. 

Before we even got to the center Clem started asking me about... ABRAHAM LINCOLN! "Grandshaw tell me about Abraham Lincoln." Turns out somehow Abraham Lincoln had come up in her kindergarten class and when she asked her Mom about him, Brannon said, "Ask Grandshaw." So here I am in the middle of this very interesting but very serious book on Abe and my 5 year-old granddaughter wants to know about him.

I asked what she'd like to know about him. "Why did John Wilkes Booth shoot him?"

Wow. So we're starting there?