Month: December 2020

Believe in Yourself and Make This a Brand New Day of Love. The Rest is Still Unwritten.

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These are songs of love and hope at a time when we all need them.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE, SWEET LOVE

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing that there’s much too little of.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

No, not just for some, but for everyone.”

Excerpt from Source:  Musixmatch.   Songwriters:  Hal David and Burt F. Bacharach.  Lyrics © New Hidden Valley Music Co., Casa David Music, Bmg Rights Management (uk) Ltd (Hal David).  

We “still” need love because in the last four years we seem to have less and less love for each other.   No matter what your religious or political view, there should be something that you have in common with another human being.   Try it!

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

“Believe in yourself, right from the start
You’ll have brains
You’ll have a heart
You’ll have courage
To last your whole life through.

If you believe in yourself
As I believe in you.

If you believe
Within your heart you’ll know
That no one can change
The path that you must go.”

Excerpt from Source: Musixmatch.   Songwriter: Charlie Smalls.  Believe in Yourself (Dorothy) lyrics © Warner-tamerlane Publishing Corp.

This song was in the 1978 movie The Wiz with an all-star cast consisting of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne, Theresa Merritt, and Mabel King.  I loved The Wiz. Directed by Sidney Lumet who also directed other movies I’ve loved:  12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, and the Verdict.

You can do it.   Keep believing in yourself.  Don’t be discouraged.

A BRAND NEW DAY

“Everybody look around
‘Cause there’s a reason to rejoice you see
Everybody come out
And let’s commence to singing joyfully
Everybody look up
And feel the hope that we’ve been waiting for.

Everybody’s glad
Because our silent fear and dread is gone
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can’t you feel a brand new day?

Everybody be glad
Because the sun is shining just for us
Everybody wake up
Into the morning into happiness

Hello world
It’s like a different way of living now
And thank you world
We always knew that we’d be free somehow
In harmony
And show the world that we’ve got liberty

It’s such a change
For us to live so independently
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can’t you feel a brand new day?”

Excerpt from Source: Musixmatch.   Songwriter: Luther R. Vandross.  Music composed by Quincy Jones, Charlie Smalls, and Anthony Jackson.  A Brand New Day lyrics © Wb Music Corp.

This song was also in the 1978 movie The Wiz with an all-star cast consisting of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne, Theresa Merritt, and Mabel King.  I loved The Wiz. Directed by Sidney Lumet who also directed other movies I’ve loved:  12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, and the Verdict.

UNWRITTEN

“I am unwritten
Can’t read my mind
I’m undefined
I’m just beginning
The pen’s in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it

No one else can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can’t live that way

The rest is still unwritten.”

Excerpt from Source: LyricFind.   Songwriters: Danielle A. Brisebois / Natasha Anne Bedingfield / Wayne Steven Jr Rodrigues.   Unwritten lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Domino Publishing Company.

I fell in love with Natasha Bedingfield’s singing of “Unwritten” the first time I heard it on the radio.   Phrases like “break tradition”, “outside the lines”, “conditioned to not make mistakes”, “live your life with arms wide open”, etc.   The song could apply to writers or anyone living his or her life.   And it is a hopeful song with a great beat.

Merry Christmas to all and God bless us everyone!

Submitted by Rosa L. Griffin

I Have Always Been a Hand Washer

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All my life I have washed hands after questionable acts like sneezing, handling trash, using the toilet, washing my body, after shaking hands or touching strange surfaces, etc.   So, to do it more for a pandemic was not that great an inconvenience.

I was browsing through tv shows a couple of weeks ago, and I came across a doctor talking about wearing masks and washing hands.   (Sorry, I forgot to write down the show it was on.)  What stood out to me was the part on washing hands.   The doctor showed pictures of people with really abused hands from washing them.   She said that we forget to put lotion or moisturizer on our hands each time we wash them.   Even before the pandemic, I’ve seen some really rough hands on men as well as women.  We all need to keep our hands moisturized.   

No matter which kind of moisturizer we use, our hands and other body parts need to be moisturized after each time we wash them.   I have a problem with the skin on my hands beginning mid-November to March of each year.   My hands start looking and feeling like soft parchment paper if I don’t put on lotion several times each day.   I still have tiny scars and rough patches on my hands from skin that itched and cracked to the point of hurting in spite of my wearing gloves and applying lotions in winter.  

I and other people I know have used various brands of moisturizers like Avon’s Silicone Glove Protective Hand Cream, Gold Bond Extra Strength Medicated Lotion, Vaseline Intensive Care, Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Moisturizing Lotion, Palmer’s Cocoa Butter, Olay Body Quench Rapid Repair Lotion, Jergen’s Hydrating Lotion, etc., and love them.   But, a few years ago, a fellow coworker suggested Eucerin Intensive Repair Lotion and even gave me a small tube of it.   Some people have told me that Eucerin is too thick and gooey for them, but it’s just right for me. 

“In most cases, dry hands are caused by environmental conditions.  Weather, for example, can cause dry hands.  Frequent handwashing, exposure to chemicals, and certain medical conditions can dry out the skin on your hands, too.”  The article includes 10 remedies for dry hands. [Healthline.com.  “How to Heal and Prevent Dry Hands” by Chaunie Brusie, updated March 7, 2019]   

“A body lotion’s key benefit is to bring hydration back to your skin, but these days, more and more formulas are delivering added benefits.   From improving your skin’s elasticity to reducing the look of cellulite, there’s a perfect, multitasking body lotion out there for you”.   The article goes on to mention body rubs, body scrubs, body washes, body creams, etc.  [Birdie:  All Beauty, All the time—For Everyone; “We Found the 16 Best Body Lotions of 2020 (So You Don’t Have To)” by Syden Abrenica, updated November 3, 2020.  https://www.byrdie.com/best-body-lotions-4159935 ]

While I’m talking about hands, another article covers topics such as weak hand grip; tiny red bumps or blisters; numb or tingly hands; trigger finger; red scales or pus-filled bumps; the symptom: white, blue, or red fingers; hand tremors; purple finger nodules; hand pain, stiffness, and swelling; and long ring fingers.  [Health, “10 Things Your Hands Can Reveal About Your Health:  Hands Rely on a Symphony of Body Systems to Function Properly, so Doctors Often Look to These Appendages for Signs of Illness and Disease”, by Karen Pallarito, May 15, 2018.  https://www.health.com/condition/skin-conditions/hands-health]

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of Outer Limits episode “The Vaccine”

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The Outer Limits television show has always been ahead of its time.   It is my favorite science fiction show of all time.  It is done so intelligently and articulately bar none.   In descending order, OL is my number one, then Twilight Zone, Ray Bradbury Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, etc.   My favorite science fiction movie producers are too many to name.

Yesterday, I saw an episode of the Outer Limits tv show on the Comet channel entitled “The Vaccine”, season 4, episode 11, originally broadcast on April 3, 1998.   Before the episode began, a man’s voice made a disclaimer warning the viewer that the subject of the episode may be stressful to some because of the pandemic we are in.  

It was summarized in the scheduling as “A dozen survivors of a fatal plague must decide who will get the only 3 vaccines available”.  IMDb describes the plot as “After a doomsday cult releases a genetically engineered virus, a nurse named Marie must decide which patients under quarantine get a vaccine that may cure the plague.” 

Maria Conchita Alonso plays the nurse who wants to follow their CDC guidelines but it would involve not giving the vaccine to a child, an elderly person, or a dying person.   She passes out from exhaustion trying to carry this responsibility for her patients because she has to do everything including feeding them and monitoring them for contagion.   Her character Marie has been the only one with medical experience for months.  The science community suggests that only those of child-bearing age receive the vaccine.  

The usual suspects are among the group:  the enforcer (Biski Gugushe as James), the bystander (Laurie Murdoch as Lawrence), the misinformed (Jason Gaffney as Kirk), the bullies (Brent David Fraser as Graham and Megan Leitch as Barb), the elderly (Joy Coghill as Jean), the man dying from cancer (Jay Brazeau as Bernard Katz), the diseased soldier who delivers the vaccine on his way to his home to die with his family (Michael Buie), a male child (Lane Gates as Harry), etc.  You can easily identify with the characters.  

There is even a love interest for Marie in the form of Major Ford (played by Eric Keenley). He leaves in uniform to get more supplies and never comes back.   After all of Marie’s heartache, the episode ends with a twist which is the Outer Limits signature.   It is one of their best episodes ever and directed by Neill Fearnley.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin