Professor J's Place

I have a wisdom tooth inside my crowded face I have a friend who is a born-again Found his savior's grace I was born before my father And my children before me We are born and born again Like waves of the sea That's the way it's always been That's how I want it to be  Paul Simon I have always loved this song--it's one of my favorites. It combines my love of the romantic era and the concept of the wisdom of children that is lost with age, "I was born before my father and my children before me," with the truth of my own experience, "We are born and born again." This morning--this all souls day--I am hearing this song again.  This morning I clicked on one of those silly Facebook things. It looks at your profile pics over the last few years and picks the most representative profile pictures to show your change over the years. The picture for 2014 was one of my favorite baby pictures. I jokingly said to my friends, what...

Maria Butcher (my grandmother) with Mary (my mom) I resisted writing my usual sappy mother's day post yesterday, but here I am doing it today. The above photo always blows me away. It could have been taken in the 1980's, I think, except for Mama's bathing suit. Instead, it was taken in 1928. My grandmother, Mama told me, was a flapper.  My grandmother was also depressed.  She killed herself on December 13, 1941. Actually, she took poison on December 10th and died on the 13th. After years of my mother's annual depression and anger around the 13th, I finally asked mom what year it was my grandmother died.  "1941." "It didn't have anything to do with Pearl Harbor, though, right?" "It was  because  of Pearl Harbor. It was because she knew we would soon be going to war with Germany." Everybody knew that Roosevelt was just waiting for an excuse to go to war in Europe. War on one front served as a gateway to war on another. Sound famil...