FAMILY TREESA friend in Canada e-mailed me

FAMILY TREES

A friend in Canada e-mailed me an article about the familial relationship between Barack Obama and Dick Cheney a day or two ago, which I didn't bother to dig up for this post but instead found the same information at another online site, here. In joking around with this friend about family trees, especially since we both had been members of a church that emphasizes genealogy for use in proxy ordinances in their temples, she said that her step-father (and I don't know what his religious affiliation was) had traced his lineage back to Charlemagne, and that was what my maternal grandfather claimed to have done as well. My Grandpa said that doing so brought our family into the lineage of the kings of Europe and thus to the Bible and back to Adam. I remember being shown a scroll-like, long piece of paper with the genealogy back to Adam written on it in calligraphy, when I was told this. I have no idea where the scroll is now -- perhaps one of my sisters found it and took it home with her after Mom's passing several months ago. It's kind of funny and interesting to be related to kings, but I am sure that the royal blood has been watered down so much that we in my family are nothing more than average joes. ;-)

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I don't know if I have written about how hypersensitive I have sometimes been in the past, but it has been somewhat of a curse at times. I had talked about it on one usually-supportive chat list quite a while ago and -- as things tend to go on that list with some of the members -- the subject has been discussed on and on, ad nauseum. One of the members who drags subjects on forever said yesterday that a person who was hypersensitive suffered from selfishness and pride and the answer to their problem was to care more about others. That brought me to a bit of a boil but, as is my habit, rather than argue and start a flame war on the list, I just deleted her post but not without thinking in the process that she was very tactless and unkind. What do you think about hypersensitivity? Can it be the product of emotional abuse in a person's life, from parents and/or a spouse? Or is it indeed a sign of selfishness? If you have opinions, I would like to hear them, although I hope you will be kind in the process. ;-)

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The current grounding of large numbers of jets by Delta and American Airlines to check the electrical bundles on them, resulting in a lot of passengers being stranded in airports, brought back memories of my flying experiences around the first of January. As I have already written in detail about them after I got home, I won't repeat them here, but I can truly empathize with the people who were waiting for long periods of time. I didn't have to wait due to inclement weather in Salt Lake for my jet back to Portland nearly as long as some other passengers did; there were individuals waiting for that plane who had been there for 10 hours or more.

I have been thinking about how much we trusted those airplanes, and believed and hoped they were safe. I think that, if I were wanting to fly during this time of grounded jets, I would have mixed feelings; I would not like waiting a long time for a flight, as passengers lately have been, but on the other hand, I would be glad to know that the airplane I was on was as safe as it could be.

I'm just glad that I am not having to fly now, or any time that I know of in the foreseeable future.

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When my friend Lynne sent me the above Ziggy cartoon, she had to explain to me what it meant. She sent me a link to a site showing cargo pants, which have all the pockets in them. LOL! I guess I'm kind of out of it when it comes to men's fashion trends.