2021 Life Logs, Day 103: All About Books . . . and Richard Simmons
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Windy; High 53, Low, 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Remember Richard Simmons? Evidently my children do. This afternoon I got very delayed birthday present from Justin and Jo. It was a Richard Simmons Chia Pet Planter. In the mid -1980’s when Heather was 10 or 11 and Justin was 8 or 9, Mark was diagnosed as having high cholesterol. The doctor told him to exercise more. My solution was to buy a couple of Richard Simmons exercise video tapes and get the whole family dancing and exercising. Heather, Justin, and I danced with Richard Simmons every day, but Mark never joined us. But the memory of those daily dance exercise sessions has caused more than a few laughs over the years. Thus, the Richard Simmons Chia Head. It was delivered to Heather’s, so I opened it when I took Ollie home from school. The boys didn’t appreciate the humor, but Heather and Jed both got a bigger laugh than I did. I sent an email to Justin and Jo telling them I have the greatest tacky gift party gift ever!
Now to the books. Last night after I sent my log, I did my every night bedtime reading. I am 487 pages into Barack Obama’s 700-page book, The Promised Land. Last night I was reading Chapter 21 that began like this: “At dinner one night, Malia asked me what I was going to do about tigers. “What do you mean, sweetie?” Malia replied, “Well, you know they’re my favorite animal, right?” And then Malia continued, “I did a report about tigers for school, and they‘re losing their habitat because people are cutting down the forests. And it’s getting worse, ‘cause the planet’s getting warmer from pollution.” She went on, but basically, she thought that because her dad was the President, he should try to save them. This introduction led into a great description about the role of the United States in the fight against climate change as seen through the eyes of the then President of the United States. The chapter ends when Obama returns from ten hours in Copenhagen in 2012 when the Copenhagen Protocol was signed. It extended the 1992 Kyoto Protocol which led to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. But the way the Obama team got the world players to sign on to the 2012 agreement was a fascinating story. When he flew home to Washington and returned home to the White House, it was late at night and the girls were asleep. Michelle just looked at him and said, “Malia’s probably going to ask you at breakfast whether you saved the tigers.” Obama replied, “I’m working on it.”
I had my book club meeting today and after that I continued writing my book. I went from reading a book to talking about a book to writing a book. That was my day.
