Elaine Albertson's Blog

  Turn right at the first star, then on ‘til morning... Clinton, IA 1951 – Early August - Age 3 These were fairly stable times; the last world war had been over for some six years, but now we needed to cope with another “police action” that was rapidly becoming a full-out war that was called Korea. The economy, though, was strong. Not many troops were actually getting called to deploy to Korea at that time. Otherwise, money was stable, we had enough to eat, we kept our two vehicles in decent shape, and helped others when we could. I had a (mini) tank bicycle, and a white collie named Snowball. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’d devoured the Britannica in less than six months. It was simply my idea of cool fun to read adult-level, post-grad science content. We had subscriptions to National Geographic and Life magazines, as well as the New York Times (in those days it was actually delivered either by hand by local carriers, or by USPS). I asked Mom if I c...

  I can remember a time in the early 1960s when a purported quote from Chief Crazy Horse was making the rounds of the “coconut wireless” (today it’s the Internet). When faced with defeat, he supposedly said, “It is a good day to die!” with the implied meaning that he was being brave. Well, that’s not quite right. Yes, he was brave. No question. But, as explained to me by an Apache elder in ‘59, and later confirmed by an elder Lakota friend, the phrase is actually pronounced (more or less) “Ho-ka-hay.” The meaning is that, because we do not know the time of our going “end of watch,” we should live each day of our life as if it could be our last. Nothing for which to have to tender apology...no regrets. I sort of equate the concept to Camus’, “I live my life as if there was a God, and so if I find at the end that there really is a God, no worries.” The converse, of course, is that you live your life as if there is not a God, only to find at the end that there r...