I woke up before my alarm went off. Waking up before my alarm after a good night's rest gave me confidence that I wasn't depressed. I have been somewhat concerned. I feel sluggish. Today, my hair stopped looking and feeling good. My mom always said you can tell how people feel by the way their hair sits. If it seems like it can't be managed, they are not doing well. My hair is not sitting right. It suggests I'm out of sorts.
It was a two-sweatshirt morning again. It was a bit warmer by 7, but still a gorgeous, cool day. I focused as much on the sky and the landscape as I did the postures this morning in our driveway yoga class. There were only four students today. One student called Yvette to tell her she had overslept; another fell going to the bathroom and possibly broke a rib. There was one returning student. He thought he had been exposed to someone with the virus. As it turned out, both he and his contact tested negative. It was most considerate of him to wait until he was cleared.
Yvette took a picture of me and Elsa during savasana. I was lying down with my knees bent. The image revealed how out of whack my body is. I wrote Yvette about it. She said it wasn't a surprise. Surprise! It was to me. I had focused on my back, not my lower legs.
After yoga, I meditated. I have been doing that more regularly. After I meditated, I was tired and slept for a while. I do love to sleep, and fortunately, I sleep very well.
At 10:30, I had a Zoom tutoring session with D. He is doing a better job of remembering his multiplication facts. He doesn't always come up with the correct answer, but he does come up with the numbers we have been working on. He will remember that 7x9= 62, and 7 x 6= 46, and 9x4=34. I can imagine people asking, "Where's the improvement?" Admittedly, I am being optimistic. He is getting all the numbers in the tens place correct and mixing up the numbers in the ones place. We're only working with five multiplication facts because the objective is to embed the neural pathway for associative recall.
His reading varies from one minute to the next. He can read difficult words correctly and then read he'd as had, even though it makes no sense in the sentence. On the other hand, he does catch his mistakes more often, and when he does make mistakes, they are substitutions that support the meaning of the text. I am frustrated because he prioritizes getting through the text quickly and sounding good over accuracy. I can't convince him that he will make better progress toward his goal if he moves slowly. It is frustrating.
I spent a good part of the day dealing with Progressive about the insurance premiums. I initially contacted them to confirm the date I added Adam to the insurance. I received that information on February 27, 2019. I also asked for the dates when I dropped Mike from the car insurance policy. I had asked that once before; I was told March 4. When I asked this time, I got a different date, March 27. This company is driving me around the bend. While I was on the phone, I asked who to contact if I wanted to challenge the premiums. I obtained the contact information of a higher-level service provider.
Wow! What a difference! I had left a message saying that I wanted to challenge the premiums. Marissa, the Progressive agent, got back to me later that day. She listened carefully and told me she had to pass me on to someone in the Policy Department. I spoke to Brandon, who was also attentive. Then, we were disconnected. I don't think he hung up on me, but he also didn't call me back. I have no idea what happened. I called Marissa back after several hours to let her know what had happened. She suggested that I speak to a manager. I told her I would rather wait until the next day.
I headed out to Home Depot to pick up the pole pruner that Scott recommended. They come in three sizes: 12 ft, 14 ft, and 16 ft. I was wondering which would be most suitable for my needs. I called B. He said the 12-foot would be perfect. Great, it was the least expensive.
I also picked up a house plant to replace the one that died the other day. I believe the one I got now is the same plant as the one Mike brought home. Let's see if I can keep it alive.
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Musings:
White privilege: I've been hearing a lot about it. Again, I think the term is a misnomer for most whites. White privilege means that I can assume a police officer will be polite to me when he stops me for speeding or crossing a lane inappropriately. To me, white privilege means that I can lie in my bed at night and be confident that the police will not break into my home. It means that I was entitled to a good education.
When I hear the above described as white privilege, I don't want to give it up. I don't want to be treated rudely or brutally by people in power. I don't want to give up "white privilege'; I want everyone to have the same privilege.
Privilege becomes that only when we have unfair advantages and when our 'privilege' makes us feel entitled to abuse others. Watching Chauvin's face as he sat on George Floyd is an example of toxic 'white privilege.' He executed a man on his own initiative as calmly as I stepped on an ant. I have reviewed Floyd's own criminal record, which is publicly available online. The question is, is there anything he did that warranted a death sentence?
Most white people are like me; we do not use our privilege to actively abuse someone. But we do have the opportunity to overlook the constant threat that people of color live with that colors their every minute and every interaction, probably with every human being. We can forget about it. We are not 'guilty." The question is, what do we do or not do that allows that form of 'white privilege' to stretch to such an extent that Chauvin could believe he was doing nothing wrong.
I recommend that whenever we approve of the abuse of people of color before we justify it, ask," What if they were white? Would I have thought that was okay?" Anyone who says, "This is different," says you can assume brown people are guilty. You can assume light-skinned people are innocent. Really?
Dylan Roof? Suppose he had been a person of color shooting up a prayer group in a predominantly white church. Would those police officers have dealt with the situation the same way? Would he have made it to the police station alive, no less, without a bruise? Would someone have been sent out to buy him a Burger King because he was hungry?
