July swan song

A White-breasted Nuthatch is making noises in the willow. The breeze is light, the air is clean, the sun is lovely and not too hot. July goes out with her singular beauty on full display.

Breakfast, perfect (even though it's a two-day old croissant!), on the porch. With Ed and a cat and the cat throws up, but still, the morning is beautiful.

I have a week of no childcare once again. Each grandchild is enrolled in a full day program and apart from some viewing and visiting toward the end of the week, I am not involved in their daily routines. This means that I can be slow, deliberate and thoughtful. (It does not mean that I am not slow or deliberate or thoughtful on days with kids, only that it's a hit or miss thing then.) And I start the day in this way. I read more than I usually do. And I think about what I've read. 

One news opinion piece especially caught my attention. In it, the author, who himself is a psychologist suggests that women know to tone down the use of assertive language in their communications (especially but not only in male dominated work places), because men are hostile to their use of it and will respond more favorably if women sprinkle their statements with disclaimers, hedging and qualifying as they present ideas or make requests. 

Admission: I am prone to sprinkling my posts with a million qualifiers and disclaimers when I delve into an even mildly controversial issue. 

The article would leave us (women) thinking that perhaps in our daughters' and granddaughters' future there will come a day when women will be judged favorably even if they appear to be as assertive as men in their communications. But I'm with those who believe that this is (perhaps) the wrong direction for us all. I think (maybe) women got it right: there is great humility in admitting that you do not have full possession of correct information, and that you are proceeding with the best possible facts, but they are imperfect and so is, therefore, your conclusion. I've said this before: (I think) we have too much certainty being shouted at us from all directions. Too much judgment, too much self-promotion, and way too many people believing that they know better. How to raise a child, how to do someone else's job, how to do every thing in life at every stage of the game.

What if we just stayed quiet and concentrated on gathering information? What if we listened and qualified our responses? Shouldn't aim for that? Shouldn't we want "sensitive to the needs of others" to replace "assert and demand what you think is rightfully yours?"

Just a thought. No certainty there, but it sounds right to me.

In the early afternoon, I took my daughter and her visiting friend to pay a call on my mom. 

And in the late afternoon, Ed and I went biking together. 

We did the 45 minute loop -- he on his trusty cycle, me on my borrowed e-cycle. We paused by Lake Waubesa and watched a boat come in. I suppose if you have to find fault with summers here, after you're done groaning about the mosquitoes (we've had fewer numbers thus far so you can't complain too much!), you would be justified in feeling sad about our lakes, which are being destroyed by algae and weeds. Perhaps there is hope: people are more sensitive to such issues these days. Fewer cavalierly treat their lawns unnecessarily, or pasture their livestock by water streams. But for now, the water quality isn't good.

At home, I water the pots. In late summer and early fall, we will shift our attention back to these annuals to enjoy our last bits of color before the cold takes hold and puts the farmette lands to sleep for the winter. Oh, but that's a long way away. We're on the last day of July. The colors are spectacular and the feeling of summer is deeply with us still.