Check, and Check!

Since my last post on my bucket list, I have been adding to and working on checking things off.  Last week I checked off sending a 'thinking of you' letter to someone 'just cause'.  I need to do that more often because it had a very positive effect.  (That can go hand in hand with 'using all the stationary I own'.)  By the end of April, I should be able to check off another one which is to learn something new every day for a month.  So far, on April 1 I learned that in the US, there was a direct correlation in the drop of maternal mortality and infant deaths with the introduction of women's right to vote.  Girl Power!

On April 2nd, I learned that the word 'boondoggle' was first used in 1930 by a boy scout leader, and later used by opponents to the New Deal to describe some projects as money-wasting and unproductive.
On April 3rd, I learned that it was Chairman Mao (of all people) that curbed a lot of the abuses against women in Chinese culture with the onset of Communism and said that women "held up half the sky."  Quite the enlightened crack-pot.

As an aside, yesterday I picked up a book called 'Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused', a collection of modern Chinese fiction.  Just the title amuses me, I hope the writing does as well.
In the vein of spring cleaning, renewal, new ideas, motivation and such, here is a little poem I wrote yesterday after our 84 degree weather.

The first spring day
I absorbed the sun,
now I itch all over.

KEH