I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup under the watchful eyes of my young granddaughter, as I'd done many times before. After I applied my lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Grandma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper goodbye!" I'll probably never put on lipstick again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper goodbye.

I’ve been observing our two corgis for quite some time now and every day I’m realizing they’re so much smarter and more human than I imagined. As I pondered more, I’m thinking, they’ve always been smart. I just never noticed, appreciated or took advantage of this.

In 100 years, in 2124, we will all be buried with our relatives and friends. Strangers will be living in our homes we fought so hard to build and they will own everything we have today --- including that car you spent a fortune on. Our descendants will hardly know who we were. How many of us know our grandfather’s father? After our deaths we will be remembered for a few years. And a few years later our history our photos, our deeds will go into the dust bin of oblivion. We won’t even be memories.

My computer’s sick. I don’t think it’s a virus that it caught. Neither is it spyware. I think it’s because of turning it off and inadvertently disconnecting apps from their execute commands. Waiting for my computer to move has made be very sluggish. It's like watching a plant grow. A friend shared that he’s also sluggish. Did Bill Gates just spray the atmosphere with sleeping pills? I can't think of a better time to talk about conspiracy theories.

Would you recognize a miracle when it comes knocking at your door? Last Tuesday morning a deafening boom! rattled the morning skies above New York and New Jersey. It turned out to be a fireball hurling 38,000 mph above the Statue of Liberty. A local news channel said there was nothing to worry about because the meteor disintegrated 30 miles above the city. Silly people. At that speed, 30 miles is nothing. This could have been a major disaster. Millions of lives were actually spared --- including the hopes and dreams of my precious friends and families.

If you keep up with the news, I betcha you're just as frustrated as I am. You think you know the truth. The evidence is as clear as day and yet you see people in the "other side" spewing nonsense with authority. You look for people on "your side" to exchange the latest gossip and avoid speaking about politics with the "other side" because it takes too much drama. So each of us sits on our "safe side" and drift further and further apart.

It's July 4th as I prepare this email. Do you think I'd spend time away from my wife just to make you smile? Well do ya? I didn't think so. Seriously, I wish you and America a belated July 4th celebration. We've been celebrating this since 1941, the world was so different then. And in the bigger picture, Independence Day actually happened way way back in 1776. This great nation, this grand experiment of government, has certainly had its share of calamities but we're still here. Today we're facing yet another whirlwind of political, spiritual, social, economic drama. Will we survive? No one knows for sure but one thing I'm certain of: If we survive it will be because of God's grace --- even now we're blessed beyond what we deserve.

The great debate between Biden and Trump is history. You’ll know whose predictions were accurate. And the media will have their analysts massaging the truth to their liking. I dare not contribute to the confusion so I will just share a few observations about the event.

I volunteered to do caricatures for our church's Children's Summer Program for three days. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous because it's been a few years since I did live drawing and (since then) my eyesight has waned and my drawing hands have gotten stiff. But the more faces I drew, the better I got. The rust in my fingers chipped away. The ratio and proportion calibration in my brain started to tick again. I was back! One day I know the magic will be gone but at least it isn't today.

I just watched the original series of Roots. The first and last time I watched this movie was back in ’77 when it first came out. If you are African American, you’ll learn to hate the white man ---“these sanctimonious Christian slave traders! No amount of repatriation will be good enough to repay the sufferings they inflicted. I am entitled to everything you’ve got!” Do you agree?