Lifestyle

“God’s lesson is that you can run from me, but you can’t hide,” says Kate, age 10.

“Ms. Moo?” the voice was coming from a body in the corner with a clipboard for a head. It’s the curse of the paperwork software. Some places, namely the ones that feel the need to place plastic bracelets on your arm, use a software program that cuts off after exactly 3 characters of one’s surname. It’s a perplexing problem for someone with a perfectly symmetric name like Dina Moon – 4 letters, 4 letters. It’s a shame to leave that last letter off, I think. “Diana Moo?” The name butchering continues with predictable reactions. All waiting room eyes gravitate to me, Ms. Moo, who has just stood to acknowledge the greeting. I don’t even correct them anymore. It’s easier to go with the flow. I can be Diana Moo for the next 2 hours. That’s how long I will be here, in this auxiliary Baylor Hospital building. It’s mammogram day.

B Dear Aunt B, I am hearing lots about artificial intelligence. I would be lying if I didn’t say it frightens me. Will I lose my job to a computer?

“Maybe the things Jesus asks people to do are so hard that they do not want to do it,” says Maggie, 11. “It’s easier to quit.”

For more than 80 years, the USO has served the men and women of the U.S. military and their families, throughout their time in uniform. And now, with the opening of its first two shipbased USO centers, they are going where they go even at sea.

It was dusk, the first time I saw the creature. My 5-minute foray to the outside of my house went awry. I had intended to water the rosebushes, the ferns, and the small patch of lemon balm I was trying to resurrect from the summer heat. Like a modern- day Goldilocks drawn further and further into the woods, I had wandered first toward the unchecked mailbox and then toward the voice of a neighbor. Suddenly, it was more than dusk. It had gotten dark. In this old neighborhood, dark means the beginning of the feral cat witching hour. They emerge from every crevice, out from under every pier & beam porch, and from the belly of every storage shed. We have ginger cats, so very many calicos, and run of the mill black cats. As I turned to saunter back down my walkway, I glanced up at my front door. That’s when I saw it. The black feral cat we call Midnight had gotten INSIDE my foyer somehow. He was sitting atop my paternal grandmother’s 1900-era buffet, facing the glass, his yellow eyes ablaze, his long mane extending from his face in perfect, triangular points. My mind raced. How had this he devil gotten inside? Had I left the door open? It was closed now. Does this cat have opposable thumbs? I was blown away by his mustered bravado that prompted him to do this as his normal personality is more prone to Freddy Krueger-like claw maneuvers. Moreover, how was I going to extract him from my home? My thought immediately ran to my three resident cats, the youngest still in need of a spay. Great, all of them have been exposed to who knows what sorts of deadly communicable diseases and Polly is probably with kitten child by now. Grabbing a rake from the side of the porch, a weapon I knew I would not dare to use on any animal, I took a deep breath and readied my nerves. Time to eradicate the beast. Hand to doorknob, sheen of sweat on my brow, breath held for eternity, I looked up to face my foe. The eyes? Turns out I’d left a double wick candle burning. The mane? My faux hydrangea and lavender flower arrangement was throwing a perfectly cat shaped shade silhouette in the exact place. Crisis averted. There was no beast lying in wait. Things aren’t always how they seem. Why do I think I know best?

B

“The Bible is like a magnet and the people are attracted to it,” says Angel, 12. “We all have a choice to stay in the darkness or be saved and go to the light.”

The back-to-school season can bring excitement for young people, but for youth in foster care, starting a new school year can feel scary and uncertain.

Few foods align more perfectly with a particular time of year than ice cream and summertime. As anyone who has ever excitedly eaten ice cream a little too fast knows, it’s not always pleasurable to sit down and indulge in a scoop or two. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the sensation widely known as “ice cream headache” can be quite painful. Technically known as cold neuralgia or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, ice cream headache likely occurs because eating something very cold can cause the temperature of the palate to drop substantially. That drop initially causes blood vessels to constrict before they ultimately open up. It’s during that expansion when the painful feelings associated with ice cream headache present. Taking small bites of ice cream can help prevent ice cream headache and ensure those summertime scoops are pain-free.

B Dear Aunt B, I am going to travel a little this summer. This is the first time in a long time. Do you have any tips for making the best of travel?

Hello! I’m back, freshly deposited from the mountains of Idaho. Boy, do I have an eternity’s worth of stories to tell you, but first, let’s revisit a classic movie. The scene begins with a disheveled Richard Gere, his back to a concrete slab, doing reverse crunches as Louis Gossett, Jr. berates him, screaming insults, barking orders, and demanding he acknowledge defeat. It’s a snippet from 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman. Gossett is drill sergeant Foley. Gere is Zack Mayo, a Navy aviation officer candidate who wants to fly jets. The culmination of this scene, which still brings me to tears, shows Mayo finally cracking. He has refused to turn in his DOR (drop on request), submitting himself to the Sergeant’s never ending physical challenges. Since he won’t quit, Sergeant Foley heatedly tells him he’s kicking him out of the program. Candidate Mayo sits up, wet, filthy, and exhausted, and says these words. “I got nowhere else to go.” The military has a long-standing focus of breaking soldiers down to build them back up. There are many reasons for this culture. Drill instructors are looking for areas of strength, sure, but more so areas of weakness. After all, soldiers are going to put their lives on the line. To be successful, they have to move as a cohesive unit. To be a triumphant unit, everyone must give their all, in support of the mission and for each other. The complete and total breakdown of a person leads to surrender leads to a rebuilding within that unit. That’s my best novice, very un-military explanation. How does this apply to my trip to Idaho? It’s all about that settling in period of trying something new. You have to get broken in first. In my case, it was more akin to broken down.

“God puts people into our lives who lead us to Jesus,” says Maggie, 11. “They may show his love by hugging, helping them out, telling them that God loves them, and being kind to them.”