Illinois ladies facing bc
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Chicago's City Council finally reached a compromise on renaming iconic Lake Shore Drive for Jean-Baptiste Point duSable, the first non-indigenous settler and de facto founder of what would become (the city of Chicago. He was a fur trapper-trader, a freedman from Haiti, with French-Canadian as well as African ancestry. He married an indigenous woman. Before settling here, he lived near what is now Detroit Ten years after establishing both a trading post and inn (with tavern), he & his family split for what is now St. Charles, MO. So though he was our first non-indigenous settler, he didn't stay here long enough to formally establish a town (much less name it); and I wouldn't be surprised if he introduced alcohol to the local indigenous tribes. (Less malevolent than smallpox, but still...).
It's not as if we've neglected his pivotal role in founding this city. We already have a DuSable Museum of African-American History, a DuSable Park, and a monument to him in Pioneer Court, site of his original landing at the confluence of the lake & river and today's Tribune Tower & Wrigley Bldg. All Chicago schoolkids (and new arrivals) are taught that he was essentially our founder. There is an iconic pop-rock song of the mid-'70s. "Lake Shore Drive," by Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah, almost the unofficial city song (certainly catchier than the official IL pop song, "Illinois, I'm Your Boy" by the late Dan Fogelberg). Everyone who's lived here since before 1990 can sing the chorus: "And there ain't no road just like it, anywhere I've found. Runnin' south on Lake Shore Drive, headin' into town. Just slippin' on by on 'L.S.D.,' Friday night trouble-bound." (I suspect that may be part of the reason our mayor Lori Lightfoot--our first Black female mayor--and a transplanted Clevelander, opposed any name change).
She offered to enlarge DuSable Park, rename both Columbus Drive (Columbus has nothing to do with Italian heritage) and Millennium Park (perhaps our top tourist destination since 1999), and also name the Riverwalk in his honor. But her City Council adversaries said "no deal"--they claim the very iconic nature of the road demanded a total re-name. She offered "DuSable Lake Shore Drive." Again, no go--they wanted "Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Drive." The compromise was "Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive." Just imagine a newly-arrived immigrant Uber/Lyft driver trying to deal with that mouthful on their Waze app. (They're still trying--2 yrs. later--to get used to there being, as part of the Loop's perimeter, both a Wells St. and an Ida B. Wells Drive--formerly Congress Parkway). I can understand including his name--but does it have to be his first and middle names too? After all, I-290 is not called the "Dwight David Eisenhower Expressway," nor is I-94 the "Bishop Henry David Ford Freeway" (south) or the "William G. Edens Expressway" (north). Nope, it's the "Eisenhower (aka Ike)" and "Bishop Ford." "DuSable Lake Shore Drive" would have been sufficient and eminent tribute--while still ruining the song's chorus' scansion & double entendre. But just imagine singing "....Runnin' south on Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Drive...just slippin' on by on J.B.P.D.S.L.S.D." Oy. (Even just "...by on D.S.D." would have been a head-scratcher non-sequitur).
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Integrity requires that I discern what is integral to my selfhood, what fits and what does not--and that I choose life-giving ways of relating to the forces that converge within me: Do I welcome them or fear them, embrace them or reject them, move with them or against them? By choosing integrity, I become more whole, but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means becoming more real by acknowledging the whole of who I am. -Parker J. Palmer,
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When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
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What is age but a number.
What you can dream, you can become, at any age.
Live your best life, not your age.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie0 -
Celebration is a kind of food we all need in our lives, and each individual brings a special recipe or offering, so that together we will make a great feast. Celebration is a human need that we must not, and can not, deny. It is richer and fuller when many work and then celebrate together. -Corita Kent and Jan Steward
Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving;
make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!
-Amanda Bradley0 -
Love is when I am concerned with your relationship with your own life, rather than with your relationship to mine. . . . There must be a commitment to each other's well-being. Most people who say they have a commitment don't; they have an attachment. Commitment means, "I am going to stick with you and support your experience of well-being." Attachment means, "I am stuck without you." -Stewart Emery
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"You alone are the judge of your worth and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks."
— Deepak Chopra
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To me, Willis Tower will always be Sears Tower. The White Sox stadium will always be Comiskey Park. The Chicago Bears play at Soldier Field (even though there’s a bid to move to Arlington). Call the LSD the JBPDSLSD?? That will never stick in my mind.
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Rosie, I sort of feel the same way. That is a norm -- just like your home address always being the same, or the address for BC.Org. o This is how we know where to come for help. It makes no sense to me. Might as well call Mt. Rushmore some other name. It wouldn't be what it has always been to me.
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Deep in the soul, below pain, below all the distraction of life, is a silence vast and grand--an infinite ocean of calm, which nothing can disturb; nature's own exceeding peace, which "passes understanding."
That which we seek with passionate longing, here and there, upward and outward; we find at last within ourselves.
C.M.C.0 -
Habits have been given for your strengthening, but they cease to be purposeful when you become subservient to them. No one is a master who is slave to his or her own inventions. -Alan Cohen
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Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes a kindred heart, like the converged light upon a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared. -Jane Porter
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You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.
Woodrow Wilson0 -
Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. -Helen Keller
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You have choice. You can select joy over despair. You can select happiness over tears. You can select action over apathy. You can select growth over stagnation. You can select you. And you can select life. And it's time that people tell you you're not at the mercy of forces greater than yourself. You, indeed, are the greatest force for you. Now, you can't do it for me, but you can do it for you. -Leo Buscaglia
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Hello,
I'm Amanda, I live in southern Illinois, Fairfield, to be exact. I am 57 years old and just recently moved back to my hometown last fall with my husband of two years from upstate New York where we lived for my job. I was diagnosed on June 15th with IDC and had my first of four AC treatments yesterday afternoon. My tests showed that its only in two lymph nodes and the tumor in my left breast.
I'm working full time right now and am just checking off the boxes of everything I need to do to get this cancer beat!
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Hi, Amanda. Welcome aboard. Where in southern IL is Fairfield? Pre-pandemic, I used to go down to Sparta twice a year to record (our engineer lives down there with his wife, across from his farm and down the road from the 200-yr-old ancestral home they renovated and converted to a B&B). We've been invited to the B&B for the next total solar eclipse--the town is in the "totality-belt." Hope I make it that long.
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They are the prudent who leave behind yesterday's mistakes in complete self-forgiveness, but for the lessons they learned from them, and to then face each new dawn as if it were their very first.
unattributed0 -
Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success.
Zig Ziglar0 -
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. -Melody Beattie
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We can learn to trust ourselves by inquiring within. To practice doing this, sit quietly, close your eyes, and for a minute focus your attention on your breathing. Gently visualize your inner wisdom as a graceful butterfly. Admire her beauty, and encourage your butterfly to sit on your shoulder and whisper her wisdom in your ear. Be still and listen. -Sue Patton Thoele
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Though leaves are many, the root is one.
- William Butler Yeats -0 -
We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate people because they were born in another country, because they speak a different language, or because they take a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human. . . . Let us have but one end in view: the welfare of humanity. -Johann Amos Comenius
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Many of our feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction have their roots in how we compare ourselves to others. When we compare ourselves to those who have more, we feel bad. When we compare ourselves to those who have less, we feel grateful. Even though the truth is we have exactly the same life either way, our feelings about our life can vary tremendously based on who we compare ourselves with. Compare yourself with those examples that are meaningful but that make you feel comfortable with who you are and what you have. -David Niven
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The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate. -Albert Einstein
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Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love--for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another. -Ram Dass
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Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into love. ~~~Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross
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Grace is goodness and respect given freely and unconditionally. A sense of divine love and protection bestowed on us when we need strength and renewal. Grace helps us know we are not alone and believe we are cared for and cherished. Grace is a drink of clear, clean water in the desert. -Sue Patton Thoele
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"If you want the world to be a better place, extend Love to it.
See its perfection, its innocence, its beautiful purpose. What a gift it offers!"from The Voice For Love.
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The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher0
