R's rue

Tim Walz and family IVF = In Vitro Fertilisation. It is a  technique that has given babies to thousands of couples with fertility issues - bringing shed loads of happiness and relief to people who were losing hope. It seems incredible that within the Trump cult there's a lobby of MAGAists who not only vehemently disapprove of abortion under any circumstances, they are also against IVF treatment. These unkind numbskulls claim to be servants of God Almighty but I have searched through The Bible with a fine tooth-comb and found no evidence that God disapproves of either abortion or IVF. It is highly likely that the numbskulls just made it all up to fit in with their bigotry and backward looking philosophies. Some of you may recall me writing about our grandson Zachary. He came into being with the assistance of IVF, bringing a beautiful child into the lives of his grateful parents - Ian and Sarah. Without him, I think they would have always felt his absence - like an emotional fis...

 I saw a friend say all they needed was ‘A Carolina backroad, watermelon and well water’. It made me smile. I understood the feeling. What he described I felt in my soul. I can’t drive, but I can just picture riding in an old pickup spitting watermelon seeds out the window while the solo cup I carry from home was some water from the well waiting on to guzzle as I swelter in triple digit heat.  The radio is blasting my eardrums. The warm breezes brush the follicles. The heat brings the sweat on a tank top that’s seen better days. It doesn’t look great. More like a worn dishrag. The memories it holds. The bonfires in the front pasture sitting on square bales. The days picking up sticks. Fishing with a cane pole. Picking muscadines. Not that I knew what they were until South Carolina became the place I first learned would set my world upside down.  I learned from the old ladies the hard work of picking cotton and frying fatback. I said so many times there wasn’t anything t...