In progress, all over the living room: the six panels for First Born’s bed-sized quilt.
Will I finish in time for an upcoming birthday? Probably not. But finishing is the goal.
I keep finding glass from the shattered tumbler — in the dishwasher, on the floor.
I canvassed for Warren yesterday. The NV results were discouraging but here are three ideas to remember (cling to?):
- Bill Clinton lost IA, NH, and NV;
- the 75,000 early ballots in NV were cast before the most recent debate; and
- Warren raised $12MM after that debate.
My last bday celebration took place across town last night with two long-time friends — one a fellow February baby, the other the host and a terrific cook. We’re all getting older. Actually, we’re all terrific cooks, too!
We sat by the fire and talked about all kinds of things, including — ESG-filtered investments, dating apps, grandchildren, Harriet Tubman, the NV caucus, butter beans, and how to survive in a wholly altered America.
“We only have each other. Small, local communities.”
I wonder: what kind of paperwork does one need to live, say, in Montreal?
We swapped inspiring links. I offered up the Future Primitive podcast link about regenerative design and B gave me (another) terrific astrology link as well as this:
So if as Maddow says this is not the threat of dark times but the dark time themselves, it seems incumbent upon all of us to document gratitude and small miracles.
This orchid seems poised to bloom. It’s a kind of miracle if you ask me — especially because I know nothing about orchids or what they need. There’s a sky light, so maybe that?
The orchid was a long ago bday gift from D, who cooked dinner last night. From Georgia. The butter bean expert.
Friendship is a kind of miracle, too, don’t you think? Connections local and, I would add, connections, here. Much gratitude for these. For you.
Broken-ness everywhere we turn seemingly … Maddow can be a bit dramatic at times (okay, most times), but it’s a bit unnerving to see her so obviously freaked out.
But then there’s cloth and family, orchids and friends, food and community … and thank you for the reminder of Bill Clinton’s early rough-going … I dare to hope for Warren
I don’t think Maddow is dramatic so much as annoyingly repetitive. I do love her but I almost always wish she’d make her point once and move on.
The dark times, they are here but so are the moments of light and hopeful clarity when we try to stay in the moment, when we do what we can to support our candidate (Elizabeth) BUT I do have to say that when those dark times come to me, I ask the question that I’ve been asking since 2016: How did we go from Obama to this? Sometimes I say to myself, well it’s a back lash but then I try to give my fellow citizens the benefit of the doubt. Recently though I read a quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates, that brought me to my knees because it seemed to speak to my floundering answer of how did we get to this: He wrote,
“Obama himself, underestimating Trump and thus underestimating the power of whiteness, believed the Republican nominee too objectionable to actually win. In this Obama was, tragically, wrong. And so the most powerful country in the world has handed over all of its affairs—the prosperity of an entire economy, the security of some 300 million citizens, the purity of its water, the viability of its air, the safety of its food, the future of its vast system of education, the soundness of its national highways, airways, and railways, the apocalyptic potential of its nuclear arsenal—to a carnival barker who introduced the phrase “grab ’em by the pussy” into the national lexicon. It is as if the white tribe united in demonstration to say, “If a black man can be president, then any white man—no matter how fallen—can be president.” .
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Writer
Exceptional analysis by Coates. Thank you for taking the time to type such a lengthy excerpt. There is a catch phrase that I hear in the slave dwelling / education / restoration feeds and that is: slavery didn’t disappear: it evolved. It’s painful
How openly hateful
We have become.
We cannot have light without darkness. I love the quilt you are making— it is minimal enough that something like it might be accepted by my own son.
Rachel makes a good point and then flogs it to death she exhausts me. I watch the evening news on pbs- it’s enough
A couple of visits back, C dug out the second bed quilt I made him (a very patterned foundation-built twin) and took it to LA. Won lots of points for that!
Marti, as usual, has the perfect go-to response here. Also cannot resist chiming in that got to meet Ms. Maddow in a social situation maybe three (possibly four) summers ago. She was extremely laid back and low key. Articulate af just as you’d expect. If she grinds gears for me on air sometimes I just think of her not on camera. Talking about/relating to completely different things.
works like a charm. I love her. Love our Elizabeth even more.
The thing with the glass still being found is freaky – as was the connection you made with the prosecutors quitting the stone case.
I do agree with what you said about documentation of gratitude and small miracles. Had that feeling strongly tonight myself – feeling myself awash with solace in hearth & home plus just enough blind faith to place my yearly seed order. Also more gratitude and the real reason I came over here just at the moment. Am so grateful to know about Pam Gregory. Thanks heaps for that link! (sharp looking quilt you are making your son.)
Just compulsively checked my old planners. it was four years ago. hence how laid back she was…
During her vacations and during some of the debate and election coverage, I really miss Maddow. It’s part intellectual reliance and part crush, I think. Where did you meet her?! I think it’s interesting how for her show she always wears contacts but when being interviewed on someone else’s show, she wears glasses. Anyway, given that you met her before trump, I’ll bet she isn’t so relaxed now. One of my favorite protest signs in Boston (which protest? It was about immigration, I think), my favorite sign was: “You made Maddow cry.” I posted it here. I remember how brutal the heat was, so maybe it was last summer.
met her at a party in the Berkshires. the *good* kind of Berkshire party – not the everyone who’s anyone variety.