….and the seagull stood
on the edge of the blue wave
watching and watching
filled with gratitude
for this nation that fought back
against all evil
he will stand there now
like the rest of us here, with
relentless courage
as this tide rolls, he
contemplates what’s next so that
goodness will prevail.
*****
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late-late last night, with cautious hope, we went to sleep.
early-early this morning, with cautious hope, we rose to a new day.
we keep breathing…inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale….
with gratitude for a nation of people who spoke up, stood up, rose up, and voted.
with gratitude for younger and remarkably diverse candidates – with spectacular talent and vision.
holding to this blue wave with tenacity, knowing the road forward will not be easy.
but it is lined with the reminder of decency and morality, integrity and a staunch belief in democracy.
inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…
*****
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it’s that simple.
what is the future you choose – for you, your children, your grandchildren, the populace of this nation, the health and well-being of the entire world?
dictator or democracy?
there’s no more time.
decide carefully.
please vote.
*****
read DAVID’s thoughts this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY
read. think. vote.
it would seem obvious.
and desperately important.
because perhaps – in exercising your citizen rights and duties – you should be as informed as possible.
because perhaps – in exercising your citizen rights and duties – you should balance what you have learned with what moral integrity actually means and determine where – on the continuum – you honestly stand.
because perhaps – in exercising your citizen rights and duties – you should seek the truth – not just the bandwagon hooplah of your political bubble, the one that excuses you from any other research.
because perhaps – in exercising your citizen rights and duties – you should maybe feel protective of your citizen rights and duties.
because perhaps – in exercising your citizen rights and duties – you should vote for that which will ensure you continue to have these citizen rights and duties.
read. think. vote.
yup. it’s obvious.
and it’s desperately important.
do your part.
please.
*****
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we needed tuscan sunset seasoning and stopped in at penzeys – which is a favorite place to both shop spices and feel like we are in a big club of like-minded zealously-protective-of-our-democracy folks.
we picked up a bumper sticker because, well, it has an out-of-this-world important message: i will vote.
there are only eight days now. eight days left until this country – as a country – decides what it is going to do – what direction in which its populace votes to head.
it is more than slightly terrifying.
at this point – merely eight days out – i wonder what those-of-us-who-prefer-the-united-states-remain-a-democracy should say. how more blatant can this administration’s intentions be? how deep of a hole must one stick one’s head in in order to believe that there is anything but irreverent, soulless, cruelty trying to lead this country into oblivion?
please plan on voting. vote early. or vote on november 3rd. but please vote.
your voice – pushing back on the authoritarian-world-order-rearranging-oligarchic-despot-inhumane agenda – is needed.
bring your heart and true patriotism of this nation to the polls.
so that dawn’s early light reveals a better america – the land of the free and the home of the brave.
save this republic.
*****
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soon and very soon we will have to trim the stunning plumes off the grasses in the backyard. dogga loves to walk right alongside these grasses and the spikelets attach to his fur. posing as perfectly harmless golden seedheads, these little spikelet awns end up on our bed, in our socks, on the area rug in the living room – and ultimately stab us repeatedly, until one finds the source of the pain and removes it.
last year…as fall progressed and the number of spikey jabs increased, it occurred (slowly) to us to remove the source – and so we reluctantly trimmed the plumes out back, even though the way they catch the sunlight is remarkable.
nevertheless, they somehow sneak in, these tiny posers. and we heroically hold up one or two showing each other that we have literally saved the other’s life.
it’s those sneaker-inners that plague us…like needles from a long-gone christmas tree…they show up…and the longer they are around, the dryer and pointier they get. so it is important to try and eradicate them from inside the house as soon as possible.
ahhh…speaking of eradicating them from inside the house – we are ever closer to midterms and the big house – that-white-one-that-no-longer-has-an-east-wing – the one that every single one of us owns – that house needs big time eradication of the posers lodged there.
any reason to continue to tolerate that which brings pain is not acceptable.
they are seeding nothing but cruelty, bigotry, gluttony, self-serving agenda. and it is all at our peril.
we are wise enough to remove the spikelet awns from our comforter, our rugs, our socks.
we must remove the same from the leadership of our country.
*****
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two saturdays ago – on the 26th – we noticed on our weather app that the total daylight – for that very day – was 11 hours 59 minutes. the sun rose at 6:43 am and set at 6:42 pm. almost exactly half and half. we missed the actual half and half day, but we were still astounded by these numbers and nodded our heads, honoring the equinox.
i’m not sure we are really ready for the aftermath of the equinox. not yet. as these days get shorter – and the nights get longer – my wistful grows. so we change the timers on the garden lights, the living room lights, lamps in the bedrooms upstairs. we turn on the happy lights sooner and light candles. we mitigate the darker season that will arrive, anticipating and alleviating the impact earlier darkness has on us.
we are getting closer and closer to the midterms. the halfway point between big presidential election cycles. where time that came before is what is to come. so much in the before. what will be the after? it literally makes me sick to my stomach.
so much is riding on this election. our country is being destroyed, brick by brick by brick. it is blatant. it is mindbogglingly breathtaking. thinking about what could come is both paralyzing and numbing. it is not as simple as the amount of daylight decreasing. it is the amount of LIGHT decreasing.
at this point – on this day – there are precisely 29 days left.
my sweet poppo – a man who dedicated part of his life to the united states army air force, who was missing in action and then taken prisoner of war in world war II, who earned a purple heart and has his story told in the records of the smithsonian – this man is freaking the hell out as our democracy teeters…even from the other plane in which he exists. and with him are all the others who have fought for this country’s freedoms, rights, constitution. all the others who have resisted, protested, died for this country and its republic. all the others who have pushed back against all manner of authoritarianism.
and i am with him. my pompoms are solidly in the stop-this-takeover camp. i no longer have any tolerance for anyone who is cheering on the madness of the current administration. they have clearly not anticipated the impact that kind of darkness will have on us.
*****
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it seems impossible. how did we get to the end of september? where has all the time gone?
in the middle of the chaos that is now this country’s daily life, we have lost time. it would seem we have lost more than that.
the leaf is on the sidewalk. it looks like someone has crayoned around the edges.
little by little chlorophyll is lost from the leaf, brown steadily moves inward, closer and closer to the stem.
little by little the chaos seeps into the country’s veins, the inhumanity is normalized, the rights disappear, the constitution is ignored.
little by little necrosis seeps toward the innermost part of the leaf.
little by little authoritarianism seeps into the heart, the law of the people.
little by little the leaf curls to its cells dying.
little by little people are silent – or – are silenced. little by little air is removed from the populace.
how is this even real life?
the leaf is browning – from stress, lack of water, damage. it is dying – from the outside in. it feels too metaphoric to even write about.
the goodness is fading – from gluttony, grift, damaging corruption, out-and-out cruelty. the country is flailing.
how much green is left? where has all the time gone?
*****
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looking back on the 25th anniversary of september 11 i am struck at how viscerally profound it remains – in my heart, my mind, my body. not that i am surprised. it was an absolute day of terror – and none of us alive during it will ever forget.
scrolling anytime before, on or after the-day-25-years-later of these brutal attacks on our democracy, there are memes after memes on social media. person after person writing the words, “never forget!”
and that – i agree with.
but, many of the persons posting this are of a different political persuasion than me – many of them are carrying zealous pompoms for the current administration and for its undermining of this nation’s constitution.
so what – exactly – is it that those people are asking us not to forget about september 11, 2001?
is it how the country – and all its occupants – came together on that day – reaching out to each other, to help in the crisis, to comfort, to give aid, to stand with – regardless of any – ANY – differences?
is it how this country was helped by – and was grateful for – its allies in the time, the days, the months, the years after these hideous events?
is it how this nation’s people embraced each other, grateful to be alive, deeply grieving those whose lives were taken by this evil?
is it how there were adults in charge, who spoke eloquently and thoughtfully about the course of events, who made intelligent, well-advised decisions not based on impulsivity or gluttonous greed or narcissistic aggrandizing?
is it how the administration encouraged unity on the very day of these attacks: “this is a day when all americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace.“? (president bush)
is it how that president called for solidarity- instead of divisiveness – asking the country to put aside differences, support first responders, and stand together with resolve and shared purpose?
are these the things that the supporters of the current administration are talking about when they implore us to “never forget”?
because as i see it – their support of the heinousness of this administration means that they have already forgotten.
and in looking at what they are instead aligning themselves with, i say – with a heart, mind and body that remembers 9/11 – i dissent.
*****
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early in the morning that day i was supposed to get on a flight south. i didn’t. it didn’t fly as scheduled. nothing was as scheduled.
way before the sun set that day everything was different. terror had reared its hideously ugly head and nothing was as it had been.
it is hard to believe it has been twenty-five years. it is way too easy to conjure up the emotion and grief of that day and the days that followed.
it is hard to believe the destruction that happened that day, the profound loss of human life, the dismantling of safety and trust. but the images stay in our minds, clear as the day it happened.
it is hard to believe the incredibly unifying moments – moments when people helped other people regardless of any social or cultural or economic or religious difference between them, moments when people reached out in love and earnest compassion, moments when rescue, when keeping each other safe and restoring some sort of sanity was paramount.
it is hard to believe that the magnanimity, the unselfish generosity, the steadfast dedication shown by emergency personnel and regular people has not been the irrefutable north star of all the populace since.
but here we are. in a country with an administration where goodwill has fallen to hatred and revenge, inhumane treatment of the people of this land.
and here we are – instead of taking – for the long term, the long haul – the lessons of interdependency, of humanitarian aid, of selflessness in a time of disaster, of caring about every each other, of respecting life, this administration has successfully shed any idea of goodness or kindness, thrust aside any efforts at unity, promoted hatred and divisiveness leading to the dismantling of families and friendships, communities and workplaces. and we – as a country – have been unable to carry forward those very unifying moments of that day and the days that followed, resorting instead to discord and schisms of pronounced chasmic size.
and here we are – with the official white house website hosting gameware that indoctrinates the children of this nation to heinous cruelty and bigotry and xenophobia, promoting the extremist “policies” of an administration bent on destroying democracy. not to mention all the other psychotic, narcissistic, pathologically-lying social media posts.
and here we are – a country with an administration that is absolutely ignoring any inconvenient legislation of the nation’s constitution, intent upon all things harmful and hurtful – to its people, the land, the resources, the water, the food, the health, the education, living conditions, safety and security. intent on all things ruinous.
“what we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.” (warren buffett)
it was extremist mindset that besieged this country on september 11, 2001.
it is extremist mindset now.
it is hard to believe.
but here we are.
let us not forget that we are still capable of choosing to be those people – the ones who hold space for grief and loss, who actually learn from history and who opt for unity and the greater good.
it is what i hope for.
*****
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