I felt the need to soothe, my friends were anxious at the latest democrat happy hour a few days ago. We sat outside with beer and food and talked while it rained. Thunder clapped above through the thin awning over our heads.
“They say he’ll win,” or “It’s too close to call,” they said with worried eyes.
No it’s not too close to call. He’s not going to win, I said. It felt true, but who was I to say, but I was me and so I said it.
I hate to see good people scared.
Molly Ivins: “the thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.”
What I do in times like these is I go out and rake the leaves. It might be for 15 minutes or a half hour. When done, I am breathing evenly and moving with more ease.
Then my neighbors walking by stop to talk to me.
One neighbor tells me about Israel while another one drives around with a huge bomb in her pickup and a flag for Palestine. It’s not a real bomb though it looks real. My brother said, what’s it mean, and I told him I think it means bombs are bad. I saw both neighbors today. The one with the bomb said she doesn’t drive it on the freeway, to be sure it doesn’t fall out.
Another thing I did was to sit with a raven stuffed animal, sip Scotch whiskey and talk poetry, politics, and spiritual matters with two others. The subject of pumpkins came up as my neighbor dubbed me the pumpkin fairy. Because I left one on her porch and she didn’t know who left it until she did. One of my friends told me, “I’m a squash slut.” She said it with such earthiness, I wanted to hear more. I asked how to cut it open. She said to throw it down on concrete and I did that today and it worked. It’s in the oven now.
I think Kamala will win. If he wins, it’s what America wants, or too many Americans- a sleazy dictator.
On campus, election time support will take many forms on November 5th & 6th.
This includes: tea, aromatherapy, cocoa, coffee, play-doh, dogs, goats, hot cider, therapists, music, movies, silence, talking, soft chairs.
One thing I did to take a small break from reality this weekend was explore AI image generation.
What’s weird about AI images is they are a lot like dreams. They don’t quite make sense. Words don’t work. Things don’t always connect or are in the wrong place. I’ve shared a few images here that I do like.
My key themes involve hot air balloons, steam trains, boats, beavers, water, whales, flying fish, turbans, bicycles, elves, squash, bridges, 19th century, flowers, bathtubs, orchards, pillows.
It was fun to play with for awhile. Then I kind of got over it.
I talk politics on the phone with my brother Lance on most days. We tell each other this is history in the making. Let’s pay attention and take notes. When we hung up last time he said, “stay the course!” I plan on doing exactly that.
Share this post