Sometimes

Sometimes, 

for no reason,

you sing. 

For no reason, 

you accept the way of being lost, 

cutting loose from all else 

and electing a world where you go 

where you want to. 

Arbitrary, a sound comes, 

a reminder that a steady center 

is holding all else. 

If you listen, that sound will tell where it is,  

and you can slide your way past trouble. 

Certain twisted monsters always bar the path—

but that’s when you get going best, 

glad to be lost,

learning how real it is here on the earth, 

again and again.

William Stafford


I need to reconnect with places and people I love -
places and people that are outside my state
and my state of mind.

I'm headed out West -
I'll be back. 

Humpty Trumpty

Thanks; it was just what I needed!

After a day I could hardly get through without dissolving into tears, 

after despairing about the state of our union

and seeing the underbelly of the American populace,

I had significant reservations about going to the Women's March today.

 I commissioned posters from a friends daughters

but, truth be told,

I resented that I was marching AGAIN

for the same damn issues as 

'back in the day' - 

even if the threat seems to have been amped up!

If it hadn't worked then,

why would it be any different now?

What good could a few hundred people do by walking along a street?

It's just walking.

 

But I felt compelled to go and now 

hours later, tired and sore,

I'm ever so grateful I did.

 

The magnitude of the march began to dawn on me 

as I took Metrolink downtown -

packed in like veal!

Everyone very affable and excited;

strangers talking to each other,

all sharing stories, 

commiserating about the general state of things

but, more than that,

talking about our hopes, our dreams of a better world, 

talking about why we were marching.

 

As we emerged from the underground station 

and saw the crowds,

it was the first time IN MONTHS that I felt hope for the future.

 We the PEOPLE

 extended as far as the eye can see

 in every direction

And maybe we were there with different fires burning in our bellies

but we were there;

chanting "Stronger Together" and "THIS is what Democracy looks like".

 

We were there to say YES to many things

but T-rump and his agenda weren't two of those things!

 

 

I even got to shake hands with our Senator, Claire McCaskill

 and thank her for the great job she's trying to do 

during the hearings for the Cabinet of Clowns.

I also watched her shake the hand of every police officer at the rally site,

thanking them for doing a great job with keeping us all safe.

 Knowing relatives were marching in Chicago
made the day even sweeter!

 The euphoria of today will fade.

We'll go back to our lives and forget that we're not alone.

T-rump and His Band of Merciless Men will try to make us distrust each other;

These pictures are all the proof I need;

reminders to call up when the going gets tough.

Thanks, St Louis Women's March; it was JUST what I needed!

 

 Let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction.
Let us be dissatisfied
until America will no longer have
a high blood pressure of creeds
and an anemia of deeds.

Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls
that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort
and the inner city of poverty and despair
shall be crushed by the battering rams
of the forces of justice. Let us be dissatisfied
until those that live on the outskirts of hope
are brought into the metropolis of daily security.
Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast
into the junk heaps of history,
and every family is living
in a decent sanitary home.
Let us be dissatisfied
until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools
will be transformed into bright tomorrows
of quality, integrated education.
Let us be dissatisfied until integration
is not seen as a problem
but as an opportunity to participate
in the beauty of diversity.
Let us be dissatisfied until men and women,
however black they may be, will be judged
on the basis of the content of their character
and not on the basis of the color of their skin.
Let us be dissatisfied.
Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol
houses a governor who will do justly, who will love
mercy and who will walk humbly with his God.
Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall,
justice will roll down like waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream. Let us be dissatisfied
until that day when the lion and the lamb
shall lie down together, and every man
will sit under his own vine and fig tree
and none shall be afraid. Let us be dissatisfied.

Let us be dissatisfied until that day
when nobody will shout White Power!
—when nobody will shout Black Power!—
but everybody will talk about
God’s power and human power.

The road ahead will not always be smooth.
There will be still rocky places of frustration
and meandering points of bewilderment.
There will be inevitable setbacks here and there.
There will be those moments
when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed
into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams
will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted.
The road ahead will not always be smooth.
There will be still rocky places of frustration
and meandering points of bewilderment.
There will be inevitable setbacks here and there.

Our dreams will sometimes be shattered
and our ethereal hopes blasted.

Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on
in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.

Martin Luther King Jr.
Source: Southern Christian Leadership Conference address 16 Aug 1967

Karma: Inauguration day, part 2

I listened as they called my President a Muslim.

I listened as they called him and his family a pack of monkeys.

I listened as they said he wasn’t born here.

I watched as they blocked every single path to progress that they could.

I saw the pictures of him as Hitler.

I watched them shut down the government and hurt the nation twice.

I watched them turn their backs on every opportunity to open worthwhile dialogue.

I watched them say they would not even listen to any choice for Supreme Court 

no matter who the nominee was.

I listened as they openly said they would oppose him at every turn.

I watched as they did just that.

I listened.

I watched.

I paid attention.

Now I’m being called on to be tolerant.

To move forward.

To denounce protestors.

To “Get over it”

To accept this …

I will not.

I will do my part to make sure this great American mistake 

becomes the embarrassing footnote of our history that it deserves to be.

I will do this as quickly as possible every chance I get.

I will do my part to limit the damage this man can do to my country.

I will watch his every move and point out his every mistake and misdeed in a loud and proud voice.

I will let you know in a loud voice every time this man backs away from a promise he made to them.

Them.

The people who voted for him.

The ones who sold their souls and prayed for him to win.

I will do this so they never forget. 

And they will hear me.

They will see it in my eyes when I look at them.

They will hear it in my voice when I talk to them.

They will know that I know who they are.

They will know that I know what they are.

Do not call for my tolerance. 

I’ve tolerated all I can.

Now it is their turn to tolerate ridicule.

Be aware, make no mistake about it, 

every single thing that goes wrong in our country from this day forward 

is now Trump’s fault 

just as much as they thought it was Obama’s.

I find it unreasonable for them to expect from me what they were entirely unwilling to give.

 These words are not mine.

They are attributed to 'anonymous' 

but they voice my feelings 

and my vow for the next four years.

#notmypresident #notever

Inauguration, part 1

 

A very dark day, indeed.

A respite

 It was a beautiful respite

from incessant political noise,

 and while it didn't last long,

it was wonderful to have a weekend to hunker down,

have an excuse to turn off all media, 

listen to the quiet

and watch a fire.

 And at the end of the weekend 

was THIS gift!

Time with the boy child!

 who gets cuter every time I see him!

Be still my heart!

On a roll

He almost makes it too easy!

Humpty Trumpty 1

Because quite frankly, 

if I have to live through 4 years of his sh*t,

 I might as well have fun with it! 

I'm envisioning a whole series of these - 

until I'm contacted by the artist with a cease and desist order!

My T-rump moment

It wasn't 3AM; 

it was 6AM -

which at my age might as well be 3! 

It was crack of dawn dark thirty 

and I had no business being on social media,

let alone responding to someones post.

But I was - 

and I did -

because one of my dogs wet the bed and I had to strip the damn thing,

right down to the mattress pad 

and remake it -

which is another whole story - 

so already the day wasn't off to an auspicious start.

(Honestly, this isn't just a "my dog ate my homework" excuse;

it was a combination of a dog sleeping extremely soundly

and a weeks worth of prednisone for a 'hotspot' 

which causes increased thirst and increased urination).

Anyway ....

I clicked onto Facebook and there it was on a friends page.

And, faster than T-rump can change his mind about a major policy issue,

I replied:

Until Bobs Candidate and all his friends 

tell Sally what she can and can't do with her uterus 

and who she can and can't love 

and how she must look and behave 

in order to be 'worthy' of their time, attention 

and equal protection under the law;

then Sally will get strong enough and smart enough

to tell Bob to go f*ck himself!

And, just like T-rump,

I'm totally unrepentant.

I am sick of people who voted for the PEOTUS telling people who didn't 

that the 'adult' thing to do is to

 accept it, smile and get on with life.

Besides, does anyone really think it's any coincidence that

this meme features a MALE as the Republican and a woman as a Democrat?

This isn't an innocuous meme about being 'adults'; 

this is about males telling 'subordinates' to accept their position,

their position as 'other',

as 'losers';

this is about males being in the dominant position 

and women and minorities knowing and accepting their place.

And that's a message I don't accept - 

no matter what time of day it is!

After

When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with their flock,

the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among people

to make music in the heart.

PSA

This public service, educational moment is brought to you by the Letter K.

Are you in despair of the incoming administration?

Do you wonder what happened to the form of democratic government

you were forced to study 

all those years ago 

in civics class?

Do you long for two party system we USED to have - 

with all its flaws -

where people of differing opinions actually worked together

for the common good?

Yeah, me too!

But it's helped -

a little bit -

to learn that there's actually a term for the form of government that's coming -

and it's been around since 1829, 

coined by English author, Thomas Peacock,

and used in the US in 1876

when American poet, James Russell Lowell used it in a letter.

"What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. 

Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? 

Is ours a 'government of the people by the people for the people,' 

or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?"

Kakistocracy:

government by the worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous persons;

a form of government in which the worst persons are in power. 

I'm sorry to say I missed the earlier reference

but in February 2016, 

David Clay Johnson apparently warned we were moving toward a kakistocracy,

"America is moving away from the high ideals of President Kennedy's inaugural address - 

'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'.

Instead we see politicians who say they love America but hate the American government."

Kakistocracy -

spell check get used to seeing this word; 

stop telling me there's no such thing.

We're living in it!

We're going to be using this term ALOT in the years to come.

Exile

That's what it feels like... and I know its silly.

They're objects, after all; 

inanimate and of little intrinsic monetary value.

But I see them through the eyes of personal history.

I remember who I was with 

and under what circumstances they were acquired.

 I know which ones my kids were always glad to see

 

and which ones scared them into behaving until Christmas!

 

 From minis

 to handmade,

there are so many stories to tell;

 

 but the time to tell them is too short.

 

 They're being packed away later today.

 

And that makes all of us sad.