Question of the Day

 

 

The Day of Reckoning is Upon Us

 

Much as we have tried to put it in the back of our minds, to the extent that we could, election day 2024 is upon us.

I have voted, as have many of my fellow citizens.  We've been told that this is the only weapon we as common peons possess to combat the frightening advance of fascism, of oligarchy...the deterioration of our government, of our world, of our way of life.  We've been told this is a powerful weapon, and we need to wield it zealously.

But I can't believe that there are not others out there like me, who wonder exactly how powerful our votes are, any more.  In a world gone mad, where winning is everything and cheating is as good a way as any to carry the day, how can we believe that our votes will even be counted, much less have meaning if they are?

And then, there is this ominous undertone to our daily lives, a dark voice whispering that election day could be the start of something very large, very violent, and very evil in this country, no matter which side emerges victorious.  And if any of us believe that we won't be touched by it, we're fooling ourselves.  Before January 6, 2000, we might have been able to entertain thoughts of safety, of immunity from the kind of senseless violence that surely overwhelms only third-world countries?  We naively believed things like that didn't happen in the United States of America, so to worry about it was foolish...a waste of emotional energy.

Now? 

All I can think is,

"Be afraid.  Be very afraid."

How have we come to this?

Fall Farewell

Yesterday afternoon, I was blessed to witness one of the surest signs of the end of summer in the Willamette valley.

Here in western Oregon, the most reliable harbinger of spring and clarion of the coming of winter is the arrival and departure of a particular bird...no, not robins.  Nor any other cute sweet-voiced songbird.

It's the turkey vulture.

In early spring, their dark, v-shaped silhouettes arrive to repopulate the skies abandoned by wintering raptors after the birds of prey head to their summer hunting grounds in the higher hills. 

The buzzards, as we call them, spend the warmer months nesting, soaring, and cleaning up winter- and road-kill here in the valley.

Then, in early October, they gather in groups of several dozen birds, circle higher and higher and higher, until they are mere bird-shaped specks in the stratosphere, and file off in a column heading toward California...Mexico...or whatever parts south they choose to escape the winter months north of the Tropic of Cancer.

As I sat on my newly-built studio deck last evening, I spotted a group of about two dozen buzzards performing their farewell-to-the-valley pirouette, spiraling higher and higher, then sailing off to the south.  It conjured up a jumble of emotions...a tinge of sadness that good-byes always seem to bring, a sense of anticipation for my favorite months of the year, a bit of envy that I have neither the freedom nor the equipment to do what they do every year.  It occurred to me that while we humans enjoy one of the longer lifespans of the animal kingdom, we are destined to spend those many years mostly tethered to one place on the earth.  

Maybe a shorter life wouldn't be so horrible, if sailing thousands of miles to new adventures twice a year was part of the bargain.  

 

 

Goodbye, Hello

 It’s that time of year…

Catching Up, and 21

Summer always seems so fast and frenetic.  Long (and hot) as the days are, I never have enough time to do all the things I want to do.  Though the list of things I want to get done expands daily, the heat takes all the wind out of my sails, and I spend way more time than I should sitting around being uncomfortable and peevish. 

So now that September is almost over with, I feel things slowing down and cooling off a bit...just the way I like it. 

And there are a bunch of random things rattling around in my head, that I figured I might as well commit to blog.  I considered a "10 things" entry.  I'll just start throwing them down here...don't know if I'll come up with 10, but here goes:

1.) There have been a couple of  somewhat major life events over the past year plus that I have not written about.  In April of 2023, the husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  It seems one in eight men will fall victim to this malady in their lifetimes.  Scary as the word "cancer" is when it is applied to yourself or a loved one, it was made more scary and ulcer-inducing by the way our current health "care" system deals with it.  It was basically treated like not a particularly emergent situation by the health professionals involved.  While we were told that his degree of cancer required "action within six months," it took slightly longer than that to line up all the tests, examinations and gobbledegook required to be able to start treatment.  Husband was recommended into a course of radiation treatments...45 days "in a row" (not) of 15-minute radiation blasts.  Which, after all the bullshit we had to go through to get him started on them, stretched out from a diagnosis in April to "treatment" starting in mid-November and--due to holidays and weekends being "no treatment" days--stretching through to mid-January.  Completely fucking up the holidays, of course, and casting a pall on everything for most of 2023 and into 2024. 

2.) Somewhat major life event #2--just as the husband was starting to recover from the physical and mental effects of the whole cancer thing, at the end of April this year, he mysteriously passed out in the kitchen one morning while fixing breakfast, crumpled down on to the kitchen floor and broke the shit out of his foot in the process.  As innocent as a broken foot might sound, this has been a hideous nightmare from minute one.  The foot he broke has been messed up since our days as restaurant owners.  It had pronated so far out that he had been basically walking on the end of his ankle bone for years.  He has worn a brace on that leg for 15 years just so he can walk without excruciating pain.  And then he broke 9 of the bones in his foot passing out on the floor of the kitchen.  We've gone through an impressive array of conveyances, ramps, and grab bars just to facilitate his ability to get around the house and the yard.  He couldn't drive for over two months, so it was up to me to get him and his latest mobility contraption into and out of the van to a myriad of medial appointments.  And I have to say, I just about lost it during this episode.  I just had the hardest time dealing with his incapacitation and my having to step into the role of "caregiver" so suddenly and completely.  I sucked at it. The fact that we had so abruptly turned into our parents (at the end of their lives) shook me to my core.  It was not a gradual loss of ability.  It was "Bang! You're old and decrepit! Deal with it!"  I am not proud of how I had/have handled it, but I seem not to have a whole lot of control over my reaction.  Ugh.

3.) Somewhat major life event #3--In February, one of my nieces--my late sister's middle daughter--died suddenly of untreated chronic illness.  You want to wonder how someone so "young" lets her health get so out of control.  Young.  She was 51 years old, as impossible as that is to believe.  But she and her sisters have all been beset by various degrees of psychological problems.  For which it is nigh unto impossible to receive treatment in our horrible excuse for a health "care" system.  And though my niece didn't die from suicide as many of those with untreated mental health issues do, I'm convinced our lack of health care contributed mightily to her sad quality of life and her ultimate death.  

Well. Hasn't this post been a day-brightener?!

I have more I want to write about.  Hopefully not as depressing/frustrating as these three bullet points.

Hope I can keep the ball rolling and crank out another slightly brighter post in the next few days.   

Oh, and...

By the way...,

If I had had a baby instead of starting a blog back in September of 2003, she would now be old enough to drink. 

Make Us Proud

Word on the street is that it is now "cool" again for liberals to be patriotic.

Really?

Sorry, guys...

I don't think so.

Not even addressing the fact that I find the concept of "patriotism" on a par with organized religion as far as being a tool for the few to control the many through tribalism, exclusion, fear and violence...

Maybe the first step in the direction of patriotism should be making me "proud to be an American"...another concept of which I have not been a fan, nor to which I have subscribed, for many years.

And while I'm excited about the Harris candidacy, and what it might possibly mean for the slim hope of extending the life of our fragile, ailing democratic republic...

I don't see it making significant inroads into ending Trump, MAGA, and all they represent.

As long as a major party of this nation can cling to a monster like Trump as its standard-bearer; as long as a significant portion of our populace--including members of our highest levels of government--will worship and emulate him and all he represents...

I won't even be tempted to claim to be proud of America.

Fix it. End them.  Flush them into the black sewers of history where they belong.

Then, maybe we can talk about pride. 

Rabbit Rabbit

 Rabbit rabbit it is...

 

According to folklore, saying "Rabbit rabbit" as the first words spoken on the first of the month brings good fortune for the entire month.

I'll go with that...

How Far WOULD They Go?

 Is there a degree of depravity to which they would not stoop?

Hell fucking no….

New Words, Please…!

 

At first, “tired and used up” seemed appropriate terms for those words we toss around on every national holiday…

But after a little more thought, I realized the REAL problem I have with the old words.

If you are at all familiar with my writings, you know that I LOATHE “The Star-Spangled Banner”…

And, like Old Glory herself, the words to our national anthem have been weaponized by the right-wing crazies. 

“Freedom” applies to anything the hell I feel like doing, no matter how loathsome, selfish or evil… But not to anything YOU do that I’ve decided I don’t like.

“Bravery” refers to my propensity  to mercilessly bully and threaten those less fortunate or even just different from me.

It’s all very tribal…primitive and un-evolved.

And, I don’t know…

I just don’t think that is the crap the founders meant to encourage when they visualized the “Great Experiment.”

Just sayin’

Word