Bright Spots

Last week Margene commented wisely (as she so often does), "With all the darkness in the news there is one thing I have come to understand and that is I must create my own bright spots and take care of my own heart (and soul)." 

I have been thinking about this ever since then, and decided she is absolutely right and I absolutely need to start creating my own bright spots. I've tried to think of some catchy or alliterative name to share these, but I couldn't, so they will simply be bright spots. 

And who doesn't need a bright spot at the end of January?

I think they look like fireworks of flowers!

Housekeeping

Don't worry, I'm not going to give you tips on dusting or vacuuming. Those definitely won't be coming from me! I've got a couple of blog housekeeping things that I wanted to be sure and mention.

First, thank you all so very much for your support and uplifting comments last Friday. I felt incredibly buoyed up by all the positive thoughts from all of you, and I'm very grateful. We live in dark days with some amazing bright spots, and this community of knitting bloggers and readers is one of the brightest and most positive spots in my life. 

I would also like to apologize for whining about what, in retrospect, was a relatively minor incident in which only my feelings got hurt. I'm a middle-aged, white, female, US citizen, not a promising Iranian student now banned from entering the US to pursue her PhD despite having a valid visa, nor one of the 65 DACA students halfway through medical school, but fearing certain deportation when the DACA program is surely ended. I'm not the Egyptian woman who works with my husband, now questioning whether she should return to her birth country, along with her US-born children to avoid being deported and separated from them because the application for her green card is at a dead end. I thank every one of you for your support, and for the support I am sure you are giving to everyone that needs it in these dark days.

In addition, I've now got quite a few ways to take constructive action.

• joined an email group in order to share small, productive actions to resist Trump.
• joined a local county-wide "Action Together" group
• downloaded the Indivisible Guide
• written postcards for The Women's March on Washington 10 Actions/100 Days First Action
• signed up for the Weekly Action Checklist for Democrats, Independents, and Republicans of conscience
• made daily phone calls to my representatives to voice my objections to Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. The 65 has great scripts for over a dozen issues that you can use when making calls. I used the one provided for Sessions, and plan on using the one for immigration this week.

It looks like a long list, but much of it is informational. The actions haven't taken nearly as much time as I initially thought. I put my senators' contact info. in my phone (their local office numbers, their DC office numbers, and their addresses), and that makes daily phone calls easy. While Cory Booker makes it tough to get through to an actual person, he does have a voice mailbox and it's never been full when I've called. The staffers that I've spoken to have all been pleasant and assured me that the senators get a full report each day of the number of calls received and the issues that we, their constituents, are calling about. Twenty minutes every day and another ten for postcards written on the weekend is time that I am finding worthwhile for productive resistance.

And look, I even knit most of a Pussyhat while I was on the phone this week!

My last bit of housekeeping is related to comments. I try to respond to every comment by email, but depending on how you sign in to comment, blogger doesn't always provide me with your email address. I've been trying to reply directly to your comment in the blog if I don't have your email, but that means you would have to look back at old comments to see a reply. This is my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate the time that each and every one of you has taken to read and possibly comment, whether I have been able to reply to you or not. You are always welcome to contact me (upper right, under the picture of the pi/e dish).

Once again, I offer my sincere gratitude. You've given me the fortitude for another week of phone calls and maybe another Pussyhat!

Not Ready

This has been a challenging week. I'm not sure why I had deluded myself into thinking things would get better, or at least there would be less time for high-handed judgments and name-calling as we all buckled down to the serious business of running the country and carrying out our responsibilities as citizens, but that has definitely not been the case.

We need to be able to carry on conversations with each other, ones where we respect the other person as a human being and really listen. In my experience, that isn't even close to happening. This week I've been told to keep my opinions to myself if I'm speaking against the President, that my knitting was degrading to women, and that I'm just a terrible person. These comments were from friends and family, and happened when I was simply expressing my respect and appreciation of Obama without even mentioning the current President. The comment about my knitting was completely surreal because I was working on a Pussyhat, which I wouldn't have been knitting at all if Trump had not made degrading comments towards women. Maybe I am a terrible person, but now I'm also mad as hell.

I've tried, but I can no longer accept the personal attacks aimed towards me, my opinions, and for heaven's sake, what I choose to knit. The fact that these attacks came from people I considered friends and family just plain hurt, a lot. Maybe it's because I was feeling a bit raw and emotional, but I'm done with tears and now I'm glad these people told me how they really felt. I'm not ready to make nice; I'm certainly not ready to back down, and I can't just get over it. I sincerely thank them for the reminder that I should never resort to name-calling, for making my skin a little thicker, and inspiring me to be even more ready for the work ahead.

How I wish I could respond as eloquently as Bertrand Russell.

Mirror, Mirror ...

The Think Write Thursday topic for today is to write about what our mirror would say if it could talk. So I asked it, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, what the hell is going on?", and it replied ...

"I simply do not know. Yes, I'm a magical mirror on an antique wardrobe, but even with those things going for me, I don't have a clue. In all my years of reflecting history - Margaret Sanger advocating for birth control, the Nineteenth Amendment, the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, Roe v. Wade, Barack Obama's presidency - I have never seen times like these. My surface is streaked and I've lost much of my silvering through the years, but I still reflect truthfully and honestly. Sadly, you are now living in a world with alternative facts, damaging and rampant misogyny, gag orders, anti-environmentalism, corruption, hate, xenophobia, and people proud of being ignorant and cruel."

"I wish I could let you step through my wardrobe into Narnia, where good triumphs over evil, but we both know that's a fantasy. Keep up the work for equality and human rights for all humans. Continue with the calls and protests against the Swamp Cabinet and lies. Don't stop advocating for healthcare for everyone and don't stop knitting pussyhats. Call bullshit when you see it, maintain hope and resilience, and good will triumph over evil."

Read other Think ... Write ... Thursday! posts here, and sign up for Carole and Kat's great idea here.

Bright Spot

It's been grey, rainy, windy, and generally gloomy here for almost two weeks. It feels like darkness within, and darkness outside.
I did manage to find one bright spot.

There are actually at least two bright spot blossoms ...

and four more to come!

Here's hoping that you also have plenty of bright spots in your week!

In Which I Block a Rattlesnake

Justin works on a ranch in Texas so he has plenty of opportunities to capture rattlesnakes. They are everywhere! He taught himself how to tan the skins and recently gifted us with a rather long one. 

He advised me to gently rinse it in a bowl of water to remove any loose scales, just like giving a knitted piece a good soak

 (but without Eucalan).

I normally use my drying rack for socks and other small items, but here it's being used to dry the wet snake skin.

The next step in blocking is pinning, which I did after finding an old barn board in our old barn.

It's almost like blocking a six-foot scarf with an argyle-like pattern, except for one small large difference.

No News is Good News

In my efforts to cope today, I have declared a complete news blackout for myself (yes, that includes facebook also because I don't want to read anything about today's activities) and will instead spend the day doing all the good things I can think of. Some are selfish for my sanity, and some are less so.

• Working (a necessity, so I can continue to donate to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU)
• Donating to our local Food Pantry
• Coloring bags for Meals on Wheels. Yes, it's a small thing, but every day volunteers bring warm meals to home-bound seniors and when the meals come in a decorated bag, they also bring a smile.
• Assembling three different types of care packages for hospitalized children at the Hunterdon Medical Center
• Writing emails to the Obamas, Joe Biden, John Lewis, Cory Booker, and calling my representatives
• Knitting my Peace Cowl
• Drinking

I will be raising my glass to all of the sensible, caring, concerned, and like-minded people that I know are out there, and I'll be drinking my second glass to all of us who demand equality and inclusion for everyone, in hopes that we can begin to help others understand the wrongs that are being perpetuated, and that bullying, xenophobia, misogyny, ignorance, and arrogance are not the way to proceed.

I'm also going to be remembering these quotes from two people I will miss very much:

"... what we’ve also tried to teach them is resilience and we’ve tried to teach them hope and that the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world." - Barack Obama during his final press conference

"You gotta get up." - Joe Biden

I'm going to try.