Wow, almost a year since I last posted here. No wonder google made me answer a bunch of questions and texted codes to my phone. The footprints I refer to in the title is the digital kind--my digital footprint is a bit of a mess right now, with this blog that is becoming more of a placeholder and two flickr accounts with ridiculous amounts of pictures of flowers. Let's not even talk about the multiple email accounts...
But the main reason I'm writing is to tell you that Mr. Bookcharmer and I went into San Francisco today to see the Obama portraits at the De Young museum. We haven't been to the De Young in well over two years due to covid. It was a great day to visit the city--perfect weather and an uncrowded museum.
I haven't written much the past year because the news has been just so awful. The gun violence in this country is off the charts appalling. Across the country the mass shootings have continued, seemingly each one worse than the last with innocents targeted including African American elders at a grocery store and children at an elementary school. And while congress finally mustered legislation to strengthen requirements for gun purchase ( See https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/congress-sends-landmark-gun-violence-legislation-to-biden) the very flipping same week the Supreme Court went wild and reversed the decision on Roe v. Wade.
Throw in ongoing pandemic topped by public laxity about masking and vaccinations....well, it has been hard to stay upbeat.
So these are the things I think about when I need to find momentum. I think about the people that made change, despite enormous personal cost. I think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I think about Congressman John Lewis. It helps enormously that I am listening to the audiobook of Senator Maizie K. Hirono's memoir, Heart of Fire. I recommend this book to anyone interested in modern politics and women's history. She reads the memoir, and her warm voice and detailed recollections are wonderful guideposts for her journey, the first woman Senator from Hawaii, also the first immigrant, Asian American, and Buddhist in the Senate. She has fought hard for all of her wins and she fights for people. Her memories of childhood, great in love but scarce in material resources, show her to be a woman who did not let the experience of poverty embitter her, but to rise to the challenge for making things better for everyone.
One of the reasons we went to the see the Obama portraits today was to see those wonderful faces again, the faces of these two people that lead the country while raising a family, who brought new energy and values of compassion to the White House. The portraits are stunning and captivating and I like knowing that when they finally go to the National Portrait Gallery, so many people just like myself have been able to spend a little bit of time with them.
Another reason we went was simply to spend some time around art. To walk through quiet galleries and peek into diverse minds and spaces. To see scenes of the past and possibilities of the future. To spend time just looking and thinking.
It doesn't hurt that I'm 3 days into a four day weekend and feeling rested is one of the most powerful ways to manage to just keep going. Our culture of caffeine, freeways, and fast food is not one geared towards healthful contemplation. But me, I've been to the farmers market, I'm eating plums from a friend's tree, and I'm going to have my feet back under me when I head back to the library.
The frenzy of request for political donations is going to be off the charts this fall, and for all kinds of reasons. And it is a shame that money is the cost of participation but there you have it. So choose wisely, and make your donations early so that campaigns can roll into full strength way before the fall deadlines. The group I donate to is Sister District, and they are fighting in the trenches where the impact of decisions fall hard, on state legislature races. And in doing so, they are building the bench of Democrats who will have the experience to serve on the national level. Take a look here: https://sisterdistrict.com/
So that's all I have for now. I'll try to write again before another six months goes by. Stay well and peaceful and hopefully you have some fresh summer plums where you live, too.
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