Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson are still in their house. The fire is still close, but we're praying the firefighters get a handle on it. Our good air has become moderate and will get worse as the fires go on, but hopefully not too bad for them or us. There is something weird about the pretty vineyards and hills that resemble Italy and France going up in smoke. It was a kind of dream to have your own vineyard and pond and many people became gentleman farmers. I'm not talking about the big wineries. They are agribusiness. But the fantasy of the good life, and anyone could drive up for a weekend and sip from a glass and walk in sculpture gardens and get away from the real world. The real world of migrant workers, of tech baby millionaires, of poverty and inequity. Real people like my son and his wife are teachers who can't afford a bigger house, or getaways at spa resorts nearby. And while these fires are raging, our president is raging and fueling the flames of hate and denial and misdirection. Let's not be misdirected ourselves. Let's turn and look directly at the craziness and insist it stop. Unlike the fires we can cease this travesty of governing in a few weeks. I pray we do.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Our older son, his wife and son may have to evacuate from fire kicked up yesterday. Their air is bad, and for them, it's deja vu, as fire came within a mile of them a couple of years ago, and now it's about three miles away. The stress is horrible, and though they will come and stay at our younger daughter's rental studio, if they have to, the terror of leaving all your valuables, packing up the cat, and worrying that all your effort in painting, gardening etc can be gone in a moment. My husband and I went to the cabin overnight this weekend, and avoided the scorching temperatures here, but today it was well over ninety, and with gusty winds at times, the thing we fear. I can't get a break from worrying, and I'm not alone. There is a pile up effect of covid, the news, the fires, and the struggles of my friends and family. Nothing to do but pray, which I am.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

It's challenging to stay positive when in one day Trump reiterates his refusal to step down if he is defeated in the election and Breonna Taylor was murdered but not by anyone. Trump is insane and it is strange indeed that the bullet that hit the wall is evidence of wrongdoing, but all the other bullets are ignored, including the ones that killed an innocent woman. It's about as weird as women going to prison for life for defending themselves against their husbands who were battering them or the husbands who ask and are granted custody of children whose mother has had her arm or leg broken or been hospitalized by this same man. Battering a child's mother is not my idea of a suitable scene for a child to witness and to have that father granted the power to terrify his kids with impunity is the reverse of the term "child protection". It's a crazy world, where logic, reason, science and compassion are ridiculed in favor of maintaining power and fear over others. My mystery I'm reading is not as convoluted as the world I'm living in.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm pretty touched by the lace collars worn by NBA basketball players in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I sense an acknowledgement of their mothers and grandmothers as well. When these big tough guys can be that sensitive, it bodes well for their relationships with women in their lives, and sets an example of what true masculinity can be. And the humor in it is so welcome right now, with everyone screaming at each other and a dogfight being made out of RBG's vacant seat. Let's all get in touch with our feminine side, the one that's tough and persistent and compassionate and won't back down. Let's all stand up and be counted, and be proud of being nasty women.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Notorious RBG is gone, and many are devastated. She was an inspiration to a lot of women and girls, and though we are not surprised, it is a blow among so many others right now. I think first of my twelve year old granddaughter and fifteen year old foster granddaughter. She was bound to be more historical myth for them than present fact. But her absence on the Supreme Court leaves their fates in the hands of mainly white males. Why can we not gain any kind of appropriate representation? We're not fighting hard enough. The Women's Marches, the activism, Moms Rising, all the passionate defenders of the ERA, the Feminist Majority, why are we not persuasive? We have followed hook line and sinker our own devaluation. And we have legitimate fears. We fear men because they, especially loved ones, are the most likely to kill us, to take away money for food, hold children hostage, and denigrate us over and over. Liberation has to go hand in hand with protection against domestic violence. I've fought most of my life for victims, but we need to have REAL early childhood education and alerts, so that women hear that abuse is not acceptable and that there are alternatives. Look at the verbal abuse being heaped upon Kamala Harris, just as it was with Hilary Clinton. Speak up, speak out, and demonstrate that women are worth valuing and protecting. RBG did. Now let's take up the mantle.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Another day of blue skies, and boy, do we appreciate it these days. And up north is going to get rain, so their air will clear. I am in a pod again with one of our kids, his wife and our grandson, and that feels great. We are babysitting the grandson today again. And yesterday I took a social distance walk in masks with my daughter and her baby, and we got to talk a bit. Her older boy is loving preschool, so her decision to start him seems to have been wise, and it gives her a break from two little boys, since her husband has long hours working from home and can only give her a break on weekends. Tonight we're going to have dinner delivered here with our son and though I don't miss eating out, I miss eating WITH. So we'll eat together the 5 of us. And if the air is okay tomorrow we're driving up to eat social distanced outside with our older son, his wife, and son. All this socializing! I'm in heaven1

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

It was great air today, and we babysit our 16 month old grandson and had fun with him, and we get to see our younger son and his wife. I felt really happy, even though because our daughter-in-law works for Save the Redwoods, we heard a piece of land they had just bought burned to the ground. They've had a lot of heartbreak seeing protected areas be devastated. I was going to say we are still not out of the woods, and ironically, that's exactly right. Our bad fire month is October, so lots of bad things can happen, but I'm praying they won't. The air was horrible again where our granddaughter and son-in-law live, and no end in sight. But I'm going to be grateful for a happy day today for me, and pray for the rest. I won't forget. None of us can. But we got to take a walk today. And it felt wonderful.