So much going on in just a few days. Last Thursday I attended a board meeting at the local library. We all went to give support to the library for refusing to ban a book from their shelves. A very ignorant and self-inflicted fearful woman was coming to rail against a children’s book referencing the life of a transgender child. The woman was claiming to bring a group of pastors along with her.
In all honesty here, and strictly speaking for myself, almost all pastors missed their chance to be righteous when they could not make a stand against the obscene behaviors of Donald Trump in 2015 and continue to defer to their less-than-Christian parishioners’ blind beliefs that he might just be the “second coming”. But I digress…
It was so reassuring that I live in a decent area when the library was packed with supporters for the library’s policy on banning books. They simply do not unless it goes through a rigorous process to have the book removed from the shelves. The complaining woman proudly claimed her source of information on such matters came from Fox News. The audience erupted in laughter before we could stop ourselves. The pastors tried to make the case of if genders were changed then it was going against god’s gender assignments. But the teachers, social workers and finally a parent of a transgender child made the case for how terribly difficult they make it for those personally involved in keeping these young people feeling secure. Their bigotry and fear have no place in setting policies prohibiting rights.
It was a good day. My own thinking is, if sushi is on the menu and you don’t like it, don’t order it. But you have no right to have it taken off the menu. It has happened with abortion rights in this country and we will see it again and again as the ignorant gain positions of power.
All that with no pictures!
Heading toward the light at the gym in the morning. Very hot days this week, so I have stayed inside….listening to a long book on tape and sewing. The book was my first audio book from the library since before Lee’s diagnosis. An 18 CD mystery by Tana French, In The Woods. I will take it back today and get another of hers. I found a note I made of this that she wrote in another book about aging.
“A gradual decline. An insidious, almost unnoticeable process that you only discover at sudden, shocking moments.”
Now that is good writing! I must have got that from an actual book because CDs do not let you take notes. I used to take lots of notes from Cormac McCarthy books as well.
And speaking of good stories, I am watching all the Hercule Poirot episodes.
I am quite taken by these period pieces done in England. The cars, houses, gardens, clothes, trains, and those old buses! And these two are so dapper. The actor Hugh Fraser was so well cast as Hastings. I looked him up and found he has several novels to his credit. And Miss Lemon, so fragile looking with skin like porcelain. Anyway I will be sad to see the end of them.
Speaking of writing, I had a meeting with a woman in the poetry group who is quite well published in children’s poems. She asked me to scan what I had written in rhyme so far of the Burke and Wills story. So I made her a copy as well as myself before I met up with her. No, scanning in poetry means something totally different! It is the symbols over each syllable that show where rhythm and emphasis make the spoken words sound “right” or “struggling”. Isn’t that interesting? She is going to educate me in the process of writing poetry for children and gave me copies of other’s poems to see how and why they work so well. She wants me to continue and says it is not all that common for the writer to also be the illustrator in children’s books. I am grateful for her interest.
I went into my closet and pulled out things I wasn’t wearing. A pair of grey linen pants I made a few years back were showing areas of extreme thinness. So I took more bits of linen (some from the sleeves of a shirt that were too snug at the wrist) and some scraps from cutting out other pants. While I listened to the novel, I hand stitched the patches on.
Here is the shirt I cut the sleeves off. I couldn’t bear to part with all those stitched patches I put on it a few years ago. Now it is a pullover vest of sorts.
And another purchased linen shirt that I put leaf dyed patches on all the places things dribbled down the front. Well. the leaf images all washed out eventually so I put more linen patches on top. I will have to be careful who I wear these clothes around. But they are just at the right stage of softness when they falter a bit and need attention.
And I did get to the last pages of the Sticks and Stones Book. Only have the hidden flaps to draw in now. Actually, I look at this book and wonder, “What was the point of all this??!!” And the only answer is that it kept me busy making marks in among someone else’s marks. It made me feel connected to Australia with all those eucalyptus leaves. It made me feel in good company. And that is more than enough.
When I need someone to talk to, you know the kind I mean, the ones who are actually listening, I open a book of blank pages and write or draw…or I go to my poetry meetings where they listen to every word. In a couple of weeks I am meeting up with a two or three artists over lunch. Maybe I can talk art to them. Maybe I can hear about art and their struggles to get an idea across. Maybe. I will let you know.
Anyway here is the last of Sticks and Stones. It has been good company.
And speaking of good company…my moving off by myself at another table when meeting up with the coffee group, has been a good idea. Instead of sitting in the crosshairs of testosterone, they will approach my two stool table with their cup of coffee and sit down for a one-on-one chat. The man who advised me to visualize a stop sign before I said something too abruptly has appeared again. We had a lovely talk about age, possessions, and the need to hold onto the ones that touch you deeply in some way. He used to write. I think he should again. He has a kind way of seeing things.
I guess this as good a place as any to stop.
Til later….