July 19, 2016

Some flights deserve to leave in darkness and cold, for no amount of light would have reached into the darkness within.

A cry for kindness in our generally meaner society

I've been really unhappy lately by the generally meaner society we have been seeing grow over the past couple of years, and now I hear about homeless people literally being bulldozed out of cities and laws proposed outlawing helping people in need on the street,etc. It seems appropriate to tell of a gift I got some years ago.

Some years ago I was in Boston as usual and was eating my lunch at Whole Foods near the Conservatory. I happened to glance up from my book and saw an older woman kind of hovering in the lunch area, and then she sat down at a table but did not seem to have anything to eat. She looked around, quietly, at other tables with folks eating at them a bit though..

After a while, I walked up to her and said I was going to buy a cup of coffee for myself and could I get her anything? She shook her head and I kind of asked her gently if she minded very much if I gave her my dessert (I think it was a cookie or something). She told me she was a diabetic and couldn't eat that, and I said, well come with me and pick out whatever you want.

We went together, she made her own choices, I bought it and thanked her; sat and talked for a minute or so and then left her in peace. I wanted to respect her dignity and not make her feel like a charity case.

Sometimes, when I think I have it hard, I think of that day. Believe me, I got more nourishment that day than my little lady did at Whole Foods.

When I read about laws passed against helping those in need, or folks encouraging cruelty to people down on their luck, I think that we as Americans are truly starving ourselves of the nourishment that matters.

And we will eventually die of that starvation. We are already weak from it.

Boston archeology

My first time participating in an archeology dig!

Former site of 19th century tenements, in North Boston, courtyard next to Paul Revere house

Writing cave

This book I am writing has been wrestling with me bigtime but I SHALL prevail !!!!!!!!!! Back in the cave again....

Maggi's Prediction

Maggi's Predictions (share yours!):

*Violence possible, even likely 

@ both conventions

*Trump may get to convention as "nominee" but is "defeated" (read: has already made some kind of backstage deal) (see comment below) 

--GOP nominates other candidate, possibly Paul Ryan

*Bernie lasts. til convention; chaos as Hillary takes nomination; rules get challenged; setup for real progressive to take stage for 2020

*by which time the middle class has drowned and social unrest has built on both sides of political spectrum and all age groups

*war clouds thicken (military-industrial complex, the beast of many heads)

*progressive ticket emerges to agitate and win limited domestic reform in 2020 term, but the reforms swim upstream since the balance is so out of whack major overhaul is needed more 

--and that's too longterm for short attention span Americans

*Trump buys his own country, names after himself

*We get another woman prez who is left to clean up ... as women do so often in everything

IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?

Perspectives differ, but there is much to be happy about in Sanders' candidacy and successes, just as there are, for different reasons, in Clinton's. I will vote for the Democratic nominee, because I'm a decent human being above all, but I do secretly wish Mr. Sanders was able to win the nomination. If the revolution we do so desperately need doesn't happen NOW, then WHEN? I grew up hearing that as a very young woman...for everything worthwhile...if not NOW then WHEN? I am no longer very young, but I'm still saying that, still hearing that, still hearing "wait, be practical," instead of "yes, we can do that!" ....and that, alone, is something to remember....perhaps to mourn. Perhaps to CHANGE.

World Autism Awareness Day