View from the Cottage

A food day and a word about my blog

July 16, 2018

Another food day. Fixed chicken pot pie filling in puff pastry for my chef-friend Heather for lunch. It was an experiment, because the box clearly said not to use a toaster oven—and that, of course, is what I used. The puff pastries did not turn out as I expected nor as the picture on the box suggests, but Heather said they were pretty much like they should be. When I started to give Jacob leftovers, he pointed to the pastry, said “What’s that?” and didn’t even give me time to reply before he said, “I don’t want it.” Unperturbed, I kept spooning the filling onto the pastry. “Yes, you do,” I told him. “It’s just like the pastry you loved last time I fixed this.” He liked it.

This evening Subie and I had a nice dinner at Winslow’s Wine Café. I ordered meatloaf, but it had bell peppers mixed in it. Settled for a.crab cake and chocolate mousse. Decadent but oh so good. And a lovely visit.

A dear friend posted on Facebook this morning that she was glad when I gave up politics (must have been a brief and calm period)—she wants more Juju (my grandmotherly name) and less politics. For those of you who read my blog regularly, a word may be in order. I try not to post only about politics but sometimes I cannot help myself. And perhaps today of all days is a good one to explain why I post about politics.

I have a good friend who makes me look meek as an activist. She’s a progressive, a feminist, an ardent Episcopalian, and a fighter for all the causes I hold dear. She’s intelligent, outspoken, and never at a loss for comments and contributions. But she’s also a devoted grandmother, an animal lover who can’t resist a furry face, be it canine or feline, and a skilled gardener with a huge property to maintain. She posts a lost of activist messages, but she also posts about her grandsons, known as the best boys, her animals, and her garden. She told me once she posts the personal because she wants people to know there’s a warm, fuzzy side to her, to know that she’s much more than a shrill activist.

I try to take a leaf from her book, and, in fact, I think my posts are proportionately more personal than political. But I cannot and will not keep quiet about the divisive turmoil in this country, the fact that many experts agree we have been led a good distance down the road to fascism. And the fact today that the supposed president of our country sold us out to Putin.

People say to me that they’re so tired of politics they just tune it out. That, to me, is a most dangerous attitude. It’s exactly what Putin and trump want. They want to accustom us, bit by bit, to an erosion of our values, to categorizing some humans as inferior and dangerous, to slowly encroaching cruelty until we’re numb to it. I keep remembering Martin Niemoller’s poem that begins, “First they came for the socialists…and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist.” It ends, “And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.”

I know many disagree with me, but I will continue to speak out against the destruction of all that America has stood for: for the alienation of our international allies and destruction of the world order, against the increasing racism and hate in our country, against harsh and cruel immigration procedures, against the increase in climate warming and the rollback of regulations protecting the environment, against laws which favor the rich and rob the poor of health care, education, even food, against the control of women’s bodies by old white men.

I think it’s important, however, to stick to the issues—and I urge my fellow progressives to do that. It’s easy to pick on trump, pence, mcconnell and others for their personal appearance and foibles—why doesn’t the orange buffoon learn to button his coat? And did he really walk in front of the Queen?—but that defeats our cause and turns people away. Stick to the major issues that are destroying our world; try to ignore those easy quick jabs (though, Lord, that’s hard sometimes).

November is coming. Sometimes I feel it’s our only hope. This blog started out to be about grandmothering, writing, and cooking. Politics crept in because I can’t keep it out. I hope you’ll stick with me through all topics.