An off week, to say the least

 

Jacob and my brother
Looking for jackrabbits
at the ranch

It’s not been a week for blogging. I have started several times, even wrote a longish blog about what I feel is ludicrous objections to any sort of gun control. But then I thought who am I to preach on a subject so well covered in the media? Or is it?

It seems to me this country bounces from one crisis to another. Right now, there are three huge balls in the air, and we cannot afford to drop any of them. Public furor was high over the carnage at Uvalde—until Thursday night, when the first public hearing of the January 6 committee captured everyone’s attention. Well, not everyone, but some twenty million of us plus who knows how many who watched it after the fact or livestreamed it, as I did. And, of course, the third big ball in the air is women’s reproductive rights, which sort ol leads to a fourth ball—how in heaven’s name did we end up with such a mess in the Supreme Court as the Constitution seems to be being overridden in favor of personal beliefs.

I guess at my age it’s good to feel passionate about anything, but I feel passionate—and helpless—about those three problems. I cannot weigh one more heavily than the other, and I have done what I criticize in others: I’ve become an extremist, thinking the claims of the far right are ludicrous (that seems to be a favorite word of mine recently).

At any rate, with our country beset by such complex problems, it seemed a bit lighthearted to write anything like, “Guess what I cooked for supper tonight?” or “Know how many words I wrote today?” The one constant I hold to is that I am an optimist. My mom used to say to me, “All things work to some good.” I wish she were here now to say that, because sometimes it’s hard to see. Yet, maybe it’s my faith that tells me fascism and authoritarianism won’t win, that we will have effective gun control laws, that trump and company will be not only exposed but appropriately punished, that women will always have access to good reproductive health care.

When I expressed outrage on a Facebook post (yes, I’m out there and vocal—I can’t walk the block, host campaign parties, etc., but I can sure speak out), someone who basically agreed with me wrote that she avoided outrage because she thought it put bad stuff into her system. It probably does, but in this case, I think it’s necessary. If we aren’t outraged enough to fight for our way of life, we’ll lose it. And the absurdity of some on the right causes my outrage—charging a woman with murder because she miscarried (what the medical profession calls a spontaneous abortion and what, to my mind, indicates that God and our biological systems know best), the congressman who said banally that he was sorry Uvalde happened but it didn’t change his mind (how could it not?), the cultists who deny the facts presented by the January 6 committee and call it partisan even though the co-chair is a Republican (isn’t she tough?)—it all outrages me, makes me fighting mad, and maybe that’s been what’s stifled me. I have no place to go with my anger, but I don’t want to foist it on others.

There have been pleasant moments this week. One morning I watched Mama Cardinal hopping around on the deck. To my disappointment, Papa didn’t join her this time. I guess I was looking for the comfort of thinking two from the other side are sending me messages. Another day the most magnificent blue jay hopped among the pentas, which are just now blooming. I watched him in fascination for a long time. Yeah, it was not a week when I got a lot of writing done, but I did start proofreading Finding Florence.

Posting two pictures with this because they are pictures that make me feel good. Maybe they will you too. They reflect, to me, the fact that our peaceful world of home, families, and friends goes on despite those who would destroy our way of life.

The most spectacular orchid
in its second bloom