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Dreamcatchers and masks
A fully vaccinated friend was over for dinner a week ago. Peter and I, also fully vaccinated, are tentatively stepping back into the pleasures of having (fully vaccinated) friends to dinner, and eating at other friends’ (fully vaccinated) houses too. Indoors!! What a treat! It feels so new to have other people in our house,…
Read MoreHow to Chop Down a Tree if You’re a Woman
Endless basement cleaning has unearthed a folder of short essays written by my mother in the early 1950s. They must have been written when she was finding it particularly tedious being a middle class housewife and mother of three young children. The folder also contained seven stock rejection slips from Ladies’ Home Journal, Woman’s Day,…
Read MoreThe Beginning of the End, or?
Or is it the end of the beginning? Maybe it’s just the end of the first phase of our Covid-19 pandemic: the scramble to identify the virus’ strong and weak points, to develop vaccines, to realize it’s a global problem, to stumble as we learn a thing or two about delivery and care, to disentangle…
Read MoreNew Year, Turn the Page
People have lot to say about 2020. Some miraculously spot on; others wildly off target. The best will require barrel time to mellow into vintage nonfiction and fiction. After a year of reading more novels than usual, I’ve gained a lot more respect for fiction as a means of telling the truth. Good novelists are…
Read MoreStuck in the mud?
Time flies when you’re having fun, but not, it turns out, during a terrible global pandemic. But it’s not so much that time has been stuck in the mud for the last eleven months; it’s me who’s lost momentum. My wellies got sucked down, my umbrella blew away, and my jacket’s soaked through. I’m the…
Read MoreLiterary Chitchat
A strange picture of my backyard through a spider’s web. I couldn’t get the camera to focus properly, so special kudos to anyone who can actually see the spider. But the raindrops on the beautiful web are a treat to see. I’ve been thinking about spiders recently. Thinking about Charlotte, of course, the most…
Read MoreThe Joys of Electoral Politics
I’m back on track with current events, after taking a few days off to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the end of the American democracy as we know it. But…perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all…I’ve been text banking for 2020Victory. A very organized process, supported by easy to…
Read MoreWhere to Begin
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, I went on a news fast. I’ve done it before, from time to time, for two reasons. First, the current news keeps me up at night and poisons the good parts of my waking life. And secondly, it teaches me nothing new. I already know the terrible bits of our…
Read MoreIt’s All About Voting
Hi friends! I don’t like asking people for things, and I definitely don’t like asking people to give up their hard-earned money, but sitting within our comfort zones isn’t going to get us anywhere. And we HAVE TO MOVE right now. Actions: We’ve been sending postcards to notify people who were purged from voter rolls…
Read MoreWhen You’re Ready
When you are ready (and the world is ready) to travel again, here’s an open invitation to visit my home town. Seattle! I’m an actual native, and that is vanishingly rare these days since my fair city has grown many fold since my humble birth here. Wildsam, https://wildsam.com/seattle-field-guide, a cool publishing company is putting out…
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