Listen up all you white straight males & females who think you share the same privileges as DJT.
YOU DO NOT!
You're white. He's white. You have a penis probably tiny like his. Or you don't. You identify as straight like him. Maybe even sexual predator like him.
There are two types of white privilege. Both types are injust & immoral but very different in scope.
There is the millionaire / billionaire type. It's a club. DJT is a member. You are not. That is why he can incite riots that result in people dying & being injured & the charges get dropped.
Do not let the fact that he got away with his deadly sociopathic actions with no consequences encourage you to act on your hate driven violent longings.
You are in a different white privilege club. Your club will not get charges dropped. It will, I'm disgusted to say, get you a shorter sentence than if you weren't white and straight.
But unlike DJT you will spend time in prison. Locked up with a majority of very angry people who aren't white.
Think about that before you do something stupid. Not that I care what happens to you but DJT leaves legions of innocent victims in his wake. You don't need to add to that.
The election left me shaken to the core, like so many others.
I feel the need to respond in some big way. Though I don't think discourse is the answer for me.
Instead I am planning a ceremonial response.
The intent of my ceremony will be to stem the tide of evil threatening democracy and life on this planet at the hands of people who take or retain their positions of power and responsibility starting January 20th, 2025.
I am taking my ceremonial inspiration from the work of two strong women.
The first strong woman is Deborah Blake; noted author & witch. She writes books for Llewellyn Publications as the Everyday Witch. She also writes enthralling, poignant, often funny, fiction. One of her series of fiction books centers around the tales of the Baba Yaga.
Wickedly Unraveled* is a book in that series with a very strong spell that I adapted for my ceremony.
The second strong woman is Julie Brook who does 'land and tidal art'; specifically her 'Firestacks'.
Julie Brook builds what she calls firestacks, which are essentially cairns, starting at low tide, using the 'dry-stone walling method' to be 5.75 feet high & 6.5 feet wide so they will not go down easily when the tide comes in high.
Next she builds a fire in the firestack with seasoned logs. She & others replenish the fire with more logs every half hour or so.
The tide washes in and the fire in the firestack is beautiful against the sea & the sky.
"When the sea was quiet and rising—an incremental rising you felt creeping up your body— the tension between fire and water became a form of choreography: of time, of sound, of light—an exquisite dance between the water rising and receding, the fire dousing and regaining itself."
I think that's what we have to do over the next 2 or 4 years. We have to keep dancing even if the fire seems to go completely out.
And rest in the knowledge that the tide - a force of the true apex predator - Mother Earth - will wash all evidence of those who would attack her out to sea - so much unremembered sand on the ocean floor. Good riddance.
(I don't have permission to use Julie Brook's work BUT I URGE YOU SERIOUSLY to click on the Terrain.org article & look at the pictures & view the very powerful 15 minute video. Mesmerizing.)
So that's how I will be spending a small part of my equinoxes, solstices, full moons & new moons in the coming year.
After that - maybe something with an Earth focus, or water, or air.
Discourse - written or oral communication of ideas between people.
I think I am done with this for a while.
Done with the back & forth of it.
I might put up a blog now & then.
Something breezy.
Someone criticized a writer that I love as part of a community that talks about reading all the time & I was hit with depression & exhaustion & I didn't have it in me to defend her as I normally do.
No we haven't even left. We are leaving late this afternoon. For a 13+ hour road trip. Me, my daughter and our dog Cooper. At the end of the trip is my daughter Ruthie & her family & my mom.
Eager to see them.
We are going to take my mom to a family reunion in Lexington, KY. Which is also where Liz & I are planning to move to. So - we will be checking it out.
According to Wikipedia it is "the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes".
You might say coffee has little to do with major anything. Well, maybe not but it has been a major pursuit in my life for sometime now. The perfect cup of coffee is ever elusive. I think I have it just right but then a couple of cups later it appears something is not good enough. Back to the drawing board.
The drawing board has taken me through: Keurig, French Press, Expresso machine, & my pretty red stovetop expresso maker:
I've also gone through various grinds & many add ins. Half & half? Evaporated milk? Oat or almond milk? Sugar? Sweetener? Monk fruit?
What I finally came back to? Drip coffee is so much easier & just as good. You set it up the night before, click a button in the morning & voila...coffee. Also - for now I went back to powdered non-dairy creamer because I'm tired of the stuff in my throat from so much dairy.
I'm sticking with my Monk Fruit over sugar or sweetener, though. It's all natural. It tastes good. And it helps keep blood sugar levels balanced.
So - I have returned to my roots as far as happy coffee is concerned. It definitely wasn't a quick return, though.
Black Coffee In Bed by Squeeze
PS - there are two theories of happiness: hedonic - experiences of pleasure & enjoyment & eudaimonic - experiences of meaning & purpose. Coffee would fall into hedonic happiness for me.
Lately I am not writing. Maybe I'll get back to it one day. Who knows.
For now I am focusing my efforts on getting my place ready to sell because we want to move out of Florida which gets more expensive - and bizarre - to live in everyday.
Here we should have some of the best produce in the world. But someone has been messing with the migrant workers until there is no one to pick crops. So you go to the grocery store & the produce isn't from here. Tomatoes are woody - limes are hard rocks - lemons cost a fortune. You get the picture.
The process of buying & selling homes is stressful. I am learning. I just don't want to end up in an unaffordable, unsustainable situation.
So what is giving me joy these days?
The community of commenters on Jenny Crusie's blogpost - arghink.com
Playing throw the bone with my granddog Cooper.
Anticipation of going to see my family end of September.
I think I've spoken on this blog before about watching the youtube channel of the couple in Azerbaijan - countrylife vlog. Now I have discovered a Sri Lankan youtube channel called Traditional Me & it is also good.
Longevity is being healthy
and active until the day you die quickly and peacefully.
Long Life is living a long
time even confined to a bed.
In a recent amusing text thread amongst me, my mom & my aunties - I volunteered to put together a list of documentaries / shows about longevity. Below is that list.
Skippable amusing auto correction story: I kept using 'centarians' instead of 'centenarians' which auto correct kept changing to 'centurions' which somehow led to us trying to decide if Aunt Mary would make a better 'centarian' or 'centurion'.
NETFLIX
Live To 100: Secrets of
the Blue Zones*
1 season with 4 episodes
Each episode visits a
different Blue Zone.
*Blue Zones are regions of
the world where people tend to live longer and where there are larger concentrations
of centenarians (people who live to be 100 years old or more).
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC –
usually through Disney+
Limitless With Chris
Helmsworth
1season with 6 episodes
Each episodes addresses
thing which affect longevity
In each episode Chris is
learning / doing things to minimize the affects of these things on his longevity.
The 6th episode features his wife & is very sweet.
Another good reason to watch Limitless With Chris Helmsworth
TUBI**
The Longevity Film
Visits several Blue Zones including
the one natural Blue Zone in the USA which is in Loma Linda CA. Talks about
efforts to create some other Blue Zones here.
Also TUBI
How To Live Forever
Documentary about
longevity. Starts out slow but gets better and is worth it to watch.
Features several interesting
people; Jack LaLane@ 94, Edna Parker-the oldest woman ever, Phyllis Diller doing
a stand-up routine late in life that is very funny, a 98-year-old kite flyer in
Okinawa (he describes himself as a loaner which is almost unheard of in
longevity circles where community is considered high on the list of things
necessary)
There is also a bittersweet
interview with Suzanne Somers talking about her efforts at longevity where she expresses
confidence that she will live to be 100. She died at 77 of breast cancer.
Really it’s remarkable she lived as long as she did considering she fought
cancer off and on throughout her life starting when she was in her 20’s.
Skippable anecdote– Speaking
of community as necessary to becoming a centenarian – Campbells do community
like they invented it.
Skippable funny side note –
There is talk about funerals in this one. Which reminded me of something
amusing about Japanese funerals. It is a sign of status to have big crowds at
your funeral. In order to make that happen strippers are hired to entertain the
crowds. I had a good laugh thinking about someone hiring a stripper to entertain
at a funeral at Musters Funeral home. I really think someone needs to include
that in their pre-planning. Any volunteers? Wouldn’t have to be a female stripper.
Bonnie? Brenda?
**If you stream but don’t
have TUBI – it’s free with ads. Just open it. Freevee (formerly IMBd) same
Something on Tubi I found,
haven’t watched but plan to:
Older Than Ireland – said to
be a documentary about 30 centenarians in Ireland.
FREEVEE
The Human Longevity
Project
I haven’t seen this one
but it is supposed to be 9 episodes that look really good. I will watch it if I
can find it.
PBS
Series called Sages Of
Aging
I don’t get PBS so I haven’t
seen this one but PBS always does a good job of anything it sets out to do so
probably it’s good.
NPR
Does not have any talk
shows on longevity but has several articles I want to check out on NPR.org
Things that look good that
I haven’t found yet:
Longevity Hackers
Aging Backwards
Human Longevity – How To
Live Longer & Prosper
In How To Live Forever –
Marianne Williamson says – don’t retire instead refire your life. There is a
lot of movement in learning about longevity. Enough to keep one entertained well
into their 100’s.
As I find more – I will send
it your way.
I usually end a blogpost with a song but instead here is the trailer for Limitless because the eye candy is only made better by the ear candy.
Note to self - read John Robbins book Health at 100
