Thursday, November 14, 2019

Don't Give Up


That was the biggest sweet potato I found today. It and its root vegetable relatives that I pulled up and dug out of the garden are curing on a sheet of newspaper on the porch.


That is a pretty pathetic harvest and some of them are tiny but they'll be good in soups. I have a feeling that I missed a whole bunch of them because I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to digging sweet potatoes. But considering that these were all volunteers, I'm not too disappointed. It gave me an excuse to get in the garden which was a pleasant endeavor despite the fact that it's been chilly and overcast all day long. Better that than burning up under an unforgiving sun.
It's raining now, slow and steady, making the cold seem even colder. I am so grateful for my warm house. I've been keeping the thermostat set in the mid-sixties because I don't want to overtax this heat pump and because with enough clothes on that's not bad. 

I feel so cruel. I kept the chickens shut in the hen house and coop all day long. I've just had it with feeding eleven chickens and getting perhaps four eggs a week. I mean- that's ridiculous. So I didn't let them out this morning and I may keep them shut in tomorrow too. Their moulting is over and all of the hens are certainly old enough to lay and I would really like it if they began laying in the designated laying boxes again. But I have to tell you that I really do not like keeping them cooped up. No pun intended- that phrase comes directly from what I did to them today. 

I finished the kids' dresses and have been working this afternoon on decorating the pocket on Maggie's dress. A fine thing to do on a cold, gloomy day. I've also made soup. Another good thing to do on a day like today. 

So. We've had another school shooting. Two dead, others wounded, shooter in the hospital after shooting himself in the head. I'd call him the gunman but he just turned sixteen today. 
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. 
I hear that Trump hasn't made any comments about the incident yet. I guess he's too busy worrying about getting the Supreme Court to back him on not making his tax returns public. What in hell are in those tax returns? Whatever it is, he sure doesn't want anyone to see it. 

I'm so tired of this shit. The school shootings, the illegitimate president who is draining our nation of any greatness it may have ever had, the refusal of Republicans to try and do anything about either guns or this giant wad of nastiness they call president. 

Still, I do believe that there are so very many good people. People who will absolutely go out of their way to help a stranger. People who love their children, who truly care about the plight of children all over the world, who try their hardest to be gracious and kind. People who believe that love is love and who, even if they weren't raised to be comfortable with that, have come to know and respect differently gendered people and who have opened their hearts to them. People brave enough to question the things they may have been taught as children about religion and morality and race and who have had the courage not only to question but challenge and break away from what may have been the very foundation of their beliefs, their lives. People who read and people who think. People who don't believe that science is a giant hoax. People who recognize the weaknesses and inadequacies in their own lives and who are more sympathetic and empathetic to those around them as a result. People who celebrate joy and art and color and diversity and knowledge and forests and trees and oceans and seas and rivers and plains and mountains. 
People who love. 

There are no fewer of those people now than there were before Trump got elected, before guns were made so readily available to anyone. Perhaps there are even more of the good people now than before. 
I don't know. 
I don't know shit. 
But as a mother, as a grandmother, as an older woman I refuse to give up on the human race entirely. It sure would be easy to do that but it's not really a luxury that I can afford. 
I have to believe there is hope. For the sake of Owen and Gibson and August and Maggie and Levon. 

Meanwhile, I hold on to things like digging potatoes out of the dirt and acknowledging things like walls and floors and heat and blankets and hot running water and being able to afford the things we need and some of the things we want, and for soup and bread on a cold, wet night. And for a family whose first instinct is always to embrace and accept. 
And for whom laughter comes easily. 

Well. These are the things I'm pondering on this cold, wet night. 
Stay warm,  y'all. Be safe. I can't afford to lose a one of you. 

Love...Ms. Moon

14 comments:

  1. I read another blogger (Bee Haven Acres) whose chickens aren't laying either. Hm. I am glad you're warm and comfy and grateful and busy. I wrote a poem today on Facebook about how un-busy I am. Of course, it's cold up here in WI! I am in the process of making felt food broccoli and burritos for my granddaughter in KY, but, I didn't leave the house today! I confess, I didn't get dressed. It's cold out there! Oh, and fuck Trump.

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  2. Thank you for always reminding me of what is important at a time when it feels hopeless. You are truly a wonder! And yes, fuck Trump.

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  3. That's more than I know about sweet potatoes. When I dug the sweet potato vine from the big pot, I unearthed a couple of...sweet potatoes. I didn't know if they were regulation sweet potatoes, or a weird variation, so I didn't bring them in an experiment with them.

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  4. your sweet potato harvest is something, at least.....may not be bountiful, but enough. I am shunning the news......on principal......and I must say I, like you, am not giving up on humanity and love. I had a most wonderful train adventure last week.....trip to see a friend.......with a packed train...... and an amount of love, open arms love, and bonding with humanity experience......it validated how I have always felt (and how you feel, I believe) that there is so much good in the world and in people. We just have to embrace and welcome it......and it flows. One to the other...... I came home feeling so refreshed......and much of it was due to the love I received (and gave) from/to total strangers. Sorry to be so longwinded.....but it is foremost in my mind and heart. I will not allow myself to be swallowed by negative.
    Susan M

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  5. good people rarely rule the masses, throughout human history, this has been the case.

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  6. Hugs and warm thoughts to you and all grands who will someday repair this world...

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  7. I think that if you had been a member of Hillary Clinton's speech writing team, Crooked Donald would have been defeated in 2016. She has been over here in England this week promoting her new book "Gutsy Women" with her daughter, Chelsea. It is surprising that there isn't a chapter about Mary Moon.

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  8. Over these past 3 years a big help for my mental health has been knowing there are more of the good people than the nuts. It is still devastating to me that there wre so many more nuts than I thought there were before Nov 2016. When you write about it I am reminded that many many of us are caring and empathetic and going to kick hates ass.

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  9. the one time I grew potatoes digging them up was the best part. and yeah, some were giant and some were tiny. I'm glad someone still has hope and faith in people. I read yesterday that one of those deep red southern states just passed a law that a wrong answer on a test can't be marked wrong if the answer reflects that student's religious beliefs. what the fuck is the point of tests if wrong answers can't be marked wrong. not to mention all the completely unqualified judges the republicans are appointing to lifetime posts. it doesn't matter because none of this will last long as all our supporting ecosystems are on the verge of collapse and Trump is hastening the end.

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  10. I think that sweet potato crop looks pretty darn impressive. You got more potatoes -- and bigger ones -- than I thought you might. (Having never grown them before myself!) I hope they taste good!

    I have basically just removed myself psychologically from the political scene. I'm letting it rage around me and I'm just going to breathe and be still -- like the eye of a hurricane.

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  11. "And for a family whose first instinct is always to embrace and accept. And for whom laughter comes easily." This is everything. Just by being who you are, by teaching your youngest to love, embrace, accept, you are changing the world. Never doubt it.

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  12. Sadly, assholes get way more media attention than good people. But there are still good people in the world, working hard to do good things. tRump's reign of bullshit will eventually win. The pendulum will swing back. Things will get better.

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  13. We find this here. You go out into areas that supposedly support the Putin-funded, Trump-loving billionaires and you find such nice folks who actually believe those monsters are sincere. There is nothing you can do about that, there have always been cruel tricksters and naive trustful souls as long as the human race has existed - fairytales are full of them! One of them told me the other day that she'd always voted Conservative but Johnson wouldn't let anything bad happen to our country. Right, okay, I said. She was almost in tears wanting me to believe it, there was no point in arguing.

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