Monday, July 22, 2024

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want


This plant grows in my neighbor's yard. It is known as abelia and I love its tiny flowers, the way the pink and the brown and the green all go together so sweetly. It is a member of the jasmine family. I first became familiar with it when I moved to Tallahassee and lived in a house with two other people, one of whom was a pianist in the music department of FSU who took me under her strong and beautiful wings and opened my eyes to so many things, including the abelia which grew in our yard and which I had never even noticed. Not once. 
Thank you, Paula.

So yes, I took a walk this morning. It was only eighty-something degrees but the humidity had hit 92% which- excuse me- is it even that humid underwater? Or in a sauna? I think a lot of the humidity is due to the rains we get in the late afternoons and the turning of all that rain moisture into steam. I doubt I am saying anything here that is of groundbreaking scientific importance. 
But oh, how green everything is right now. I will take the humidity over long weeks of no rain when the resurrection fern curls up, brown and stiff and the leaves on trees droop and sag and the grass turns brown and it just feels so very, very wrong. 

There is an oak tree next door to me that is absolutely magnificent. I have written about it before. I would imagine that it is at least five hundred years old. The circumference of its trunk is enormous and its spread covers half the sky above it. 


No way for me to get any sort of accurate scale in a picture. But this morning it just seemed so powerfully alive, so vital and so strong that I had to at least try to take its picture. 


In my opinion, gods and goddesses look like this tree. Gods and goddess ARE this tree.

Speaking of a god, the Christian god in this instance, look what I found when I went into the post office today. 


This enrages me. It is not unusual to find a stack of Christian themed pamphlets in there but this is so over the top that I can't believe it. The Lloyd post office is very small. You walk in and on your right and straight ahead of you are boxes with the old-fashioned dial locks on them, on the wall to the far right past the boxes on that side is the counter where the postal worker sells stamps or puts postage on packages or whatever, and on the left wall, is that two-level counter. There is also a trash can. That's it. And to find that counter completely covered with a veritable library of White Jesus books pushed me over the edge. 
First off, it's illegal. Look it up. I did. It is illegal to display or distribute religious materials in a United States Post Office, punishable by up to 30 days in jail. 
Secondly- oh, who cares? It's just wrong. 
So what did I do about it? I did nothing. I came home and I pondered the situation. I have a strong feeling that the new postmistress may have actually put the books out herself. I do not know this for sure but she must have at least noticed them out there. She was on the phone when I was there and I really didn't want to disturb her (it sounded like she was trying to get the internet situation dealt with so that people can use their debit cards to mail packages and buy postage) and she has been so sweet to me but I have to say something. I could, I suppose, go back when the PO shuts down services at noon, but is open for people to get their mail and see if the books are still there, pick them all up and take them to the dump. 
That does not seem like the proper thing to do though. I assume that the materials were placed there for people to take home if they wanted but still- we're not talking about some poorly made tracts on cheap paper. There are real books in there. Hardbacks, some of them. 
So I need to go back tomorrow and if they are still there, I need to talk to Keisha and ask if she knows they're there, and also, if she knows it's illegal to have them there. 

I realize that part of my anger is more honestly directed at the political situation going on right now. And some of that is seeing what's happening in Florida under the most cruel of Republican governors. Things like banning fine and award-winning books from school libraries because they mention the possibility that not everyone is white, straight, and Christian. Because two male penguins raised a baby together in a zoo. Because the topic of slavery might make white people uncomfortable. 
ETC. 
So I'm not having it. Tomorrow I will pull up my Leslie Jones, Big Girl panties and go have a chat with our postmistress. If the books are still there. 

All is not sturm und drang, however. Yesterday my kids asked me what I want to do for my birthday and I thought about that honestly and I said, "I want to go to the Ocean Grill for lunch and Wasabi for supper." 
The Ocean Grill is a restaurant in Vero Beach. A restaurant so old that I went there as a child and which has a history which is richer and more interesting than that of some countries. Wasabi is a little Thai, Sushi restaurant in a strip mall in Roseland/Sebastian that has some of the very best food I've ever eaten. 
Of course, this would involve me actually going to Roseland and/or Vero and I e-mailed my beloved landlord down there to see if the little cabana with the pink kitchen beside the pool with the four spitting lions was available and it is not. However, he has another little house that he bought and restored and decorated in his own magical, old Florida way and it too has a pool, although tinier. It is right across the street from the Sebastian River and Glen and I can go watch the sunset from the community dock which is the newest version of the same dock I fished from as a kid and my husband can throw a line into the water. The house is really only a few houses down from where my Granny and Granddaddy lived and where I lived too, for awhile. 
I am so excited. We're not leaving until two days after my birthday but when you're seventy years old, what does that matter? 


Would you LOOK at that lampshade? I may never come home. 

I better go cook some supper. 

Love...Ms. Moon








34 comments:

  1. What a sweet outing that will be! I hope you enjoy every minute...

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  2. That sounds like a wonderful trip. I wonder if the books could somehow land in the trash bin??

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  3. Those books need to see the inside of a trash can....and set on fire as far as I'm concerned. Don't try the latter....at least IN the post office! Your birthday plans sound delightful and the food beyond! Enjoy!!
    Paranormal John

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    1. Yeah. That trash can is plastic and I have a feeling I'd be in bigger trouble than anyone involved in the situation.
      It's always about the food for me, isn't it?

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  4. Sounds like a great way to celebrate your birthday!
    Yeah, those books should not be there.

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    1. I think it's going to be a terrific birthday.

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  5. As you know, those books are illegal. There is a central sorting post office that sends mail on to Lloyd. Find it and tell them about the christian artifacts. They will deal with it.
    I grew up with that lampshade, on a floor lamp. It was black and white.

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    1. Email sent today.
      Wow! I wish I had a lampshade like that. Glenn in Roseland is a superior thrift store treasure finder.

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  6. oh, I'm so jealous that you have such cute wonderful places so nearby to spend a weekend. I would be tempted to throw all those books in the trash. but yeah, def inform the postmistrss that it is illegal as fuck. I hate proselytising.

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    1. It's still at least a six hour trip (the way we drive it) but worth every mile to my heart. And we'll be staying for about six days.
      I had a chat with the woman on duty at the PO today.

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  7. A birthday trip ! Very cool to have come up with that one, You will have a very happy Birthday.
    I woud have taken the books without even thinking about it. off to the dumpster!

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    1. I had the same thought except that they would go right to the dump depot which is less than half a block away.

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  8. Those books must go. I am surprised that the postmistress allows them. I think Joanne (above) has the best suggestion. Your B-day plans sound outstanding.

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    1. You would not be surprised that the postmistress allows them if you knew Lloyd.
      Sigh.

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  9. Mary, I agree with Joanne. Let a neutral person handle this. You need that post office. It would be a shame to change the dynamic between you and the person who possibly thought it would be a good idea to display that material.

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    1. I do believe I've fucked up the dynamic royally.

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  10. That was me, Carol.

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  11. What Joanne said. Best way to handle it.

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    1. Well- I had one issue with that. I'll talk about it in today's post.

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  12. Lampshade? Oh, opposite that lovely stack of towels so neatly folded. Very nice too. That looks like the perfect little room for relaxing and reading in.

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  13. Those religious books in the post office would make me seethe. The birthday plan sounds perfect. Please send me the lampshade WITH the lamp!

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    1. I would except that Glenn might never rent to me again which would be the very worst thing. But if I could, I surely would. All the way to Spain.

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  14. What a treat it will be to go and stay at that place.

    I would notify the manager one step above Keisha (or higher). If that doesn't get any results, I'd order free stuff from the Hare Krishnas or a strict convent and maybe a Buddhist center etc. and display it alongside.

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  15. Those religious books belong in the trash can. After all, children might see them and become infected with the crazy notion that life is overseen by a benevolent God figure who judges all and presides over an absurd afterlife location called Heaven. I am surprised that the Floridian legislature has not already banned them.

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    1. I had the same feeling about children being influenced into joining a cult. Around here though, they probably already do. Born into the Christian Cult.

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  16. I am with Sabine. I would send an e-mail to the post master and avoid a face to face confrontatoin about it. The thing that I know for sure and certain is that conservative christian folk like nothing better than a target.

    Tell me what I want, what I really really want? I want all soulless misanthropic power mongers to disappear. Just like that. Poof!

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    1. That's what I really, really want too, Debby.

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  17. Happiest of birthdays to you dear Mary!
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  18. Oh my gosh. That old-fashioned Florida room with the '50s lampshade looks like HEAVEN.

    Here's my take on the religious stuff. I'd mention it to Keisha and then offer to take it to the little free library. (There IS one in Lloyd, isn't there? I hope I'm not making that up.) I'm sure whoever put those books out is just looking to pass them on -- and like you, I suspect it was Keisha herself. Maybe offering to move them to a better place would offset any bad feeling she might get.

    That said, they would rub me the wrong way too, mostly because of the unstated assumption that ANYONE would be interested in them or could benefit from them.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.