Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Now. How Do We Do It?


That there (and for some reason I feel I absolutely must use those two words in that exact order) is a Georgia Thumper grasshopper. He was happily gnawing through one of the rice paper plant leaves in my yard today. Some people call these things "lubbers" but I've always heard them called Georgia Thumpers and it is almost mandatory for even the most Buddhist among us to thump every one of those things we see to the ground and then smash it because they just annihilate yard and garden plants. We see it as adding nutrients to the soil.
I did not smash that one. I just didn't have the heart. I have too many rice paper plants by far and so I just let him continue on in peace although it's probably a she and will give birth to thousands just like herself.
And by the way, he/she is about three inches long. If not longer.
Which, if you ask me, is entirely too big for an insect.

You may notice I haven't discussed the news lately. This is probably because I just don't know what to say. It's not that I'm not thinking about the tragedies that occurred in El Paso (which, by the way, is where I was born) and in Dayton. I feel the way any thinking human feels which is gutted. Devastated. Unbelieving. Outraged. Beat down. Horrified. Frightened.
And absolutely certain that until we outlaw these goddamn assault weapons this is going to keep happening.
Of course I blame Trump and his racist rhetoric but I am also aware that mass shootings have happened under other people's presidencies and that crazy people (and you have to be crazy in the very worst kind of way to commit such an act) are going to rationalize what they do with their own twisted logic. BUT, the person who occupies the White House at this moment is adding fuel to the fire of hatred and racism and violence and there is no denying that. He IS inciting violence. That's just a fact. He IS a racist. There is no denying it. Except perhaps by him but we know he lies every time he opens that anal-opening of a mouth of his.
Did you hear his little speech the other day? It is so obvious that he cannot really read. And that may be part of his problem. He's probably been ashamed of that his whole life. He never got the diagnosis and education that a person with a reading disorder needs. But that's not a defense of him in any way. He may have been a different person if his father had loved him more. If his mother had loved him more. But there comes a time in any relationship when one partner can no longer defend staying with an abuser due to whatever happened in the past to make the abusing partner the way he or she is. The point becomes moot when the threat of violence is too great.
And we Americans who are in an unasked-for relationship with the Great Orange Abuser have got to figure out how to cut him out of our lives.

And we have to figure out how to get out of our relationship with easy access to firearms. For the safety of ourselves and of our children.

So sayeth I, and so now it shall be done.

Right.

Wrong.

I really do not want to disrespect or sully the name of one of the greatest writers of our time but it is impossible to not say how deeply Toni Morrison will be missed. She, like Maya Angelou, was for me a woman who showed by example that it is possible to survive almost anything, rising from the fire of abuse and racism (not that I've ever had to suffer a second for my white ass) and misogyny- burnt clean and sharp and strong like a knife blade forged in the hottest flames.
I've always said that because I didn't have a father growing up, I've chosen my own father figures. B.B. King. Jimmy Carter. Those are two.
But as I've gotten older I realize that I have also subconsciously focused on women whom I see as archetypal mothers and Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison were two of those.
Perhaps I should say that they are two archetypal women. Goddess-like in my eyes.
We need those women. And we have one less today.
I am grateful that she lived among us and grateful that her art was language. She blessed us with her presence. And we will always have her words.

So it's been a day in Lloyd. I took a walk, I went to the library, I made a salsa verde to become part of a shrimp enchilada dish.


The first time I've ever cooked with tomatillos. 

There's so much more to be said but it's not going to come from me tonight. I am going to selfishly hang on to the goodness in my life and try very hard to be aware of all of it. To acknowledge it. To do otherwise would be folly and pointless. To ignore that which is love in order to focus on that which is evil helps no one. 

And so it is and so it goes. 

Love...Ms. Moon

10 comments:

  1. well, you know how I feel. some of us must keep the good things alive and going while others fight the bad things.

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  2. Sometimes we have to just survive. Part of how I survive frequently these days is to build a wall around the details of the shit going on in this country and focus on what I'm going to do to change it. But I cannot stomach thinking about the details and really digesting all of the horribleness. I just can't.

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  3. Years ago a young college student asked to grow veggies in pots on our deck. She gave us a few tomatillos. They were mighty fine eating.
    I'm reading a Laura Ingalls Wilder biography. I wonder if those big hoppers are related to the ones that devastated the plains in her day,
    As for the rest, I won't think about it now.

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  4. We always said "that right there". I can't think about it either, especially the people killed protecting their babies.

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  5. I watch with all of those emotions you mention. We too, in Canada, have far too many gun murders despite our gun control laws. But the difference is the use of hand guns versus assault rifles. In addition, the hand guns are generally not legally owned but smuggled in or stolen property.

    But I refuse to believe that all of these individuals are mentally ill. Yes, they are sick in the head but their actions are deliberate, usually planned out or the result of an opportunity to inflict injury. I do agree that the orange man is doing his utmost to stoke the fears and hate. We're the same sort of rhetoric from some of our politicians here as well though it is more muted and less targeted. It's a frightening world we live in.

    I wonder if the grasshopper is aware of how dangerous it's world is too?

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  6. Sigh. I'm so moved by Toni Morrison and her long life and everything she wrote and said that I've been tearing up all day thinking of her and, of course, the current state of the world. Sigh, again. But tomatillos -- we used to make this fancy green gazpacho with them during my tenure at the fancy L'espinasse Restaurant in New York Shitty back in the nineties.

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  7. If Toni Morrison ever read your blog I think she would have liked it. I have never read one of her novels but "Beloved" is now on my list of "must reads".

    Did you know that Trump thought the Ohio killings had happened in Toledo and not Dayton? Such careless stupidity - you simply could not make this stuff up.

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  8. I always called those grasshoppers lubbers. I've never heard of "Georgia Thumper." Maybe that's a Tallahassee thing? (Seems like just another negative Floridians are trying to pin on Georgians. :) )

    I was so sorry to hear about Toni Morrison. I haven't posted about her yet but I'm getting around to it.

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  9. The more I read you the more I believe that we are twins born way away from each other. The lack of green as you fly into Denver (I live in LA) and the lush beauty when you travel East. Tarzan. Losing a parent - mine were killed in a plane crash when I was 13. Loving our kids. Ms. Moon, have a wonderful day.
    Jenny

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  10. This space, you, your family, you multiply the love in the world. I'm so grateful for you all.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.