Things coalesced today to remind me that in fact, for all intents and purposes, we ARE in the dumper.
While I realize ever more clearly that we are all in the midst of a pretty volcanic shift, and for the most part I can navigate that with relative success, at the same time there are moments when it all crashes into my forehead and I wonder how much longer I can go on living in this world. The Dog and the Garden make a big difference, of course and I’m hoping that this weekend’s “cooldown” (to 87 instead of 107) will allow me to at last plant our burgeoning seedlings. Plus bake some requested cookies for a friend in need- one hopes that 87 will allow the making of buttercream to proceed without incident. The Dog had a moment of doggie disobedience earlier today and tempers flared; now they’re just at a simmer. I’ve been handing out strawberries and ice cubes to the parties involved.
Still. The election on top of everything else pretty much fried my circuits. People were actually speaking in raised voices in the polling place about things that froze my blood- you know- The Wall with Mexico. Muslims. Everyone who either didn’t look white or had a Spanish surname (me) got extra grilling before their ballots were handed over. I’ve been voting for a long time now and this year? They showed me as having no party preference and thus eligible for only a provisional ballot. Which may, or may not, get counted. HOW GROOVY IS THAT? I finally, using my best I come in peace but let’s get serious act, got things horsed around, voted, and then? This county has an electronic ballot counter which, excitingly, puts the name of whoever you vote for up on a video screen that anyone standing nearby can read. My screen said Bernie Sanders, and it felt as though I barely escaped with my life and a tootsie roll, slamming the door on name calling behind me.
Then, glutton for punishment that I am, we went to the post office. Where I was greeted by two things: 1) A new bill from my insurance company that was astronomically higher than it was before and 2) A man wearing a tshirt that said “Hillary for prison in 2016” who gave me a wolfish grin and said, funny, ain’t it? Luckily he accepted silence as an answer. (Later, getting propane, I saw one that said “I refuse to learn a foreign language to accommodate the illegal immigrants coming into MY country” on yet another elderly white man who refused to believe the sidewalk was for anyone other than him .) Just to add to my joy, I found that essentially now nobody will insure me for anything except my current company, for the aforementioned fortune. I live in a place with a lot of fires, and my car is old. It’s kind of like the internet around here: You gotta have it but nobody will provide it to you. So net, net: the fat white man who crashed into me continues to cause trouble. I’m betting he voted for turd with teeth, too.
There is of course more, although the good news appears to be the cartels are out of our neighborhood this season. I constantly remind myself that it’s all a call for kindness, for love and compassion, for rectification of disharmony. Perched on the high, pointy spot of my current life, it seems dicey but I do it anyway. And on days when I’m inundated by the effing effontery of life, I do wonder if there is any point at all to what I do. It certainly at times looks like an entire geological age of catastrophe, my little existence. At the same time it is so clear that there IS intrinsic goodness in our universe, and we can’t wait for results to do what is right and caring. In that vein I’m going to give the Dog another ice cube, and say bless you to all.
Boozilla: learning to fly one room at a time 