Signs of Hope, Signs of Spring Friday 5

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Sally writes:
It has been a difficult week here in Dowham Market, and yet in the sadness there have been signs of real hope, young people, often criticised have shown us how caring and amazing they are. It has also been a strange week; it snowed for almost the first time this winter, and yet many of the spring bulbs are blooming, and the trees are blossoming!

I believe that if we look carefully we can see signs of hope all around us.... as for signs of spring... well you tell me....

Bluebells in my garden, before the snow!

What have you seen/ heard this week that was a :
1. Sign of hope?

The top of my desk! It's the first time I've seen it in awhile. And, lo and behold, as soon as I got the desk cleared off, the building manager arrived to tell me that my office will be re-painted by the end of the week. The first coat is on, and it feels like a new place to work.


2. An unexpected word of light in a dark place?

"Yes, I'll help with that." I've heard this all week long. On Monday morning, I groaned to Garden Girl, "I have so much to do that I'm going to implode!" She wisely suggested that perhaps I could actually ask for help. Well, duh. I have a pretty high IQ, but not much common sense sometimes. I made a list of everything that needs to be done and then started doing two things -- asking for help and asking to be let off the hook. I still have a list of projects on a pile of index cards an inch high, but it all feels more manageable.

3. A sign of spring?

Garden Girl's garden, of course. We're on the Garden Tour in May and there are lots of projects going on even during the cold and rainy winter, but the mud is beginning to yield to grass and the bulbs are sending out shoots that will bloom as the season changes.

And graduation plans! In May, Nashy graduates from college and Shiny graduates from high school. Lots of celebrations are in my future.

4. Challenging/ surprising?

I'm on the Search and Discernment Committee in our parish and we will call a new rector in a few weeks. The quality of the candidates is outstanding, and the process has been a surprising renewal for me as we visit other churches and listen to candidates speak thoughtfully about ministry.

The 2008 Trying New Things Challenge is also in full gear. I'll post an update on my first acting experience in the Vagina Monologues and will fill you in on the Next New Thing very soon.

5. Share a hope for the coming week/month/year....

I'm hoping for peace. There is so much suffering in the world, much of it institutionalized by our government -- the war, the U.S. prison system, Guantanamo. Every day, I pray for peace in the world, for wisdom for our leaders, for energetic action by our citizens.


Bonus play... a piece of music/ poem guaranteed to cheer you?

All the music I'll hear over the next few days. In January, I took a solemn oath that my world would be filled with live music this year, and so far it's happening. Tonight, the whole family, even the eight-year-old, will see the Little Blue State Symphony performance, where my son's chorale will perform, singing Mozart's Requiem. Tomorrow, Wonderful Local Music School for Kids will have a fund-raiser featuring a performance in a beautiful and intimate venue by a local jazz/blues/folk musician who was nominated for a Grammy this year. Sunday, after a visit to one of our candidates for Rector, and therefore a chance to hear an unfamiliar choir, I'll attend a salon where a friend who is a playwright is staging a partial reading of his latest work, performed and written in collaboration with his wife, a concert pianist. Then later in the week, I get to see k.d. lang in concert. And stay tuned here for news of the drumming circle at our house!

Spring is in the air!

Vermont Voters Indict Bush and Cheney

Voters in Marlboro and Brattleboro, Vermont, passed articles of indictment against George Bush and Dick Cheney. Now, that's what I call a voter initiative!

I wonder what happens if the Brattleboro Police Department tries to serve the warrant. Is there an inter-agency contract between the Department of Homeland Security and the Marlboro Police Department? Does this mean that the President and Vice President can't come into Vermont without getting arrested? What about skiing in 2009? The mind boggles.

Heavenly Friday Five

Singing Owl writes this week's Friday Five~

I am in Seattle assisting with family stuff and preparing to attend a memorial service (Saturday) for my sister who died of complications of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

I am not grieving much, since the shock and tears and goodbyes and losses have been many and have occurred for a long time now. I am mostly relieved that my wonderful sister and best friend is free from pain and confusion, and I am thinking of eternity. That sounds somber, but I don't mean it to be. I decided to have a little fun with the idea. So how about we share five "heavenly" things? These can me serious or funny or a combination of the two.

What is your idea of a heavenly (i.e. wonderful and perfect):

1. Family get-together

I'd love a family gathering where my parents could be with my children. I'd love to know my parents as old people. They both died much too young.

2. Song or musical piece

When I get to heaven, I hope I can sing. Here on planet Earth, my voice won't do what my ears tell it to do, so I don't sing unless I'm alone in the car. If I can sing along, I'll be happy.

3. Gift

Travel, tickets to any kind of live performance, cashmere.

4. You choose whatever you like-food, pair of shoes, vacation, house, or something else. Just tell us what it is and what a heavenly version of it would be.

I want the perfect jeans -- a pair of button fly, boot leg, low-rise jeans that have been washed enough to be soft, but not so much that they sag; a crisp white cotton blouse; a black cashmere sweater; a colorful French silk scarf tied around the handle of a soft coffee-brown leather satchel; a pair of red silver-buckled loafers from Milan, and hips slim enough to pull it off.

5. And for a serious moment, or what would you like your entrance into the next life to be like?

What, from your vantage point now, would make Heaven "heavenly?"

Given my family history, I'd like my entrance into the next life to be when I'm really, really old! What would make heaven "heavenly?" Forgiveness.

Tagged by Counselor In Process

I got tagged by Counselor In Process.
The rules for the meme are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six unimportant things, hmmm.
~ I have eaten peanuts or peanut butter every day for as long as I can remember. My Grandfather, Daddy Matt, worked in a peanut warehouse. (yep, I know, really southern, but there's nothing like a Virgina peanut)
~ I have to read a little bit before I fall asleep at night, which means I sometimes don't fall asleep because the book is too compelling.
~ I have multiple piercings in one earlobe, but don't wear extra earrings any more
~ I still haven't outgrown my seventh grade penchant for colored ink. Not very lawyerly, but my pink and turquoise pens amuse my opponents -- and being underestimated is almost never a bad thing.
~ I really like teenagers. I think they're funny and interesting and great company. I also like two-year-olds. Thirteen-month-olds are the only kids I don't enjoy. The poor little munchkins can't walk or talk, but they know enough to really want to, so they spend their time frustrated and falling down.
~ I have three last names. No, not like a soap opera diva. In real life, my first name, middle name and last name are all surnames -- my mother's maiden name, my grandmother's maiden name, and mine. It's another southern thing. The girls I grew up with had names like Randall, Ridgely, Ramsay and Cooper. And the kids named Madison, Ashley, and Courtney were christened with their mothers' and grandmothers' surnames. It's a tradition I'm glad has spread beyond the south.

I tag Garden Girl and NJGrits because they never post anymore. I also tag Songbird and anyone else who wants to play. P.S. None of you are random.

Another Question -- Why Aren't We Outraged?

Robin Morgan's eye-popping essay Good-Bye to All That (#2) examines the way the media and the voting public have treated Hillary Clinton's candidacy. Whether you support Obama, Clinton, or McCain, pay attention to Robin Morgan's words and examine your own emotional response to Hillary Clinton's candidacy. I hope you'll follow the link to read the entire article, but here are two brief excerpts for you to ponder today as you listen to news about the campaign and talk with your co-workers, friends and family.

From Robin Morgan, February 2, 2008 ---

"Goodbye To All That” was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (for an online version, see here).

During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women’s movements, I’ve avoided writing another specific “Goodbye . . .” But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities—joint conscience-keepers of this country—been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.

Goodbye to the double standard . . .

—Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who’s emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.

—She’s “ambitious” but he shows “fire in the belly.” (Ever had labor pains?)—When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.

—Young political Kennedys—Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.—all endorsed Hillary. Senator Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort “See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him.” (Personally, I’m unimpressed with Caroline’s longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)

Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .

Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.” Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters). John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?" with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.

Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.

Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame.

Goodbye to Comedy Central’s “Southpark” featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC’s vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.

Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?

Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .

The women’s movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments (www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC’s Tim Russert’s continual sexist asides and his all-white-male panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN’s Tony Harris chuckling at “the chromosome thing” while interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And that’s not even mentioning Fox News.

And read here as Robin Morgan reminds of the power of women to change the world. The fight against sexism is far from being over in this country and around the world.

We are the women who brought this country equal credit, better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a family-focused workplace; the women who established rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and environmental movements; who insisted that medical research include female anatomy; who inspired men to become more nurturing parents; who created women’s studies and Title IX so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography, who put childcare on the national agenda, who transformed demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years, won us the vote.

We are the women who now comprise the majority of U.S. voters.

******

I hope you'll read the entire article and think about how you approach Hillary Clinton. Having a woman candidate this close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination is an historic event, and no matter who you plan to support, I hope you'll continue the conversation about how women are perceived in our society.

An Obama Question

Perhaps I spend too much time among politicians for my own good, but I have a question.

Right after Obama gets to the White House, Congress is going to say, "Thanks for all the stirring speeches about unity and bipartisanship and all, but f*** you, we aren't going along with Plan Yes We Can." Here's what I want to know -- what is Plan B?

The Other Side of the Ticket

Here's what the opposition looks like --



Let's not allow this to happen.