Outbreaks of Happiness

post #516

            Words seem necessary, but this long, long week speaks for itself. Well, first, for weeks, we saw the long, long lines that people tolerated, everywhere, wearing masks, sometimes waiting for hours and hours, to VOTE YES to have each one's VOICE be a part of our constitution's presidential every-four-years schedule. We had mostly good weather, except for a couple of hurricanes or simple heavy rains, and also fires. All that with the virus, ready as always to take you down. 

        Physically I couldn't have easily done what those voices did, though I like to think I would have tried. Luckily, in Kentucky, where I live, early voting by mail could be done by request for reasons of age or concern for the virus, so that is what I did.

        Now we are processing the outcome. For those of us who can not understand the Trump appeal, we were astounded at how strong our sense of relief has been. That's why so many hit the streets Saturday afternoon and evening to dance and shout. It was a joy that just had to be shared.                                    

       I do want to share also that this week I heard from my Japanese friend Mariko, who married a Frenchman and lives in France, and her cousins, who live in California and New Hampshire.  I also heard from Reidunn, who lives in Oslo, Norway, and from close friends in England, Bill and June. Knowing my feelings EACH ONE expressed happiness that the mean guy had not been re-elected. They were thrilled that Americans were not continuing to go down the road of being cruel, cut off from the world, and [governed] by chaos. Another Norwegian friend, Kjersti, now living in Canada, called last week distraught about Trump's behavior and calling the damage he continually causes incomprehensible.
       I hope to have future conversations, with whoever wants to really talk and listen. We need to figure out how to work through with friends and neighbors where the disconnects occur.   

      OOPS, I've talked way too much. My bad. I planned to show some photos from my life as an American choosing to live in rural Eastern Kentucky. My America. We are all part of the work that a vibrant democracy requires.  As my friend, Melva, suggests, we should construct a political party that is called "Common Sense."

 

 This set of photos is going to take at least two weeks to show. They are mostly in order of date, but somewhat grouped if connected by topic.  I call this first photo "story line." Cathy K. worked at the sewing factory that used to be in Olive Hill; they made jeans.  It's one of my early photos from when I started making photo note cards.

 

a worm eating warbler who must have been sitting on eggs she didn't want to leave

mother LISTENING intently to daughter

looking for mom on those same steps

a mom competing with the rash of younger family members using months for their ages.....

This is the consequence of mountaintop removal mining, near Hazard, Kentucky, the photo made while I was in a small plane. The health of our earth is at stake. Believe it.

on our land, lady-slippers, no longer in that same place, the land is changing

        I want also to touch on families, everywhere, and the security they can provide, and the importance they play in lives lived. I don't know if turkeys love each other, but they sure do hang out together.  This first gathering took place essentially in the yard outside my house!

 

turkey families on an outing

We call this gathering Cousin Camp.... There are stories.....

                I think I will save the other photos for next week - This has been a long week and it's not over yet. I know I have shown most of these photos before, but they look different to me after the import of the last few weeks. I just am so grateful for where I live and for all who are in my life and for discovering I love to take photos.  I'm also grateful that so many fellow Americans got it together to go vote this year, enough of us to cause a change in the direction our country was headed.  I do believe that if we are patient, and if we listen to each other, we can go beyond how partisan we have become.  The first task may simply to be to examine what truth entails and why it is so important to our lives. Please, everyone, don't give up on the inclusive core of our American dream.   

              Special thanks to everyone who helps with the consequences of the virus -- Ann

             

I'm still needing to speak out

     Two things today -- this was meant for a mid-week post, which is a rarity....because it takes discipline and time, neither being abundant in my world.  At least I finally was able to get this photo on the blog.  (By chance I moved it more slowly, and then it made its way from desktop to post.  Persistence required, and luck.  It belongs between the two other photos of her in the last post, but I'm not going to stretch my luck at this time by putting it exactly there. A week in between them is fine). 

    Also, I did find out how to receive comments in this revised system, so that's now fixed as well!  What isn't fixed is how to get every single person out to vote in this very important election. I will never know how anyone feels safe with a mentally ill person being in charge of things, like the nuclear button, or who's OK with those 545 kids at the border having been separated from  parents now lost because records weren't kept (because nobody cared, I assume), but the big thing by now is to VOTE within the next 9 days. Everyone.  Stay healthy as well.  That horrible virus doesn't care whom you vote for either.  

     Here's the letter I received yesterday! Yea!!

The mailboxes across the road from me -- again BRAVO RURAL POSTAL CARRIERS!!

my former driveway, showing the rebound still in effect from a horrendous "tornadic" wind storm 25 years ago.  I send condolences to all those affected by current tornadoes, floods, or fire. There are so many wrenching stories. Our earth needs our attention and creative problem solving, by all of us.

 

 the drive in view two days or so later:

 

Trees are tops!

three more photos while sitting at the pond after reading aloud a couple of chapters from The Secret Garden:

        It fascinates me how the leaves quietly move and rearrange themselves, even in a small pond.  Of course this is what we are hoping for in this election --  which could be setting us up for a healthier democracy if we all pay attention!  (Sorry, I can't help myself from including these current events comments.... Sharing here is one of the few things I can do to support the activists and the clear thinkers who are trying to help people to believe that change is not only possible but it is incredibly necessary.  My thanks for anything you are doing as well!!!)

a very full few days in early fall 2020

post #508

        Have been busy trying to make sense of the personal and the public, and I've been very emotional about the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In general I try to keep track of things by more or less following the news, but it's way too hard to believe how power hungry people can be.  Our nation is supposed to be a democracy with fairness and with ways of cooperating.  Dog fighting does nothing to move us forward. 

        FIRST, here's the photo I said I'd "include next week." However, I didn't find it until today. It shows a rally Amy McGrath had during her first run for office. We were in a former high school gym, and Joe Biden had come, and he too gave a speech.  It was crowded, with good energy, but she didn't win the election.  Anyway, I'm tall, so I was able to get this photo.  (I've posted it two years ago on this blog.)       Now, Find Amy. Find Joe:

      SECOND, Here are two photos taken from the TV screen during this time of honoring a most remarkable Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I know that many of us have found her to be a determined and visionary leader in the path toward a place on earth where men and women have equal opportunities. She died Friday evening, and now her spot is empty on the Supreme Court and there is great drama about the future. She contributed so much for our nation over a lifetime of brilliant work, and now she is not even being given the respect of an acknowledgement of her contributions and achievements. It's shameful. Dog fight.

        I took both these photos as snapshots from the TV.  The first one is RBG, sharing the screen with Dahlia Lithwick, one of my favorite commentators about the courts. I greatly admire her. The second one is the MSNBC host, Chris Hayes, with someone who is showing how so many of us feel about the wrenching loss of this great defender of equal rights and our democracy. 

       The following photo comes to me via my daughter -- it was taken about a year ago by Moira Duvernay, in California, who is the niece of one of her close college friends. Thank you, Moira, for permission to share this wonderful moment in a young girl's life..

 

 

      A few days ago, I sent in for my ballot for voting in November, like I did in the spring for the primary. Just sayin, but I am SO TIRED of our president proclaiming that mailed-in ballots will be rigged!  HE IS JUST SETTING IT UP SO THAT IF HE DOESN'T GET THE MOST VOTES HE CAN BLAME IT ON CHEATERS [TOTALLY UNPROVEN AND NOT HAPPENING] instead of on his poor leadership and all those needless Covid 19 deaths.

        I guess I will spare my visitors tonight from more of my concerns about what lies ahead. At least for now.  I have had several phone calls this evening, including a Norwegian friend who lives in Canada, where procedures for dealing with the virus are way more stringent than in the USA.  And the border between Canada and the USA is still strictly monitored.  No crossing allowed. She had planned to be in Paris this week, but of course that's not happening. Her son is a commercial airplane pilot who reports the planes are seldom full. 

          Well, one last photo, in honor of the season and Sandy, my friend and neighbor.

 

                       HAVE YOU DONE THE CENSUS?  DO YOU HAVE A VOTING PLAN? 

 

reflections about reflections, especially in Chicago

post #406
       After my quiet last week, here are some photos of hustle and bustle, or "life is not always quiet in the country."  For one thing, I went on a last minute trip to Chicago recently, to watch my son do one of the things he loves about the law -- working in front of a jury.  But it obviously was not a good idea to take photos of that, so instead I let myself be amazed by the tall buildings in Chicago, which loomed over all of us. The trial was on the 19th floor, and the open area had floor to ceiling windows. Nice! (especially because there were no windows at all in the courtroom, which was also not that spacious. But interesting nonetheless!)  
        So, Reflections I:

looking east toward Lake Michigan

I was trying to figure out how to show how this building reflected all the images around it. It was riveting, to me. Otherwise it looked like a perfectly ordinary building.

On the walk from courthouse back to the hotel, there were the reflections in tall buildings along the river.

And some sidewalk helpers

the changing light from the 15th floor of the hotel

and the city life below

     Meanwhile, back in Kentucky, the best days of the fall came and went. But second best days aren't that bad. Then there were the elections of Nov. 6, and voting -- in our Volunteer Fire Department.  I think our precinct had over 300 voters, 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

on the way to the polls

Everyone has to drive to the polls -- our homes are spread out!

voter in training, with long term voter

one last fall photo, under the sun

        Reflections II:  I give thanks for everyone who believed in our democracy enough to vote; I am not happy that anyone was kept from voting by arbitrary restrictive rules.  That is the truth, no fraud about it. I am of course very happy more women ran for office and won.  Diversity is healthy for the quality of all our lives and our nation.  While I'm at it, may I add that I am stunned that anyone would think that the horrible fires in California are not influenced by climate change.  The image that comes to my mind is rows and rows of heads in the sand.  Not wanting something to be true is not a great way to handle changes that desperately need our attention and our vision.
      

fall photos from former falls

post #404
      Some years are better than others. It just happens that way.  I'm talking in this case about the fall foliage. This past week, when this year's leaves were trying their best, I ended up in Chicago for a few days and didn't take photos. Therefore I think this year is a good excuse for showing some of my favorite views of this season over the years. Enjoy!

nearing the end of the season, in the evening light

winter preparations at Dail and Ethel's

lingering and late, at the pond

Even the simplest looks lovely.

the driveway

seen from the road along the ridge

hillside graves

Pearl's place, on my ridge

on the driveway

deep in the woods

along the ridge

        Well, that's enough to get the idea!  
       The main thing this year is the beauty of democracy. This might sound sappy, but we have the opportunity to join all our colors together by voting, by bringing more women into the political life of our nation, by walking the walk and talking the talk of tolerance and fairness.  I dream of no more lies and meanness, no more manipulation by fostering fear, and no more ignoring to our peril the changing climate. I certainly don't want my tax dollars used to pay for the military to go to the border for a problem that only exists as a pre-election diversion by those who worry they are about to lose an election because of increasing incompetence.
        I write this as much for the people in other countries who look at my blog as I do for my fellow citizens. I want the world to to be reminded that Americans haven't totally lost their tolerance for diversity -- which has made our country strong since its beginning. We haven't totally lost our bearings. 
        My deepest thanks go to all who have been working hard to get out the vote, and to all who will accept the work needed to make democracy work, by voting on Tuesday.