Monday, November 12, 2012

What's New?

1) I'm sick.

As it is mid-November, this should come as no surprise to anyone - especially me. And yet, it still caught me a little off guard as I normally get hit with the crud right around the autumnal equinox. In fact, I was starting to feel a bit cocky given that Lex had the plague just a few weeks ago and I didn't catch so much as a sniffle from him.

Alas, germs. I have them. 

Not helpful to my condition was the fact that something happened to the gas line coming into our apartment building and so, for two days - the entire weekend - we had no heat, no hot water, no ability to use our stove. It was a mite chilly in here by Saturday mid-morning when temperatures plunged and the rain/sleet/snow began to fall. Overnight lows on both Saturday and Sunday nights were in the lower teens outside and only slightly warmer inside The Grotto. The situation was eventually rectified late last night...just in time for fever to strike and for me to wake up sweltering around 3 a.m, desperately kicking off covers, opening the window, and peeling off pants and socks in search of relief from the oppressive heat the radiator above my bed was pumping out. 

Yuck.

Anyway!

2) So...a couple of weeks ago, by some fluke, I was voted onto the board of Denhac. I had never been voted onto anything before so I was a little flabbergasted. I didn't even have an acceptance speech prepared. I mean, all those years of practicing my Oscar acceptance speech in front of my sister's full length mirror and I choked?! WTF?

Anyway!

It kinda feels like winning Homecoming Queen or voted most popular but way geekier and I'm not required to wear a fancy dress or pantyhose...uh...I don't think...which suits me just fine. But I wasn't honestly expecting to get voted on even though there were 7 slots and only 8 candidates. Clearly, I don't always hold myself in the highest esteem.

Regardless, I got voted onto the board and then subsequently got elected Secretary.

But not this kind of Secretary...



Uh...I don't think.

Mostly, I think I'm just supposed to take and publish minutes. No spankings [generally] allowed.

3) So...the US Presidential election happened. 

I have kept this blog and my Facebook/Twitter/G+ pretty clean about my personal leanings - I don't tend to use them for a political pulpit anyway - but suffice it to say I was happy with the outcome. 

Pre-election, I tried my best to stay as tuned out as possible. The anger, fear, self-righteousness from both sides left me feeling sick to my stomach and sick in my heart. I will confess I unfriended two people from Facebook as they virtually screamed utter nonsense at everyone in their friend list. 

In the wake of the election though, I've allowed myself to be appalled by the racist tweets published by teenagers, to laugh and understand the sadness of White People Mourning Romney (it's just as I felt in 2004), but mostly I've read some incredibly thoughtful articles written from both sides. Today, in particular, I read this article from the Washington Post - GOP's Red America forced to re-think what it knows about country

The reason why I point to this article is because, while I fundamentally disagree with everything this woman stands for, the article so gently captures her disappointment, her sadness, her confusion, and her fear, I felt as though I could somehow to relate to everything she was feeling...from the other side.

I'm under no illusion that the woman herself is as gentle as the author makes her out to be. But the piece was written in such a way that only the most heartless wouldn't find some compassion for her. In other words, Eli Saslow made this woman real in a way that White People Mourning Romney simply parodied. 

If I thought it would do any good, I would ask her to sit down with me over a pot of coffee and talk about Colorado. 

“And Colorado? Who the heck is living in Colorado? Do they want drugs, dependency, indulgence? Don’t they remember what this country is about?”


I would gently explain to her that I - me - I'm living in Colorado, Sister. And I do remember what this country is about. It's about freedom from religion (even yours). It's about freedom of choice. It's about free speech. It's about having equal opportunity under the law (even for women and minorities). It's about the freedom, as a single, aging, independent, feminist woman to openly challenge and defy your (and a shit ton of other people's) idea of the "natural order of the household"...

“Yes, Lord,” she said. “We are saying yes to honoring you, but no to the junk of this world, to the wickedness, the self-gratification, the path that we are just saddened by. We choose your path, Lord.”

It was a path that had worked for her, providing strength and stability during her parents’ rocky divorce, and then helping her transform from a stubbornly independent woman — the “feminist, I-am-woman, hear-me-roar type,” she said — into a mother and a wife who respected what she called the “natural order of the household.” 

I would try to explain to her that her party - the Republican Tea Party - is scaring people. It frankly reminds me of 1970's Iran and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini. And we all know how well that's working out for the Iranian people - especially women and those of other faiths. 

So no matter what her party runs and banks on for their economic plan, when it comes to civil, human rights, many, MANY of us are terrified. 

That's what happened to America. We, the complacent, got supremely scared.

Ask any one of us and we'll tell her/him/them.

Amirite?


So that's what's new. Mostly. I think.

1 comment:

Gaelyn said...

The intelligent and scared people spoke. Money can't buy everything.

Feel better. Think propane heater backup. ;)