I'm someone who looks at my "stuff" and if I haven't touched it or looked at it in 6 months, I package it up an make a trip to the local Help Center Thrift Store where it can be sold cheaply to someone who will love it! Otherwise, I have a very large room in my house which used to be my home office. Now it's my office, my library, my tv room and my art studio. The walls are covered with my paintings, shelves are lined with books and treasured do-dads, the seating area in front of the tv is cozy with furniture I bought ages ago. It probably looks like a decorating crisis to visitors but every bit of it brings me joy!!
Joy, thank you for putting to pen words that capture the agony of what is becoming a daily desecration of all that is decent and humane. And yet so grateful for your ending with beautiful photos that bring us back to nature and what we all can treasure no matter what or how great our losses.
I’m reading Lynne Olson’s book Madame Fourcade’s Secret War about her leadership in the French underground during WWII when the German Nazi/Vichy government was in control. I hesitantly propose that we may all be called upon to openly or secretly disavow the incoming government and its practices if the democratic processes are thwarted. We all know that democracy was supposed to be an “unalienable right” but it is being battered such that it is turning into a privilege that requires fighting for….
We may all be called upon to fight for that “right” in the days and years ahead.
I am thinking about that a lot. I read "Resistance" by Barry Lopez about 20 years ago when it came out, which as I recall was about how different people in different countries were resisting some kind of dangerous government... It was both grim and eventually heartening. I do think it's women who will save us, if we're to be saved at all.
For some weeks I have had on my mind hanging the American flag upside down on the porch railing and at the same time I’m reading the book Takeover Hitler’s Final Rise to Power by Timothy Ryback and it’s as if Trump is channeling Hitler’s playbook step by step. Then yesterday happened and we are in free fall into the abyss of Trumpian madness. Unnerving and terrifying to say the least. I appreciated your latest post and the link to ways we can protest. Adding the Ukrainian flag to the American flag on my front porch to photograph and post anywhere I can. And travel to protest wherever I can.
I just saw the CEO of Coca-Cola gift the president-elect with a CUSTOM Inauguration 2025 bottle of Coke. Gahhhhh. That guy knows how to feed Trump's ego.
Well said, as always, Joy. Your accurate analysis of Trump's attitude and demeanor regarding the devastating fires in California is chilling. How can this man be about to become the leader of our nation? We can only hope that better and saner politicians will somehow emerge and be able to restrain his worst instincts and hold our country together for the next four years!
I'm trying to let the future be the future, but with an ignorant greedy sociopath "in charge," it's really hard. His response to the fires is bad enough, but now his minions in Congress are fully on the "Let's own the Californians" bandwagon. It bodes badly for the blue states he scorns.
I'm someone who looks at my "stuff" and if I haven't touched it or looked at it in 6 months, I package it up an make a trip to the local Help Center Thrift Store where it can be sold cheaply to someone who will love it! Otherwise, I have a very large room in my house which used to be my home office. Now it's my office, my library, my tv room and my art studio. The walls are covered with my paintings, shelves are lined with books and treasured do-dads, the seating area in front of the tv is cozy with furniture I bought ages ago. It probably looks like a decorating crisis to visitors but every bit of it brings me joy!!
Sounds wonderful -- to only keep your treasures and surround yourself with their delights...
Joy, thank you for putting to pen words that capture the agony of what is becoming a daily desecration of all that is decent and humane. And yet so grateful for your ending with beautiful photos that bring us back to nature and what we all can treasure no matter what or how great our losses.
I’m reading Lynne Olson’s book Madame Fourcade’s Secret War about her leadership in the French underground during WWII when the German Nazi/Vichy government was in control. I hesitantly propose that we may all be called upon to openly or secretly disavow the incoming government and its practices if the democratic processes are thwarted. We all know that democracy was supposed to be an “unalienable right” but it is being battered such that it is turning into a privilege that requires fighting for….
We may all be called upon to fight for that “right” in the days and years ahead.
I am thinking about that a lot. I read "Resistance" by Barry Lopez about 20 years ago when it came out, which as I recall was about how different people in different countries were resisting some kind of dangerous government... It was both grim and eventually heartening. I do think it's women who will save us, if we're to be saved at all.
For some weeks I have had on my mind hanging the American flag upside down on the porch railing and at the same time I’m reading the book Takeover Hitler’s Final Rise to Power by Timothy Ryback and it’s as if Trump is channeling Hitler’s playbook step by step. Then yesterday happened and we are in free fall into the abyss of Trumpian madness. Unnerving and terrifying to say the least. I appreciated your latest post and the link to ways we can protest. Adding the Ukrainian flag to the American flag on my front porch to photograph and post anywhere I can. And travel to protest wherever I can.
Hard to believe they would all leave the state. These days anything is believable.
I just saw the CEO of Coca-Cola gift the president-elect with a CUSTOM Inauguration 2025 bottle of Coke. Gahhhhh. That guy knows how to feed Trump's ego.
Well said, as always, Joy. Your accurate analysis of Trump's attitude and demeanor regarding the devastating fires in California is chilling. How can this man be about to become the leader of our nation? We can only hope that better and saner politicians will somehow emerge and be able to restrain his worst instincts and hold our country together for the next four years!
I'm trying to let the future be the future, but with an ignorant greedy sociopath "in charge," it's really hard. His response to the fires is bad enough, but now his minions in Congress are fully on the "Let's own the Californians" bandwagon. It bodes badly for the blue states he scorns.