Monday, February 20, 2017

It Never Rains in Southern California




Well, I guess I should say Happy President's Day!

I posted the following on my Facebook page for an Andy Warhol fifteen minutes and then decided to take it down because it's so vile. Someone I know asked me whether it was real. Yes, it's real. It's true and not alternative fact. It's a transcript of 45's comments from ten years ago, and even as I acknowledge my role as contributor to ugliness, it bears repeating because we're all responsible on some level. I still can't believe that 45 now represents all of us on the world stage.



Let's move on.

On Saturday night, I attended the first meeting of our local Indivisible group. We're called Active Empathy, and we're intent on active resistance to not just 45 but also to the extreme right Republicans in power whose agenda doesn't represent us or -- in some cases -- the majority of people in this country, in addition to its undoing progress to protect our environment and ensure equal access to our healthcare and threatening our first amendment rights. I'd have to make this a Faulknerian sentence if I kept typing everything that's under threat, but our intentions include flipping the legislature with methodical action. The group that attended the first meeting was diverse in age, race, religion, sex and sexuality, a mini-Los Angeles. We introduced ourselves and told the others what issues we were most interested or concerned. The range was wide. Some tears were shed and some expressed anger. Many attendees are originally from the "flyover" states and perfectly aware that not everyone who lives in those states condones some of the more egregious behavior of 45 or the conservative platform. Many expressed the need to be self-aware, to at least acknowledge our part in further dividing the country with our anger and sometimes condescension. Others had more of a screw that attitude, believing it is going to take the adoption of Tea Party tactics to be most effective. Here's the beautiful logo created by one of the founders of the group. Active Empathy is the name that's above the following:



We're not a moderate group, which brings me to the other thing I wanted to write about, and that's the personal war I have going on in my tiny little mother mind.™ I generally use the tiny little mother mind™ expression to describe the relationship between me and the Powers That Be in Neurologyland, how over decades I've learned just how hegemony works. The analogy has some use here, too. What does it mean to be educated? What does it mean to be an elitist? When did the open derision of intellect become acceptable? What does it mean to be moderate? Why is moderation a virtue? Why is moving to the center a goal? Is that a construct or something truly admirable? Are there certain principles that should not be compromised? What convictions do I have that are immoveable? I don't have the answers. I have a tiny little mother mind™ and some gut instincts, though, that have served me well and that I have to constantly be vigilant to honoring. To help me with this, I've been reading Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, and it's startling and fairly easy to draw parallels to what's going on today. I'm reminded of my instincts and of honoring them, how difficult it is to do so when I also have to deal with emotions, with a patriarchal culture and values that are more authoritarian than inclusive. There's a good discussion of Arendt's work here, including this choice passage:

“What convinces masses are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are presumably part . . . Totalitarian propaganda thrives on this escape from reality into fiction . . . [and] can outrageously insult common sense only where common sense has lost its validity.”

It's exhausting, isn't it?




Let's move on.

I saw the extraordinary documentary about James Baldwin called I am not your Negro. Everyone should watch it and the documentary 13. They're both antidotes to the superficial bullshit that reigns in this country. It rained off and on all weekend here in southern California. Everything is green, so green. I've been reading Ann Patchett's novel Commonwealth and love it. I told a good friend that I haven't been able to get into a novel in a long time, that I remain half in and half out, that that was worrying me because reading novels has been really the only constant in my life (that's NOT hyperbole). I'm in Patchett's story -- totally in. The man I love brought me pink roses, and the boys I love showed me how to take pictures with my new iPhone so that the background is blurred out. How wonderful is that! Here's a picture of the roses using this clever technique and one of the cinnamon bread I baked. The boys I loved showed me the scratch and sniff technique on the phone, too. Just kidding. That IS hyperbole.




Reader, what did you do this weekend?

13 comments:

  1. Did you read this?
    http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/article133497824.html

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  2. A wonderful post, Elizabeth. I can tell you what I wish I'd done this weekend--eat that bread.

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  3. The macro shots of the roses and the bread are marvelous. SWMBO and I prepared a joint dinner of steak and lobster and asparagus last night. Yum. That and NBC's celebration of their 90th year took our minds off the degradation of our government for awhile.

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  4. I would love to have a cup of tea with you and just talk. You're interesting and thoughtful.

    Bokeh is the name of the blur that you like so much in photos. I remember the first time I did that with my camera, by accident of course. I can still see the photo in my mind.

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  5. The man you love? I am currently blogging lite and I obviously missed a post or two because I don't know anything about this. Or I did and forgot. I'm going I g t be nosey and look back at your old posts. At any rate, I am so happy for you! Yay!

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  6. It must be hard, to ask for comments and receive those on the most trivial parts of your writing. I hope I haven't offended anyone who commented but really....I do not think what is being asked is the state of your roses, or the cooking.
    I have two grown daughters, and a son. Three grandchildren.
    My assessment of what, by the electoral college, we've elected is a high-end, function lunatic.
    I alarmed my daughters when, during an evening with friends they were optioning things to conteract him, I suggested what was needed was somebody with knowledge about how far a.308 drops at a thousand yards.
    Brought discussion to a standstill, for a moment.
    Anyway, from a 72 year old who has seen some stuff like this before, VietNam, Cambodia, El Salvidor, etc, I wish you the best.
    Mike

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    1. Should Fish More -- I doubt you've offended anyone who comments here as we've known each other in this strange little blogging world for a long time. That being said, my first impulse after reading your comment was to write: I LOVE YOU! So, thank you. I hope you keep commenting!

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  7. Your life is active and committed and exciting! That group you're a part of sounds like my kind of politics. There is an ad on tv about the depth mode on the new iPhone camera, a young girl visiting the old country taking pictures of townsfolk. Do you know the one? Every time I see the girl in that ad, I think of Sophie. Oh, and you're baking again. I love that.

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  8. I haven't heard about that blurry background technique on an iPhone! I'll have to check that out. Pretty soon we won't need real cameras at all.

    I just don't know what to think about politics. I think there IS value in moderation, in trying to bridge the gap between opposing factions. I'm torn between a desire to resist Trump at all costs and a desire to at least see the government FUNCTION, in some form, rather than fall into utter chaos. I'd hate to see us pull to such extremes as a society that we fall into real, physical conflict. We're in a scary time.

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    1. There would be value in moderation if the Republicans would moderate their stances. As it is, clean air, clean water, clean energy sources are of no interest to them. Bring back acid rain! There is no compassion for the poor, right now they're trying to do away with free breakfast for kids in public school. Kids don't learn when they're hungry. The Republican agenda is the most heartless vituperative regime I have ever seen.

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  9. Nebraska is a very red state but yesterday I joined thousands of people lining Dodge Street as a peaceful protest to our president and in support of Immigrants/refugees. Today, I will visit the offices of my representatives, who are not holding town hall meetings, avoiding contact with the public, to deliver a letter asking them to take my interests into consideration.

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  10. Ahh, Elizabeth. I always appreciate reading about what you're doing to educate yourself and to push back. We need to be in contact with others who are also appalled by this man in the white house. Like Should Fish More, I've been around awhile, watched the whole Watergate thing unfold and collapse a president, and have never seen anything quite like this. Keep writing, posting the vile stuff that is a fact. Have you seen this article?

    https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/how-to-stayoutraged-without-losing-your-mind-fc0c41aa68f3#.w7ez02kv8

    It helped me figure out how to keep from becoming numb to what's happening, how to stay informed , how to protect myself so that I can continue to push back. Your blog helps.

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  11. Darling-I don't know if you'll read this but the book The New Jim Crow and Just Mercy (author Bryan Stevenson has a beautiful TED talk) and MLK's biography have sustained me. Attending the town hall tomorrow night with my (D)legislators because we must hold their feet to the fire.

    I'll be in your town in April.

    X Beth

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