Long Walk, Self-Discovery, Extravagance of Listening in Everyday Ramblings

This is from my morning walk today. It was our busiest day of the year at work yesterday and I put in a fair amount of overtime this week as well as teaching my three classes and going to a class for myself so I didn’t feel so bad about going for a long early morning walk listening to podcasts and not the gym.

I listened to the new ACLU podcast called At Liberty. It was really well done and has the lead attorney on that won the case this week demanding that the government reunite the families seeking asylum it has torn asunder.

And I also listened to the newish podcast from the social sciences at UC Berkeley called The Science of Happiness about managing fear. They talked about how there is new science out that women and people of color experience verbal harassment in the body as fear.

Boy I know I do.

This whole idea of Free Speech being “just words” totally mitigates the perceived threat that the individual the words are targeted at experiences. Honestly, if you are a white man in a western cultural environment you really have no idea what that means and I get your confusion about why everybody else seems to think that boorish insensitive or provocative attention getting thing you just said might be a problem.

It was a long walk so I also listened to the 2nd installment of the Washington Post’s new short series called How to Flip the House, that no is not about how to score big in the real estate market but about how to switch the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Back in 1976 when we had the bookstore in Seattle I discovered much to my chagrin and (closely held self-image as a radical) that I was fascinated by and indeed interested in how money works, which eventually became the way in which I actually support myself making said money as a (mostly) single woman. This week I have come to realize that I am in fact, and have been all along, fascinated by and indeed interested in, umm, politics.

Wow. Not that I would ever run for office, I have too much of a radical past for that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t participate in my democracy in a way that is more engaged than voting when ever I can. I can’t believe some of this stuff that people in power are doing right here in this lifetime.

I am also terrified of confrontation, so that disqualifies me in this current political environment completely.

I did enjoy hammering out with an extremely opinionated and entrenched Republican named Mr. Finch my point of view while trying with all my might to respect his.

Mr. Sherlock, who I spent time with last weekend, was quizzing me on my political beliefs and I was telling him that I had been working over the last year to find resources for information that align with my liberal beliefs but are deeply rooted in both kindness and a sense of tenuous hope. He is about to turn 80 and has a longer track record than me and absolutely no problem whatsoever expressing opinions. :)

Mr. Sherlock is a hoot. They had this close friend, (I can talk about this now I think), a retired nurse, that Mrs. Sherlock knew through her own work as a nurse that spent a lot of time with them both, sharing meals, watching movies with Mr. Sherlock usually every Sunday afternoon.

When Mr. Sherlock was diagnosed with the cancer and then shortly thereafter had a bleeding crisis, this guy became basically unavailable. He just couldn’t deal with their vulnerability and need. It was very difficult for Mrs. Sherlock as in many ways as I believe they both thought of him as their closest shared friend.

Early on in Mr. Sherlock’s treatment they were gossiping with a nurse before an uncomfortable procedure about whom they knew (as professionals do) and they found out that this male friend they had been so close to used to be a woman.

They decided, as a couple, and peripherally many intense and heartfelt conversations on our walks to not tell their friend that they now knew this profound thing that he had never shared with them. But somehow the combination between them knowing (perhaps a transgender spidey sense), his own physical challenges and reluctance to be involved with supporting a seriously ill friend going through intensely difficult treatments without much fanfare he has now drifted out of their lives.

Me thinks my role in their lives is in the process of a transition of its own. And I am good with that.

These are wonderful people and I love them.

Last updated June 30, 2018