It is wet out there now having rained a bit the last few days, but I did take this on a walk last week. Mt. Hood from up on Terwilliger if you are keeping score. So nice to see as much of the mountains as we did in January.
I haven’t been out wandering around as much lately so fewer pictures to choose from. Part of this has to do with the fact that I am going to the gym twice a week. It is not a particularly scenic walk. I do walk by a block of food carts though, so it is quite aromatic. Mostly Middle Eastern or Asian food. The spice smells mingle and rise.
Part of this also has to do too with Mrs. Sherlock not being as close and as available. I miss her. She still comes to my morning class a few times a week, so I do see her there. I have a new crew of students, four of them that know each other. Two of them come every day and are engaged locally and outgoing. Now that I think about it, all four are Jewish so I suspect they know each other from Temple and our large wonderful Jewish community center where I have been for a few events.
We had an interesting discussion this week about the book genre Romantasy. A mash up of Romance and Fantasy. For Example Fourth Wing (the Empyrian novels) and A Court of Thorns and Roses about which I heard a fascinating discussion on the In Bed With the Right podcast.
This discussion had to do with a poem I read to them and the fact that while we often read stories about a young, beleaguered woman who is finding her power in the world hooking up with an older man (or male creature) we do not read stories about the opposite. A young man say hooking up with a 500-year-old woman.
One of the theories the podcasters put forth that made me laugh out loud is that a young woman hooking up with a centuries older male is probably wish fulfillment that after all those years, a guy pretty much needs to know how to make his own bed and do his own laundry, and maybe even other helpful skills. They can take care of themselves.
On the same day we had the discussion midday I get an email from Walt (who is 75) in Mexico that he sent out to all of the Open Road board members…Emergency! He forgot to send himself a W-2 (a tax form we use to verify earned income from wages) before he left home and could one of us go to the office supply store, buy a package of W-2’s and type one up for him and mail it to his house here by the next day.
The amount of cluelessness (and privilege) that went into the creation of this email astonished me. As I had just spent the last couple of weeks arranging the production of tax forms for the League’s one employee and all of our consultants.
And I was like I am not doing this! I am so not doing this. How could I even do it not knowing what taxes were withheld when. And there is no way I was guessing. And besides I am already so busy and… so I replied back to the whole board that I was sending Walt a newsletter from the Social Security Administration on all things W-2 and why didn’t he contact his bookkeeper/tax person and see if he could get the information needed.
One of the other board members said he thought he might be able to put some time into it the following day.
A few hours later an email comes in from Walt… Beloved Board Members
I heard back from our bookkeeper. She had already mailed the W-2 forms to me! All is well. peace & love
I don’t think the League is the only nonprofit board I am going to be stepping off of later this year. It is people like me who make the space for people like Walt to be creative in. And that is cool. I guess.
It is time I created that space for myself.
A thank you would have been nice.
Just saying…
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