Yeah, this might look like a mess to you, but it means the beginning of the end of winter to me. And this year there are more snowdrops in this area. They are colonizing. I noticed yesterday the plant tables are beginning to appear at my local hardware store. Oh boy. Anticipation. Who knows how the season will go.
Of course, it just started raining. There is a clogged gutter next to my bedroom, and I am hearing the thrum thrum thrum of the drip. Our Winter Light Festival started last night and at least it was dry for that.
It was mostly a drama free week in my world, certainly not in the world.
I went to the gym a couple of times and taught all my classes. I participated in the Coffeeshop Philosophers Zoom and went to the Dialogue Group in person. First time I have done that in two months. I went to the credit union where I had to wait an inordinate amount of time for them to figure something out for the League. I had an in-person League meeting and did hours of paperwork and still have a long list of things to do.
In class we talked about love in long term relationships and drag queens, we talked about how spring comes early here and earthquakes in California. We talked about both the strength and vulnerability of poor women and the meaning of the word common. And we talked about cosmetologists and what it takes to listen to clients pour out their woes all day.
Two of the people from Coffeeshop philosophers are painters and because we were Zooming, we got to see current work and hear about it. We also spent a lot of time talking about the original Tarzan shows (as one does) and I can’t remember what else. Walt asked me to tell the assembled a capsule version of my life story.
That is an interesting exercise with no preparation. Instructive what comes up.
Particularly considering I was mad at him.
He was not involved in the Dialogue Group this week. We covered a diverse range of topics that got started by one of the guys saying that he is finally recovering from Long Covid and how strange it is to come out of that dark place where there is no value. How he doesn’t want to lose what he learned as he comes back into the land of the living.
One of the other guys told a story about being in a kayak in a river by himself and how he didn’t see the hole in the river ahead and was swept into it and not knowing from minute to minute if he would survive. He did, obviously, but he said at one point a great calm came over him where he just let go and let the river take him. We talked about that calm. He’s a painter too.
We also talked about Sappho and Homer and Innana and the red Norwegian Resistance Hats and current circumstances. Being useful.
I did watch some ice dancing and will watch more of the Olympics. I also watched a lot of the Superbowl ads. Trying to stay culturally relevant don’t you know. The Ian McKellen moment of Shakespeare on Colbert. Walt sent around the text for that powerful speech about the stranger in our midst this morning.
Sadly, I don’t think the folks that would benefit from reflecting on it watch the Colbert Show.
But now on this rainy Saturday afternoon I am feeling tired and sad and kind of fog brained and I think a nap might be in order. I am grateful for the circumstances that make a nap a possibility.
Everything will still be in play when I wake up.
The relentlessness seems to be the point.
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