Of Weeds And Wonder

A weedy mess can host a wonderment of life

Finding Life Amid Loss

Are you hurting? I’m hurting too. In recent weeks a dear friend died suddenly, as his family gathered to celebrate his birthday and his recovery from successful heart surgery. My daughter’s simple one-day surgery turned into a 10 day ICU stay fraught with trauma, drama and stress (as usual). That same day, as I sat on an uncomfortable hospital bench waiting to hear the results of my daughter’s surgery, I learned that a close relative had gender affirming surgery that I hadn’t know was going to happen. Now I’m so glad they did, as the possibility of that surgery for others may have vanished. Young trans people had passports revoked (marking X for gender is now a federal crime). Others are being denied gender affirming medications despite legal prescriptions. Hard on these events crowded others too numerous to contain and too horrifying and dangerous to ignore. As the daily news grows ever more dire ever more quickly, my daily walks have increased in number and duration. I walk and I weep and I wonder.

The current regime has a new game plan, a brutal fire hose approach to political, social and environmental change that is almost impossible to stop because there are no effective checks and balances anymore. The government is broken, the courts are broken, and any illusion of national unity is broken. The current top players (and they are playing) have given license to the entire administration to do harm at will, knowing there are no consequences that can curb them fast enough to avoid irreparable damage to millions, even billions of lives, human as well as fauna and flora. The onslaught feels so deliberately overwhelming because it is; regime participants have affirmed that the suddenness and intensity is a strategy chosen to stun protesters into immobility, shock and despair.

Walking For Peace & Democracy

On Monday, there was a pro-democracy rally here on this small island, a much larger one in Seattle, and many others of all sizes across the country. Ours was a pleasing mixture of the usual protesters (mostly women around my age), and younger folks of many persuasions, some lovely families with kids in tow. Unlike the enormous pussy hat rallies of 2017, this rally was attended by only a few hundred people, though many of those who showed up were energetic and passionate. Most of these rally events were deliberately not publicized, probably because news outlet fear reprisals (and they’re not wrong). Also, the signs many people carried used now-forbidden words, dangerous words such as biased, genders, diversity, female, disability, trauma, reproductive rights, women, equity, inclusion, fetus, transgender, covid…. As the new taboo list grows, hundreds of governmental or government funded websites and scientific data bases are vanishing or being gutted, stripped of meaning, denatured.

We the people

So I walk, because walking takes me into nature, natural surroundings where I (usually) find my own center and my strength to continue. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been walking, marching, standing for peace, for democracy, for social justice, my whole life. You probably have too. On my daily wander (or march, depending on mood) to a local beach or small woodland, I often pass a patch of ground that seems denatured to my eyes; weedy, piled with construction rubble and wind-broken branches. This abused, neglected spot appears ugly and damaged yet when I made myself look at it, each time I passed I saw little birds flitting in and out of the broken brush, native squirrels gathering seeds from fallen fir cones, even a few early bees browsing on the weeds (which of course bloom far earlier than our garden beauties). Rotten logs sprout shelf fungi, their patterns as beautiful as any human design (and probably the inspiration for more than a few artists).

Fungi, Cockroaches & Coyotes?

If this regime and their international cohort succeed in destroying the planet for gain (and how does that make sense?), many scientists are positing a new world order. Not too surprisingly, quite a few scenarios suggest that if humans are wiped out, more resilient beings may replace us, from cockroaches to coyotes, and more notably fungi. Mushrooms and other fungi seem almost magical in their remarkable ability to transform and heal degraded environments. In slime molds lie the hope of the world? I wonder.

What Can We DO?

So what is there to do besides walk and weep and wonder? Here’s a good thing that so easy: Don’t Buy! Join the national, non-partisan no-buy event to let corporations know that towing the party line with the current regime’s efforts to erase any and all mention of social justice doesn’t meet our moral standards. As the Montgomery bus boycott showed, hitting corporations in the pocketbook is still the best way to get their attention.

Economic Boycott Friday February 28
Do not buy anything from any major retailers, online or in person. Boycott all box stores and large scale commercial enterprises from Amazon and Best Buy to Walmart and so on. If you really need something, DO shop locally, supporting small local businesses that support YOUR values and community.
For more information:
abovethelaw.com No Buy Friday

Five Calls fivecalls.org
The easiest and most effective way to make our voices heard and have a political impact, Five Calls offers topic lists and suggested scripts for each, along with quick links to your elected officials.

Americans of Conscience americansofconscience.org
Pro-democracy, pro-equality, pro-planet
This easy to use website also offers topics and links as well as articles and additional information/research. It also includes a Good News list of heartening actions and events. Onward, right?

Like the red hand says, STOP this illegal takeover NOW