Tide’s Coming In

So I hear that people are having mental and emotional problems under the pressure of isolation, plague illness, losing their jobs, losing their homes, losing their loved ones, seeing wildfires making the sky an impenetrable fug of smoke that we have been warned not to breathe - and now Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.

Rest in peace, mighty warrior. Thank you for everything.

Now the inglorious leader has stated his unwillingness to give up the oval office if he loses the election. He has been saying this since 2017, but we are taking it seriously now.

This election and its outcome are a BIG DEAL, but this is not the time to despair and give up, dear hearts.

If you had any doubts before RBG passed, before you-know-who announced his intentions of being president for life, before Republicans broke a foaming sweat in their haste to get a conservative justice on the Supreme Court before the election, you know now that you need to step up to the plate. Our country, our whole world, our lives and the lives of our children and their children are at stake.

What can you do? For starters, VOTE in the coming presidential election. Vote and encourage others to vote, especially younger people. Vote. It might work.

Wear a mask. Do good deeds. Encourage the discouraged. Be kind.

Then there is the weather. Even those of us who embraced the science of climate change are surprised at how soon and how virulently changes have set in.

Many of us did not foresee all the hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) in places in California where I used to live, fifty years ago.

This summer when the entire West Coast caught on fire, a plume of smoke that looked like a genie released from a lamp in satellite pictures moved up and over and around us. Suddenly we were in lockdown again, because of smoke. I started to feel like I was in solitary confinement, albeit a comfortable and plugged-in solitary confinement.

It is happening fast - the ice shelves and glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland are melting, and one article I read speculated that when all that water is released it could raise sea level ten feet.

Ten feet. I have been trying to imagine how that would play out on the island.

Probably the end of campfires at KVI.

The ferry docks would have to be moved or raised.

Would the Burton Peninsula become an island?

The debate about whether Vashon and Maury Islands are one or two islands will be over – two islands, dude, and how shall we get from one to the other when Portage is under water? Ferries? A bridge?

If Maury becomes an independent island, will someone re-open a market and post office there? Am I the only one who thought that closing those was a dumb idea?

I look down the ravine behind my house to where it opens into the Sound, and wonder, gee, if the sea level rises ten feet, how far up the ravine is the water going to come? If there is a tsunami, will it come up the ravine and all the way to the top of the bluff? You know, where I live?

Beach house owners – condolences.

Residents next to the Fauntleroy dock will no longer complain about the ferry traffic congestion, because their houses will be under water.

But I digress.

Many things we have had to do out of expediency during the pandemic have turned out to be positive changes that will stick around.

For example: telemedicine. How much easier is it to talk to a provider from home rather than drive/catch a bus to Seattle for an appointment that lasts fifteen minutes? Not to mention parking fees and ferry fare.

Online school gets mixed reviews. This is a challenge most parents, teachers, and students never expected to face. Those of us who homeschooled before computers and the internet feel your pain. A little.

Many people are saying, “I want to go back to the way it was before.” Yeah, me, too. Life was so much easier in so many ways before the weather became homicidal, before the pandemic hit, before the land caught fire, before we had a president who is certifiable, who unleashed the hounds of violent racist hell, who would like to see a renewed Civil War, and who is backed up by what is no longer the Republican party.

We took normal life for granted, didn’t we?

We know that we are never going back. We must adapt to climate change and Covid-19 and terrible politicians, see it through, and ride it out.

So, pray to God and row for shore.

And VOTE.

Agape for All

 

Agape (ä-̀gä-pā) n [LL, fr. Gk., agapē, lit., love] (1607) 1: LOVE FEAST 2. LOVE

- Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 

First thing I saw out the bedroom window this morning was a lot of yellow leaves on the big leaf maple tree. Autumn. Kind of ironic, considering what a crappy year 2020 has been, that I’m not in a hurry to see it go.

Name your poison: the rise of white supremacists and the further desecration and destruction of America, climate change, wildfires destroying homes and killing people, the smoke from the fires, Covid-19 (remember that?), joblessness, homelessness, poverty and hunger.

Still, the Black Lives Matter movement gives me hope. Perhaps sanity will take hold, after all. I believe that most people in this “Christian” nation would like to see Jesus’ command followed: love your neighbor as yourself.

A lot of people do love their neighbors as they love themselves and the problem is that they hate themselves. I always want to add a coda to that commandment: first, love and accept yourself. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself a little agape, or unconditional love.

Now, when our country’s founders put all their high-falutin’ ideals into writing, they meant freedom and equality for white men who owned property – which they all were.

I’m sorry, white guys. I know that you are not all heartless corporate billionaires. I married a white guy, gave birth to two white guys, and I like a lot of white guys, and I realize that our society imposes an extra burden on white guys for being white guys these days, unless you are a filthy rich white guy, and then everything is business as usual.

But I digress.

Unfortunately, the inspiring language of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, for example, has given uppity ideas to a lot of people for whom it was never meant. You know, black people, women, indigenous people, Latinos, Asians, all people of color. Not to mention the Irish and Italians in their times.

We were taught those lofty ideals, those principles upon which our country was founded, and told we lived in the land of the free, and it was the best gosh darned country in the whole world.

We believed what we were taught.

Benjamin Franklin said that our country is a republic if we can keep it. I feel like we are losing, or have lost, our grip. So what can we do?

I strongly encourage you to vote. When you get your ballot for the November election, fill it out, sign the envelope, and either mail it (if we still have a post office) or take your signed ballot up to the drop box at the library and pop it in. Be counted. You matter. Your vote matters.

Then we shall see how it goes.

It is also past time to think about the unthinkable happening and make plans. We have been preparing for the Big One for years, now we need to prepare for wildfire. Do you have water, food, blankets, etc.? Medical supplies? A “go bag?” It is time to do whatever you can to protect yourself and your family.

You know that however the election turns out, we are in for a hard time. If Biden wins, there will be violent resistance from Trump and his supporters. If Trump wins – well, we know what that is like.

Our work is cut out for us. Us and the whole wide world. Our problems ebb and flow in their intensity and demands for our attention. Last week I was worried about a shooting war getting traction. This week I’m worried about the smoke-filled air and the people who have lost everything to fires, even their lives.

And, of course, I worry about Covid-19, the current continuo to all our lives’ music.

I hope that the foes of equality do not feel compelled to go to a full-blown civil war to preserve racism. Because ultimately this is the clash between people who want to have their human dignity respected, and people who would rather die than see that happen.

As far as I can see, there is no gospel, no doctrine, no philosophy of love and treating others as we wish to be treated ourselves, that has not been screwed up by human beings. There seems to be a primal need for war, and power, and wealth, which explains world history as well as the NFL to me.

My plan is, as best I can, to be kind to others and myself. I would like to see agape for all. Probably not going to happen, but I must work for it as if it will.

A little common sense would not come amiss, either.