Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst Friday Round-Up
I won’t lie, it’s been a challenging week. But challenging in the way that a huge snowstorm that knocks out the power is so you have to find all your candles stowed on the top shelf of wherever and the matches you haven’t used in a year and hunker down and be cold but okay for a while. Maybe you have to walk around in the dark but it’s okay because you’ve lived in the same place for almost forty years and know all the steps.
Nothing requires more than ten slides. The Constitution doesn’t require more than ten slides. War and Peace. The Bible. With ten slides, you can explain the history of the world from geographical, geological, and geopolitical frameworks. I haven’t done that, but I could if you pressed me. Ten slides, folks.
The line dancing teacher looked right at me on Wednesday when she announced a new Friday class just for beginners so, of course, I had to go. She said it was to help people understand their left foot from their right. It felt good to be with other bumblers. And to be dancing with a group of Black women and feeling completely at home. Yet I’m not sure if one or two of them ventured to one of the white senior centers, they would feel so welcomed, that they could relax like I can. Maybe.
There are two political signs, three if you count the broken one, and three empty bird feeders in my front yard. The overall effect is one of progressive politics awash in animal negligence. Meanwhile, the squirrel that required a thousand dollar repair due to a six-inch wide hole he bored into our house just under the eave is back. The hardware man, my husband’s favorite TA provider, told us to get our neighbor to get branches off his tree so squirrels can’t leap onto our roof. I can’t wait.
A big snowstorm is coming. Swirl has been pacing in anticipation of the first flake hitting the ground. He has had a dog tranquilizer and is wearing his Thundershirt. This seems ridiculous considering he lived outside for eight years when he was a working sled dog. He is such a sturdy creature to be so afraid but then aren’t we all?
8 Comments on “Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst Friday Round-Up”
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Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
We’ve got flying squirrels, leaping bobcats, and squirrels EVERYWHERE. And COVID.
So interesting to read your blog. I was especially interested in your comment about black People wandering into white spaces And feeling uncomfortable. That’s part of what’s wrong in this world. We need more white people going into black spaces and then perhaps Black people would feel more comfortable about coming into white spaces. How do we change that? This line dancing experience has been eye-opening and really fun.
It’s been suggested to me that the fact that I feel welcomed in a group of Black people is a function of white privilege. I remember being pretty taken aback when this was said but I’ve thought about it many times since and….I just don’t know.
Interesting. That may be right, but I still feel there’s not enough White people feeling comfortable to go into black spaces. Therefore, how do you ever begin to break the barriers down unless you have an opportunity to interact with each other?
I dunno. I kind of married into it.
Also, I suppose being married to one of Boston’s first Black reporters sort of immunized me. I’m very sensitive to other people’s reactions to him AND me because before we moved to totally white Uxbridge we lived in totally Black Roxbury. for a decade I remember the day there were riots in LA for some police violence and I was the only white person in the post office thinking, “Hmm.” All remained peaceful and all the grumbling was about the crappy service.
My Black neighbors in Roxbury were the nicest, friendliest, kindliest neighbors we EVER had and if it hadn’t been for REALLY needing a yard for the dogs and a house we could afford that HAD a yard we’d have stayed there and still be there now. But I’m glad to be in the country with the birds and the dog and the trees and those adorable little red squirrels. I wish I could have brought the neighbors with me.
You have really had one of the more interesting lives of anyone I’ve met here or anywhere. Both of you, actually.
Garry much more than me. I moved around more, but he had some really fascinating experiences.