Kick the Can Friday Round-Up

Daily writing prompt

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

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Writing a story where I know the main character pretty well but have no idea what she’s going to do is a weird sort of playing but I like it. Yesterday, I pulled a character from a murder mystery my husband and I wrote in 2021 (Murder in Wilson Park) and put her in a new story. Her essential feature is that she cuts her own hair but that becomes a metaphor for her entire presence on the earth. Sally is salty, brave, self-doubting, and loveable so it’s fun to hang out with her.

Another version of playing is our early morning sits in our pajamas and big parkas on the back porch. These have been temporarily suspended due to extremely cold weather. We seemed to have evolved a rule that temperatures below ten degrees means we retreat with our coffee to bed. The fun of the back porch is manifest in talking in sign language (because I am without my implant processors), remarking on one or more dog’s peculiar behavior, and watching the birds including the single woodpecker and cardinal that show up amidst the 10,000 sparrows.

Joyful people are so attractive. The photos of New York Mayor Mamdani riding the subway the day after his swearing-in are delicious. Google him, see for yourself. I love people who just smile unrelentingly. Mamdani is like that. Nothing about Mamdani seems calculated or manufactured. He seems so happy and so full of the greatest energy for change. Inspirational, even for this Midwest gal 43 years his senior.

I am about to listen to Episode 6 of Rachel Maddow’s Burn Order. This is a deeply researched, carefully and engagingly written, gripping history lesson about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. It is a podcast that is free wherever you find your podcasts. And let me tell you this. The facts, the documentation, the storytelling, the voices of real people – you will be blown away, first by how hideous and wrong the decision process to round up Japanese Americans was and second by how pitifully little most of us know about this terrible time in American history.

Time to kick the can into a new year. For me that means shedding a couple of roles that were really important to me and taking on some new responsibilities. I’m happy to say that I’ve been appointed to the Executive Council of AARP-Wisconsin. It’s an advisory body without a huge amount of authority but it’s an opportunity for advocacy and engagement that is really appealing to me. 800,000 AARP members in Wisconsin – how do we engage all those folks in advocating for the best possible future for older adults? Anyway, that’s my new gig. I’m pretty happy about it. New year, new can.