Roe v. Wade

Thanks to Deanna Burns for posting this
and to Cindy Wright Goldberg for commenting:
"They don't care --
they probably think they should die if they have one."
To go along with Deanna's post and Cindy's response, I coincidentally came across a surprisingly generous comment in an article about rural America: "Do you know what does change the beliefs of fundamentalists, sometimes? When something becomes personal. Many fundamentalists have changed their minds about the LGBT community once their loved ones started coming out of the closet. Many have not. But, those that have did so because their personal experience came in direct conflict with what they believe."

However, when it comes to abortion, I'm not sure if this approach works or if, indeed, any compassion is called forth. As Cindy points out, I'm afraid it just makes them hate you more. So many people seem to base their politics on the firm belief that they will never make a mistake. Wow -- where do they get that certainty? As for me, I'll go ahead and take the life filled with uncertainty and contradiction since that's the one I was granted -- and I will count my blessings!

My friend Rebecca Saulsbury Bravard and I heard Anita Hill speak on similar issues / attitudes when she visited Purdue back in 1992. Hill said, "Before you judge and make rules, consider if you would like these rules and judgments applied -- not just to your enemies or to the general population but -- to your loved ones, because surely among your loved ones are some who are in the same boat (whatever that might be -- being LGBT, needing an abortion, getting divorced, you name it)."

Sadly, even at the time, the thought crossed my mind that, no, in fact I knew plenty of people who would still be prepared to -- in fact feel entitled to -- judge their loved ones very harshly. Sad but true.

And similarly, for those still insisting that Hillary Clinton encourages delayed, discretionary abortions:

Please. Hillary Clinton did not say this, and this is not what she advocates. She wants safe medical care for everyone, including those with extremely delicate pregnancies that cannot be carried to term. Not everyone is blessed with a healthy pregnancy. Distressed parents whose babies are severely ill with rare complications and life - threatening conditions need our compassion, not condemnation.

Once again, as Anita Hill so kindly suggested, and on today's 44th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision -- think of your loved ones and forbear.

Hillary! Green Tara!

"Homage! Tara, swift, heroic!
With a glance like flashing lightning,
born from a blooming lotus
sprung from the tears on
the face of the Lord of the World!"

Chapter III, Tara Tantra
After the election, I was telling my friend Cate what you're supposed to do every time you go into Starbucks, as explained to me by my friends Bill and Tanuja. When they ask your name for your order: Say "Hillary." Then they write "Hillary" on your coffee cup and call out "Hillary" when your beverage is ready! You just have to remember that they mean you! If several friends do it at once, then you hear "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary!" Fun? I haven't done it yet but I really want to. I need some friends to go with. Actually I would also do it alone, but I haven't even been by myself lately.

Cate had another idea: "I would probably do Green Tara. 'Green Tara, Green Tara, Green Tara' ~ now that would be real fun!"

Thanks Cate for teaching me about Green Tara and for sharing this Prayer on the Eve of the Inauguation.

Come to think of it, the Green Tara and the Starbucks Siren share similar features, both physically and spiritually.

Steve from Starbucks writes that the Siren "is a storyteller, carrying the lore of Starbucks ahead, and remembering our past. In a lot of ways, she’s a muse –always there, inspiring us and pushing us ahead.

"And she’s a promise too, inviting all of us to find what we’re looking for, even if it’s something we haven’t even imagined yet."

Starbucks Cups: 1971, 1987, 1992, 2011

Kitti & Meg, at the
Women's March ~ Lafayette, Indiana ~ 21 January 2017

P.S. ~ October 2017Although I've been going to Panera for years, I never noticed until a few days ago that their logo is a woman holding a loaf of bread. I thought it was merely some swirls, or maybe some steam (since I usually get the coffee). But no, it's more than that! Now I know that in addition to the Starbucks logo being a sea goddess, the Panera ~ Logo is a land goddess!

Dark Days

Geisha, Nutcracker, Court Jester, Mary Queen of Scots
So who out there has untrimmed the tree and put all the decorations away? ​I still haven't started -- I need all the Christmas lights I can get on these dark days and have sworn not to put one thing away until the end of January (as recommended, even in non - inaugural years, by Stephen Fry)!

Christmas 2015 ~ January 2016
Gerry and I put the ornaments away last week
but kept the lights on for awhile longer.
On the floor, along with the reflection of the tree lights,
see the tiny round reflection of last week's full moon?
Shining in through the livingroom window! (to the left)
~ See also 2025 ~

This month has just been too dark in every way -- weather, politics, all the griefs of the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. is dead; the arc of history does not tend toward justice; Jesus is never coming back; there will never be peace on earth. While we, personally, may not be skewered, greed takes the day, and our happiness is forever tainted by the dark undertoad of the haves vs the have nots and the few hurting the many.

If this isn't the bleak midwinter, then I don't know what is!

I still see so much normalizing going on, even among staunch Trump Objectors. How do they do it? I'm pretty sure that disgust has been written all over my face during some uncomfortable conversations where I was trying my best to maintain a "no comment" stance. But the dismay just leaks out. Disgust, dismay, despair, hate, sadness -- all the aforementioned emotions combined. Thus, Let the Record Show. All the cynical cartoons speak to my heart. I know it seems wrong to hate, but even worse is the sadness. Every day feels like somebody's funeral. A dreadful week.

Too many things that used to be funny just seem sad now, but thanks to comedian Lily Tomlin, I haven't completely lost my sense of humor. I had to laugh when I heard her parting words to President Obama: "Too bad aliens didn't come during your Presidency. We would have been so proud to take them to our leader!"

But then I almost cried.

Thanks to my friend Katie
for offering this antidote to despair:

A Brief For The Defense

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come

by Jack Gilbert, American poet (1925 - 2012)

[see also "Happiness" by Jane Kenyon]

And thanks to friends Cate & Nancy
for reminding me that we are Women Warriors:
Cate: I can only recommend that you back off from your emotional state in reference to the inauguration , etc. You are forcing yourself to carry a hot coal that is only hurting you. Be a warrior. Be of good cheer. Keep on doing what needs to be done. Don't watch TV. Unplug it. Study Dharma. Sweetie, do not look or listen to any news today. Stay off Facebook. Be kind to your self: go shopping, have lunch, get a manicure, dye part of your hair pink! Sending you much love! Peace and love, Cate

Nancy: It has helped me a lot to find a group of like - minded women. My advice is to go to Washington and join the women's March. There is still time. In any case, find something that speaks to your most important issues and volunteer. No time to despair. We must be strong: Warrior Women! Get out of your head and emotions and Act! Righteousness and love have kissed. Hugs from Nancy

P.S. ~ Friday ~ January 20th 2017
"Even the heavens wept." Jesus wept. I wept.

The winner of our election,
standing between two former Presidents.

No Quandary

Wearing my sterling silver "Duke" earrings,
except today they stand for "Democrat." Thanks Ben

On "America's Choosing Day,"
everyone should read Walt Whitman & Robert Frost.
How to decide?

First of all, I do not think of Hillary Clinton as the "lesser of two evils." I think Donald Trump is vile (an anagram of evil). Hillary Clinton is neither of those things. No contest in my mind. However, even if one is of the "lesser of two evils" position, what is the quandary? Has there ever been any nobility in choosing the greater of two evils?

Second, as adults, every day, our lives are filled with a series of choices for lesser evil. (E.g., killing all the ants on the kitchen floor feels kind of evil, but allowing them to continue living there seems even worse.) Many of our beloved and well respected Presidents have made choices for lesser evil when presented with two or more imperfect choices.

Except in the world of cartoons, we are rarely granted the luxury of a choice for perfectly good vs pure evil. In real life, and even in good fiction, the choices and conflicts are always more complicated and problematic than that.

My well - respected brother,
The Rev. Bruce Carriker, agrees:
So, here's the decision some people are still wrestling with:

A distrusted, dislikable individual who, despite some really questionable judgment, has been cleared not once but twice of wrongdoing by the FBI; and has been investigated eight times by her political opponents in Congress for her actions as Secretary of State, without a single charge being filed;

or

A serial adulterer; racist, misogynist bully who threatens to jail his opponents; banishes the press from his campaign events if he doesn't like their coverage; admires political despots in other countries; says he may turn his back on our allies; wants to cut taxes for his rich friends; doesn't pay taxes himself; boasts about what certainly sounds like sexual assault; mocks the disabled; operates a fraudulent "charitable foundation" for his own personal gain; bribes at least two states attorneys general to drop investigations of his fraudulent "university"; says the judge in his "university" fraud case is unqualified simply because of his race; questions the patriotism of Gold Star parents because of their religious faith; calls Latinos rapists and murderers; and wonders, if we have nuclear weapons, why don't we use them?

How this is even a decision seemingly reasonable people have to think about is simply beyond me. [Click for further thoughts]

And if you don't believe us,
how about Hadley Freeman,
writing for the Guardian:
" . . . the media promoted false equivalencies throughout this campaign to a degree never before seen.

On Tuesday, the Times headlined its editorial about the election “Tough Choice”, as if the decision between a woman who used the wrong email server and a racist, sexist, tax-dodging bully wasn’t, in fact, the easiest choice in the world. Clinton’s private email server was covered more ferociously than Trump’s misogyny. That Clinton had talked at Goldman Sachs was reported as a financial flaw somehow analogous to his non-payment of tax. However much people want to blame the Democrats, their voters or Clinton herself, the result of this election is due at least as much to anyone who pushed the narrative that Clinton and Trump were equally or even similarly “bad”.

Shame on them. The most qualified candidate in a generation was defeated by the least qualified of all time. That is what misogyny looks like, and, like all bigotries, it will end up dragging us all down."

A Vision for Election Day!

Thanks for the bulletin page Good Shepherd ~
Chapel of the Good Shepherd!

"And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision,
and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it."

Habakkuk 2:2, KJV

Pride was not made for men, nor furious anger for them that are born of a woman. They that fear the Lord are a sure seed, and they that love him an honourable plant: they that regard not the law are a dishonourable seed; they that transgress the commandments are a deceivable seed. Among brethren he that is chief is honorable; so are they that fear the Lord in his eyes. The fear of the Lord goeth before the obtaining of authority: but roughness and pride is the losing thereof.

Ecclesiasticus 10: 18 - 21, KJV