| Suddenly short days |
[Dec. 4th, 2016|10:48 pm]
fresne
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I had a long post that I was going to make, but alas a restart and the surprise of no auto saved version lost it. I've loaded a lot of pictures on this computer for editing and that does tend to… make the poor dear twitchy.
Anyway, I got back from New Zealand yesterday.
It had been easy to slip into New Zealand time, not so far from our own. Also, the long days of summer.
Harder to return to find the days short. Truncated into shadow.
So, though with photos to edit, I headed to church this morning with shadows on my mind. Since, after the
election, it's been in my mind to make more Sunday morning space for roots in my UU social activist faith tradition.
Watched a child light the advent candle for Hope. Love. Expectation already lit. Listened to a visiting minister (okay Catholic priest) talk about social action. The interdependent web of community. Of how hard it must be for the protesters at Standing Rock, not as elite, or intellectuals, but simply wanting to keep their water clean. Exercising their first amendment rights to be shot with water cannons. Rubber bullets. Of how hard it is to speak out. To act. Again returning to community (well and the committees that UU is prone to).
Came home to my comfortable space to learn that the Army Core of Engineers has delivered some slender stay of execution to Standing Rock. Thought about the polluted water table in my own Central Valley. Of the letter sent to a local Mosque telling the members that they'd be dealt with as Hitler dealt with the Jews. Of the tremendous rise in hate crimes leading up to and post election.
Ate my lunch. Put away laundry.
Thought about Theodore Parker, a UU minister, abolitionist, and transcendentalist, who wrote of the long arc of history and how it tends towards justice. And yet… that wasn't an inevitable trend.
So… someone on circle started a once a week, what did they do for kindness that week.
This week for me, not much. I was vacation.
-I stopped for fellow tourists. Offered to take the picture and get both parents into the picture with their children where I could.
-Gave a little to Second Harvest, our local food charity. I'm thinking of buying cereal from Kellogg and donating it. Since they pulled adds from Brietbart, and I hear while not super nutritional, children in families who get this sort of treat look forward to it. But that's not a thing done. But to do.
-Gave a little to Standing Rock, because they aren't really done. Just a respite.
-Signed up for digital access to the New York Times, because the rise of fake news is worrisome. Not charity, but educational.
Am trying to decide about the Women's March (in SF). I've been hearing questionable things about the organizers inclusion and yet… at its heart its grass roots. An urge to do… something. Walk. March with signs. It's the same day as a Pro-Life march, also SF. Maybe go for a two in one. Do a lot of walking.
That's the future again. Now, it's time for bed. Work beckons. Trying to figure out how all this fits into a long road. Plus, you know, photos. Life. Yuletide.
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