Day 95: A Political Update

Some of you may have noticed that I've not been blowing up the political posts recently.

No matter how tempting it is.

Some of that, undoubtedly, is because my life has been a wee bit hectic, with shows and birthdays and not one, not two, but THREE medical hurty thingies. I have allowed myself to turn away from the twenty-seven ring circus in DC due to personal concerns.

But some of it, quite honestly, is because WHAT THE HELL WOULD I SAY?

There's a decent chance Russia rigged our election. That's some spy novel shit right there. What's far more worrisome, fully half our government doesn't seem to want to know. I mean, honestly, I disagree with politicians all the time, but this is the clearest example of obvious corruption that I can think of in my lifetime.

We're pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Some of our politicians are working very hard to remove health care from poor people, women, and the elderly, and to make it more expensive for everyone else. The prevalent racism we have in this country is becoming more apparent than ever, to white people, at least (minorities have known about it for a long time), and yet little is being done about it. The head of the executive branch of our government seems to have no real concept of foreign policy, which leaves us in very real danger of being catapulted into a war no one wants. And our media seems more interested in reporting on the dumpster fire in the White House than in actual world events.

Meanwhile, terrorist attacks are on the rise in Europe. The Great Barrier Reef is dying, and soon it will be dead. We're approaching a massive global extinction event. And in the time of what is undeniably the greatest level of wealth for humanity as a whole, half the world lives in extreme poverty, while 80% of the world lives in your average, run of the mill poverty.

Things are fucked y'all.  No joke.

And yet... and yet...  

A Muslim man in the Philippines sheltered 64 Christians in his home, hiding them from militants.

The acting US Ambassador to China quit over Trump's decision to pull out of the climate agreement.

An Australian nurse lost her life, running towards the London bridge victims, trying to help.

Countries all over the world are making the push for renewable power.  A few are on track to supply themselves completely with clean energy within the next five years.

Dutch prisons are closing, because their rehabilitation systems are so effective.

Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage.

The rice around Fukushima is now safe to eat again.

They discovered a new species of skink in New Zealand, and immediately saved it from extinction.

People everywhere, all the time, are taking actions--both small and large--to prove that humanity as a whole has as much good in it as it does evil.  And these things give me hope that maybe, if we don't kill ourselves, we're gonna get wiser.

I'm feeling, dare I say it?  Hopeful.

So I'm not spending a lot of time bitching about politics.  Because, honestly, I'm starting to feel like there are better uses for my energy, like helping with that whole "getting wiser" thing.  

Not gonna lie, though, it helps that some folks are stepping up to fill the gap.  And some of them have material that is solid gold!

Day 94: The Growing-up

 
Seven years ago I walked into Anna Jacques maternity ward, laughing over some joke Natalie had made.  In fact, I was so cheerful that the on-duty nurses were suspicious that I was actually in labor, until they checked me in and found out I was already 4 cm dilated.  They just didn't think I looked like I was in enough pain to be in labor.

The truth was it did hurt, but I didn't care.  I was so happy my baby girl was on the way.

She came so quickly that she aspirated some amniotic fluid on the way out, and turned a little blue.  She was fine, but whenever she wasn't with me they kept sticking her in the baby baker, to help her dry out a little before we took her home.

In retrospect, that story--what we might call the very first "story of Charlotte"--set the tone for all her future stories.  Charlotte is my deceptively easy child, who sometimes trips me up just because of how easy she is in general. :)

It was a blessing and a wonder to take her home and find that she, unlike her brother, was interested in sleeping.  She had a tiny, reddish mohawk for her first three months, until her hair grew too long and started flopping over from it's own weight.  And she was always firm in her opinions, even when her only manner of communicating them was in baby noises.

She smiled very early.

As she grew it was clear she adored her big brother.  She followed him everywhere, and her most heartbreaking moment of all time was the day he left her to go to school.  Who could have guessed that, five years down the road, they would fight like Cats and Dogs?  And yet, if there's ever an outside threat, they band together in an instant.  They come at the world in different ways, but they're totally willing to take it on together.

Charlotte has grown to be a beautiful child, creative and funny, energetic and strong willed.  She wears her heart on her sleeve, which I both delight in and ache over, because I know how much it can hurt when your feelings are so exposed, and yet I also know how much joy it can bring.  She does everything with her whole heart, and while that can be trying when what she's doing is "throwing a fit and falling in", most of the time that means that she is awe inspiring.  She doesn't know the meaning of half measures. 

My darling baby is getting bigger, and sometimes I look at her old pictures and sigh for that baby face.  I miss her little girl grammar and the sweet inquisitiveness that has become a more demanding search for knowledge.  But I cannot deny that her growing maturity is also a delight, and when she can see I'm having a hard day and comes to hug me and tell me she loves me, my heart is so full of joy over the wonderful person she is growing to be.

Happy birthday, Charlotte.  I love you to the moon and back, and back again, for infinity.