Arrogance?

Here is Quincy, seven years old, beautiful and bright, the love of my life as a grandma, treasured by all. Sorry, Pope Benedict. You do not get it. Boosted fertility is a right we have now, thanks to reproductive science. Four of my (almost) eight grandchildren would not be here otherwise. These are wanted kids who will be cherished and cared for. How can this be arrogance?

So, we are now into such a crazy place in the campaign. As Maureen Dowd said in her column in the NYT today, are the GOP candidates now actually saying that sex is bad? I don't think that idea will actually fly, considering the hundreds of thousands of years of human history. Just look at any edition of your news.

It does make a kind of weird sense, though. If your political party opposes any kind of safety net or education expenses for kids, opposes parents who may be gay, tramples on womens' rights to judge how many kids they can take care of, maybe just have no sex at all. Could work? Aargh! Where have we come to?

So, back to Quincy (fertility assisted, gay mom). This little guy will be a major player in the world someday. His community loves him and cares for him and gives him models of altruism and competence. His family is colorful and loving.

Of course, I also think of those dark skinned Mexical illegals I know whose kids are just as fabulous as Quincy. And they would be considered even less worthy by our current GOP candidates who think they should be deported, and certainly not have a chance at a college education.

I am thinking of the Romneys sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner. Would that magnificent table include family and friends of color? Gays? Would some of them be wearing head scarves? Would the feast have to include the dietary needs of everyone? I wonder..

Where will it end? And what is it about getting rid of Obama, the bottom line? What are they thinking? Obama has done brilliantly considering the cards he has been dealt. This guy is smart, humanitarian, able and inclusive. (is it race?)

So, my garden is great. The time I put into it is my meditation. Tonight we ate the first spring broccoli, lettuce to follow. A visiting large dog seemed to chase away the pesky squirrels for now. Got to bate the traps for the oppossums who are eating the oranges. The deer are still a problem, eating the pansies as dessert after the roses. The pastures are now changing to a wonderful green and there are wild dogwoods in bloom in the woods.

The Way it's Spozed to be

Every week or so I visit my old school where I had been a director/teacher for most of my teaching life. Today I carried in a bale of greens from my garden to give to the teachers, and a bag of yarn and crochet needles so I could help with the crocheted coral reef the kids are making.

As I entered the front hall, it was eerily quiet, only Gigi, the long haired cat was there sprawled out on a table in one of the classrooms. Up the hall, the kindergarten/first grade was busily humming, their guinea pigs scuffling in their pen, lots of writing going on with tongues sticking out, small groups working on various games. After greeting the class, I continue up the long hall, past the colorful paintings on the walls.

I have to visit Linda's room (and my grandson I haven't seen in a week!) This classroom has such incredible texture- all in orderly array. There are books, computers, games, pets, manipulatives, every kind of tool a kid could need. I can see that this group of second and third graders are now in the midst of doing individual reports on geography. This is their first foray into research, a totally new deal. Linda guides them gently and individually, sends off many directives to parents and encourages everyone.

But where are the other kids, the oldest two groups? I continue up the hall to the church sanctuary where for years we have had Shakespearean rights. Thirty kids are winding up the last scene of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the play they will perform for the community in three weeks. I creep up and sit in a back pew to see what's happening. Different kids, but the same joy and teamwork. As always, I am amazed that such young kids can handle Shakespearean language and have learned all those lengthy lines. I notice the ones who have a definite spark, the ones who can project their voices. All of these kids, the principals, Bottom and Puck, the fairies, the stage managers, are consumed with this project of producing their play. Parents and grandparents show up to help with scenery and sets and costumes. Everyone is involved.

Just a few weeks back, these kids took the battery of standardized tests - and did well to brilliantly. These are just regular kids. But they have a lot more on their plate than just the fear of tests and the test prep.

After lunch, some kids went to a Yoga class, some hunkered down with art materials, some worked with each other on their lines for the play. I sat with eight kids from different classes who wanted to work on the coral crochet project. I am a total beginner with this, but I enjoyed trying to help even the lefties. During this time a couple of (parents? grandparents?) showed up, and they really knew how to instruct us.

In this school the kids just welcome anyone. Hey, we are a team. Let's help each other. There is such a warmth and texture of possibility, such a high standard gently set, what child could not be a winner?

Why, oh why, does the state of Florida set up our teachers for failure? (F schools!)
At Lacoochee Elementary School, where I volunteer and know virtually every kid, I wish the Florida vision for education would just let this amazing school run free.

Give this gifted principal the freedom to do what she knows will help every child be literate and strive for more. The spectre of being an F school is so unfair.

What amazing things could happen if every principal could make decisions without reprisal, just breathe in hugely, and be creative!

I'm a Believer

I am a believer in fact based science. Yes, things change as we get more information.

What are these cranes telling us? This time of year they are grouping in social (and very loud!)clubs on our property. Scientists are studying them, figuring out their migration and nesting habits. We may come to know the facts about what these elegant birds do. And we will come to know why it is important to protect them.

Scientists, it seems to me, are looking for answers about the why of being on the globe, and beyond.

This is not a 'belief'. It is not a phony religion. Knowledge about our planet and the humans and plants and critters that inhabit it can be known, and we are constantly making progress in our knowledge.

Global warming/climate change: Not a religion and not a belief system. Just look at the facts.

You thought this was not political! Climate change is not a religion, not subject to faith. It's not something to "believe' in. Or not. Just look at the facts. It's happening.

Santorum would be a major disaster. That's all I'm saying.

How to lose weight and be healthy

In this last year my husband has lost more than fifty pounds and he is now the handsome guy I fell in love with. I am ten pounds lighter. We have thunder thighs and no wattles on the low sides of our arms. We have energy!

So, here's how we did it. The key thing is aerobic exercise at least five times a week. He has a stationary bike he rides for half an hour, and I do fifty minutes of power walking/bands and weights (Leslie Sansome videos).

We do not count calories or do any kind of structured diet. What we do is cook everything we eat from scratch, even bread. We eat vegetables from our garden, no red meat, small amounts of fish and chicken a few times a week, eggs fresh from a neighbor's flock of chickens. We never eat dessert except for fresh fruit. We eat salad every day and this salad includes, besides all kinds of greens, fruit such as strawberries or oranges or apples, nuts, asparagus, or anything else in the vegetable kingdom. We do not use much salt.

Our dinner is an Event! Every night. The lights are low, candles lit, flowers, nice mats and cloth napkins. Good feng shay. I have even brushed my hair. We do not slap commercial things on the table. No ketchup bottles, no butter tubs, never any plastic.

We used to eat out a lot - banquets, fast food, take-out. Cutting these things out has made us healthy and thin.

Yeah, often I look in the fridge and see nothing (NOTHING!) to snack on. So I will grab a banana and think of the Queen- and how that Irish oatmeal for breakfast didn't last long.

Eating like this is super. I love my chef. Sometimes we have a blow-out meal with friends and we have an amazing dinner with a chocolate souffle for dessert. And this works!

We only really eat one proper meal, dinner. The table is set nicely and we eat and talk our heads off. I am not starving, I love our dinners, and I feel in great shape.

If We Really Care About Kids

Bishops and clerics and old guys in suits- sounds like the beginning of a ribald limerick. Unfortunately, it's not. These guys are weighing in on contraceptives. Yikes! Have we reeled back history?

Any woman today who is not totally marginal relies on the certitude of contraceptives, and we have done this for a long generation. We are not about to go back to the dark ages of barefoot and pregnant. Controlling our own fertility is now a right of women and we are not going to give this up (whatever those old guys in suits may say.)

I think that this issue is really about how we regard children in our society. A wanted and planned for child is so much more likely to prosper and grow. And then lots of families who cannot support all these children are desperate. The programs for kids are always the first to be cut, the first to be strangled out of existence.

These folks who see the contraception and abortion issues as "immoral" do not then look ahead to what kinds of support we should give to kids! No contraception, no abortion, and you have many kids who have no safety net. What are those guys thinking??

And then, of course, there is the issue of personal privacy and choice. Why are these old guys in suits (Mitch McConnell etc.) telling us women we should not have a choice in the most important biological aspect of our lives? I, for one, refuse to vote for anyone who for cynical political reasons would rescind my hard won opportunity of choice about kids.

Conservatism used to be a philosophy, and a decent one. I am distressed that now it seems to be about mean spiritedness; children are just pawns and drek in the political process.

Enough of this screed. I am off to the hot tub.

Baby Blankets

No question about it, I am good with my hands. I can sew, throw a decent pot, fix things, grow things, and I have made too many quilts to count. But for every grandchild I try to knit or crochet something (because this is what a grandma does?).
I am a terrible knitter! I have never properly learned how to do it. The only thing I ever knitted was a sweater for my husband, and it was the only thing that thieves did not take from our parked car. Well, who could blame them?
Now, many years later, I continue to try. My soon to be twin grandchildren are going to have hand knitted blankets from Grandma!
I bought the skeins of polyester yarn, so soft, so washable, so forgiving of mistakes. I think that these small covers might eventually be the "loveys" those kids will tote here and there and finger for a few years. I will embellish them with satin ribbons their small fingers will fondle.
As with all the handmade items in process- the quilts, the grow charts- I think hard about the recipients. For the mostly blue blanket I think of that little boy with the dark hair and brown eyes who will grow up while I can still be a part of his life. For the mostly pink blanket I think of his sister, not a princess, but so capable and smart. I think of their good parents and how lucky they are!
Terrible knitter that I am, still it is important to me to do it. I must confess that these blankets have been a shared experience. Many friends have contributed by knitting a few rows here and there, helped by casting on and off, crocheting the edges.
I know that these odd (but soft!) blankets might not be well received in this age of everything perfect and commercial. And this will be o.k. The point is that I have made these gifts and thought about these new persons and it has been a joyful journey for me as I thought about these children I am anxious to meet in a couple of months.
The very best thing about being in this stage of life is the sheer potential of one's granchildren you love without any strings attached.

News from the Green Swamp

Not a good picture. I took it in the last light of day when we had finished installing the deer fence for the spring garden. But the whole thing is now securely enclosed with the new sturdy fencing buried deep to keep out the armadillos, and with new colorful flags atop the fencing. My husband labored for a couple of days, digging the trenches and horsing around the rolls of heavy wire.

There are still many vegetables left over from the fall garden that didn't freeze a couple of weeks ago. Give it until the end of this month and we will plant the spring garden. I have ordered my 'starts' of many kinds of heirloom tomatoes, and I have the seeds ready to go for everything else. What a gift to have a man do this heavy work!

My brother and his wife have been visiting from California. They love staying in the little house where they spend some time reading and watching the wildlife and my brother, a musician, plays the violin. While working on the fence project I hear the sweet music over the pasture. This brother! How I love him! We are old now, but in so many ways we revert to the kids we were, best friends growing up together. He still twits and teases me in the old familiar ways, and I respond as I always did.

His wife is just the best in-law. I treasure those times once a year when we seamlessly take up from where we were the last time. We hardly ever connect between visits, but that is O.K.

The spring seems to be early this year. Many trees are flowering and I see new growth on just about everything. They are not worried about possible late freezes. I love the intense red of the swamp maples in bloom and the new flush of orange leaves, soon to be blossoms with their intense fragrance. The sand hill cranes are thinking about where to build their nest: they are flapping and dancing and throwing sticks in the air with much shouting. This year we have twin calves.

I hear that our soon-to-be twin grandchildren are doing well. I am working on my handmade gifts for them.

Life is good, economy perking up, politics still fascinating and weird. Hard to imagine in this balmy climate that people are freezing to death in Afganistan.

The Poor are Us!

No photos tonight. You'll have to imagine a crowded waiting room in our local medical clinic. This particular place was the lab center where everyone was there for blood tests and X-rays. I was there for a routine blood test my family practitioner wanted.

I was a walk-in at 9:30, but there was hardly a free chair in this windowless no-nonsence place. You go to the window with your insurance or Medicare card and they match it to the orders from your doctor. Then you wait to be called. Start to finish it takes less than an hour. I was prepared with the newspaper and some bills to be paid and my phone.

Every waiting room one ever inhabits seems to have a huge T.V. with Fox News prominately blasting, and this was no different.

The other people waiting were the usual dreary overweight lot who usually populate such places. Very old folks who were wringing their hands with anxiety, people with canes, youngish folks in tye die and flipflops, bald folks fresh from chemo, the whole range was there. No doubt all of them have an interesting back story to tell.

And then! The Fox news commentator recounted how Romney 'was not focused on the poor'. This room full of various folks erupted! Several people hollered out, "I'm poor!", "I'm poor!". I And then they had a full room discussion about this, kind of like the "peace" at the end of church where everyone embraces each other.

They spoke of having no income and housing was fragile. Fascinating. "I will never vote for him", most said. They recounted stories about how they had to get to the clinic on the bus and how long the journey took. Getting this bloodwork done was not an option, though they were poor. They did not know how they could pay for it (unless they were on Medicare or Medicaid, which about half were.) Romney hasn't a clue. A lot of them had already made the decision not to vote at all. But most of them were sure they were "poor". They did not feel they were in the middle class with some options. They were worried about about the 'safety net', though most seemed to be focused on how to get what they perceived as their fare share. Nothing complicated beyond getting the basics of life. These were not folks thinking about how to help their offspring pay for college or a PhD or law school.

Romney is way outside reality in America. I would love to have him (and tons of other politicians of either stripe) actually visit the school where I volunteer. He would see what "poor" is. He would see that this must be a true focus. These amazing folks cannot be simply dismissed because they can always be caught by a government safety net (that he wants to blast holes in!) These kids are every bit as bright and worthy as those whose parents pay $50,000 per year for their child's school. I will bet that the Romney family sends their kids to Exeter or Choate, never look back. And that's O.K. But, please call a duck a duck.

Most of the people living in poverty are kids! We need to pay attention to them.

Aargh! So much mean spiritness from our politicians, mostly those old guys in suits who are far from the issues of pregnancies unwanted or untimely.

I am over the top. Goodnight!