Category Archives: transformation

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the tide going out

I am thinking about the term “white trash” and choices.

Is “white trash” a discriminatory term? A derogatory term? Is it a type of person or is it a “lifestyle choice”? Or is it a sum of choices?

A friend tells me that it is not discriminatory. Not an insult. A lifestyle. Then the friend says, “Some people would assume that I am white trash because I live in a trailer (manufactured home) and don’t own my own land. I rent.”

Would this person be white trash to you? Does it make a difference if they are male or female? Over 60? Under 30? Single? Have children? Would you feel differently about a single male parent than a single female parent? Would you feel differently if they are widowed instead of divorced?

And at what age do we become responsible?

If I am a child growing up in a household with alcoholism, verbal abuse, parents with mental health issues or grave illness or abandonment, where is the line where I become responsible for myself?

I surveyed my smokers for years, what age did you start? The men mostly said age 9. There was more cultural pressure on women, but the youngest started at 11 or 12. And then the horrific stories, where the parent is offering whiskey to a child under 10. My sister and I wandered around peoples’ houses in the dark when we were under ten. She was three years younger. I was a kid who did not trust adults and was careful. Scared. So we did not get into drugs or alcohol and I hated my father’s unfiltered camels. My parents would not touch illegal drugs, thankfully. I took care of my sister, but we were entirely unsupervised in barns and houses and outside….

I think that our teens are making choices at far younger ages than parents want to admit. I see parents check out when the child is fourteen or even younger. Teens who are nearly living at friends. Teens who already seem lost. And sometimes the parent is wrapped up in a divorce or a parent is sick or dying or a parent is in jail or abandons the family.

What age did you make choices? Did you make good ones? And is white trash hate speech? If you made bad choices, were you able to change later on?

What is the line between free speech and hate speech? And what is the line between love and enabling?

I am still searching….


Over the Rhine: Fool and Let it fall

For the Daily Prompt: rhyme. No, it doesn’t rhyme. But I am thinking of the phrase: no rhyme or reason….

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From a train

Taken from the train from Chicago to Seattle, in 2014.

This is for Norm 2.0 Thursday doors. Ok, it’s not Thursday. I got confused and thought it was Friday doors. Busy week. On Wednesday I was sure it was Thursday and yesterday I was frustrated that it was not Friday and today I’m a little tired….

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fountain fish

This is our Galatea Fountain again: the fountain is cooling and the sound of the water is delicious on a hot day. I hope it cools the eclipse hunters, but even more, I hope hatred and discrimination and anger and bigotry cool and slide away in healing and love.

Two steps forward and one step back: I hope we lurch towards peace.

 

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fire eater

I spent much of yesterday at the Uptown Street Fair in Port Townsend. The Farmer’s Market was beautiful and busy, a second street was blocked off for craft stalls, and Lawrence Street had entertainment on stage from 11:00 until after 4:30. I finally danced myself into the ground and went home! I am a bit stiff this morning! Hooray for the bands and the tiny uptown parade, the color guard, the police and all of the people and businesses who put the fair on, came out, and shared a stunningly gorgeous day!

The Kinetic Sculptures were out, a wonderful drum group, the Port Townsend brass band, artists, dancers, buskers and lots of food.

Today is the County Picnic…..

For the Daily Prompt: trance, though I don’t think she was in a trance at all. I think the audience was entranced!

 

 

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moon in morning

For the weekly Photo Prompt: Ohh, Shiny!

But, you say, it isn’t shiny.

No, it isn’t. Because even shiny things today are not distracting me from my grief about our country, the lack of ethical morals in our government and twitterpated tweets going out daily.

And here is the moon watching as the sun rises and light and warmth fall over the earth. The mood matches mine: quiet and still thinking of the dark and of love and of hatred and of grief.

Moon in mourning.

 

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solitary tree and thought

Sunrise in Wisconsin last week.

My solitary thought this morning is about ethics. It does not matter what the other person has done, we still must be true to our ethical values. This means that a contractor can’t refuse to pay a worker. I am thinking of my own behavior but I am also thinking of the White House. I want an ethical president, a president who takes responsibility, a president who does not blame others, a president who stands up for what is right. A president who put ethical values first. Not money. Not predation. Not fake news. Not lies. Not corporations over citizens. Citizens are people. A corporation is not a person.

I want an ethical president who will not lie.

 

 

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on fire

This is an early morning photograph, downtown, not this year.

It was frightening to fly back from Wisconsin last week and have the plane descend into smoke in Seattle. The smoke from fires in British Columbia and Washington blanketed the city. I am used to descending into cloud, but smoke looks brown and was neither opaque nor transparent. Haze.

I missed the worst air, but the smoke still bothers me. One afternoon my receptionist and I both were having trouble with eye irritation from the bad air. My clinic is in a 1950s building and closing all the windows and doors is hot! No air conditioning.

I am hoping that we make changes to slow and mitigate climate change and global warming: I don’t want the world on fire!

How many summers will it take? My guess is three consecutive summers….