OUR GENEROUS EARTH

Emma Goldman, "...the lives, blood and money of the American people (taxes) were used to protect the interests of American capitalists." Joe Hill, "Work and pray, live on hay. You'll get pie in the sky when you die." Helen Keller, "Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does it mean? We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee." Eugene Debs, "The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles." Trudell, "Economies war citizen whores political pimps." Considering Gandhi Sarton wrote of "the kind of courage that nonviolence demands when pitted against physical assault." Embedded in her consciousness was the fact "that one man can change the world, a single man of vision."
Several years ago I had two gracious friends, Bernard and Lucille. They were great white geese. Bernie and Lu were two of the most intelligent, sensitive and loyal friends that have ever blessed my journey. What we lacked in language was compensated for by the ability to express in body the voice of the soul. Mary O, "The earth is full of interest, artistry and generosity."
It happened one day when I was still a teen that I'd wandered into the forest and after walking far I sat down to rest. It was a cold day in the fall and soon there would be snow. I've always loved to lie against the earth so I was soon sprawled beneath a dark pine. Tired as I was... I went to sleep. When I opened my eyes huge, lazy snowflakes were floating out of the heavy sky. I saw a small movement which materialized into a rabbit. More small movements became rabbits. Soon I was lying in the new snow surrounded by wild rabbits! They nibbled leisurely at the last of the good greens around me. When I moved, they moved and suddenly I was alone. I walked home in my tattered coat more regal than a queen and more rich than Joe Kennedy.

BIG FOOT

John Trudell, "Look at us, we are earth and water." Dwight D Eisenhower, "Avoid the impulse to live only for today plundering for our own needs of today the precious resources of tomorrow." Vivekanand Jha, "It (intolerance) can lead to violence in its most extreme form, genocide." Wendell Berry, "Healing is impossible in loneliness." Hickman, "We need to resume our place in the human family." Li-Young Lee, "In writing poetry, all of one's attention is focused on some inner voice." More from Lee, "Sad is the man who is asked for a story and can't come up with one."
One day I told Norma that the older I get the larger my nose becomes. My mother's nose and ears grew so much in her old age that she began to look like a little gnome woman. Norma must have given this a lot of thought. Last night she put me before the mirror and told me to smile. I did as she told me. "Look! When you smile it broadens your nose." As she smiled her nose grew, too. I was amazed! "I'll never smile again," I promised. She replied, "Oh! No! You must never stop smiling."!
It happened one dark night as I drove home from Crystal Lake near Akeley that something crossed the road. It was upright, very tall and incredibly long-legged. It crossed the road with 2 or 3 steps. I slowed down but it had been swallowed up by the night. I opened the window but heard nothing. For several minutes I searched my mind, "Tell me what you saw!" I had seen a Big Foot. No one can convince me otherwise. The question is, "Why?" They are not seen unless they choose to disclose themselves.

ABUELITA ANITA

"Thank you Howard Zinn for urging us to 'renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in songs that God must single out America to be blessed'." Matthew Rothschild.
Today I went to school with Ann to help chaperone her second graders. We walked to Orchestra Hall and heard a lovely concert. The children were well-behaved and seemed to appreciate this truly splendid opportunity. The performance opened with the theme from "Star Wars". In an instant I was slammed into a memory. Emotionally I'd been assaulted and flung against a stone wall. Suddenly I was in the Blackduck Theater with Brandon at my side. Sitting there in Orchestra Hall with the victorious music swelling around me I could smell the popcorn on his warm breath. Perhaps he was in the second grade at that time. John had taken us out for supper and a movie. Of course, we'd a wonderful time. I pulled myself back to the present and enjoyed the concert. Later we walked back to school in the cold but no one complained. The children gave me a name. Abuelita Anita. How great is that!
Ann and I then went to Gail Dahlstrom's funeral services at the Hennepin United Methodist Church. Many good words were spoken of her but what I remember is "she practiced the presence of God". How spiritually enriching such a life would be. We stayed for repast.
I learned on Yahoo that we were under a Wolf Moon. The first full moon of 2010. The moon was closer than it would be for the rest of the year. I hurried to the roof and saw the enormous moon rising pale and blue over the buildings. I returned to 107 to tell Ann. On my way back to the roof I stopped to tell Norma. Soon we three stood on the roof marveling at the greatness of the moon. Norma invited us for tea and soon had laid a good party luncheon before us.
Mae Sarton had begun to read a biography of Isak Dineson, 1982.
Mary O, "In winter all the singing is in the tops of the trees where the wind bird with its white eyes shoves and pushes among the branches."

THE PASSING OF HOWARD ZINN

Howard Zinn, the people's historian, academic, hero, national treasure, acclaimed author, political activist and world warrior is dead at 87. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide." Noam Chomsky. Zinn urged his students to "relinquish the safety of silence, (be) more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice..."
"In a recent Bill Moyers interview Zinn said, "Democracy doesn't come from the top. It comes from the bottom. Democracy is not what governments do. It's what people do." More from Zinn, "I wish Obama would listen to MLK Jr." Susan B Anthony, "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
Today I was invited to join some old friends and some new friends for a tour of "From Our Ancestors; Art of the White Clay People", an exhibit at the Mpls Institute of Arts. It was a wonderful journey into another time and another culture. Then we gathered at the Uptown Diner to meet Beth W and Cash L for lunch. In honor of Robert Burns we all sang "Happy Birthday". Then I read "The Winter of Life"; Beth read "A Man's a Man"; Patty K sang a verse and a chorus of "Annie Laurie". After much good food and fantastic conversation and the departure of half of our group the remaining 6 stood and sang "Auld Lang Syne". It was a supremely lovely day.
Mary O, "As the world changes from the long winter into spring and everything takes on a freshness and a spiritual meaning, just so poetry can quicken, enliven the interior of the listener."
Dear Howard, we will miss you on the march toward a better world for all but I salute your steadfastness and your courage in the struggle for peace, truth, justice and dignity.

LIBERATION

Today is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. The complex included a concentration camp, an extermination camp and a forced-labor camp. "And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up!" Charles Dickens.
It happened in the Dominican Republic, 1937, that 20,000 Haitians were executed because they did not pronounce the Spanish word for parsley correctly. Or should we say they failed to roll the R. This occurred under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.
Elizabeth Crook, "He talked about the railroad's bribery of politicians and corrupt subsidizing of newspapers and all the unethical retaliations on the poor." From "The Night Journal".
I watched "Ghosts of Mississippi". It is a portrayal of how the murderer of Medgar Evers was tried three times before being sentenced.
We went to Colleen's for supper and bowled on the Wii. My arm actually feels stiff now.

SOMETHING FIERCE

Pernell Roberts, 81, died yesterday. He was the last of the three Cartwright brothers from "Bonanza". Mae Sarton, "I keep trying to put together, in harness, the fact that I feel so young but I am not." I think we all reach that point on this journey. In Jan 1885 Louisa Mae Alcott attended "an old-fashioned party in at old-time house. All in antique costume. Country kitchen and country fare; spinning and weaving; old songs and dances." Now that's a great way to warm up in Jan. I smell the muffins. I hear the music. I feel the laughter.
I once wrote a play where one of the characters was called "The Beast of Atrocities". The lad who played the part brought the beast to life before my eyes. I had not known the beast was also the beauty. Yes, he was a vile assassin, a cruel murderer, but he was portrayed with such fierce grace that I stood ready to forgive all his sins.
Stephen Crane, author of "The Red Badge of courage", had expressed to Willa Cather how frustrated he was as a writer. It took so long to take an idea for a story into the process of actually writing it down. He said, "The details of a thing had to filter through his blood and then it came out like a native product."
Cather had read A.E. Houseman's "A Shropshire Lad" and "loved his magical lyrics." Even her most loyal readers agree that her poems "April Twilight" fall far short of her prose. She had confessed, "I do not take myself seriously as a poet." Her advice to other writers is a treasure. "Unless you have something in you so fierce that it simply pours itself out in a torrent, heedless of rules or bounds - then do not bother to write anything at all. Why should you? The time for revision is after a thing is on paper - not before."

SANDIA SHADOWS

Happy birthday to Robert Burns!
The Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. The Swedish Academy had awarded the prize for a lifetime's work. Did you know that Victor Jara was executed because he criticized the government in his songs? Some of his lyrics were from Neruda's poems.
Virginia Woolf wrote, "This insatiable desire to write something before I die, this ravaging sense of the shortness and feverishness of life, makes me cling like a limpet to a rock, to my anchor." Mae Sarton said, "The agonizing self-doubt is always there, of course, and I have to remember that this novel is like all the others, a continual effort to surmount it and spur myself on like a rider through a thicket." Mary O declared, "...we long to be - that happy in the heaven of earth - that wild, that loving."
Will Cather was not considered a political activist but was certainly referring to the political climate of her day when she quoted a plank in the Populist platform. " The fruits and toils of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few..." What would she think of the US class system and government injustices of 2010? That would depend on her own bank account for as one's fortunes are enhanced the more likely one is to negate poverty.
It has taken 30 pages but at last I'm interested enough to read "The Night Journal" by Elizabeth Crooks without dragging myself from page to page.
Several years ago Annie and I were traveling through NM. As I watched the Sandia Mts. rise up out of the horizon I felt my heart stand on tip toe and lean in that direction. Memories came spilling forward and floated me along. Then we were passing and soon we would turn west and leave them behind. To Annie I declared, "It was here in the shadow of Sandia that my salvation was assured." She began asking questions. I tasted the answers with extreme pleasure and found them very sweet. There is no bitterness at Sandia. No, not for me. It was there that I saw other possibilities for my life. I would not follow the course that had been laid before me. I would map my own way to destiny. For me... this was salvation.
Several years later Annie, Justice, Geezis, baby Cedar, Laura and I would visit the Pecos Ruins where Crook takes me in her novel. I see the high red walls. I lay my hand against them and feel ancient grass stubble in my palm.