Here’s a sundry assortment of snapshot thoughts taken over the last week. Enjoy!
Or not.
Where I was on 2001.09.11.
The radio announced the plane hitting the first World Trade Center tower on the drive to drop my Kindergartner off at school. And I thought ‘how could a plane not miss the one of the towers?’ what a tragic failure of air-traffic control? How …’ and I tried not to think of it further. The school drop-off zone can be brutal and requires focus and safety.
Drive away from school, shift into neutral, coast to the stop sign, look both ways, and then complete a full stop at the intersection for once because the radio announcer reported the news of a second plane flying into the second tower. Unthinkable. Sit at the stop sign and listen. This announcement came with the recognition that the first crash was no accident. Terrorists.
“Work” that morning only lasted a couple of hours. In any spare minute, co-workers, the all of us were plugged into the news, into the internet. The Pentagon was hit. A plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I was only too happy to get the call from school to ‘come pick-up your child’.
We take for granted the daily separation from our families and loved ones is temporary. Saying ‘good-bye’ for a week or a month or longer is not the end. When we take on the day’s activities, we expect we will be reunited at the end of the day or some future date.
Humans experience heightened awareness during accidents. Time slows. We become aware of details in the micro-seconds, mini-movements. Eye-witness reports from survivors in New York on the day confirm this effect.
And here in the Midwest that morning, like a rock thrown in water, I felt the ripple of the wave we remember and commemorate as ‘911’.
But I’ll never forget.
Marie Kondo, closet clearing, and the safety pin.
I’m intrigued by the clearing out my closet using the Marie Kondo and ‘does this bring me joy?’ method, but I have not had the guts or gumption or energy to tackle that sweet mess behind sliding doors yet.
However! I’ve discovered an alternative for the joy of clearing out the shirts in my closet. It is the ‘safety pin’ method. By pinning up when I go out, I’m identifying the 20% of shirts worn 80% of the time because they have holes for the safety pin.
No holes? It’s outta here.
Steam Roller Lord Jericho.
Author Terry Pratchett had his hard drive crushed by a steam roller.
There are so many reasons to love this story – the posthumous wishes to destroy the creative works by a creative genius were honored, that a life’s work of creativity can be captured on a hard drive, and on and on. But the reason this story makes me smile today is that the steam roller has a name. Lord Jericho.
Sound the horn. Your walls come a-tumblin’ down. Your work is gone. Your hard drive was steamrolled by Lord Jericho, I love that I can’t even make this stuff up.
But, but, really? I wonder how well Terry Pratchett’s hard drive back-up scheme worked. Hmmm …
Reclaiming the flag.
My cold heart was warmed by the news that a former Republican provided the flags for an anti-Trump protest in Springfield, Missouri. Assault on the Constitution in deed, indeed.
The flag and red, white, and blue have been co-opted as symbols for many right- and far-right groups and movements. This leaves the rest of us for who the flag represents freedom, what it means to struggle a more perfect union, <insert what the flag means to you here>, nothing?
No. It’s a good time to see national symbol reclamation for all of us, even those on the left, and my heart is warmed as a result.
Mansplain Keith Mann.
Mansplain: (verb) typically a man explaining something to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.
Witchsy: An artsy marketplace website. (Direct quote at bottom of About Us page: “Need to speak to man? Email Keith@witchsy.com”
And we were very happy to see the two (female) founders of Witchsy, Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, do some mansplaining of their own. After Keith Mann, a fictional male, was brought on board, Ms. Gazin and Ms. Dwyer started getting serious responses and results. How’s that for identifying gender-based condescension? (And the Guardian interview about Keith is fun.)
And I look forward to mansplaining being an archaic term. Probably not in my lifetime though.
Oh well.
Kenya & the plastic bag.
The “world’s toughest law aimed at reducing plastic pollution” was put into effect in Kenya. Penalties are severe! 4 years or $40K – for selling or using plastic bags. Wowza!
I am all about bring back ‘pollution.’ The word ‘pollution’. Not actual pollution. I’ve noticed that because we recycle and endeavor to recycle, we forget that we pollute. And we should continue to reduce pollution.
And so this story on the strident measures Kenya has taken, gives me so much pause, consideration, and reflection on lifestyle changes. I believe I would owe about $500K in fines for the plastic bags currently in circulation storage at the Viva domicile. I would be broke on bags and not the fancy Kate Spade, Coach or whoever. Single use plastic bags. Ugh.
So stop polluting.
