Dear friends, family, fellow travelers,
Here we are three weeks from the November 3rd presidential election. It continues to be a wild (if at this point ever-so-cautiously hopeful) ride. I've been cultivating my fragile hope in the past few weeks by reading Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American (as well as listening to her lecture series on the history of the Republican party) and following lawyer Teri Kanefield's threads on Twitter about election law. Both women emphasize the gravity of our struggle to defend and improve democracy as our chosen form of government while also affirming that the fascist/authoritarian/autocrats are not all-powerful and depend upon our acceptence of their leadership as legitimate in order to maintain their power. In early October, I also attended a webinar through Choose Democracy, led by veteran nonviolent, direct action organizer George Lakey, on what we know about how to stop attempted coups. The webinar was being offered several times out of popular demand and the one I attended had over 1,500 citizens from across the country sitting in. As people begin to vote early in record numbers around the country -- and the GOP's main talking points this week seem to be comparing Joe Biden to Mr. Rogers and leaking evidence of his ... *squints* ... compassionate parenting -- it feels like we are poised to bring about some material change in the way government operates.
Image: Stickers Hanna bought me from On Centre in Jamaica Plain. One reads VOTE over a rainbow pattern and the other is black with a white VOTE and a Ruth Bader Ginsburg lace collar design.
None of that change will happen without all of us pitching in to make it so, of course. At the Choose Democracy website, you can take the pledge below and find resources to help you and your circle of friends, family, and fellow travelers to begin thinking (and perhaps planning) what your next move will be if we need to take action on November 4th.
Image: Enamel pin reading "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. - Fred Rogers." Gift from my brother, who purchased it at Little Shop of Pins.
Last weekend, I also attended an online training (sign up to take one here) with the Biden/Harris campaign so that I could volunteer as part of the national text team. While I can't do phone banks or door-to-door canvassing I can sit at my computer and engage voters and likely voters via text -- so that's what I'll be doing for at least an hour a day from now until November 3rd -- and I have plans to take the week before the election off to invest as much time as I can helping to Get Out The Vote, which is really where our energy is best spent at this time. The majority of the country supports Democrat (or further left) policies. What we need to do now is ensure our elected officials will fight for the future we want.
Take care of yourselves, and one another. Make a plan to vote. Make a plan for the days and weeks after. And if you haven't already start dreaming about what you want on the political #Agenda2021 that will make a positive difference in peoples' everyday lives and for our collective future.
Image: Beautyberries from our landlady's garden.
What else.
Every conversation I've had with colleagues and researchers as a reference librarian over the past couple of weeks has been about how none of us can think past mid-November. I've had to come to terms with the fact that I'm not superhuman and that between the election and COVID-19 my brain has been fucked for focus and concentration for most of the year. That means the manuscript for my Ida B. Wells biography project will not be done on its original timeline. I've started a conversation with my editor about a new trajectory for the year ahead. In the meantime, I continue to work on smaller projects like book reviews -- though even two hundred words are slow going right now -- and am slowly chipping away at the reading list that will eventually support the full manuscript. Some books I've read in the past few weeks include Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies by Cait McKinney, Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction by Julie Ingersoll (you can hear a good interview with her here), Reinventing Religion: Beyond Belief and Skepticism by Peter Moore, and two delightful romances that have been on my list: Anna Zabo's Reverb and Courtney Milan's just-released The Duke Who Didn't.
Oh! And the episode of Inclusively Yours in which Sarah Jean and I squee about friends turned lovers is now available. I haven't listened because it's too late for me to take anything fumbling that I said back, but if you're so inclined you can check it out -- and of course the rest of the season as well. We definitely talk about some wonderful romance novels and if podcasts + romance are your thing Inclusively Yours is one to add to your playlist.
Image: Christopher in his "bat cave" cat carrier, where he decided to stay after returning home from the vet. We tried to make it cozy.
Poor Christopher spent another night at the kitty hospital last week. He's been having small bouts of low appetite, and the occasional seizure episode, through the summer but in the last 7-10 days took a turn for the worse. He had a small cluster of seizures on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning that finally prompted us to take him to the Angell Animal Medical Center for emergency care. Apart from being dehydrated (which has accompanied these episodes in the past) they also found -- unrelated to the seizures but discovered during the neurology exam -- an ulcer on his tongue that had become infected and painful, contributing to his aversion to food. We have him on antibiotics for the infection and his appetite has already come roaring back -- once the course of antibiotics have done their work we have him scheduled for a follow-up exam to determine the cause and nature of the ulcer and figure out a treatment plan. It can be viral, or an injury, or -- a long shot and we hope not -- cancerous cells. We should know by next newsletter time what next steps are. In the meantime, we're really grateful to have him feeling better and finally on anti-seizure medication. (We were able to show the veterinary neurologist a video of the seizure episodes and she agreed with us that although they didn't look like "classic" seizures the least invasive first option was to try anti-seizure meds and see if that addressed the symptoms without need for further diagnostics.)
Teazle was VERY MAD at us for taking Christopher away for 24 hours and then bringing him back smelling of the vet -- she even boxed his ears while he was in the middle of re-acquainting himself with the kitchen. Like, chill, honeybun!
Image: Teazle asleep beneath the geraniums with one eye open to keep us all in line.
What's coming up for us besides the election and its aftermath? Hanna is running for the newly-reconstituted Marlboro College Alumni Council which is holding its elections at the end of October. Work still carries on for us both in a remote/on-site hybrid way; COVID-19 cases are rising in Boston, though not as precipitously as they are nation-wide, and we are waiting to see whether the city returns to stricter shelter-in-place guidelines or if it will be every workplace unto itself for the winter. We're taking some time off in November and December that we really really hope will be time to rest and recharge a bit -- we haven't had actual vacation time together, even at home, since last Christmas (when we were both down with the flu - yay!). It's hard to believe it's almost time to start planning writing prompts for the 6th annual Twelvetide Drabbles challenge which will be raising money for the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, an organization that works globally to ensure that disaster preparedness and response is inclusive of people with disabilities. And I've been working on this doppler effect scarf in glorious rainbow sock yarn to keep me warm at the library this winter; someday all of my extra layers stashed in my office shall be rainbow. #LifeGoals.
Image: The doppler scarf, halfway knitted, laid out on the bed. You can see how the strips get closer together; once I reach the middle they will grow further and further apart again.
Now if only I could dye my hair to match.
Stay distanced, get your flu shot, wear your mask -- and get out the vote!
See you all on the flipside,
Anna
Here we are three weeks from the November 3rd presidential election. It continues to be a wild (if at this point ever-so-cautiously hopeful) ride. I've been cultivating my fragile hope in the past few weeks by reading Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American (as well as listening to her lecture series on the history of the Republican party) and following lawyer Teri Kanefield's threads on Twitter about election law. Both women emphasize the gravity of our struggle to defend and improve democracy as our chosen form of government while also affirming that the fascist/authoritarian/autocrats are not all-powerful and depend upon our acceptence of their leadership as legitimate in order to maintain their power. In early October, I also attended a webinar through Choose Democracy, led by veteran nonviolent, direct action organizer George Lakey, on what we know about how to stop attempted coups. The webinar was being offered several times out of popular demand and the one I attended had over 1,500 citizens from across the country sitting in. As people begin to vote early in record numbers around the country -- and the GOP's main talking points this week seem to be comparing Joe Biden to Mr. Rogers and leaking evidence of his ... *squints* ... compassionate parenting -- it feels like we are poised to bring about some material change in the way government operates.
Image: Stickers Hanna bought me from On Centre in Jamaica Plain. One reads VOTE over a rainbow pattern and the other is black with a white VOTE and a Ruth Bader Ginsburg lace collar design.
None of that change will happen without all of us pitching in to make it so, of course. At the Choose Democracy website, you can take the pledge below and find resources to help you and your circle of friends, family, and fellow travelers to begin thinking (and perhaps planning) what your next move will be if we need to take action on November 4th.
- We will vote.
- We will refuse to accept election results until all the votes are counted.
- We will nonviolently take to the streets if a coup is attempted.
- If we need to, we will shut down this country to protect the integrity of the democratic process.
Image: Enamel pin reading "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. - Fred Rogers." Gift from my brother, who purchased it at Little Shop of Pins.
Last weekend, I also attended an online training (sign up to take one here) with the Biden/Harris campaign so that I could volunteer as part of the national text team. While I can't do phone banks or door-to-door canvassing I can sit at my computer and engage voters and likely voters via text -- so that's what I'll be doing for at least an hour a day from now until November 3rd -- and I have plans to take the week before the election off to invest as much time as I can helping to Get Out The Vote, which is really where our energy is best spent at this time. The majority of the country supports Democrat (or further left) policies. What we need to do now is ensure our elected officials will fight for the future we want.
Take care of yourselves, and one another. Make a plan to vote. Make a plan for the days and weeks after. And if you haven't already start dreaming about what you want on the political #Agenda2021 that will make a positive difference in peoples' everyday lives and for our collective future.
Image: Beautyberries from our landlady's garden.
What else.
Every conversation I've had with colleagues and researchers as a reference librarian over the past couple of weeks has been about how none of us can think past mid-November. I've had to come to terms with the fact that I'm not superhuman and that between the election and COVID-19 my brain has been fucked for focus and concentration for most of the year. That means the manuscript for my Ida B. Wells biography project will not be done on its original timeline. I've started a conversation with my editor about a new trajectory for the year ahead. In the meantime, I continue to work on smaller projects like book reviews -- though even two hundred words are slow going right now -- and am slowly chipping away at the reading list that will eventually support the full manuscript. Some books I've read in the past few weeks include Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies by Cait McKinney, Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction by Julie Ingersoll (you can hear a good interview with her here), Reinventing Religion: Beyond Belief and Skepticism by Peter Moore, and two delightful romances that have been on my list: Anna Zabo's Reverb and Courtney Milan's just-released The Duke Who Didn't.
Oh! And the episode of Inclusively Yours in which Sarah Jean and I squee about friends turned lovers is now available. I haven't listened because it's too late for me to take anything fumbling that I said back, but if you're so inclined you can check it out -- and of course the rest of the season as well. We definitely talk about some wonderful romance novels and if podcasts + romance are your thing Inclusively Yours is one to add to your playlist.
Image: Christopher in his "bat cave" cat carrier, where he decided to stay after returning home from the vet. We tried to make it cozy.
Poor Christopher spent another night at the kitty hospital last week. He's been having small bouts of low appetite, and the occasional seizure episode, through the summer but in the last 7-10 days took a turn for the worse. He had a small cluster of seizures on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning that finally prompted us to take him to the Angell Animal Medical Center for emergency care. Apart from being dehydrated (which has accompanied these episodes in the past) they also found -- unrelated to the seizures but discovered during the neurology exam -- an ulcer on his tongue that had become infected and painful, contributing to his aversion to food. We have him on antibiotics for the infection and his appetite has already come roaring back -- once the course of antibiotics have done their work we have him scheduled for a follow-up exam to determine the cause and nature of the ulcer and figure out a treatment plan. It can be viral, or an injury, or -- a long shot and we hope not -- cancerous cells. We should know by next newsletter time what next steps are. In the meantime, we're really grateful to have him feeling better and finally on anti-seizure medication. (We were able to show the veterinary neurologist a video of the seizure episodes and she agreed with us that although they didn't look like "classic" seizures the least invasive first option was to try anti-seizure meds and see if that addressed the symptoms without need for further diagnostics.)
Teazle was VERY MAD at us for taking Christopher away for 24 hours and then bringing him back smelling of the vet -- she even boxed his ears while he was in the middle of re-acquainting himself with the kitchen. Like, chill, honeybun!
Image: Teazle asleep beneath the geraniums with one eye open to keep us all in line.
What's coming up for us besides the election and its aftermath? Hanna is running for the newly-reconstituted Marlboro College Alumni Council which is holding its elections at the end of October. Work still carries on for us both in a remote/on-site hybrid way; COVID-19 cases are rising in Boston, though not as precipitously as they are nation-wide, and we are waiting to see whether the city returns to stricter shelter-in-place guidelines or if it will be every workplace unto itself for the winter. We're taking some time off in November and December that we really really hope will be time to rest and recharge a bit -- we haven't had actual vacation time together, even at home, since last Christmas (when we were both down with the flu - yay!). It's hard to believe it's almost time to start planning writing prompts for the 6th annual Twelvetide Drabbles challenge which will be raising money for the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, an organization that works globally to ensure that disaster preparedness and response is inclusive of people with disabilities. And I've been working on this doppler effect scarf in glorious rainbow sock yarn to keep me warm at the library this winter; someday all of my extra layers stashed in my office shall be rainbow. #LifeGoals.
Image: The doppler scarf, halfway knitted, laid out on the bed. You can see how the strips get closer together; once I reach the middle they will grow further and further apart again.
Now if only I could dye my hair to match.
Stay distanced, get your flu shot, wear your mask -- and get out the vote!
See you all on the flipside,
Anna