1 July 2020: In this year of our lord...

Friends, today I was rendered speechless.

“Oh!” you might ask, “You saw the news that trump has known for months about bounties placed on American soldiers’ heads by the Russians?”

No, I already knew about that.

“Oh!” you might respond, “You saw that the (completely undercounted) COVID death count in America topped 130K before the estimated July 4 mark?”

Nope, knew that too.

“Ah!” you might then wonder, “You heard that the EU has banned Americans from traveling to any member countries, along with people from Russia and Brazil, because our “leaders” have handled COVID so poorly?”

Actually, I already knew that, too.

“So, what?”

In this year of our lord, 2020, as Cosby and Weinstein are in jail and #MeToo is, mercifully, everywhere, and men are realizing shit, a repairman who was in my home for no more than 2 minutes today to fix a small scratch on our new bed, looked at my fabulous Meow print:

sorry about the angle; the glare is a killer

and said, “I like your boobies picture. It’s funny.”

This man was at least 38. He has never seen me before. He said “boobies.”

Speechless. And hopeful he is not raising sons. Mine were aghast. Even they don’t say boobies, and they are 11 and 13.

SMDH and also:

On a more positive note, my pollinator garden is drawing the masses, and I am thrilled. Just look at this industrious bee enjoying a coneflower.

Jack turns 14 on Saturday, Oliver convinced me to build a small foundry (terrifying but also cool), both are enjoying their respective art camp this week, and I am loving the students with whom I’m working. As we were supposed to move the boys into camp last Friday, we instead had a backyard campfire and channeled Pine Island as best we could.

Lastly, PRIDE month has officially ended, but it is always the time to celebrate each human living a full life as their truest self. Be out, be loud, be proud. This photo says it all.

Now off to enjoy a Politics and Prose webinar with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, authors of the truly terrific, She Said.

(What she did not say, was “boobies…funny.”)

Miscellany

It’s been a long while since I’ve been here, y’all.

Oliver graduated from 4th grade, and we enjoyed our eighth annual family trip to Wrightsville Beach with Tom’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and their darling girls.
Children are dying under pathetically inattentive, cruel “protective” custody on our southern border.
Trump is flirting with bombing Iran. His base is enabling his insane idiocy and excusing his many assaults.
Yet another has credibly accused Trump of assault -this time of RAPE.
I leave on Thursday to move the boys to summer camp, and I fly home on Saturday to commence six weeks without them.
Tom is soon to start a new job so we’re not traveling this summer.
Instead we are renovating our dining and family rooms and relearning how to rest and relax.
Nutmeg still doesn’t like Ruthie, but she is holding her own, and things are slightly better between them.
I have wonderful new writing students and last week taught a fun, energetic Canning 101 class.
I am deeply worried about and appalled by much of America.
Tom and I are driving to Brooklyn on Sunday in further pursuit of my passion for midcentury modern, Scandinavian-inspired design.
The fireflies are out, and my blackberry bush is thriving, and the orange calla lily I planted with hope two Junes ago is blooming magnificently.
It is PRIDE month, and love is love, and let’s just cheer that!
Today is Bourdain Day, and I miss the light that Anthony Bourdain was in the world, and I hate that depression lies so believably to so many.
I am so very tired, so very worried, and have so many books I hope I get through this summer.

In the meantime, I am thinking about connection and trust, relationships and self-protection. I am thinking of how wonderfully connective vulnerability and gratitude can be, and yet how exposed such porous borders can render us.

Here’s to peace and goodness, faith and the best of the unknown. Here’s to six weeks unplugged and in nature, to New York City and loving cats, to friends and also boundaries, and to the ways that appreciation and trust can make life richer.