Shut Him Down

As the federal government’s partial shutdown extends into another week, I am reminded again of the importance of leadership and governing.  I realize that both parties are engaged in a game of chicken, and while I understand the context for both sides (though I am only sympathetic to the Democrats), I worry that the daring experiment that is American government may be damaged in the continued face-off.

I do not wish to spend 5 billion dollars of tax payer money on a racist and unnecessary wall at our southern border. I appreciate and agree with the Democratic leadership’s position against the wall.  I am horrified at the Republican party’s insistence that the government be shut down until they get their way.  

I am increasingly troubled by the sheer number of government employees expected to live (and sometimes work) without pay.  I think that labor is sacred and that workers should be compensated for it. I love my job but I’m not there for community service; a paycheck is an affirmation and in our money economy, a requirement of life.  For workers to face the prospect of hungry families and homelessness in service of the giant ego of an ignorant and mean-spirited man is unthinkable and immoral.

I guess that is my point: Trump makes all of us look bad.  His very presence in political office makes a nation of Americans complicit in his spiteful, venal ways.  I find this profoundly sad.

Amaryllis Report: Week 1

Each Christmas, T gives me an amaryllis bulb.  It’s a happy treat for the quiet Winter season and I eagerly anticipate the year’s bulb.  I planted it last week and now its part of my morning landscape, as I check out the progress each day.

This corner of the living room gets plenty of morning light and the warmth of the  sunrise.  There’s inspiration in the form of the neighborhood plants.  And then there is me, rooting on the bulb as my happy harbinger of the Spring to come.

January 1: Fairy Garden

Each year, I pick a spot in the garden that I will make a picture of and write about on the first of the month.  So much of the reason that I love my home is because of the yard and the garden, which provide me with beauty and imagination throughout the year.  These posts help remind me to observe the passage of time and appreciate all the seasons of my garden.  

The first of the month posts in 2019 will be the section of the yard reserved for my Fairy Garden.  Right now, things are quiet in this patch alongside the back fence next to the quiet peach tree.

The mulch is messy with leaves; the climbing clematis at the center of the spot is at rest.  I store the cottages away for the Winter and will set them up again when Spring begins to take hold.  Come late Spring, all of the Summer, and some of the Fall, the fairy houses will be a spot of magic along the fence.  For now, while the cottages and fairies are at rest, the plot has a bird feeder at one end and a bird house at the other.

It is the quiet season for the garden.  But in my mind’s eye I can see the season to come.  While the cold has its days, I will also rest.  But with my rest comes the planning for the coming season.  Soon enough, the fairies will return.