CHILL!

 

                                               

It’s cold.  There were even a very few snow flurries in Waycross, Georgia.  There are blizzards throughout the northeast.  Please, please, understand that this does not mean global warming has been rescinded.  2015 was the warmest year in recorded history; that dubious honor will be passed to 2016. 

I am thrilled to have cold weather; it reminds me that there is still a balance in nature.  It allows me to wear my jackets, scarves and cozy pajamas.  It makes my black lab Artie very happy.  Plus, I know all too soon it will be hot again and the heat will go on and on and on…..

Yes, I grew up in the north so maybe that’s why I like the change of seasons.  I truly do believe that change is good and balance is needed.  Forgive me, but I get really annoyed at people who are always freezing and saying “I just can’t wait for summer!”  Like summer is a rarity?  Summer begins in May and goes through November in South Georgia.  We have approximately two weeks of actual coldness.  Come on, people, deal! 

I miss snow.  I probably wouldn’t enjoy trying to get around in a blizzard, but then they have snow days when it gets really bad, or at least everything is forced to stop for a while.  For that short space of time, everything is white, clean and silent, certainly a rarity in New York City.  I know right now my daughter is not particularly happy about knowing she has to trudge through cold wetness to get to work and she will probably be happy if a southward move is in her near future.  Bless her heart, as they say down here, she grew up in the South. 

I think you appreciate warmth more when you’re cold for a while.  I appreciate a chill in the air after months of heat.  Yin and yang, black and white, up and down, hard and soft….  It’s the way things are supposed to be.

I hate to think that future generations may have a world without polar ice caps and with more flooding and weather extremes.  I’ve read science fiction stories that involve humans cultivating new planets after trashing Earth; it makes one hopeful.  But that is fiction—we are trashing our planet without another one to go to. 

Take the cold weather and the snow as the way things are supposed to be.  Those of you who can’t wait until it’s hot again—be careful what you wish for…

The Jewish Unicorn

Bernie Sanders is MY Barack Obama.  Let me explain.  I remember the complete elation I felt when Obama was elected; the unbelievable had happened!  I was jumping up and down and screaming, in a group of people who were doing the same thing.  Comparing him to Sanders in no way diminishes how the pride I felt then and still do.  But Bernie could be my uncle or cousin.  An old, white, Jewish Socialist.  My people!  It would be another miracle, another occasion to scream.

But truly, that’s not why I like him.  Barack Obama being black is obviously not his only desirable quality either; after all, Ben Carson is black as well, and I don’t think he is generating that degree of interest in the African-American community.  I don’t even know if Bernie is polling well with Jews—certainly not with conservative Jews.  I like Bernie Sanders because he brings back the idealism of my youth.

I believed in peace and brotherhood as long as I can remember.  Anti-war rallies, civil rights demonstrations filled me with a spiritual sense that all things were possible.  I believed in a future with unicorns and frolicking lambs---no, not really.  But I did believe that if we stayed true to a goal and continued to work hard, amazing things were possible. 

Somewhere along the way, I lost the fervor and the drive.  I ignored it all the years I raised children, worked and did all the daily mundane things one does.  President Obama’s election was the rebirth of and I really hate to let go of it.  Not as much as I’d hate Trump to be President, but somewhere close to that level of emotion.  Bernie Sanders has kept that fervor all those years, despite living and working in the middle of political reality. 

I think that’s why he has generated the support of young people—young people much like my own younger self.  Even if you don’t agree with me politically, even if you believe he doesn’t have the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell, allow yourself to dream of the world we coulda shoulda have.

Are You Just Gonna Stand There Sitting On Your Behind?--Idella Landy, "Purlie Victorious"

 

 

I try not to think about getting older too much, but in a week when two famous people, exactly my age have died (prematurely, I think) it’s hard to not think about one’s mortality. 

At this time in my life, age does not bother me (well, except for the various aches and pains that sometimes remind me), but the idea of time running out does.  There is so much to do!  How much can I do?  Will I see any of the changes I so desperately want while I’m still here?

All of which leads to the nagging question “Am I doing enough?”  There will always be those who do more than me, and those who do less.  I sometimes envy people who remain oblivious to the wrongs in the world and exclusively focus on themselves and their own little space in the cosmos.  These are the people who “don’t care about politics” and dismiss everything by saying “All politicians are crooked”. 

Like the hard line right wingnuts, these people are impervious to logic, reason, discussion and information.  What they don’t know is irrelevant and therefore can’t hurt them.  Frighteningly, many of them actually do vote. They vote via the Pavlovian rule of politics—if it rings a bell, it must be the right choice.  For these people, a candidate needs to be in the news (read—Fox News) a lot or invest in a lot of huge campaign signs. 

The question often asked by my friends and by me is what can we do to push people into the real world; how can we help them see what is killing them and what can save them?  As my clear-thinking friend Tom Strait pointed out in his recent blog, if we don’t recognize the danger being done to our earthly environment on a daily basis and take significant action to stop it, everything else really doesn’t matter.  How can anyone think for a nanosecond that global warming is a theory?  Each new year is the hottest—globally—on record.  “They” say it is a natural fluctuation; “They” say what about the snowstorms?  “They” don’t take the time to understand what climate change entails or how long it takes to occur naturally.

And then there’s everything else—health care, wars, corporate control of our country……  This election year is probably the most significant one in my ever-growing-longer history.  What can I do?  What can you do?

The 4.2 people who read this will probably agree with me.  In that case, I’m speaking to you.  The only thing you can do is speak out (calmly and rationally) all the time—and join others that do!  Become active in the political process in any way you can, by joining a group that is doing things and support your candidate.  Post on social media and write letters to any and all editors that will print them! 

In recent years, my passion has been theater as a medium for messages; “Purlie Productions” is our modest way of carrying on the work of hometown hero Ossie Davis for the current and future generations of our community.  Ossie, like so many others, left his hometown years ago so he could actually achieve his goals.  It’s a sad fact that so many home towns do not allow that to happen.  So many, right here, have no voice in their present or future.  So many think that change is not possible.  I truly wish I can see the proof that they are wrong.