Hopefulness

[pegkerr]

Saw kijjohnson this morning, who has spent the past two weeks in Rice Lake, Wisconsin with her parents, to help out since her mother suffered an injury. She came to town and stayed with her brother last night, and then met me for breakfast on her way to the airport to fly back to Seattle. She looks great, as usual. We talked about the book she's working on, the Decrease Worldsuck project, and how we see the coming year. It's a year that is going to bring change to both of our lives, some of it forced upon us. But we felt rather hopeful contemplating it, I think, judging that we were both doing a pretty good job of facing the challenges life has dealt us in the past few months.

What I did today to make the world a better place: After Kij left, we culled some items from our pantry for a food shelf collection, and then the girls and I went to Walgreens to buy another couple bags of items to donate: diapers, more food, dishwashing soap, etc. I ran them over to a home I'd found on the www.usaservice.org website, who will take all donated food to a food shelf. While I was there, two other cars were also unloading. I went up the stairs and had a short chat with the homeowners hosting the drive. I was pleased to see that that they'd already collected a good twenty or so bags of groceries in just an hour. They offered me hot cider for the road. Another car was pulling up as I drove away.

I went to the Powderhorn (our local neighborhood center)'s celebration for the MLK holiday. I tried to get the girls to go with me, but they begged off, citing homework. I felt rather irritated about this, and disappointed for their sakes, because it really was a great event. I only came in the last twenty minutes or so, but they had a succession of performers up on the stage: folksingers, breakdancers, South American dancers, African drummers, slam poets, all very good, and I hugely enjoyed what I got to hear. A busy kitchen was serving up rice and beans, chicken, greens, cake and cornbread. Fun. I was glad I went.

I've been dipping into the inauguration coverage on and off this weekend (I had an amusing moment this morning when I went downstairs and tried to turn on the TV and see if there was anything about the inauguration, and after several minutes of befuddlement I realized that I have absolutely no idea how to work the TV clickers in my own house. I think the last time I turned on the television set was to watch the opening night of the Olympics. It shows you how little television I watch.) I wish I could just watch the coverage tomorrow, but alas, one of my attorneys has three enormous federal filings tomorrow, which means I'll be too busy to breathe at work tomorrow, let alone watch the swearing in on the television in the lunchroom at work. And then there is a church council meeting tomorrow night that I CANNOT duck out of, so I can't watch any repeat coverage tomorrow night, which is quite frustrating. Nevertheless, I am very hopeful for the country as it charts a new path under our new President, although I know it's going to take a long time to pull us out of this mess. (And, as is probably no surprise to anyone who has read this journal for awhile, I am ECSTATIC that George W. Bush is leaving the White House.

Comments

[mjryan.livejournal.com]

I have friends that live in Rice Lake! It's a small world.

[petal-pusher.livejournal.com]

Just a thought, you might want to change the "Decrease World Suck" to a phrase that is positive. Your phrase seems to focus on the negative, ie the world sucks. Anyway, I just thought I'd put it out there for you.