Writing more postcards in support of Katie Porter. This is organized by a neighborhood group called Hang Out Do Good or HODG.
Carolyn K.
What state is Katie Porter? I’m back in Iowa (figuratively) writing for Theresa Greenfield.Ruth Silveira
Katie is California, Orange County. Thank you for what you are doing.Susan J.
I just joined an online letter-writing group. I “adopted” Florida as my swing state of choice.Ruth Silveira
Still writing postcards, finished 40 more tonight.
Isolation Diary: If it weren’t for my family I would be batshit crazy. The garden helps. The heat does not.
Susan J.
Just keep pouring gallons of cold water on your head. Do it out in the garden and you’ll serve a dual purpose! Oy.Sabrina A.
Same!
Isolation Diary: Do you remember when I posted about my online encounter with a person who thought differently than I do about our current situation here in the USA? Not covid, Trump. She stopped sending me her blog posts but tonight I checked in on her posts. And responded to one. Quite a long paragraph. Making my position clear and urging her to give a think. And doing so brings up feelings. I have not had a face to face discussion with a Trump supporter. I am isolated not only because of covid but because of the people I know and associate with. I think I am getting good information but I suppose those who only watch Fox News think the same. I just want to shake them. Shake them! (I hope that a big deal is made about Trump’s fake news about his nomination competitors back in 2016) The feelings……I am sad because of the fracture. If, perchance, I had a face to face discussion with this person, what would happen? I would certainly lose my cool (do I have any?) and become emphatic. I would try to listen. I would begin to tremble inside, I know this. It is unpleasant. (Although in certain circumstances it could be a good thing.) I would perhaps encounter an alien mindset.
Pauline P.
Most of the Trump supporters I know don’t watch the news often or pay much attention to politics. They ignore the hourly scandals and easily dismiss any evidence that would lead to cognitive dissonance. They often support (mostly abstractly) the military and law enforcement and still think Republican=small government. Which makes sense. The local commercials here in Oklahoma say that it’s an Oklahoma value to “treasure law enforcement” while “parts of the country is going up in flames” (this is said in a way that insinuates that the wild fires are caused by flag burning and riots. Not hyperbolically either). There is a constant drum beat that liberals are going to take away guns (despite this never happening) and in many commercials they talk about the dangers of “radicals, liberals, progressives, and socialists” which are apparently all one in the same and all antithetical to traditional values. People are terrified that rioters are coming to their homes, and that toddlers are being kidnapped by the thousands and that liberals are going to steal their small businesses and their guns. What I’ve basically been told is that they’ll accept Trump’s “flaws” (read his entire personality) if it means they can keep their status quo in check from these (largely fictitious and greatly exaggerated) evils. They’re a group of people who say they don’t want to live in fear but are afraid of EVERYTHING.Ruth Silveira
Yeah. Thanks for the insight into Oklahoma, at least some part of it. In my opinion, the best answer to this is to overwhelming defeat Trump, and nothing terrible happens. They get their status quo with a few positive bumps in health care. Small businesses, which are struggling now, survive. Life goes on. It’s ok. What was the fuss?
(This post was a mistake!)Isolation Diary: cough, cough. Cough, cough. Shallow breath, cough, cough. Blink, blink, blink, my eyes! Cough, cough, cough.
Nancy W.
Ruth, get well soon! I’m so sorry to hear you are sick. Keep us informed. Sending love an healing thoughts.Nancy W.
Ruth–I think and HOPE I misinterpreted your post. YouNancy W.
are NOT sick, right? It’s the terrible air quality that’s causing the coughing, shallow breathing, and eye blinking. That’s bad enough, but tell me I’m right. The thought just occurred to me as I was getting into bed. xoxoRuth Silveira
Nancy, I think if you were in California you would know I am expressing the experience of the dreadful air conditions.Nancy W.
I realized that after I’d posted my comment. Here, as soon as we hear the word “cough,” we think “Covid.” But, of course I know about the nightmare conditions in CA and feel for all of you.Laura E.F.
Oo I know. My eyes are burning full time..Alisa T.
I’m hoping you are referring to the smoky air and that you are not ill!!!!!Ruth Silveira
I am not sick!!!! It’s the smoke in the air. Sorry to cause concern.
Isolation Diary: My mood is beginning to shift through the day, sometimes hourly. Feeling the stress of the up coming election. Also sensing a change in my focus….very out of focus presently. Trying to understand where I am in my life, what I can do, what I want to do. I am so sad sometimes. Like right now. Being an actress was a good choice for me (was it a choice?) because I had so much emotion I wanted to feel (that may seem strange–an emotion is something you feel, right? but wanting to feel it means I wanted to explore it) but I didn’t want to live a tempestuous life, no interest in that. Right now, I am so sad that so many people are off the rails. What is that feeling? Why such fear, such hate? My god, humans are complicated. Then–shift–I am serene. I am brainstorming with Adam about the D and D campaign I am creating. Good times. A nice tomato from my garden and some beans for tomorrow. Could my little grandson Fig be cuter? No. Could my other grandson, Duncan, 11 years, be sweeter and more clever? No. My daughters be more beautiful in every way, my sons in law be more loving, No. And there I am, all over the place. Please gods let me hold it together.
Natalie R.
I really understand the emotional complexity you are describing here. Entirely relatable. Sending you best wishes always.Mandi M.H.
Yes. Gosh all of this. Yes. Hugs.
Isolation Diary: I am at home after a Sunday by myself, drinking a little too much wine. I did not enjoy my dinner, I would very much like to go out to a restaurant!!!! And have a chef with skills so much greater than mine serve me a meal; while I chatted with a friend or family member opposite me who was also enjoying the meal.
Kathi C.
I only ate raw food this week. I’m cooking only for my dog right now. I’m sick of cooking for one. I drive by restaurants and I want to cry because eating out with friends is one of my favorite things to do in life. I miss going to see films and theatre. I was going to the theatre or doing a play almost every week for decades. I’m really missing my old life and all my friends and family. This is hard.Ruth Silveira
So hard.
Isolation Diary: I am just returned from a trip north to visit my brother in Felton (just inland from Santa Cruz). I traveled by train and, not wanting to take a connecting bus, Ted, my brother, picked me up in Salinas. And reverse back home. I like traveling by train. However, no wifi service and I missed the debate. Actually on purpose, not wanting to elevate my indignation level to life damaging heights, or depths. I spent a LOT of time looking out the window of the train and here are two observations: California is large and a lot of it is not burning. I don’t mean in any way to diminish the loss and trauma of the devastating fires California and it’s people have experienced but from the window of the Coast Starlight I saw no evidence of fire, current or past. Also, we passed many small towns, isolated farms, and somewhat larger towns, all separated from each other. I thought that it is probably an effort to travel to a larger town or the closest small city. To travel to a large city…San Francisco or anywhere in the Bay Area or Los Angeles or San Diego is a major event. So small town people (fly over people) may think they are overlooked by the ‘elite’ and not understood but, on the other hand, do they understand urban dwellers? I think maybe not. In our large state and our large country, with the clamoring of the media bending our perceptions, how do we acknowledge and learn to deal with and accommodate differing experiences and needs?