Mary Beth Writes

3/29/2022

 The following is taken from this morning’s letter from Heather Cox Richardson. If you aren’t getting her letters, why not? She’s a historian and professor and is one of the smartest and most non-inflammatory voices right now. (Subscribe to her free newsletter at: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ )

United States District Judge David O. Carter of the US District Court for the Central District of California ordered John Eastman to disclose 101 documents to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Judge Carter says, “Eastman and Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was a coup in search of a legal theory…. If [the] plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.” 

And then this morning we learn: “Internal White House records from Jan show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.”

Today would be a good day to email or call your reps to say that you fully support the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. Because if we all write to all our reps they will have to deal with the reality I think many Republican representatives are assuming – that since we don’t say anything to them, we don’t care.

We came THIS CLOSE. There were dozens of planners, many enablers, and hundreds of followers who were ready to overthrow our democratic process.

That was crazy and we get to and need to say so.

If you are wondering about my heart, well, so am I. I thought Froedtert was the premier heart place in SE Wisconsin? I called again today and my nurse practitioner’s assistant called back to say she just called the lab where I sent the heart monitor.

She says the monitor is contracted from a company. They send the monitor to that company which then prints the info somehow and then sends that to the cardiology team at the big Froedtert central hospital. They look at it and then send it back to the local clinic to the patient’s medical care person. So, it takes a while.

What do you see here? I see a medical care system that has increased profitability by outsourcing a complicated set of information to a cheaper venue. I wonder if that company is in some other nation. I don’t know, I’m guessing. Then they send it to the central people who know what the score is and can select out patients who need immediate care and also who is likely to become a profitable patient. Cynical observation? Yes, but one wonders.

I understand that margins can be tight and providing health care has many places where an institution can’t be and do everything. But it's been three weeks and here we are. I have more questions about American health care than confidence in it.

Let’s talk about something easier.

How do we know it is Spring? A whole lot of the “Spring is busting out all over” observations are sentimental poppycock. Flowering trees, daffodils, birds and bunnies, windy days, and kites? Easter eggs and little kids in pastel clothes? It’s the end of March in Wisconsin and right now the windchill is 24 degrees.

Instead of just going with what they have told us is spring – WHAT IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD TELLS YOU THAT IT IS NOW SPRING?

THIS: A couple days ago I woke to a persistent racket on the other side of our bedroom wall. The sound is of someone chipping at the wall with hammers. Once again, like each year we have lived here, birds are building nests at the crook of two walls. Where gutters meet there is snug place on the gutters, under the eaves where some local flutter-budgies tamp sticks into a nest.

I hear the hammering, I see little brown birds flitting past the window, and I know that once again in our gray urban neighborhood, it’s Spring.

THIS: Fresh asparagus at the grocery store. (I picked asparagus my first job out of college. Not kidding.)

THIS: The sound of Sandhill Cranes flying WAY overhead, going north to the Arctic.

 

What are signs of Spring where you live?

 

 

Comments

Thank you for the reminder to write our Representatives. Did it. So often we just sit with bated breath waiting for the outcome of these investigations, when we need to make our voice heard to take part in our democracy. Maybe if you elevate your voice a bit more - you can get the results of your Holter monitor test a bit faster. Squeaky wheel and all that. Spring always seems slow to arrive. But the squirrels are acting "squirrely", and the birds are building nests - it can't be long!
Mary Beth's picture

Thanks and yes, I think it must help somewhat to let ALL our reps know we are paying attention. We have squirrel who has, I fear, a broken shoulder. I think of her as female and have named her Clarissa in honor of the little girl in the wheelchair in the Heidi story. Clarissa grabs a seed or crumb, then flop on her side to eat it. I worry about her.

Contacting the Wildlife rehab center at the Wisconsin Humane society might give you some help in what to do for Clarissa. https://www.wihumane.org/services/wildlife-rehabilitation-center

Spring is busting out all over here in Middle Georgia. Dogwoods, irises and azaleas blooming, all the trees leafing out in myriad shades of green, birds nesting (we have a Carolina wren nest on our back porch, and she's sitting on eggs). I'm setting out my tomato and pepper plants this week, and the temperature will be in the mid 80's this afternoon. This is a bit warm for the time of year, but we have a lot of temperature swings in March. Nothing like your 24 degrees. Not since two weeks ago when we had a low of 20, the coldest morning of the winter.
Mary Beth's picture

That sounds like May here - and it sounds wonderful! Enjoy it for us! Len and I are just back from a short walk. Today it is misty moisty gray, about to rain, and 40. We will take it.
Leonard's picture

Looking at your picture, it looks like it would kill your back. There are people hard at work, as we speak, designing lasers to harvest asparagus. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/eaef/6/3/6_105/_pdf

Despite having written a poem about how the crocuses are in conflict with the biting wind on my neck, I know it's sitting because the birds who live in our back porch eaves have hit the best all built and are increasingly in a flurry. It makes a big mess (also included in the poem), but it does feel comforting to know that they're getting ready for something. I trust the birds. I suppose I trust the crocus too ... Did you know there was an ancient ritual involving crocus petals to invite the wind? Perhaps they aren't foes after all!
Mary Beth's picture

I didn't know about crocus petal rituals. Now I will have to look that up. Hmmm.

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A-Z P is for Procrastination

6/2/2023

Procrastination. Or how the American Revolution was won. 

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't grant him the serenity to accept the things he cannot change.” (Tweet by Bob Golen) 

P is the next letter to write about in this project to write an essay for every letter of the alphabet. Someone suggested Procrastination.

Guess what? I’ve been putting it off.

...

GNTL - So Many Words!

5/30/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Words!

The month of May might have been above my paygrade. I contributed to a weeks-long writing project in our congregation. I met friends more often than usual to talk and catch up. Two grandkids came for a sleepover last week. Our daughter and her little dog spent last Friday with us. Saturday another grandkid slept over.

GNTL - Kathryn's Garden

5/29/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Kathryn’s Garden

My friend Kathryn sent some beautiful photos of her garden to me this morning, I asked if I could post them here and she said yes. 

Some of you know Kathryn Rouse so you know this is not a garden-come-lately. She’s been building and growing her garden since, I think, the late 1970’s. The bunny in a hurry is a Bill Reid sculpture.

I think Kathryn's photos are the right frame for the poem.

A-Z Observation

5/24/2023   O is for Observation

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a pre-telescope Danish astronomer who looked at the sky more precisely than anyone before him had done. He was obsessively careful about measuring what he saw and he studied the sky every night he could. To accomplish what he wanted he reinvented and fine-tuned the sky-gauging tools of his era – sextant and quadrant.

You may have seen these tools in paintings of old-time sailors. They would hold them up to their face, look at the stars, figure out where they were in the world.

GNTL - Squirrels & Gardens & the Sonoran Desert

5/18/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

My garden thrives in ignominy.

Yesterday I posted some frugal things I’ve done lately at the Non-Consumer Advocate website. I do this because the kinds of people who try to be frugal are often (not always) people who I wish would come over here and read my website, too. I don’t write too much about frugal strategies but I write lot about values. We are in the same Venn diagram, right?

GNTL - Walk, Mounds, Spirit

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

5/17/2023 

The local TV weather folks talked about ‘a pneumonia front’ for two days. I’d never heard the term before but we all know temps can change fast, right? It’s more generally called life on planet earth. Keep a jacket handy if you can.

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