What is the matter with Kansas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, men, and and and..

 

 

This is who we are.  While I recently wrote that we were an optimistic country that wants to and usually does do the right thing, it seems that we as a country took a decided detour away from that ideal. 

This is what the majority of the people of the United States are.

As someone wrote, we love a rapist more than women, a felon more than the person who spent her life enforcing the law.

Millions of people actively and apparently enthusiastically voted against their self-interests.  Just as William Allen White wrote about farmers voting for politicians who passed legislation that hurt farmers, people voted for the party and policies that will hurt their lives, from cutting social security to cutting taxes for the wealthy to easing regulations that make us safer.

People seemingly are OK with a regime (and I use that term intentionally) that wants to ignore the words on the Statue of Liberty  about the country being a refuge and place of opportunities, opportunities that most of the people who live in this country have enjoyed

People have believed and accepted all the fearmongering about crime, about the “threat” of LGBTQ+ and especially  transgendered people, LEGAL immigrants, DEI, a failing economy, and how it is better to make sure the rich get richer and so much more.

And then about the status and treatment of women.  While 7 states passed bills trying to protect the right to reproductive health care, more Americans than not voted to support a candidate and ticket that limits women’s rights to bodily autonomy and honestly, encourages a world where women are second-class citizens without the same rights as men.

I could go on.  But this is who we are as a nation, if you are to believe to election results.  And unlike many, I do believe and accept election results.  Even when I don’t like them.

But as individuals, we are not all like this.  What do we do?  Vice President Harris had a great line in her concession speech.  “I concede the election, but I do not concede the fight.”

So, I fight.  Even though I view more than half of the electorate with some distrust because what they have done to so many people, it is still my world.  There have been many other people who are trying to figure out what to do, and here is a brief list of things that I have found or things which I hope will help:

·      Lean on trusted social networks (not just the online ones!) and expand them when you can.  A neighborhood is still a neighborhood.

·      Live your life as an example of what you want for the country.  Be kind. Share.  Love when you can and at least be tolerant when you can’t. Show people by example what we can be.

·      Don’t doom scroll or only watch MSNBC or Fox or whatever.  Use your Netflix subscription.  Read a book.  Go for a walk.  Still travel to learn.

·      Learn something new.  Take a class.  Start a project.  Ideally, do this together with that social network mentioned above.

·      Write a poem.  Paint a picture.  Plant flowers.  Paint your house.  Find beauty and make some of your own.

·      Do something for others.  It isn’t all about you.  It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture—the smallest kindness can make a difference and they do add up.

I don’t fully know.  We are entering uncertain and different times that are far from the American ideals of a country of hope and kindness.  That may be the only certainty that we have.  But while there is this seismic shift with the majority, the minority still can make a difference.  I am going to try and help.

Election day

 

 

I hate political themed blogs—I am always amazed at the increased numbers of bloviating writers since the last presidential election.  Even though I am technically a low-volume consumer of these blogs or writings (I am not on Reddit or Substack or other providers), the content still makes its way into my inbox or more annoyingly, onto my Facebook feed.  You used to have to own the press and be able to buy ink by the barrel to share your opinion—now you can do it with a few clicks and a Starbucks internet connection.

Of course I totally exclude myself from these bloviating folks—I simply offer a few thoughtful political observations on this day of reckoning for the country.

First off, I am incredibly optimistic about our country.  We have faced crisis before and amazingly the country has survived.  Wars, monetary foolishness, and even fools have dented but not completely smashed the ideal that is the United States.  So that is good.  But good heavens, I am dumbfounded on how we do this.  We seem to take the most painful, most tortuous path.  Someone, perhaps Churchill, posited that “Americans will do the right thing once they have tried everything else.”

How true, I hope.  The country has tried other things including a lingering, painful nine-year experiment with things Trumpian.  It has divided the country and families, brought shame and embarrassment to the United States, and very certainly lessoned our prestige and the image of a shining city on a hill.  Meanness has become the currency of discourse, and we have devolved into a zero-sum society that allows one group to do better only if the other groups suffer and do worse.

Obviously you should be able to read between the lines on which side of this political divide I stand.  I suppose this decision could be and for many is based on policy differences between the candidates and parties.  There are plenty of these, and while they sway my thinking a bit, they are not the reason why I stand where I stand.

The United States is this confederacy of states but it is also an idea and ideal.  It is a place where people go for refuge, to learn, to prosper, and where they can disagree with the government and others.  Safely.  It is a dream, something that is totally aspirational and it totally isn’t just states with a border.  We should strive for these ideals, all the while knowing that we aren’t quite there yet.  We have much work to do before we are that perfect or even that very, very good Union that we dreamed of and began almost 250 years ago.

How we as a nation have accomplished what we have over this span of time was not just through policies. Those change, sometimes when the wind blows and for sure when there are elections.  The elasticity of the country in terms of policy shifts is pretty remarkable but in my mind, what has supported this (and sometimes, even the successes) of this fragile experiment is that the United States has done the right thing, eventually.  Eventually, character wins over rhetoric.  Eventually, belief in the ideals of this country wins, and lastly, hope and the belief in hope will win out.  I can’t believe that the United States is a dystopian, wasted landscape of despair as some have portrayed.

We will do the right thing, eventually.  This election gives the country a chance to be a little better, to hope, and to polish up that shining city on a hill. Let’s hope we make the correct choices to begin to do the right thing.

I have to go.  My internet connection is timing out…

What's been going on...

 

So some might wonder what have I been up to for the past four years, and it is not all that easy or simple to answer.  Remember that in my last post I mentioned that I have not exactly followed a simple or predictable arc.  I suppose what has been the foundation of the second half of my life has been teaching and education, and that has continued, though I have had detours working for the U.S. Census, a grocery store, and even a go at Starbucks.  And I have the green apron and a pay stub to prove it in case I run for office.

For most of the past four years I have been teaching in one way or another in the high schools.  That has been a pretty dramatic change from years working in the colleges.  It has not always been an easy transition.  I started subbing all over the metro area during the COVID year, and then I was lucky enough to take a long-term sub position for six months.  Last year, I accepted a full-time assignment at an alternative credit recovery high school.  This school year I am back to subbing pretty much full time or at least every day that I want to or can.

As for the transition to working with high school students, all I can really say is wow.  There have been some incredibly rewarding and fun moments where I truly felt/feel that I made/make a difference.   Then there are the days that I spend my time telling the boys to stop making farty noises and issuing bathroom passes,

On balance, it is a pretty rewarding, positive experience, and at the least, I have great stories to tell during post-work cocktail hour!

One advantage of teaching all over is that I get to see all variety of high schools and the variety of students.  Last week I subbed at Edina, no doubt the crown jewel of metro area schools.  Other than perhaps Purdue University,  Edina has the nicest physical plant of any college or university that I have taught at and that list is pretty long.  It is the land of straight teeth and designer clothes for sure, and certainly most if not all are hoping for a spot in some Big 16 or Ivy League institution.  If I am to believe my informal observational poll based on sweatshirts, Harvard seems a popular choice as does Indiana for some reason.  No one was wearing Purdue wear…sigh.

Some other schools are not so lucky to have that same tax base.  Columbia Heights where I frequently am at and where I love to sub, spends less than one-third of what Edina spends on each student.  It is a nice school, but the students are far more likely to be English-language learners than SAT stars, though I have found that there are academic all-stars everywhere and in every single school.

Working at Edina or Southwest or Washburn makes you notice that some students start on their path to academic success at different places and with vastly different resources.  Here is a simple test to show this is the case.  Ask a class what they did during summer vacation.  At some schools, you will hear tales of trips near and far and time at the lake or tennis camp, and they often are wearing sweatshirts that memorialize the trip or experience.  Ask that same question at some other school and you hear tales of work or video games or taking care of siblings.  There clearly is a resource and opportunity gap that is sometimes unimaginable.

My eyes, and certainly my heart, has been made far more aware of all that students have to deal with.  In Minneapolis, almost 15% of students experience housing insecurity each year, and at the school where I taught all last year, the figure was closer to 25%.  Imagine, one out of four students wonder whether or not they have a consistent , safe, place to stay.  Food insecurity is even more prevalent.  Our Communist-Socialist governor, Tim Walz, THANKFULLY signed a bill over strenuous protest to ensure that students got a free lunch and breakfast.  I have seen first-hand significant numbers of students who wait to ingest every available calorie during these meals because that is the only food that they have for the entire day.  Yeah, what a terrible thing to do, making sure that students have something to eat.  No wonder we want him out of the governor’s mansion—what a terrible man.  He should be vice-president or something.

So I get up every morning and am on the road about 7AM to be on the pointy end of the education system.  Today I am teaching business, last week I taught science, history, French, English, and one class of Chinese.  Teaching might be a bit too strong of a verb, but I am in front of a classroom, a spot where I think that I belong.

More pictures and a more personal take on what’s up with me in the next episode.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Beginning again

 

You know, I used to do this 10 or 12 times a month and sometimes when I had more to say or, more usually, when I had absolutely nothing to say I used to do this even more.  It is hard to believe that I have not posted anything on my blog for almost four years.

Since I first wrote in August of 2008, I have posted 696 times.  These posts documented a move across the country to Washington and back, trips hither and yon, and many, many adventures both large and small.  And lots and lots of flowers.  And words!  If each post averaged 500 words, not an unreasonable assumption considering  my overly wordy tendencies, that is 348,000 words.  The average adult novel has between 80,000 and 120,000 words.  War and Peace has about  560,000 words so I have some work to do, but still.  People who have been following along since the beginning very well could use this for their summer book report!

These words (and pictures) have told a story of a life that might not have been perfect but one that has always been good.  Very good, mostly and actually.  Hey, I am from the Midwest, where the most common response to the question “How are you?” is simply, “Can’t complain…”. And I can’t.  The story it tells certainly isn’t one smooth arc of progress and perfection, but I do think that the blog attests to positive movement.  Yep, I'm trending positive!

But what to do about this blog?  At one point I liked to believe that there was a following, however small it was.  It has been seen or visited almost 119,000  times, and only about 47,000  of those visits were by me, no doubt checking on if ANY ONE had actually read what I posted.  Certainly no one recently has made it “must read/see TV,”  to butcher a reference to what people my age used to look forward to watching  on Thursday nights.

All that blathering aside, I have come to realize that I miss the blog.  I miss the process of it all, the sharing, having to write in complete sentences, and letting people perhaps see why I do have eleventy-seven cameras.  And, I suppose, I miss letting people peek into my life a little bit and to let those few who might be regulars or become regular visitors know a bit more about me and what I am up to.

And so it begins again.  Call it my resolution—this will become more regular feature.  First step is to post some pictures.  Since my photo library said I have saved more that 10,700 photos since 2020,  I have some to choose from.

 

Workbenches and other things

Happy New Year!  I am continuing my twice yearly (at least) blogging.  Honestly, I will try and do better.  I miss it, and it seems to be one way to force myself to maybe even take a photo now and then.

I have shared a few photos of the shed in my life.  This 10X12 shed is a workshop, a storage space and, of course, a retreat of sorts. It is hard to be mad or frustrated with the world when you are surrounded by the smell of sawdust, the sight of tools with earned patina, and a comfortable chair.  I have found that a comfortable chair may be the most important tool in the shed.  You know, a chair for thinking.  Or napping.

This space also allows me to continue my collection of workbenches and now I have three.  Seriously, someday I will just collect stamps or something easy to store and carry, but for now I will stick to workbenches.  And anvils.  My first one was a beat up bench that I found in Michigan.  My second workbench was an estate find, and it holds a TV, and, as always, lots of books.  Being small and pretty, it is "furniture" and it resides in the living room.

My latest bench was a gift and it was hard and expensively earned.  My lifetime friend, mentor, and colleague passed away last fall and this was his legacy to me.  For more than 40 years he taught me, helped me, fixed my caneras, and was basically family for me.  He certainly was not above kicking me in the butt (stay in school, do better in school, file your negatives, be better) but he also was smart enough and kind enough at times to not say anything.  Since my parents passed away, he was my touchstone for my hometown, and I can think of only a few times in the past 30 years that I returned to Eau Claire without stopping in for a drink, a conversation, or. welcoming place to stay.  I miss him every time I pick up a camera, working or not, and when I wander through Eau Claire.

What to do with such an important gift? Frankly, I would rather have in his garage, covered with his latest project or holding anyone of the ten drills, the many, many tape measures and tools, the gallons and cans of paint and solvents and the other detrius of a skilled craftsman.   He was 88, and a resource and frend of inestemiable value.  The workbench was his father:s, so it is probably around 100 years old.

As with most things (and people) that have been around and that have been used, it shows its age.  There are scars and stains, dents and hurts.  Paint from projects long forgotten colored the dense wood of the top.  Oil from who knows what has bled into the grain.  I will always wonder what he painted that was traffic cone orange!  I preserved the orange blob but I spent more than a day sanding and polishing the top.  The dents and scratches did not disappear but they appear a bit healed, and the four coats of a satin finish shows off the beauty of the wood.

It is beautiful and priceless to me.  As I was putting my shop back together, I hesitated to put anything on the bench.  Part of that was because I love looking at the wood and wondering what was created on this bench that caused that stain or made that dent.  I also feel that after all that time and effort to refinish the top, I didn't wasnt to scratch that beautiful finish.

But that is silly--it is a tool, and it was made to be used.  I doubt that John or his father would think that is should just be a piece of furniture, but rather it is to be used as intended.  So I have used it, and just yesterday I put a scratch on it as I moved my miter saw to the workbench.  I winced, but then I smiled and silently toasted an absent friend.

Flowers, just flowers

So I have a lawn.  Well, I share a lawn.  And flowers.  But I planted many of these and grew them from babies.  Well, not really but some of these are from seeds which is pretty cool.   It is so cool that I am actually blogging after almost forever.  I would have done this sooner, but it takes a long time for flowers to grow, you know.  Maybe I might even try this again before fall leaves are as colorful as these flowers.

I have no idea what most of these flowers are.  I tend to identify growing things into larger grroups, like "grass" and :"trees" and, of course, "flowers."  Please click on the phtos to see larger images.  All were taken with a Canon 7D MarkII and a 100mm 2.8 Macro lens.

London, 2018-19

We had a wonderful trip to London over Christmas and New Years.  There is always (at least for me) the question of what I am to do with all the pictures.  Normally, I would readily post them to this blog, but I know that it is sorely neglected.   That is fine, I suppose, though I know my audience dwindles as I dawdle about and never post.

None-the-less, this is my home and where I do things like this.  The people that matter will see, and maybe, I will resurrect my blogging efforts.  Here are the first of the London photos.  If I do this correctly, you will be able to follow chronologically from our arrival on the 23rd to when we left after the New Year.

Oh, Happy New Year to you and yours.  More to come

Bees, bugs, and other things...

Once again, it has been a bit since I have posted any photos or words.  That happens, I guess.  I have a friend who hasn't posted in his blog for far longer (Steve) so actually I feel almost virtuous.  At least about blogging.  He is a minister so he has me on that virtuous thing.

None-the-less, here are a few photos.  We really have had a pretty good summer--the weather has been pretty good, no violent storms, and it hasn't snowed yet.  So here are some flower and bug photos.  As always, click to make the photo a bit bigger.

It has been a year since I have physically gone to work each day, and I have to say that I miss it.  I have more than made enough to live on and then some in this gig economy so that is not a worry, but I am thinking that it is time to seriously think about finding gainful employment.  It isn't that I am not looking--I have applied and earned the "thanks for playing" second place award several times.  Let's just say that community colleges are not a growth industry right now--it is a good overall job market but lousy in the college world.  That is where I want to work, but not where I have to work.  I just don't fully know where I can work and still maintain some sense of purpose in life.   

Stay tuned--the adventure continues. 

Cone flowers and butterflies

Yes, I  know it has been a long time.  Life has been a bit complicated, I guess.  I will go into more of that in the next few posts but for today, just some flowers and stuff.  I did not have the right lens on for butterflies but now that I know where they roam (and there were a ton of them!) I will try again.  But you get the idea.  It is after the 4th, so maybe more will come forth.  Watch this space!