I used to know someone who, whenever something odd happened, would say, “I just had to laugh.” She said it often.
I laugh at Carlton often.
I said it today when once again I was so upset by the Racist in Chief, then my job took an unexpected turn. Might as well laugh at how fleeting the sense of things being not so bad can be.
Luckily I just read an essay by a Black womanly journalist (these are pertinent to the story) who said that constantly getting caring folks riled up and feeling powerless might not be the right tactic if we want to head toward some sense of safety and equality. We need to empower our allies and friends to learn to laugh at how desperate some folks are to hang on to their perceived power and status that they do more and more ridiculous things that even their loyal minions are starting to find distasteful.
That’s what all bullies do, try to put others down to build themselves up. Or to massage their egos. I’m grateful that my ego doesn’t need fawning, flattery, and faux awards to build myself up. I just have to laugh at those sad needs of the Head Bully.
Ah, a weekend is welcome right now, so I can gear up to support my colleagues next week. My drive to rally the troops is very strong.
I’ll continue to make attractive squares in sets of nine or ten, too.
And beware that I’m prepared to call out anyone else around me who’s all proud of their white supremacy. I’ve had enough of that crap. Right and wrong are still right and wrong, and racism, homophobia, and misogyny are wrong. That’s not just for us highly educated old white ladies; it’s for everyone. (I think I’m fed up and no longer laughing.)
A Short-eared Owl was hooting when I took this photo.
I couldn’t write much last night, because I’d had some wine and wasn’t able to sort through the events of the day well enough. I’m not sure that I’m finished processing yet, but I’m working on it.
My processing face
It was extra cold yesterday morning! I finally got to make a temperature blanket square with purple in it (it was 21° F). It did warm up enough to take a nice walk mid-morning, though. bluebirds were everywhere, and I found their gentle song quite comforting.
After watching yet another team I like lose in the American football playoffs (all the ones I liked lost in close games), Lee and I brought more hay out for the horses, and of course they all got out and scattered in search of better grass, of which there wasn’t any. They didn’t know that. At least I got exercise encouraging them to come back in.
It’s a very good thing they can’t see this cover crop across the road. It’s so green (rye grass, I assume).
Where I got all my processing to process was going to a gathering of woman at a friend’s house. It was very heartwarming to see so many like-minded women in one place. Some of the conversation was hard on me. I heard details of activities of people I already disapprove of that made me sick.
It’s really like the mega-wealthy who have the power live in yet a third society where the guidelines for ethical and moral behavior do not apply. I guess I knew this. You can pretty much do anything if you’re a white man in that society. It makes their hard-core MAGA followers seem tame. I guess I could have lived without so many details, though it’s good to know. (I do not have citations for you, but I heard them).
Yuck. How I wish we’d been able to keep on the path toward making Martin Luther King’s dream come true. I’d sure sleep better at night.
My rock for today.
But, human nature doesn’t fundamentally change, does it? We have more machines, infrastructure, and stuff, but there are still elites and powerless people, wars started just because someone is power hungry, and people living in fear. It was this way a thousand years again, two thousand years ago, and no doubt long before that.
Fighting human nature is frustrating and will fail more often than it succeeds. I will still keep trying.
Today had its ups and downs, but in the interest of time I’ll just share ups. You’re welcome.
Look!
The turkeys are happy to share that their hit is finished. According to my son, they were VERY helpful while he was moving it into place and getting it painted. They really wanted to help him paint and kept trying to grab the brushes.
We’re not shy. We also appreciate our water dish being put on a level surface!
I love how well the hut matches the henhouse, tack room, and horse pens. It’s so classic barn red. And it has a nice metal roof with few sharp edges to give me tetanus.
Off the ground for drainageRoof. It slants two inches to drain rain out of the yard. We put shavings in it.
I hope the dang turkeys use it. This evening I went out to check on them and the only occupants I saw were the chickens in their area and this guy in the backup coop. He is not a turkey.
You interrupted my rummaging through chicken feed!
Oh well. It isn’t going to hurt anyone. The turkeys would peck it to death first.
Other good stuff? Lee and I did a non-hermit thing and went to a friend’s house for dinner. We had a wonderful time in an old farmhouse laughing and telling stories with our friend and the other guest. He was also a hermit. We had a lot in common. This is the kind of thing we should do more often. It’s great to meet smart, funny, like-minded folks out here.
This painting was on the wall. It’s by a friend I miss very much.
When I got home I had a long phone call with my former professor, Doc Shenkman, who just happens to have spent many years training law enforcement officers in ethics and acting within the law. As you can imagine, he had interesting things to say. He’d called so I could cheer him up, but I don’t think the stories I shared from my friends in Minneapolis did that. But, it’s good to hear the perspective of someone trained in law enforcement on recent events.
And as always, we both noted that there are many agents acting as they should, doing a hard and unpopular job. I just want us all safe, treated with respect, and able to express ourselves without fear.
Rock for today.
I hope I didn’t veer too far off the cheerful, but all the conversations today (family, work, friends, and new friends) made me feel less alone and a wee bit more hopeful.
I have some firmly held beliefs that have caused me deep sadness because I dare to express them. you can be blackballed for these beliefs. And of course I realize my beliefs are aspirational goals.
I expect the following groups of people to be treated with respect and dignity by their community, leaders, and law enforcement.
Women
Children
Black, brown, red, and white people
Gays
Lesbians
Trans people
Bisexuals
Intersex people
Anyone who loves anyone else or presents as any gender they want to
Pagans
Jews
Liberal Christians
Muslims
Any other spiritual path I missed
Descendants of Pilgrims
Native Americans
US Citizens
Legal Immigrants
Undocumented immigrants
People with physical handicaps
People with mental handicaps
Those addicted to or who abuse legal or illegal substances
People who commit crimes
People who make bad mistakes
People of all political parties or groups
Criminals
Poor people
Rich people
Intellectuals
Feminists
White supremacists
Oh, pretty much everybody
I didn’t say I condone or agree with ideas or actions of everyone, but basic human decency means that you can disagree, keep yourself safe, and enforce laws respectfully. I know it can happen. I know it’s never happened 100%, but we’re doing worse now, not better.
At least my animals still like me.
It also makes me unpopular to believe that the following people should be allowed to express their thoughts in the USA:
People who agree with the current US government’s policies and actions
People who like some things about the current situation and not other things
People who disagree with or have concerns with how our leaders conduct themselves and the decisions they make
People who believe what they see with their own eyes
People who prefer to be told what to believe
This state of affairs should not turn us against each other. Please don’t let us keep falling further and further into us versus them. We all suffer when that happens. Our families, friendships, businesses, and communities suffer. We lose the ability to trust.
Kindness starts with YOU. And me.
I’m despondent tonight over losing a friend. I should not have admitted that I’m afraid of things that are happening in the US. It’s becoming more and more clear that if I want to be safe I should not question what happens, do as I’m told, keep my head down, stay inside, and shut up. Damn, I’ve tried to be a good person.
The two most frightening days of my adult life are remembered by dates. One is 911. I still have dreams of being lost at O’Hare airport and can hear in my mind the sound of my plane’s captain telling us his colleagues and many others had just perished. I had the same feeling of living a nightmare on January 6, 2021. I can’t remember why I was watching a news channel then, but I was. I was terrified that the mob would kill lawmakers or burn down the US Capitol. I guess I expected terrorists to act that way, but not our citizens.
Today I did not forget. I saw it with my own eyes. It was real.
What’s also real is that there are millions of good, kind, ethical and law-abiding people in this country. I will not forget that, either. I had conversations all day that reminded me of it. I was reminded of how much we have in common, even if we grew up in different places. I was reminded of how even folks with values unlike mine mostly try to be good people, even if they don’t quite hit the mark (thinking of Mom).
I also discovered that I don’t have to think every person is a “good guy” for them to matter. People do awful things. They do. I can be disgusted by things people say and do but still see their humanity. Sounds simple but it’s hard for me to get my head around. Like my coworker’s grandmother said, “everybody’s a little crazy.” All of us.
I felt good today wearing my “You matter” shirt and painting good intentions into poorly lettered Reminder Rocks. it helped me send out positive thoughts, energy, intentions, or vibes even on this scary day. I kept channeling acceptance until I felt okay.
Reminder!
If we stick together in spite of our differences maybe we can turn this country into a less scary place, one kindness at a time. And even if we don’t, we can’t say we didn’t try.
I’ve recently learned that the current US President believes I am scum. And since he’s not a fan of lying (i.e. he seems to believe everything he says at least when it’s logorrhea-ing out of his mouth), it must be true. I think I’ll just own it.
There, I’m very blue and appear manic, though I don’t look like me.
I’m just gonna embrace my woke-i-tude even more than my usual hippie horse mom vibe. I bought shirts that shove my attitude right in people’s faces, both coming and going. I’m just gonna wear stuff like this every day. I do have sweatshirts, too.
Front Back FrontBackFront
The two-sided shirts are from dear person.co and took a long time to get here. The bottom one is from the Bitter Southerner. My other shirt from there says “radicalized by common decency.” Yeah. I’m that scary woke scum person who cares about everyone.
I’m glad I have attire to remind me to not forget my beliefs and morals. Just search for those companies or find your own radically caring slogan.
Transition photo
In less scummy news, I went back to work today and I was genuinely glad to see how my coworkers were doing and relieved at some good news from my perspective.
I had a late meeting so I did animal chores mid afternoon. That made the fowl happy. Darryl eats a lot, so I’ve increased their food quantity.
Apache made me laugh today. He rarely expresses strong opinions, but today he informed me in no uncertain terms that he would NOT go over our little hill on the right track. You see, Lee had started to add some dirt to it just before the front-end loader died, so there was fresh dirt on one end that hadn’t been smoothed down.
Apache was fine on left track, but when I changed directions, he pawed his feet. I asked him to keep going, so he walked to the top, turned to face me, then executed a perfect backup down the hill, stopping in the correct position to stretch his legs. It’s like he was saying he didn’t want to make a circle going down the new dirt side, but he’d happily skip to the backing up we usually do afterwards.
Here he’s demonstrating the stretch (okay, actually acting like he has to pee).
I said okay, we can do other stuff, so we trotted and cantered over poles and the cavaletti jump. Then some perfectly executed side passes on the ground were executed. I mean, I just asked once and he did it!
I went back to the hill with Apache and he enthusiastically trotted going left. But nope, not to the right. I convinced him to go once, then he decided he needed to be more firm about his wishes and gave a buck and a snort. I got the message and we finished with a little walk before I went back to work.
I have opinions, too!
I think he may have believed he’d slip on the loose dirt. Or something. He’s a horse, after all.
I listened to a lot of CNN News (what Lee likes) and NPR (my preference) today. Much of it was helpful in seeing multiple perspectives on current events, though by the time I was heading toward the year-end awards ceremony for Working Horse Central, I was feeling pretty glum.
Luckily the subject of On the Media switched to a discussion of whether the US is in its worst shape, has lost hope, etc., and while that sounds depressing, it helped me get a wider perspective. Brooke Gladstone talked to Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, and he masterfully reminded her of how far the country backslid in race relations after the Civil War. He told a healing story about reconciliation, which reminded me and the rest of the audience that we still have many good people in this place and that we just need to keep going. (This was the January 2 episode, but the interview was in April 2025—look it up!)
National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. These pillars are memorials to people who were lynched, county by county. Stevenson directs it.
The point is that uplifting and encouraging stories like the one I heard don’t downplay real-life challenges, but don’t ignore progress and positive actions. And NPR and other news outlets do feature them (and book reviews, science stories, etc.) if you happen to be listening at the right time.
I asked the AI to make me with “pleasant news only,” but it sucks.
So what I wish existed was a service that pings you or sends you a schedule for when non-depressing news and information is coming up. Or one that switched to soothing music each time certain officials are quoted, discussed at length, etc. I can take about five minutes of the latest depths to which this country’s leadership has fallen to. After that, let me learn about something else. Please, someone invent that or point me to it.
ChatGPT can at least spell.
Sorry for the rant. 2026 already feels 12 months long. But I did enjoy time with the nice horses and riders this morning, I enjoyed my own horses, especially Apache, and I enjoyed dinner with friends.
Mimosas made me happyTarrin teaching her baby stallionMy favorite mare of Tarrin’s getting warmed up. She’s still learning. Jackie is a great role model for groundwork. Smooth and responsive.
I feel better realizing that there has been injustice throughout our history, but there are always people fighting it.
My new game I play every day is to see how much further the current US President can sink into the pit of disgusting behaviors he’s creating. Honest, I’ve been trying to ignore it, but my body tells me that ain’t working.
I’m not going to list things that make me physically sick. You either have noticed them all or have some excuse that lets you put it aside so you can maintain your beliefs. We all do that.
Flower break! Henbit is up and starting to bloom. Good news for the chickens.
I’m just pissed off that it’s giving me anxiety pain and hurting others in much worse ways. I’m hoping the downward spiral breaks soon and we can live in only a semi-weird country, not a batshit crazy one.
I need to make another of these rocks for me.
At least it was a pleasant enough day and I got all my errands done, including lunch with our accountant. He’s a character, but then, my previous accountant was a Hare Krishna with bells on his office chair to remind him to chant.
Tomorrow will be another sunrise closer to the Winter Solstice. I’m gonna have to burn a big Yule log
Remember I still care for ALL of you. There should be room in our hearts for disagreement.
Full disclosure: Robert Reich is the American I admire most. So it’s no surprise that I hoped to enjoy his new memoir, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America (2025).
Yes. Punning is involved. He’s short.
Wow, this is an insightful book, both from a historical and philosophical standpoint. I think that, at last, I have a grasp on what was going on in the United States during my lifetime. I think I only had a superficial understanding of who won elections and who promoted wars, improved lives, made rich people richer, etc.
Robert Reich has known so many important political and intellectual figures in his lifetime, from all parties and perspectives. His first-hand accounts of historically significant events clarify my understanding of turbulent times and remind me that ours isn’t the only time of upheaval in the US. He freely admits where he made errors, too, which makes him much more credible than someone who’d claim to have never made mistakes.
I found his detailed analysis of how we got where we are today fascinating. I can see the current US leader’s appeal to disenfranchised citizens and how those folks have been distracted from their actual enemies, which are corporate interests out only for their own profit. I think we educated elites are also being distracted into thinking the enemy is Christian nationalism rather than corporate greed. Yikes.
Reich is someone whose thoughts and commentary I read daily, even though I get pretty alarmed sometimes. He does also try to point out where people are doing good work, speaking out, and standing up to bullies. It’s good to have a little hope. In that spirit, I give you this passage on patriotism from Coming Up Short:
“White male Christian nationalism has nothing to do with patriotism. True patriots don’t fuel racist, religious, or ethnic divisions.
“Patriots aren’t homophobic or sexist, nor are they blind to social injustices, whether ongoing or embedded in American history. They don’t ban books or prevent teaching about the sins of the nation’s past. They don’t censor truths that may make people uncomfortable, facts that are inconvenient, realities that people would rather not face.
“True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. They are devoted instead to the ideals of America- the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, freedom of speech and assembly, freedom from fear, and democracy. True patriots don’t have to express patriotism in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag. They express patriotism in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going, sacrificing for the common good. This means paying their fair share of taxes rather than lobbying for lower taxes or seeking tax loopholes or squirreling away money abroad. It means refraining from making large political contributions that corrupt American democracy. It means blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one’s job. It means volunteering time and energy to improving one’s community and country.”
P. 317
In summary, this is an important book for anyone who still cares about truth and ethical behavior. It’s also full of enjoyable anecdotes from a brilliant yet humble man. He will go down as a great American.
I think Americans should stop using their beloved guns to kill other people.
Here she goes again. No one is listening, says the greatest Egret ever.
It’s been made very clear that people love collecting weapons (knives and such, too) that aren’t designed to be helpful tools but rather to end the lives of other people. It makes them feel good. It makes them feel safe. Most of them do not plan to kill anyone else…unless they feel it’s justified.
All these folks murdering children in schools, former coworkers, their domestic partners, people of different religions, ethnic backgrounds, or political beliefs…they all feel justified.
Under the moon’s influence?
This society has lost the ability to act ethically. Otherwise we’d not think it’s okay to kill under certain circumstances (that you get to define).
Go ahead and use your guns and knives as the tools they were intended to be. I’m not in charge of your reality, mindset, or philosophy. I’m not some liberal snowflake or whatever the latest put-down is. I’m just begging you to actually pay attention to what your religious figures tell you. They tell you to be kind to others. Respect other living beings. Find a moral compass and follow it.
I’ll just be over here coloring.
Oh well. People are being told to hate, so they will. At least I can enjoy the demise of civilization with a nice horse. Today there was ZERO drama, and we did the “scary” and hilly part of our paths. And Drew was good for Vicki.
He is telling me to stop dawdling and unsaddle him.
I can’t ignore the outside world but I can treasure the goodness and love that surrounds me.
The Hermits' Rest 