Loose Leaf Notes

1. Writing poetry is like chink, chink, chink, not like cha’ ching.

2. I like tried and true over new and improved.

3. I call this “Finding Orion’s Belt on My Leg.”

4. And THIS is a 2011 News to Me post.

5. During the terribly misguided Iraq war, I wrote commentaries for The Roanoke Times and other publications. Now I talk politics with friends and family members on Facebook. These exchanges have taken the place of commentaries and of letter writing, which at one time was the groundwork of my writing.

6. Here is one of my comments, taken from a Facebook conversation with a MAGA relative: Personally, I like a working government that regulates business, protects the social safety, promotes infrastructure, enacts law and order, protects civil rights, supports democracies and not dictators. Trump does not govern, he attacks others and breaks thing.  He’s more worried about paper straws, windmills, and the size of Arnold Palmer’s penis and his rallies than anything of importance. I am terrified by what is happening to our country and in mourning in a way that goes beyond having a president whose policies I don’t agree with.

7. I get glimmers of understanding the why and how of the world and why we are even here. I also get glimmers of acceptance and know that I may lean towards beliefs but don’t really know because there is more than one answer and more than one way. The universe is fluid and can be wave or particle, and everything that happens affects everything else, because it is all one thing really. The Bible is historic and metaphoric. Dreams are real as long as they last. I think the cosmic alignments play a role in our current upheaval, but so does climate change. We are not separate from what is happening to our environment. I also believe and can see from history that we have gotten to great heights and fallen from them over and over. There are SO many stories of trauma, war and greed in our collective history as well as some greatness. All I can really do is have the intention to rise to the moment that I am called to meet and to keep myself honest and true.

8. On Kendrik Lemar’s Super Bowl halftime performance: It was refreshing not to see twerking. I loved the red white and blue choreographed show but couldn’t hear his lyrics. I knew he was making a relevant statement and that hearing the lyrics would help me understand it. I liked the inclusion of “Uncle Sam” Jackson, reference to ‘the revolution is not televised’ and the TV off ending, but completely missed the Squid Game reference, and am happy  he edited out the slang/profanity.

9. I’m having a hard time following the news because there are so many acronyms and abbreviations, like USDA USAID, DOD DOJ, OMB, OIG, NIH NOAA etc etc.

10. Nightly News Prison Break: Like a maestro conducting / three networks at once / I flip discordant channels / looking for escape / Soundbites break skin / What isn’t said blares loudly / I watch the burning house / with people inside it

11. They show engulfed bodies / then move to feel-good fluff / while the warden tries to convince me / the firefighters are the enemy

12. News to muse or News to use? Things are getting scary.

13. NYT’s David Brooks on Trump’s first weeks: “This is like trying to cure acne with decapitation.”

_______Thirteen Thursday