One Thing After Another
Finding it hard to concentrate?
It’s hard to focus on anything in Western North Carolina besides recovery from hurricane Helene. But in the midst of this climate of unimaginable loss and displacement, Early Voting has begun on time.
So, for us, images of flood devastation are crazily mixed with increasing proof that American democracy is under brutal attack in the name of the Republican Party. All this speaks for itself.
But while we let it settle, here are a few random thoughts. I hope you enjoy the diversion.
October 13 (below) - One of my favorite books is A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. Its 1100 lightweight pages and slightly flexible covers feel good in your hands. Alexander’s short paragraphs, hand-drawn diagrams, black-and-white photos and vintage typeface, all demonstrate his plan for creating comfortable spaces not only for yourself and your family, but also for the community. He believed that leaders can provide for human needs while not taking away from others’ well-being. His language celebrated life.
October 15 - The amazing thing is that the hope Kamala Harris surprised us with nearly 3 months ago is still in the air. This new possibility for more healthy human purpose has lost no altitude, despite the opposition’s barrage of aggressive insults, threats and lies.
October 16 - To me, President Jimmy Carter at 100 years old is our Voter of the Year. It’s exquisite that in 1979 this man experienced what was perhaps the first shot fired in the current war against American democracy, the Iran hostage crisis; and now he’s trying to help save our democracy again. Last week he said he wanted to live long enough “to vote for Kamala Harris”, and he did.
October 16 - Jerry Williamson who writes the NC politics blog Watauga Watch says he’s been driven to distraction by the many national press outlets “dedicated to making sure the Democrats don’t feel good about anything”, and he vows to break his habit of doomscrolling.
October 17 - Indeed, the press is in a frenzy over this year’s Presidential competition. Usually Harris is up over Trump one day and down the next, but today two conflicting headlines were on the same front page of The Hill: “Momentum shifts against Harris in presidential race”; and “Harris edges Trump by 4 points in head-to-head match-up: Survey”. See the chart below for an earlier historic race.
October 19 - Today at our tent outside Early Voting my sign saying, “Protect Women’s Lives, Vote for Democrats”, attracted the glares of a young woman at the opposing tent, whose sign said, “WOMEN'S SPORTS”. She took a step toward me, then backed away.
October 19 - Also today at Early Voting, I was speaking about the ballot with a woman whose friend was beside her in a wheelchair. The sun was hot, so I turned to her friend and said, “I’m sorry you’re having to wait,” and she said, “I learned patience from my mother.” Together, we found a place for her to sit out of the sun. This is why I’m a Democrat.
October 20 - Feeling more and more unstable in a world of MAGA and/or AI fakery, I’ve begun to appreciate Gertrude Stein for her much classier innovations. Plus she has a sense of humor. For example, in her book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Picasso has just opened his studio door to show Gertrude and Alice out after their visit. Stein writes,
There stood a very beautiful man, oh Agero, said Picasso, you know the ladies. He looks like a Greco, I said in english. Picasso caught the name, a false Greco, he said. Oh I forgot to give you these, said Gertrude Stein handing Picasso a package of newspapers, they will console you. He opened them up, they were the Sunday supplement of american papers, they were the Katzenjammer kids. Oh oui, Oh oui, he said, his face full of satisfaction, merci thanks Gertrude, and we left.
Yogi Berra played with language as much as Gertrude Stein did, but he stayed in America. In his book, When You Come to a Fork In the Road, Take It!, he wrote,
Like I say, my later years came earlier than I expected. But even though I’m retired now, I still set goals. Because if you don’t set goals, you can’t regret not reaching them.
But you don’t have to go elsewhere in time and place to find well-spoken wisdom. Today in The New York Review of Books, Patricia Williams has published an article titled “Expanding the Vocabulary.”
Williams writes,
“I am not running to be Black history professor,” said Kamala Harris in 2019. “I am running to be president.” Then as now, some questioned whether America was ready for a woman president, much less a Black South Asian one.
“I know who I am,” she announced with refreshing simplicity. “I think the frustration is that other people want me to take them through their process of discovery.”
Unburdened is the emotion I feel when thinking about Harris. “Joyful” too, yes, but it is her refusal to be caught up in the sticky web of other people’s projections that makes her a model of liberation. With warm but firm determination she brushes aside those who try to split her into layers of stereotype. I am a little more than a decade older than Harris, and her fearlessness is a skill I have yet to master.
Jimmy Carter’s quote
Watauga Watch says no to doomscrolling
Photo of President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office during the Iranian hostage crisis, 1979
Polling chart
Photo of Early Voting is by Deda Edney
Photo of Gertrude and Alice in “Godiva”
Kamala Harris quotes and illustration
Your letter reminded me that in 1982 we read A Pattern Language as we were designing our new home deep in Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp. What a marvelous guide for the process. We built a house with 77 windows and no curtains. Some windows were quite small but afforded us a quick glimpse of what nature was offering than moment. Our architect said he had never had a client that wanted to incorporate Christopher Alexander's process in their home. The next owners still enjoy the fruits of that process.
I am also amazed at both North Carolina and Georgia with their phenomenal first day voter turnout - in spite of two hurricanes . I sent my North Carolina Vote Forward letters and just crossed my fingers that the mail would be get through. All the way from Washington State to NC, I wish you the best in recovery and all of us Dems success at the polls. Your conflicting headlines were perfect for the messages we have all been getting.