Day 2856: A Nation Reveals Itself

A few hours before it was revealed that my nation’s Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died, this revealed itself to me:

A nation reveals itself by its

• leaders,
• priorities,
• values,
• humanity,
• awareness,
• respect and protection for all,
• focus on the future,
• engagement in the world, and
• justice.

Because of how our nation has been revealing itself, I and those I love were immeasurably grief-stricken and devastated by the loss of Justice Ginsburg. Senate leader Republican Mitch McConnell, who blocked President Obama from choosing a Supreme Court Justice many months before the 2016 Presidential election because “the people should decide,” has already revealed his plans to rush the process of replacing RBG with somebody diametrically opposed to her judicial values, scant weeks before the election.

A nation reveals itself by the hypocrisy, partisanship, greed, and injustice of its leaders.

A blog reveals itself by its words and images.

A blogger reveals herself by taking a picture of a plastic pig, because I am so sick of the greedy pigs running and ruining my nation.

In this televised tribute to her last night, RBG reveals that she was taught by her mother never to respond in anger.

I have much to learn from her.

I now look for hope and justice to be revealed, somehow, in the days ahead.

Feel free to reveal yourself in a comment, below.

Gratitude reveals itself here every day, so undying thanks to the amazingly courageous Ruth Bader Ginsburg and to all who witness what I reveal here, including you.

Day 2855: Information for voters

Dear USA voters,

Vote as if your life depended upon it, because it does.

Love,

Ann

Day 2854: All of the steps

Today’s post title is brought to you by the Daily Bitch Calendar.

I am taking all of the steps to admitting I have a problem with:

• USA leadership,
• cruelty,
• greed,
• ignorance,
• rigidity, and
• divisiveness.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step, but not all of the steps. One of the steps HAS to include exercising your right to vote.

I didn’t photograph all of the steps I took yesterday, but here are some of them:

I’ve been taking all of the steps to heal from the loss of our wonderful kitty Oscar (not pictured) and I noticed Oscar’s name when I was taking some of my steps yesterday.

All of the steps are easier when you are not alone, and I am obviously not alone in loving an Oscar.

Today I am taking all of the steps to facilitate a Zoom-like group for staff where I work. I’m looking forward to all of us taking steps towards coping and healing.

As we get steps closer to November, here’s “One Step Closer” by INTERSECTION …

… by Linkin Park …

… and by the Doobie Brothers:

Now I have to take all of the steps to publish this post, but not before I thank all of the people who help me blog every day, including YOU.

Day 2853: Other people’s stories

As a psychotherapist, I love listening to other people’s stories.

What I DON’T love is other people who act like only their story is:

• real,
• legitimate, and
• worth listening to.

These days, more than ever, it’s important to make room for the stories that are not being heard. Why aren’t they being heard? Because people with power/the spotlight are

• loud,
• disrespectful of others,
• disinterested in the facts,
• obsessed with their own grievances,
• trying to hold on to power, and
• apparently not interested in other people’s stories.

If you do not leave room for other people’s stories, the dominant story becomes strident, repressive, demoralizing, inaccurate, and eventually obsolete. Personally, I am fighting for other people’s stories (including my own!) to be heard, so we can all survive together.

Here is one person’s photographic story for the day:

In my story, there is always room for the the Daily Bitch, love, AND your stories (in the comments section below).

Yesterday, when I was creating today’s photographic story, I heard the Prologue to Stephen Sondheim‘s Into the Woods, which includes lots of other people’s stories.

My stories always include gratitude for all who help me create these daily stories, including YOU.

Day 2852: The Sixties

Yesterday, the temperature here was in the sixties (Fahrenheit), although it did get into the seventies in the heat of the day.

During the day, I uploaded to YouTube the song I wrote and performed for my 50th high school reunion on Zoom: “We Grew Up in the Sixties and We’re in Our Sixties Now.”

Now that I’m in my sixties, I’m seeing lots of articles (like this one) about how the current times — with civil and political anger, unrest, and change — are reminding people of the sixties. If you remember the sixties, what do you think about that?

Here are some photos I took yesterday, when the temperature and I were both in our sixties:

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I’m hoping that my fulfilling work as a therapist, accepting all feelings (including anger), nature walks, cats, the results of the November election, and eating delicious nutritious meals (like Michael’s halibut dish) will get me through my sixties.

Hey! Maybe the number of likes on this post will be in the sixties!

To thank you for reading this “Sixties” post, here are sixty images of gratitude:

Day 2851: The Heat of the Day

Yesterday, when I was walking around in the heat of the day, I heard “The Heat of the Day” by the Pat Metheny Group.

The music of the Pat Metheny Group has helped me get through a lot of heat of many days, but I can never remember there being so much heat to get through before. Here and now, there’s the heat of

• uncontrolled wild fires,
• climate change,
• the pandemic,
• elections,
• unrest,
• injustice,
• distrust,
• lies,
• ignorance,
• personal attacks, and
• panic about the future.

In all that heat of many days, it feels like we’re heading to the end of the world.

In the heat of my writing this post, the ironically soothing “To the End of the World” is playing, which is helping me deal with the heat of a new day.

Can you see the heat of the day in these images?

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I do believe we’re stronger together, but the heat of these days seems to be driving us apart.

In the heat of this day, I will be providing crisis services remotely and training a new social work intern to withstand the heat of the day at the hospital.

In the heat of the moment, I shall chill by looking for your comments on this “Heat of the Day” post.

In the heat of your day, please remember my gratitude for all, including YOU.

Day 2850: Plan ahead

I don’t plan ahead very much for these blog posts. Instead, I often let my recent photos plan ahead for me.

I like to plan ahead for what might go wrong with something that’s important to me. For example, I planned ahead for last night’s high school Zoom reunion by preparing for the unlikely eventuality that I — as sole host for the event — might suddenly lose the internet or electrical power, which would have ended the reunion for everybody, despite all our planning ahead.

When other people are spending too much time planning ahead for unlikely problems, I invite them to let go of the worry by assigning a percentage to the possibility of it happening. People on the reunion planning committee tried to point out to me that my losing power was sooooo unlikely that I should forget about it. Instead, I spent hours planning ahead how to make somebody else from the reunion committee a cohost, so the Zoom reunion could continue without me if need be.

The Zoom reunion went great, without any major unplanned glitches except this one: despite (or perhaps because of) all my planning ahead, I was too distracted to remember to start taping the reunion until after I sang my introductory song “We Grew Up in the Sixties and We’re in our Sixties Now” which I started planning ahead to perform months ago. Well, as they say, “Man plans. God laughs.”

As I plan ahead for the rest of my life, I plan to spend less time planning ahead for unlikely negative possibilities and more time enjoying the current moment. In other words, I plan to follow my own advice to others about planning ahead.

I rarely plan ahead when I capture the moment in images like these:

I planned ahead for that white board to show up in my Zoom frame last night, and it did.

Last night, we planned ahead for an in-person repeat of our 50th reunion when it’s safe to do so, which reminds me of this:

Without planning ahead, I found “Plan Ahead” by Allan Sherman:

I plan ahead to read all planned and unplanned comments on this post.

If you were planning ahead to see some gratitude from me for everyone who helped me create this post, here it is!

Day 2849: For Life

Just like today’s Daily Bitch …

… I’m a cat lady for life.

I’m also the mother of Aaron and the ex-wife/friend of Leon for life.

I am a member of my high school class for life and I’m looking forward to tonight’s Zoom reunion. I’m also a show-off for life, so I’ll be singing my original song “We Grew Up in the Sixties and We’re in Our Sixties Now.”

Other things I am for life:

• The wife of Michael.
• A lover of the sea.
• An explorer.
• A survivor.
• Somebody who believes in the healing power of groups.
• A picture taker.

I’m a fan of Michael’s cooking for life and that’s vegetarian meatloaf!

I’m also a musical comedy geek for life, so this song is now running through my head:

I’m also an optimist for life, so I’m hoping people will be dancing together in the streets again, some day.

Finally, I am grateful for life and for all of you!

Day 2848: If you love someone …

• set them free.

• invite them to connect with you.
• tell them you love them, because you don’t know how much time you have left with them.
• take pictures for them.

I took that last picture for people I graduated high school with in 1970, whom I love. I’m looking forward to seeing them at our Zoom reunion tomorrow evening.

If you love someone, what do you do?

I tell them how grateful I am that they (including YOU!) are still on this earth.

Day 2847: Watch

People who watch this blog may have noticed this watch in yesterday’s post:

That is a Fossil shrapnel-guard watch which reminds me of one of the first watches I ever bought. It mimics World War I watches used when people had to watch out for shrapnel while still needing to watch their watches.

Watch what my mind does when I think about watches with shrapnel guards — “So shrapnel guards helped protect the watches but what about the hand wearing the watch?”

Watch where my mind goes next: “When danger is all around, I guess some protection is better than none.”

Now it’s time to watch what I’ve watched recently through my iPhone:

If you watch this blog carefully, you may know that I use a magic wastepaper basket in my “Coping and Healing” groups. Yesterday, I watched while people in a telehealth group threw worry into my magic wastepaper basket (along with markers that no longer work).

Based on what I’ve watched over the years, worry never helps. If you are worrying, watch it! And watch out for worry about worry, which doesn’t help either.

What are you watching these days? Michael and I are still watching Match Game reruns. I like watching those because it’s a group of funny and spontaneous people who obviously like each other, having a good time. Also host Gene Rayburn reminds me a little of my late father (and if you watch this blog, you know it was my dad’s birthday yesterday).

Here‘s the Match Game episode Michael and I watched last night:

Because I watched some information about that “Trench Hand” episode, I know that viewers joined in the fun by sending in donations, which the show gave to a worthy cause.

I also watch that 1970s U.S. game show with new eyes, based on all that I’ve watched since then.

I’ll be watching for comments from you about this “Watch” post. Watch this space for gratitude, every day!