Day 422, May 13, 2021
Flightpath
Today's soundtrack: The Sun Ra Arkestra, Berlin, 1986
It is interesting how fragile our emotions and psyche can be. I was yearning to go outside for a walk at the end of the day, but ran out of time sandwiched between my last meeting and a webinar that felt more like a long commercial than a learning moment. It felt like a sorrowful thing to not be able to go. I felt like a child who missed the ice cream truck.
Early in the evening, in the spring, the sun pours through the west facing window. It bathes my face with light and I have to lazily close my eyes.
It becomes easier to close my eyes than to keep them open.
Amy Tan says, everything has to be about the reward in the moment, rather than thinking the reward is in the payoff at the end.
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| Water study IV |
She talks about her mother as becoming an invisible person when she arrived in this country.
As the sun sets the air grows colder and I shut the window. The sun is now resting on the sill and will soon sink into the Sawmill River and be extinguished for the night.
Yesterday, I wrote about the robin visiting the garden outside my window, and how hard it was to not stare at her breast. How I cringed in embarrassment when she caught my eye and flew away in disgust.
There is a blue heron that flies over the house. We are in her flightpath. Some mornings... one morning I was lucky and watched her sail high over the treetops in a languid prehistoric stroke. Other days, I am not so lucky, but I sometimes see her shadow flicker among the branches, or a long delicate wing sails out of the corner of my eye as I type emails or close out of a Zoom call. I can almost sense her presence.
Today, I returned to the beginning of the story again, where my protagonist never thought he was lucky, but in fact, he was incredibly lucky, and that is what the story is about, I think.
Down by the river, on the shelf of stones that are kept clear of more permanent foliage by the years when the river freezes and large floes are pushed up on the shore, now that space is overrun by the fast growth of knot weed. It grows at an astronomical rate and with a collective push it is as if landscapes can change seemingly overnight.
Up by the house, I pull the shoots as part of my daily ritual and and feed them to the chickens. Franklin is patient with me as I stop and pull what I can out of the earth. He is a little nervous about how excited the chickens are to have the plants thrown into their yard, and over the course of the day they will strip the knotweed down into its component parts until there is just a few twiggy stems, even the roots are pecked away like they are tasty little worms. I sometimes fantasize about taking the chickens down to the river and fencing them in with all the knotweed to see what they could accomplish over several days.
We live in a startling world. Just yesterday afternoon I ordered a book (Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation) and it arrived today before noon. I do not understand how that is possible. And yet, this kind of miraculous service is so much a part of our world that I know how that is possible. Ironically, it is this alacrity that makes me embarrassed by its use and yearn for the days of ordering a book through Amherst Books and waiting so long that I forgot that I ordered it, like that time I ordered Rabih Alameddine's new book and someone called to let me know that The Perv was in and waiting for me.
Sun Ra and the Arkestra are so captivating and arresting, it makes me want to wear a red sequined pussy hat. I love how the musicians veer off into the stratosphere, and then the next moment slip into a slinky jazz groove. And then other times, like right now, it is like being outside in the middle of a storm and the bass player is playing his double neck bass with a chair.
Take care and be well,
Leo
From Our Friends:
From Asian Women for Health:
Achieving Whole Health: Balancing Mind, Body, Spirit
Are you ready to take an exciting step in your health journey? Jeannie Choi Karwowski and I are seeking a group of 8-10 Korean American women (18 and up) to participate in our 8-week, online program, Achieving Whole Health: Balancing Mind, Body, Spirit. We’ll be hosting these sessions via Zoom on Sundays, starting May 23 from 4-6pm EST.
From Indigenous Climate Action:
Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) is pleased to invite Indigenous scholars, Elders, youth, leadership, land defenders, community members and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) allies to join a virtual gathering taking place on June 10-12, 2021, in partnership with the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics (CANSEE). This online gathering is free to all participants, with a priority given to BIPOC registrants. You can register through this form or through the button below.
Indigenous and Ecological Economics are rooted in the similar values - relationships and interconnections with ecosystems. As society grapples with a growing climate crisis and faltering economies Indigenous peoples across the globe are proposing a return to the sacred, a return to relationships with each other and the lands. At this gathering we will dive into discussions, workshops, panels and presentations led by Indigenous leaders, practitioners and scholars to redefine ecological economics from an Indigenous perspective. By empowering our communities to reclaim our economic systems built on millenia of knowledge and practice we can help craft the needs and direction of what new Indigenous-led climate policies and economic paradigms call look like.
This online gathering is free to all participants, with a priority given to BIPOC registrants. You can register through this form.
From the It Gets Better Project:
Happy AAPI Heritage Month with It Gets Better
Celebrate by binging our AAPI playlist on Youtube, and sharing our list of organizations that specifically serve the LGBTQ+ AAPI community. Happy AAPI Heritage Month.
From the AAG:
From Inside Higher Ed:
Non-Black faculty members have the power to help dismantle educational inequities, argue Viji Sathy, Kelly A. Hogan and Calvin M. Sims, and they suggest some practical ways for how to start.
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