If I ran the Occupy Movement

I have been thinking lately about the folks who make up the Occupy Movement and how I admire their resolve and selflessness.

I am in solidarity with the desire to bring attention to the need to reset the power shift in the country. As ardently as they, I want to see this happen. I am struggling though with how this movement is going to hhave a lasting impact if the present energy and awareness of the movement is not harnessed around a directive soon, my fear is that it will dissipate and will be for naught.

So, if I "ran" the movement this is what I would do:

Organize the movement around a guiding principle - get corporate money OUT of politics and the creation of public policy. This is the objective.

Goal #1

Determine that corporations are NOT people.

Goal #2

Public funding for all elections where candidates who garner a minimum number of signatures in their race are able to receive public funding. All candidates get the same amount and are prohibited from using their own funds. This creates a level playing field and requires that candidates are creative in how they use the funds for electioneering. this will, I believe require that candidates do more grass-rots type of organizing and less sound bite style politics.

We can fund this simply by redirecting the resources we currently assign to the volumes of regulations and paperwork and reporting that is required to oversee our current system of unlimited but regulated campaign finance.

Goal #3

Reform the lobbying system so ensure balance and with a thorough examination of outcomes.

I am not sure that any of this is doable or how to do it. I do know that if we don't do something to re-establish a more balanced system for ensuring that the needs of ALL Americans are met and that fairness be restored to our economic system, then I am truly afraid for my country for the first time in my life.

The time for change I believe is now. Yeah, I know that statement is so 4 years ago! We wanted it then, we want it now. We are in am even better position to assert our power now. We have taken to the streets with the Occupy Movement. We mean it when we say we want change! So lets not see this opportunity to create it ourselves. Let's rally behind an idea and lets work to demand an outcome.

Let's just do it!

dishwashing as muse!

You know what I like about washing dishes? It is so mindless; it allows your mind to wander to elsewhere.

As I am washing my dishes today, it occurs to me that I actually enjoy this. (Though that does not prevent me from putting it off for several days at a time! Good thing I live alone!) I enjoy the soap. I like to use lots of soap! I really want the bubbles in there working for me to get those dishes clean!

Perhaps it is this loss of tactile sensation that causes me to not be a big fan of dishwashers. I do have one, though it is currently broken, but I don't really miss it! I didn't mind loading it. I kind of liked the idea of hiding the dirties! I really didn't like unloading it though - what is that about?

I think I like washing dishes because it is a connection to my mothers. The women who mothered me. Who dosen't have fond memories of standing on a kitchen chair, next to your momma with your hands in warm soapy water? Feeling secure, loved, gaining confidence in your ability to master a task, do a job well. I hope I passed this to my daughter, I think I did as she makes me very proud of the woman and mother she has become.

This is my granddaughter's first birthday. No doubt that is the spark for this reflection on mothering.
Washing dishes, ironing, gardening, whatever the chore; there is always beauty in the moment. Soon baby Havana, it will be your turn to stand by my side and learn to do the dishes. Oh, how I am looking forward to that! What fun we will have!

Another road trip

Traveling with Sue to another show. We are headed to Duluth Mn via the upper peninsula of Michigan. We have both heard it is supposed to be beautiful there - neither one of us has ever been.
Route 80 across Pennsylvania is interminable - it just seems to take forever and ever! Pleasant part of the drive is the view of the verdant forests with their fern underbellies. Lush and green, nice to see. Rushing past you think about all the wildlife - the flora and fauna contained there. I love to wander around in forests, takes me back to being a kid, playing in the woods, discovering wildflowers, building forts and dreams. I think the last time I wandered around in the woods was with my friend Bill. We would go to the Quabbin Reservoir looking for eagles (never found them) but we did find old cellar holes, neglected orchards, ruins. Actually, more recently my friend John and I went into the woods to check out a pollywog pond he had discovered. I always feel very peaceful and happy just enjoying what the scene has to offer. Reveling in what ever nature has to share in that time and place. I digress!
I suppose for me the reward for traveling Rt 80 is the Delaware Water Gap. Once you reach that you have put the familiar behing you. The place has a light quality that I have only seen one other place: Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. There is an energy and presence in both places that I feel, a bonded similarity expressed in topography and geology, reflected in light. Sue describes my expression as seeing vortexes. In the median strips are isolated meadows of wildflowers. We spy some side-of-the-roadiums and pull over to select some flowers for the ride. For the love of daiseys and birds foot trefoil along with blue ones neither one of us can identify, we power on with the blessings of the meadow deposited in a Poland Springs water bottle in the cupholder. Praying that we don't pay for this beauty with our blood - deer ticks, wood ticks, any kind of ticks...you get my point!
The afternoon is gliding into evening, the sun sends polka dots onto shadowed forested red rock mountains with stripes of grey. I examine the clouds and wish I remembered cloud identification.
Stopping at the next rest stop at the banks of the Susquehanna Riverwe encounter a busload of Polish tourists. I wonder - what are they doing here?
There is no A/C in the van, and you can't put the window down because you hair flies in your eyes. So the windows are open just enought to create a dull roar in the back of your head causing you to yell to be heard. A challenge at 80 mph!
Reynoldsvill, Pa. The evening sun streams through the clouds like stairways to heaven. My mother was a Reynolds, sadly I say hi.
We are up to 9 dead deer by the side of the road so far.
Cracker Barrel Resturant. Is there any hokier place on Earth. I think Sue secretly likes this place because at least once on every trip I find myself there. I hate Cracker Barrel. Extreme hokability with a serving of saccherine sweetness and a side of whitebread values. We ended up at this cathedral of culinary nasty owing to the fact that the adjacent "Quaker Steak & Lube" (I kid you not) was overcrowded due to a car rally happening in the parking lot. Dang it! Naturally, with my love of the Nascar culture, I was really hoping to go there!
So let's talk about sing-song voice. You know what I am talking about. That high-pitched voice one employs with dogs and idiots. Now as I see it, there are two professions who regularly use sing-song voice. Nurses and waitresses. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know not everyone in these professions is guilty of this, but IMHO enough for the generalization to stick. So anyway, as for the nurses, I don't go to the Dr. so this is not a problem for me. Waitresses however, well, I encounter them all the time. Yeah, Cracker Barrel. Sing -song. Somebody get me a gun! I know there have to be several people in this resturant right now who are packing! Ahh America! Tremendous natural beauty, and plenty fo ugly people.

Having recently closed my business, ( a small retail store showcasing antiques, women's accessories, decor, gifts), I find myself in middle age with too much time on my hands, full of ideas and no money! This is actually a scary time for me, as it is for many people.

I however do not want a job. I do not want to go back to working for someone else. This much I am certain of. I am certain of very little else.

I have all these ideas about things running around in my head. I want to create. I want to produce. I want to be creative. There is a problem however. I have very little talent! I am an idea factory, but I have no talent for working with these hands to actually produce something. I do have the ideas and the design sensibilities, I just don't have the manual talent. I also don't have the money now to be able to hire someone else to produce my ideas. So I am in a bit of a bind in that regard.

So these days, I spend time playing with my infant granddaughter, and that is an absolute delight.