Well it seems that yours truly my dear reader, cannot stay away on sabbatical forever. What does this week find your Reality Chick doing but attending three, count them three, political events and one, yikes this is where it gets scary, one meeting. It is time in these U$tates to meet candidates, candidates wives, contribute to as many ends as you can with whatever means available. But this time I promise I will breathe, keep my back open at the wings and not hunched over a steering wheel or even this input device.
The events were:
- Elizabeth Kucinich this weekend
- Cynthia McKinney today and tomorrow
- And a Greens meeting this past evening where there were two candidates running one for Senate and one for the House (as in of Reps in DC)
And but wait there will be more.
However due to some Snafu in PDX land Ms. McKinney didn't make it to Corvallis, except by speaker phone--however myself and Tina being the "unwaged" lasses that we are decided we would drive down to Eugene to see her there. It was a fairly good crowd for Eugene, we in Corvallis, of course had more folks. We also had Tofu America pancakes and soysage for breakfast in Corvallis. And Eugene had a wonderful luncheon repast. So I joked with Tina that we should just follow Cynthia to Ashland (her next stop) and eat at Geppetto's, maybe we'd get the delightfully rude waiter. Yum. But we did return home.
Of course the drive to Eugene and back was quite wonderful, this fall day. And as Danu drove us in comfort we two Virgo lasses caught up on the last few years, since our WTO times and I talked of recent heartbreaks, weaving the story amongst others along the backroads between Corvallis and Eugene. The story has condensed, become part of the mythology, the way I describe my life. It along with the other stories I have not had time to tell myself or read about myself until now braided their way along the backroads. And I realise that part of the hard part about this particular heartbreak is that it happened in June--you see everyone is gone for the summer (especially here in Oregon as they go to the Country Fair, etc.) July is particularly vacant for those of us who stay home. And so the telling of this story amongst friends (too long lost) remained unsaid until nearly the end of September. It has now been honed, edited, the essential elements left for the telling and for the understanding.
Of course each heartbreak is a chance for renewal, for getting deep to the core of who you/we/I am. And as there are personal heartbreaks there are political ones. This may be the time for us all to fully realise our heartbreaks there too. To understand how great a love we come from when we act together to create a better world. To forgive ourselves its/our imperfections in the creation of this relationship with our greater selves, as we do with our individual selves. This is the time to care, to breathe, to know that you are working "in love". We have all had a terrible heartbreak from 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, ad infinitum (no thank you W). Our narratives are still being told as much as we tell our personal narratives about individual heartbreaks. We are still honing, understanding, and this is taking time--but in as much as the personal heartbreaks must take us through the grieving process which includes anger, so must our larger heartbreak that we share. And I think we have been in that anger, or we should relish it for a moment, accept it, feel it, love it for its cleansing. Take it in our silence or with wailing saxes, pounding drums, electric guitars on full feedback. Then can we begin to open the joy we once had and come back together again. But let us not be afraid anymore.
We can do it, we
are the ones we have been waiting for---------------breathe, release, breathe, release--
ACT, but with thought, with love this time. We may well be afraid, but we are facing our greatest fear now. And we still love.