Happy Franksgiving

Thanksgiving began as the American version of the harvest festival.  It featured food native to this place: turkey, potatoes, corn, cranberries, etc.  It was also introduced by pious ideologues and racists, and that strain of it continued past the obliteration of Native American societies that first harvested those foods.

Then there was the bizarre 1930s version of Red v. Blue, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November instead of the traditional last Thursday, which that year (as this year) was the fifth Thursday.  Many Republicans refused to celebrate this holiday then, calling it Franksgiving.  

These days there are many variations in menu and activities, which now often include football and searching on the Internet for bargain gadgets.  It also begins the holiday season when families measure themselves against the ideal--in this case, Norman Rockwell's Thanksgiving paintings--and find that there are at least as many angry words, sulks, disappointments, bewilderments and tears as radiant smiles and gratitude.

The gratitude behind it all originally was for nature's bounty, or at least the subsistence nature provided.  Beginning with those first ideologues in New England and Virginia,  Americans' relationship to nature however has been more hostile than grateful.  Settlers and their descendants have been busy ruining the land and waters and even the air for several centuries, and we are close to finishing the job.  But maybe we can acknowledge this with a little grace as we're saying grace, and try to do better.  The natural world is the source of life, including our big and dubious brains.  The rest of nature would be grateful if we'd start using them wisely.

Thank you, Nancy

When Nancy Pelosi announced that she was retiring as Speaker of the House and leader of House Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives, she wore a white pants suit.  It was the style of pants suit that has become the standard uniform for women in Washington public life, and for all I know it was started--and certainly aided and abetted--by her.  The color of white was likely in honor of the Suffragettes, and therefore an acknowledgement of the history she made as a woman.

There have been important and powerful women in the federal government before.  For example, the 1930s New Deal under FDR was one of the most consequential sets of programs in American history, and three key women were crucial to its character and consequences: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins and administrator of the Federal Theatre Project Hallie Flanagan.

Since then there have been women as Secretary of State, White House advisors and now as Vice-President. But no woman has risen to as conspicuous leadership role as Nancy Pelosi.  As Speaker of the House she set the agenda and (when the President was a Democrat and sane) managed the President's programs, while herself being second in the line of succession to the Presidency itself.

Attaining that status made history for women and for gender equality.  But Nancy Pelosi made history in wider ways, as one of the most effective House Leaders and Speakers of all time.  In support and in opposition, she was the key figure in Washington of the past 19 years.  She was both daring and reliable,  leading through listening and keeping promises.  

As Leader, she raised many millions of dollars and actively recruited and supported Democratic candidates.  She was in large part responsible for the majorities that she led in her two terms as Speaker, and instrumental in many successful elections in 2022 that allowed Democrats to beat the odds. 

In the chaos that Washington has been throughout this century, she was the one person whose presence gave me any sense of stability and control throughout most of that time.  She could count votes, and she could be counted on.  

She endured levels of hate and abuse for decades that would break most of us in days.  When her husband was attacked with a hammer in his own bed by a man looking to shatter her kneecaps, she said it would figure in her decision on her future.  It did--it did not dissuade her from keeping her agreement to yield leadership this year, but it did cause her to remain as a Member of the House, just so they wouldn't get the satisfaction. 

She knew how to not make perfection the enemy of the good, and still she stood on principle even when others in her party got squeamish.  She was at one time one of the few prominent Washington leaders to openly support the Dalai Lama and Tibet against the tyrannies of China.  I believe her more recent act of defiance is supporting human rights in Taiwan stems from this experience.

She was oriented towards the future.  That's the meaning behind her often repeated mantra of supporting (for example) childcare and family leave but also efforts to address the climate crisis with the words "for the children."  She was also the first mother--and first grandmother--to be Speaker of the House.

Thank you, Nancy for your courage and grace, and all you did to hold back the ugliness and chaos, and to advance important programs like Obamacare and the remnants of the Green Deal (otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation whatever act.)  Now the torch is passing to a new generation.  Let's hope they can hold it as high.     

Solitude Late at Night in the Woods

I

The body is like a November birch facing the full moon

 And reaching into the cold heavens.

 In these trees there is no ambition, no sodden body, no leaves,

 Nothing but bare trunks climbing like cold fire!

 II

 My last walk in the trees has come. At dawn

 I must return to the trapped fields,

 to the obedient earth. 

The trees shall be reaching all winter.

 III

 It is a joy to walk in the bare woods.

 The moonlight is not broken by the heavy leaves.

 The leaves are down and touching the soaked earth,

 Giving off the odor that partridges love.

--Robert Bly