Anne and Tai

I met Anne and Tai in the 1980s when I was teaching at Smith College and they lived nearby. Now they live in Vermont. Throughout the years they have remained my friends, by letter and by email, by visits and by phone calls, by the exchange of gifts and photographs, and most of all by the exchange of good wishes for each other. Tai has visited me in Portland several times, and this time she is joined by her partner of thirty-some years, Anne. 

I asked them what they’d like me to say about them in my blip. Anne held up a “Zero” with her thumb and forefinger, and then she reluctantly agreed that, despite her preference for privacy, she wouldn’t mind being identified as an ailurophile. Tai blushed, ducked her head, and said I could mention that she makes kites and atlatls, not for hunting but as a way to connect with prehistoric peoples.


Anne then added that if she didn’t live in Vermont, she would want to live in the Pacific Northwest and is drawn to Canada: because Canada is a civilized country with decent gun laws, health care for all people, and some gorgeous unpopulated wilderness.