Deep, sweet connections

A splendid day. Margie in the morning and Donna Hayes in the afternoon. 

Margie has decided she doesn't really want New York City for her 95th birthday. She feels it's better as a fantasy than as a reality. Just getting to the airport, flying across the continent, arriving at JFK airport, and trying to get into the city is overwhelming to think about. "I'm fine with talking about it and dreaming about it, but I don't really want to do it," she laughed. "I don't even like to sit near a noisy street in Portland! And New York is cranes and jackhammers, subways and truck horns. No," she was very clear, "after the year of quiet I've just had, I'd rather dream about it than go. But it is fun to dream about."

Donna, on the other hand, who is still in her 50s, is going to Detroit in July for three days to collect stories to add to her play. She has been invited by a woman whose daughter was killed by police five years ago and wants to tell Donna her story. I took Donna a copy of Mariame Kaba's wonderful book, We Do This 'Til We Free Us. Kaba is one of the principal architects of our current Abolition movement--defunding the police, eliminating the whole prison system,  and creating better systems of social services so that the police (as we know them in the USA, where they evolved from slave patrols) become obsolete. Kaba talks about it as if it's a real thing, perfectly possible, reasonable, and not just a pipe-dream. She's inspiring. 

Thank you for your sensitive, caring comments yesterday. In the context of all the suffering in that family, in Israel and Palestine, in India, and in so many places on the planet, it is soul-nourishing to spend time with people you love and respect. I am so grateful for their friendships and that I have lived long enough to retire and have time to spend with them.