Cherry blossoms, the way it is

Thank you for the kind and thoughtful comments on my last few Blips. I had no connectivity except through my phone that won't hold a charge for more than an hour. 

Behind me as I made this photograph of cherry blossoms was a queue snaking around the block, people waiting to be admitted to the food pantry. I left them out of the photo, respecting their privacy. I wondered if the warmth of their bodies, day after day standing on the sidewalk, contributes to the blossoming. I haven’t seen cherry blossoms all over town; just on this block where the people stand, waiting for free food.

Climate change, income inequality, wealth hoarding. I talk about it often, but those subjects arise every time I step out the door.

I was on my way to an independent bookstore to buy a couple of Christmas presents for the grandkids and my son and Cristina, and in the bookstore I met Tuck’ush Winch Katchia, a Native American elder. We chatted, as you do in a bookstore, and he told me his name and his “borrowed name,” Ken Smith. He was in the bookstore to see if there were any copies of his book for children on the shelves (there weren’t, they’d all sold out), and I asked him what he thinks about the cherry trees blooming in December. 

“Trees are teachers,” he told me. “Trees accept what is.” We talked a while longer, and he concluded, “Enjoy the blossoms because they’re beautiful. Be glad for the beauty. In my language, Kiksht, we say ‘I-kush-i-wa,’ which means ‘the way it is.’ This is the way it is. We have to see how it is.” 

I said it’s hard to deal with those who are causing harm, harming the planet, confusing the trees. I don’t want to accept that I can’t change it. He put his hand to his chest, stroking the necklace he wears in the video, “Hard, hard. You’re right. Nobody said it isn’t hard, but we must see the way it is.”

After we parted, I wondered why I didn’t ask to make a portrait of him. My camera was right there—in the bag—as we spoke. I missed the chance. When I came home, I googled his “borrowed name” and found the spelling of his real name and the seven-minute video I’ve linked to his name above, as well as the article about his language. Toward the end of the video for the historical society, he says “I-kush-i-wa” a couple of times. I’m working with it.