personal

I'm working this week from my father-in-law's farm in Maryland. It's a beautiful place, deeded to his ancestors by William Penn, nearly two hundred acres of rolling pastures and fields, and a summer home to fifty Holstein cows. Whenever I visit here, I bring my freelance work with me, but generally trade in blogging for mending fences, cleaning the barn, rewiring lamps, etc. It's good for the soul.

The father-in-law, Pop, is ninety-three. He's in great health, sharp as a tack. A couple of days ago, he told the story of his best friend, Ed Boyce. Ed was a flashy guy, standing in sharp contrast to Pop, who is a quiet introvert. Pop always admired Ed, though, and wished to follow in some of Ed's fancy footsteps. For example, Ed had a way with women, which was never Pop's strong suit.

Ed Boyce died of cancer at forty, having only one request: that his ashes be spread over the farm. Being a recreational pilot, Pop did just that, dumping the remains of Mr. Boyce from his plane.

Just woke this account up. Do my blog entries have to be about politics? Who's reading this?

I have a bit of a ... situation at work, which I won't go into in full detail here. Some of you know where I work, and why I might hesitate to be public.

I need to find out what my rights are regarding assault in the workplace and whether I can get my employer to pay for therapy/counseling for PTSD after I voluntarily terminate my employment, because I do not feel safe in my workplace.

Frontpaged. A.

I heard that Senator Obama asked a question of former Senator John Edwards recently. It went something like this;

"Senator Edwards, who is a good guy, he's been talking a lot about 'I'm going to fight the lobbyists and the special interests in Washington.' Well, the question you have to ask is: Were you fighting for (citizens) when you were in the Senate?" [h/t cosbo]

Ellinorianne at daily kos gave a pretty thorough response to that question.

- I've bumped this, not because it was a candidate diary, but because it is such a great story of overcoming adversity.

I am so glad Rep. Miller is in Washington working to uncover the corruption and end the abuse of this Administration. Still, I so wish we could all get our families and neighbors to care more. I believe The corruption and abuse will stop on the day that the American people wake up and say, "Stop."

This post is my reaction to this article posted by the incredible Betsy Muse.

Fp'd by Betsy because a rant can be a beautiful thing....and well, she called me incredible. :)

Here's hoping everyone enjoyed time with family, friends, loved ones, your hobbies, the homeless, the less fortunate and those in need of grace, mercy and hope.

To me, it feels as though we enter a meditative season of collective reflection and celebration on the day after Thanksgiving. Christians, Jews, Muslims all over the world do their best to aid less fortunate neighbors in their communities in this season. We are so alike in that way.

Throughout this season I hear this verse in my head ... over and over and over again ... like a meditation;

[I've brought this over from kos, and decided not to edit it, so my apologies for the kos references. I find the need a hundred times a week to thank each and every one of you, my BlueNC family, for writing, for reading, for commenting ... for caring ... whether I agree with you or not. You FP'ers are my touchstone to reality. When life pulls me away, you pull me back. Each of you makes a difference in my life. So this is "Thanks."]

This is a mini-memoir, I guess. For some reason this personal theory from long ago feels more relevant to our here and now than it has ever felt.

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Sometimes the line between my blogging and my personal writing blurs to the point of being invisible. Yesterday I posted some stuff here that I later found hiding in the novel I'm working on.

Like many small children, young Elizabeth was impulsively impatient. A family trip to Disneyland was the first big event ravaged by her resistance to waiting, and may have even spawned her younger sister’s career as a hypnotherapist. Unwilling to walk away from a much-anticipated ride on Space Mountain, little Faye entranced Liz with a steady stream of happy chatter during their tedious two-hour wait. Liz grudgingly toughed it out, but it was the beginning of the end. When she later refused to stand in lines at the Washington Monument, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, her mother decided to give up destination travel in favor of low-key vacations at the beach.