Monthly Archives: March 2025

Feeling A Little Less Helpless

advocacy, politics, thinking out loud, ,

I met with the Jameson Babb, Chief of Staff for Senator Lashrecse Aird, my Virginia state Senator. I reached out to ask what, besides making phone calls or sending postcards, I might do to feel a little less helpless. I also had a couple ideas I wanted to share with him to see if they would be worth the time and energy.

It was one of the best meetings I have had for a long time. I had an informal agenda, and we covered most of my topics plus a lot more ground in 30 minutes. I left with immediate ideas for where to begin, including starting a women’s group ala The Liberal Women of Chesterfield, who were the powerhouse behind getting Abigail Spanberger, current candidate for Virginia governor, elected in the first place. Their mission statement is fiercely progressive:

LWCC strives to be a safe haven for liberal women and their allies to support, educate, and encourage one another to be actively involved in our government; and, furthermore, seeks to advance advocacy issues and
campaigns that align with our progressive values of inclusivity and equal rights for all people.

As I read it, I was reminded of an episode from Season 3 of The West Wing, when President Bartlett is running for his second term. Bruno Gianelli, the high paid consultant played powerfully by Ron Silver, designs ads that skirt campaign finance laws (this was 2001 so before Citizens United basically gutted them completely). Sam Seaborn pushes back because he thinks they should have a higher standard, the “we go high” philosophy of more contemporary times, and Bruno makes an impassioned speech about not apologizing for being liberal and progressive and believing that government can do good things for its people to improve their lives:

If you are interested in some of the other ideas that came out of my meeting and possibly connecting with other women, get in touch.

Meanwhile, I feel a little less helpless and a little more empowered. If you have a “friendly” state representative, I encourage you to reach out to them.

Improvising

art, books, creativity, thinking out loud

I signed on for the #100DayProject again this year, paying a small subscription fee to be part of the Substack. I posted a couple notes there but I only have so much time and energy for writing and sharing so will focus on this blog.

The #100DayProject is sponsored each year by Lindsay Jean Thompson. The goal of the project is spend 100 days working on a creative project. I started with a plan for combining poetry and gel printing. I followed through on that plan for 10 days or so and was pleased with the results. But, I had subscribed to a monthly quilt box and the second box was on the way while the first box sat explored but unused on the shelf.

My time is flexible and mostly my own, but I didn’t have time for both printing and quilting so moved on to the latter. My #100DayProject turned to quilting for a couple weeks. My subscription comes from Mrs. Quilty and is meant for beginners. Each box includes a quilt block in a different pattern and then several utilitarian projects that demonstrate different skills. Fabric in matching designs, often from the same designer, is included; each box also provides a couple quilting tools. You are building your toolkit and fabric stash as you learn. The video tutorials are detailed and easy to follow. I am very pleased. This is an uncompensated review.

As I have shared before, I am part of Ali Manning’s Handmade Book Club. She highlights a different book style each month, and my goal this year was to make each one during the month it was featured, thus ending the year with 12 handmade books. I have completed January and February but March’s coptic stitch binding was more challenging as it included fabric covers and multiple signatures sewn in one at a time. So, I moved on to bookbinding for my #100DayProject. I made a few small, single signature books with gel printed covers and two Valen-zines from gel prints. They got their own folder as well.

All this to say that I have moved the focus of my project to a bit wider lens of having fun and doing something creative in one of my areas of interest every day. Easter is fast approaching and I need to start making cards.

I am dropping photos of all the various prints and quilts and books in a Flickr album if you want to see what I have been up to since February 23:

Stopping By Woods

Good God, Y’All

music, poetry, thinking out loud

I am struggling to put words together these days. But, I feel compelled to connect so for today, I am sharing a song and a poem.

SiriusXM served up Edwin Starr’s song, “War,” recorded in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War.

You can find the lyrics here.

Today’s Poem of the Day from the Academy of American Poets is “War” by Gary Copeland Lilley. The poem is dedicated to Lilley’s friend who fought in the Army Special Forces and muses on the impact of war on the combatants.

“the man’s been in combat he’s seen what can I tell you he knows the need for a transcendent blues relief honed by the Blues-People the Indian my brother-man now got indigenous blues my brother-man genocide survivor joined the army airborne paratrooper delta force fought wars most Americans never know are happening in anywhere-South America”

You Will Know Them By Their Fruits

human rights, thinking out loud,
183/365 for 2010 (July 2, 2010)
Pear hanging on a tree

This week, the government rolled back federal bans on segregated facilities and removed disability guidelines for US businesses. Does this mean we will return to the days of “whites only” signs or see stores refuse to add ramps? Who knows?

Here’s what I do know: with those restrictions and requirements removed, we will be able to see even further into the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens. The process began with the election when we wondered how people who seemed so nice, so-called “good” Christians, could vote for hate and cruelty.

And then I remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 “You will know them by their fruits.”

A Time for Poetry

poetry, thinking out loud, ,
Egret On Nice
Egret on Ice, Pea Island, North Carolina, January 2025, Photo by The Richardsons

After my last rant, I took a break and dove into the #100DayProject. Supported by Lindsay Jean Thomson, the goal of the project, which began on February 23 this year, is to choose a project and work on it for 100 days. While Thomson’s focus is about art, I don’t think it has to be. The main purpose is making the commitment to creating something everyday.

My project this year comes out of twin desires: to become more skilled at gel plate printing and to read more poetry. I am tracking my progress on Substack, as that is where the main project community is housed. I am also posting pictures to Flickr.

I was considering using Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope” is the thing with feathers next. The Poetry Foundation included the poem in a collection of poems of hope and resilience, created in 2017. I found Claudia Rankine’s poem, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: “Cornel West makes the point…”, a powerful meditation on life as a black person during George W. Bush’s election. She references Dickinson:

“I forget things too. It makes me sad. Or it makes me the saddest. The sadness is not really about George W. or our American optimism; the sadness lives in the recog­nition that a life can not matter. Or, as there are billions of lives, my sadness is alive alongside the recognition that billions of lives never mattered. I write this with­out breaking my heart, without bursting into anything. Perhaps this is the real source of my sadness. Or, per­haps, Emily Dickinson, my love, hope was never a thing with feathers. I don’t know, I just find when the news comes on I switch the channel. This new ten­dency might be indicative of a deepening personality flaw: IMH, The Inability to Maintain Hope, which trans­lates into no innate trust in the supreme laws that gov­ern us. Cornel West says this is what is wrong with black people today—too nihilistic. Too scarred by hope to hope, too experienced to experience, too close to dead is what I think.”

Claudia Rankine, “Cornel West makes the point… (pp. 21-23)” from Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. Copyright © 2004 by Claudia Rankine.