Home before leaving

My fifth Spring in the Garden State, my first bout with Spring allergies.  It's not too bad, but it is something.

Have gone to bed "early" the past two nights, slept soundly and am still waking beat up.

Opted out of car shopping this morning.  Stuff was spilling off my plate.

The kids and I have started The Game of Silence and it is a heart wrencher.  Only those who have known me for a very long time know that there was a time when I was passionate about American Indian/Native American life in the United States.  I felt a strong connection and came close to pursuing a Master's in public health in order to go onto a reservation to work with women and children, in particular.

Reading these books by Louise Erdrich (one of my favorite authors and an enrolled member of the Ojibwe/Chippewa tribe) brings me right back to the painful and poignant and passionate sense of injustice done to the native tribes...the so often forgotten touchstone of original American tragedy.

I am heading back into the kitchen.  Today I make some dishes to contribute to our Easter dinner (gluten-free, casein-free, Paleo and Paleo-ish that travel well), as well as food for the car and food to have on hand while we're away.  Yep, I'll be cooking all day.

Today's Tiny Desk Concert lifted my spirits.  I love love love Kathleen Edwards.  Enjoy.

Blog for choice 2012

Reproductive rights is something I often take for granted.  Commemorative activities, acts of remembrance, are good ways to acknowledge that nothing should be taken for granted because things always change.

I recently heard from someone that she thought she might be pregnant.  What surprised me most about our conversation was my hesitance to say out loud a point I found she was not making.

She had a choice.

Don't get me wrong.  This, ahem, pregnant pause was not about a shift in my belief that women should have the right to choose.  It was about wondering why she wasn't voicing the availability of choice to her.  It was about wanting to give someone a wide berth as she shared something with me that seemed to carry with it the shadow of barely articulated.  It was about waiting to see if I was being asked for advice or rather, simply, to listen.

It was the first time I thought about choice, as in reproductive choice, in a long time.  Yet, it is something that women and girls, boys and men encounter and are affected by every day.  The exercise of reproductive choice is highly personal, but it speaks volumes that we live in a society that, for now, protects this choice as a right.

I never did speak my bit.  But, I will, if the occasion calls for it.  I am grateful for the opportunity to offer support to any girl/woman/couple/family dealing with the issue of what to do when challenged by an unplanned pregnancy.

Regardless of what the choice made ends up being.

Demanding change

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, then you know I am a Mac user (have been my whole computer life).  I love Apple products.  My devotion has been unconditional...despite my normal wariness towards things institutional.

I read this piece today about "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs".  If you want to keep drinking the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid, don't read it.  But, if you want to know the hard truth about Apple's failings in the integrity department, then check it out.

I am still hoping for a new (MacBook Air) laptop for Christmas.  But, I am also going to write to the new Apple CEO to express my dismay over the company's utter disregard for fair and ethical labor practices in their Chinese factories.