ElderChicks

You asked how we are doing this June of 2020, so first thank you for your stories. I am having scattered responses. Our Maybell Way Writers Collective meets irregularly in the cul-de-sac now, placing our chairs in a circle 6 feet apart, to check in. We haven’t been writing much these days. I’m the oldest in this group. Last week the second eldest, looking very stylish in a broad brimmed, straw hat over her beautiful, curly, grey hair asked me where and how I’d had my hair cut. “I cut it myself”, I said, “just the front and sides.” I loved knowing that I’d done a pretty good job!

Today I wrote a piece about the gardenias in the front garden. I bought an extraordinary silver thumb ring, just over half inch wide, with a concave curve to it. My daughter said it makes me look “badass” – an intriguing compliment. She and I meet each morning Mon-Fri from 8.00 – 9.00 outside my front door mid the vegetable gardens and the bird feeder. We bring our own coffee and check in. A wonderful gift. The other day when the sprinklers gently came on we watched a bird giving what looked like a You-Tube performance for birds, about how to have a shower in a sprinkler … first you lift your left wing so the water goes under it, and flutter it, then put … Both of us chuckled with sheer delight.

My League of Women Voters team has nailed down a Virtual Candidate Forum for late September for Congresswoman Eshoo and her opponent and we are on track to create a format for such a crucial virtual election event. I’ve been crying a lot since I saw the video of that cruel White officer deliberately squeezing George Floyd’s neck with his knee, into the concrete, until he was irretrievably gone. Murdered because he was Black. I weep with and for Floyd’s family and community and for our family and myself, am terrified for our Black family members, wanting my community, White folks, to do the work on our own selves to find how racism endures. Let’s make a Brownie Points list for our refrigerator, and every time we take a positive/optimistic step, eating well, turning off the endless news for an hour, calling a dear one to ask how s/he is doing lets acknowledge it by giving ourselves a Brownie Point. Sending big hugs and wishes that each of you is safe and well.