I find that a misty, rainy day allows me to slip gently into the alternate time and space of the Jolly Bungalow. I haven’t been here (or is it more properly “there?) in more than two years. The uncertainty and newness had faded from the new normal of life and I was preoccupied with rebuilding the treehouse, acquiring two antique printing presses, and living in the halcyon days of the Biden administration.
When that went all pear-shaped earlier this month, I had to re-group and try to figure what will be threatened. This is what I know.
- That president-elect does not have a mandate and the country is still of two minds about the future.
- I am not going to abandon my values. Women’s rights are human rights, LGBTQ+ rights are human rights, and racism is evil.
- Climate change is real.
- Corporations are not people.
- No one really needs an eighth yacht.
- The government must serve all the people.
- I may live in the US but I am a citizen of the world in my heart.
- And I am a resident of a wonderful local community that means more to me than any nation.
- I am reclaiming my power as a witch.
- The same moon shines over us all each night.
The path forward seems to require resistance, or at least being true to what I believe no matter how others behave, and it requires calling out those who emulate the crass, bigoted and and hateful behaviour of—well, you get the picture.
One of my uncles was Headmaster at a boys’ school, so he knew quite a bit about crass and unkind behaviour. He was the master of the stern look and when he spoke quietly but strongly, “That will do” spoke volumes. I need to practice that!
It’s hardly a strategy yet, but identifying the values that are most under threat. It makes sense to identify the what before the how.
Tales from the jolly bungalow 