the quartet played as the titanic sank

The NRDC economist said we’re looking into the abyss. Big coal has spent decades funding faux science to deny climate change. The chamber of commerce beat even Exxon mobile on billions of dollars spent on lobbyists. Democrats are included in the club of lawmakers that make $250k + per year from coal and oil interests. There are 5 dirty energy lobbyists for every lawmaker. Warren BuffetI has placed a bet against the planet by investing big in coal.”YOU IDIOTS” is on the cover of the Rolling Stone issue with all this cheerful news.  I’ve encouraged the girls to use their strengths to help save the planet. Maybe, Emily’s cello would be the best after all…a soothing tonic while we go down.

BUT- as Iris pointed out, we won WWII and there’s no McCarthy rounding us up for visiting China. And if my cousin Carola was grateful for bad coffee to use as shampoo, hay to cushion her sleep, and soup each day, surely, I can face living in paradise.

Three strong healthy creative supportive daughters, a husband who pampers me and gives me freedom, a mild drizzly climate that nurtures fir, cedars,washington farmers, my hunter cat, near invisible bikers with raingear and moss, and an abundance of every manmade product in the world at my doorstep. Maybe it’s just our job to document the perfection and melt into the music.

time alone

Thank you to my TA in Chemistry freshman year, 40 days and 40 nights journal Lauren and my mom.  The TA, a Cornell senior already admitted

to med school put his feet up and read the NYT during chemistry lab. Finally (age 46, Barack safely in whitehouse) I let myself read it thoroughly least twice a week- no rushing.

  40 days 40 nights gove me the courage to start journaling. It’s NOT like anyone will ever read it- but I couldn’t get started without a little format.

LAUREN is making daily progress on her book (I gobbled up a sneak preview and loved it!) and she ENCOURAGES me in her gentle quiet way to plant myself and do the same.

Whether I ever have a completed book or not, I love time spent working on it.  My mom told me that she and Rafi had some goals they never seriously pursued and I should not be afraid to pursue mine.

Now, I just need one more benefit from this writing project…get Iris to write!

Unicycling

Solange ordered a bike rack and storage shed hoping to remove all the  bikes/skateboards from her front entryway and dining room. But two unicycles arrived on the scene before  any sign of the organizers. Mike was excited to apply his considerable mountain biking skill to this  wobbly alternative. He started by  riding along a brick wall then progressed to  leaning heavily  on my shoulder.  I went from long arm hangs dragging the unicycle and my legs along the wall to lightly touching the wall with one hand punctuated by seconds of panic as the wheel tried to escape ahead or behind me.  As always, Rafi saw only my potential. He  offered to either take up a collection for a unicycle for Gwen or saw my bike in half.

Iris and Solange commandeered the house right across the street from Solange by being wonderful friends to its owners: Pam and Dennis. Iris went on to have a table set for 12 at 9 AM and dinnertime each day then proceeded to magically make various relatives want to cook the meals. Conversations ranged from best movies to Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin to whether or not one of Solly’s neighbors could shoot the other without getting out of his armchair or opening his window. (He probably can). Rafi taught me the provinces of Canada, and the major cities in Australia, and the likely compositions of the cliffs east of Scottsdale on the Apache trail. Emily led Cranium games- she won every single game but everyone had fun except maybe Rafi who never heard of any popular songs in his life.

Derek was great- he took us mountain biking and Pam and Dennis’ dog,  Blanka, followed him everywhere. He played and watched football with Eric, played chess with Rafi, Sorry with Summer and hiked camelback – arriving at the top first.

Derek and Bessie  watched the Day after Tomorrow with us even though they’d already seen it. I could tell Bessie related to intense scientists stopping at nothing to save the world. Nellie and Summer  woke up by 10 AM or so- a big improvement over past years.  Nellie  looks 17 when she’s confidently driving her new white compact car around. Otherwise, I still can’t believe she’s that old.

Solly acted all pokey letting everyone hike and mountain bike ahead of her.  She maintains large piles of laundry in various prominent locations and seems to spend a chunk of time cleaning cat litter.  But on our trail run, I could only keep up with her for about a minute.  Eric did better but she ran about twice as far as we did. And she did 5 plus 4 pull ups (from a dead hang unlike Summer’s 12 pullups she claimed). Under the jumbled laundry is the most gorgeous old fashioned quilt which she made. And she did write an attention grabbing courtroom drama while working full time. I’m sure she’s a multimillionnaire about to become richer in real estate. And her kids are growing up creative, brave and strong.

As the sun started to set, a wiley coyote in the street witnessed Mike riding up and down the street with no help except the recycle bin to get him started. We said our leisurely goodbyes complete with photos then nearly missed our plane which left at 6:20 instead of 7:20 pm as I thought. At least we all had to sit alone on the plane so nobody could yell at me. And once again, we’re a family of 5-  Lauren is coming home!

utopia

Sunday, poor Paul Krugman appeared on CNN to “face off” on climate change against….an adjunct professor of business. CNN found the foulest Dane to throw on the screen and then they kept the camera on his huge mouth only occasionally panning to  Paul’s despondent face. In today’s paper, he (PK) said he was naive when he first started writing for the NYT- in thinking that influential people change their mind in the face of evidence. Then he said Alan Greenspan’s the only one that ever admitted to being wrong and he can’t believe the house just voted against MODEST regulations on Wall Street.

Anyway, after an inconvenient truth, I wished Al Gore would get behind a beautiful movie in which the best technologies and methods already in existence form the setting…something to inspire people into the future.  The best movie I’ve seen in that regard is '”Meet the Robinsons.”

And the best comfort I had when I was in total despair one night over the fate of our planet was Carlos. He said after people are gone, the world will recover. I hope he’s right and I hope lots of animal and plant species recover with it. I also like his dream of building a sustainable village in Mexico.

ANYHOW- my ideas don’t go far in real life although I am happy JAMA published my letter hypothesizing that fewer cars per capita are one reason Brits are healthier than Americans. So that’s why I want to write a book- so my idea of how things should be are on paper even though they’ll never happen.  And just like AYN RAND- you can’t just spew your ideas when they’re big and impractical- you have to put it into a character and story that some  may enjoy.

And if nobody reads it- then it’s a little cocoon of safety, sanity, order. Clean air, walkable communities, improved group think and government. And one jumping off point is the prediction I read in the NYT…an article about Big Food vs Big Insurance. – when medical insurers finally have to cover people FOR LIFE, they’ll start caring about  long term health. Then they’ll realize there’s an opponent to health stronger than them: BIG FOOD. 

So, BIG FOOD will be the last REMNANT of today’s  cannibalistic society. And the forces of good will TAKE THEM DOWN.

Silk

29 degrees and 6:20 AM reported the bank’s neon sign as I glided down the dark sidewalk. No more running late for me. My bus didn’t leave til 6:45. The double length bus dropped me in the Seattle’s international district tunnel. I emerged to hear seagulls and enjoy a cold cloudy sunrise behind the elaborate gates to Chinatown. My northbound train claimed the precarious edge of mainland Washington treating its passengers to views of Puget sound’s cold ripples inching towards the untamed snowy Olympica peaks.

If you minitiarize Seattle, remove all chain stores and most cars, and infuse true friendliness into the inhabitants, you’ll get the Fairhaven district of Bellingham. I knew all this but was still surprised when my bike landed me in front of my waterfront hotel in less than 5 minutes and the hotel host cheerfully prattled on about never owning a car. The christmas tree, roaring fire and beckoning spa distracted me from the main purpose of the trip: Emily June Hanson.

Beautiful even in her sloppy clothes, Emily hugged me in the plaza outside WWU performing arts center at 4 PM. “Come with me,” she coaxed,” I just need to change into concert clothes and practice this one piece I haven’t looked at lately.” We proceeded to her dorm room where Emily socialized with each of her 3 suite mates, carefully assembled her professional black attire and offered me snacks. By the time we hit the practice room, we had 20 minutes til the 5 pm performance time. On her apocalyptica metallica piece for 4 celli, Emily noticed she’d been playing one note wrong. She fixed that, went on to polish a couple of spots and seemed relaxed when she packed up at 5 to head to the recital hall.

Why had the cello prof saved Emily’s pieces for last? Talented musicians playing shostakovich and dvorak went before Emily’s Brahms sonata for piano and cello. Emily’s siky tone was new. Her cello swerved unfaltering through the sonata unperturbed by irregularities from her new accompanist. She easily reminded me why this is my favorite piece. In the metallica piece, all the 4 cellists lacked was electricity and amps. Hard rock suddenly seemed a natural domain for their instrument.

Today’s bike ride took me along the dark waterfront near my hotel. Taking a long pier smooth as carpet, I was alert- bike trails often end abruptly and I didn’t want a cold swim. To my great surprise, the dock segued smoothly into a bike trail. Like the rest of the trip, the path was silk.

Monday hits hard

Fell into old bad habits and ran late to work with no make up on. Then stayed out of sorts most of the day. I practically told one patient, MG, that I give up…bloating, dry mouth, neck pain, fatigue, unable to lose weight, very strange things happening in the toilet…and none of us-naturopaths, generalists, surgeons, or other specialists seem to help her in the slightest.  Ironically when she walked in today, my computer was streaming a piece of a news story saying "”…our doctors are being paid to keep us sick…”

The presence of Mt. Rainier

52 degrees according to the subaru and definitely raining. 2 sleeping kids in the back, a clamshell full of skis and a husband who for once is more pessimistic than myself…he hates skiing in the rain.  Nothing’s been easy this week-end. An emergency in the office took me away for nearly 2 hours making me late to my own thanksgiving dinner for 9. The kids and Eric took over well except the kids tried to make their own table leaving the adults to eat alone. I was home in time to fix that.

42 degrees I reported cheerfully as we began the ascent from Enumclaw to Crystal Mtn. Only 10 to go!  Eric looked taciturnly ahead and kept driving. 

“Snow!” Lisa was cheerfully able to report when she woke up. Finally it was there- obediently drifted on either side of the road except where the land fell away to deep depths below.

Fog scampered all around us completely obscuring our surroundings but we weren’t complaining- we could see each other and our skis and it wasn’t raining.  After lunch, douglas firs finally appeared and seemed  lit up by  sunshine on their snowy branches.

“Is that where it’s supposed to be?” Behind a ridge, clouds and fog turned orangy pink but refused to melt away under the tentative sun. Eric was sure. Mt. Rainier was behind the veil. Somehow, knowing the gigantic volcano was right in front of us yet completely invisible made its  power even more impressive.

I followed Summer down for the last run of the day. Her powder blue snow suit, brilliant sky blue hood and silver boots were softened by the wispy remnants of fog.