So many unexpected nice things (well, a couple big ones, anyway) have come my way recently, I checked to see what's going on in the stars.
Here's what:
The jovial planet of Jupiter is traveling through Pisces, my sign, for most of 2022, bringing lucky possibilities to all, but especially Pisces,
"a mystical, magical, lucky transit that astrologers have been eagerly awaiting" [via].
Okay, then!
First up:
Today I did my first shift at a bookstore downtown that sells rare and antique books--mostly online these days. Its temporary: I'm helping out packing books while one of the owners recovers from a knee replacement. The owner is a friend of a friend, who alerted me that the store needed help.
Someone came along with me: the dispenser of gummed packing tape was too heavy for her, so she browsed the books instead.
I told Marz I was thinking of posting a quote from FDR in defense of democracy on my Instagram––because at the anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by some of my fellow citizens, I was thinking how precious and precarious democracy is.
"I'm an old person", I said. "I can honestly say these sincere, old-fashioned things."
"You'll sound like a Karen," she said, but not unapprovingly. "Jimmy Carter said something like that about the attack on the Capitol."*
LOL. Yeah, okay. Though I'd say a dweeb, "a person socially inept or foolish, often on account of being overly studious."
But also, just taking it seriously.
I made this from FDR's "Rendezvous with Destiny" speech--his acceptance of the Democratic Party’s renomination for the 1936 presidential (re)election:
I added:
The reason I love George Floyd Square is that the occupation is democratic:Doesn't FDR sound like Gandalf here? Just replace "democracy" with "the shire".
It's like the exchange between Gandalf & Frodo:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times.
But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
On the 1-year anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by Americans, FDR's 1936 "rendezvous with destiny" speech reminds me this sort of threat keeps arising.❧ ❧ ❧
"Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."
Cold weather makes for clear skies and beautiful sun rises & sets.
Topper put on a bear's sweater to go sit in the cherry tree early this morning...
Brokenheart Bear at George Floyd Memorial Square, 38th & Chicago, Minneapolis, MN
I put Bear at the square in mid-July, 2021. Poster on ground: "NO JUSTICE, NO STREETS"
When I went back, someone had given Bear candy suckers to hold:
And the next time, Bear was reading the psalms:
Two days before Christmas, a jury found Kim Potter found guilty of manslaughter for shooting Daunte Wright.
Bear sat with a red rose under a blanket of snow:
And by Christmastime, Bear was snug in a snow cave:
This was the weirdest year of my life...
This looked normal (more or less):
JANUARY 2021
A few months away from a COVID vaccine, Julia gives me a respirator to wear working at the thrift store;
snow covers remnants of Lake St. buildings burned in the uprising after the police murder George Floyd;
Jan 20, celebrate the inauguration of Biden/Harris
FEBRUARY
Meet up with Marz outside Half-Price Books (outside for Covid safety);
Stuff at work (I'm still doing social media for the store);
Participate in [due South] Fandom Flower Day with Eeva
MAY
Orphan-Red Circus-Costume Day w/ bink & Sister;
Annette threw me a (belated) 60th birthday party w/ Maura & bink--we take off our masks but stay outside;
Marz at GFS
I lost my iPhone in October. Relieved not to have the Internet on me 24/7, I replace it with a flip phone. Takes a while to get a working digital camera (from bink), so I don't have many photos in Nov & Dec.
NOVEMBER
City Elections: "There could be something new about this moment."
...But the mayor is reelected, and the proposal to establish a Dept. of Public Safety to incorporate the police dept. is defeated.
