THANKFUL FRIDAY
Cindy Maddera
Tuesday morning, I got up at 5:00AM to walk Josephine. I knew it would probably be our only walk this week. Our weather is tumultuous at the moment, with rain and thunderstorms, hail and possibly snow this evening. It is such a mess that Chad and Jess canceled their visit. They travel in a camper van these days and driving in high winds is terrifying. We’ve penciled in some time in June, but only with a very light pencil. Any way, right now it is impossible to know if you need your coat outside or not but everything is blooming into lovely shades of purples and pinks. While Tuesday morning was a bit brisk, Josephine and I had a lovely walk around the neighborhood.
It had been decided weeks ago that April 1st was going to be our next Ladies Who Skate night, but as the day went by, the texts started trickling with cancelations. Eventually it came down to me, Jenn and her oldest, Salem. Jenn and I are very similar about bedtimes. We both agree that a weeknight 8:00 PM skate date is a challenge, particularly when your typical bedtime is 9:00 PM. Sometime around six, Jenn sent a text asking if I still wanted to go and I could hear it. This was going to be the moment where we play the game of who says no. I did not hesitate in my yes even though I had been up and moving since 5:00 AM and here’s why. I recently bought and installed new bearings on my skates and I wanted to test them out. Also, while I was tired and could have easily gone straight to bed at six in the evening, I knew with my whole heart that doing this skate night was good for me.
It’s good for all of us.
And Jenn and I are not amazing skaters. We’re basic and we know it, but the minute the wheels are on our feets and we’re on the rink, the weight of our day, our lives, lifts up and floats away. So, even though I was tired, I said “Yes!” Tuesday evening, the three of us skated around and around the rink for a good hour. We talked yelled with each other over the music about books and movies. We danced and laughed. We marveled at the not so basic skaters on the rink. Then when we’d had enough, we sat on the carpeted floor, taking off our skates and putting the date in our calendars for the next skate night. We finished our evening with ice cream and singing along with ABBA on the car radio. In that moment, I swore to myself that no matter how tired I might be, I would not skip out on a skate night.
Nazi Germany called them Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts. They would come and just take German citizens ‘away’ for speaking out, for their religion, for the color of their skin and hair. In the US, we call them ICE. We live in a country where a group of men without identification can literally snatch people off of our streets because they protested to end genocide or their skin is not white. These people have legal status and the rights to free speech, yet they are still being deported to horrible conditions. We live in country where a growing number of citizens cannot afford health care and our government has fired thousands of federal health workers. These are people who keep our foods safe, protect us from diseases and aid in research. Those workers are there to help those who cannot afford healthcare. This administration has made it very clear that they do not care about the poor, even the middle class, or people that do not serve them. They behave in a manner opposite of Christ like. What they are doing is wrong. Not left or right. It is wrong. Meanwhile there are those people so adamant in their support of a Tyrant that they are more concerned with what celebrity may or may not be a communist than how they are going to afford the car parts for a vehicle when it breaks down. So while we’re repeating bad history, we’re going to throw in the whole McCarthy era witch hunts too.
I wonder what it is like to have that kind of privilege.
Being a witness to the dismantling of a country I believe in, a country my family sacrificed a precious member to, is unbearable. The constant calling of senators and representative, the micro aggressive email sending, the constant research and digging for the absolute truth is exhausting. This feeling is a million times worse than that time Chris and I did campaign work in Oklahoma. I have a constant sense of drowning and feelings of job insecurity because what they are doing will have some sort of impact on my livelihood. These are incredibly dark times and because of that, no matter how tired my body may feel, I am going to say yes to activities that bring me joy. If art and finding the good in people are my weapons against tyranny, then joy is the fuel for those weapons.
No one knows more than I that life is short. It’s too short to waste on this administration’s bullshit, for sure. So I’m getting out the camera. I’m sitting with my new Fortune Cookie Journal and I’m lacing up my skates. I’m grasping onto every opportunity for joyful protest. I am grateful for those people in my life who get it and who understand how we are propping each other up.
Hey Forrest, I'm going to lean right back up against you and you'll lean right back up against me that way we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud". Bubba Blue
Sometimes the simplest thing we can do is lean against one another.