I head outside and walk briskly feeling I’m back in the Midwest where I grew up. No loitering or sitting on benches, just moving along, as I hope the country does as we strive for and implement morality, and cultivate and honor democracy.
I read that salmon are in Coyote Creek near where I live, so I went to check and didn’t see any today, which may be because the tide is pouring in, so no ducks, fish, or otters, only waves in the water and reeds.
I’m with words from Anne Bancroft in Weavers of Wisdom: The Senecas hold a stone and when it becomes warm and pulsing, they enter the silence within.
The creek this morning!Thanks to the rain, mushrooms sprout in our yard.And there’s this!Intricacy
Researchers have found that land plants evolved on Earth about 700 million years ago and land fungi evolved about 1,300 million years ago. Fungi connect with mycelium; they network.
In reading Robert MacFarlane’s book Is a River Alive?, I learn about Giuliana Furci who is known for her advocacy and research into the fungal kingdom. Her relationship is such that she can be in a car in a dark forest and sense a certain type of mushroom.
She says about hopping out of a car to discover a colony of Avatar-blue mushrooms, “I didn’t see the mushrooms, exactly. I heard them. If you know how to listen, fungi just … tell you where they are. I’ll get this feeling that there’s a fungus around. I feel, no, I know, that there’s something – no, somebody – who wants to see me. You get a call-out from them.”
“The fuzz in the matrix. That’s still the best way I can describe it. I can say very definitely that it’s a communication – a two-way interaction. The fungi know I’m there, as well as the reverse. Fungi have a different vibration to plants and animals. The colours move differently, I find. And fungi has a … shine that’s different to the shine of plants. It’s more … opague. And they have a very different energy than plants – much more of a watery or liquid feel.”
And now we organize a fluid energy to protest against dictatorship and cruelty. We connect and infiltrate to destroy their plans.
As Henry David Thoreau wrote: “This is the only way, we say, but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre.”
We are radii, connecting through the environmental webs that nourish and sustain us all.
Mushrooms on the Oakwood Trail in JanuaryUmbrellas for LeprechaunsTransformation Climbs
I started reading Erik Larson’s new book The Demon of Unrest. It’s about the six months before the Civil War. He wrote it because it reminded him of today, and I’m drawn into it and see the similarities as to division.
I read Heather Cox Richardson as usual today and am struck by her emphasis on what Trump said. I never intended to bring politics into this blog but I feel things are at a critical point right now. There’s the Supreme Court corrupted by Trump and their recent decisions, and Trump’s connection with Putin. Read her today as I pull out a few paragraphs.
HCR: He said something else last night in his slurry of words that jumped out. Somewhere in his discussion of Putin’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in February 2022, Trump said: “Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my—this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream.”
HCR: In last night’s debate, Trump insisted that Putin never would have invaded Ukraine on his watch (although Putin in fact continued his 2014 assault during Trump’s term, and Trump tried to withhold support for Ukraine).
Last night, Trump claimed that the Ukrainians are losing the war and described how sad it was that their country is being destroyed (without mentioning that it is Putin’s unprovoked war that is doing that damage). He also significantly exaggerated how much money the U.S. has contributed to Ukraine’s defense.
So when Trump last night said about the 2022 invasion, “Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my—this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream,” it sounded as if he had been in on the Mariupol Plan. And when he talked about how the war needed to end, especially in light of Putin’s recent “peace” plan, it sounded as if perhaps he still is.
And he promised, yet again, that he and he alone could get Gershkovich released.
The Democrats need to rally, and when they win expand the Supreme Court to correct recent decisions intended to destroy our democracy. It’s not a time for division. We need to come together, yes, with discussion, but also with resolve to defeat Trump, Putin, and the Christian Right.
I feel Ruth Bader Ginsberg damaged her legacy by not resigning from the Supreme Court so someone with her leanings could be appointed. We are in dangerous territory with talk of replacing Biden as though we might want someone younger, we might not agree on who this younger person should be. That aside, President Biden was rated 14th by the 154 presidential historians who rated Trump dead last. They rated Trump the worst of all the U.S. presidents and that’s really saying something as they haven’t all been winners.
The Democratic party has always been complex as they work to embrace a multitude of people and viewpoints. The issue of age is key in this election, key on both sides. We celebrate this country’s independence next Thursday, July 4th. May this not be the last year that we do.
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