Last night I finished reading Louise Erdrich’s incredible book, The Night Watchman. It’s based on her grandfather and the work he did to save their native land in 1953. Now, I read this. It’s heart-breaking.

He passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 75. If you’re not familiar with him, or his writing, or even if you are, this is a beautiful essay on Love.

It’s not over yet.  Heather Cox Richardson continues to provide information we need.

This is part of her column from yesterday.  

Tonight, Trump relented and signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which includes the coronavirus relief measure and the 2021 appropriations bill (along with other measures).

Trump tried to suggest he was saving the nation from the crisis he, himself, has caused, but it is likely that he finally signed the bill because his stubbornness was not playing well across an increasingly desperate nation, especially as he is golfing at Mar-a-Lago and Vice President Mike Pence is skiing in Vail, Colorado. Americans were generally angry over his inaction on a bill that would provide relief for those suffering from the economic crisis, funding for the distribution of vaccines, and funding for the government. As Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) pointed out today, “If his goal was really to get a better deal on the budget, he would have vetoed it immediately and begun negotiating. But his goal is actually national arson—chaos for the fun of it. So he sits on the budget—does nothing—in order to guarantee a government shutdown.”

Heather continues.

So the CAA will become law, and the drama of lawmaking for this congressional session should be over. But it is not quite over yet. Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, which specifies how the defense budget will be spent, on Wednesday, December 23. The NDAA has passed with bipartisan majorities since the 1960s when it first began, and presidents have always signed it. But Trump has chosen to veto it, on the grounds that it calls for the renaming of U.S. military bases named for Confederate generals and that it does not strip social media companies of protection from liability when third parties post offensive material on them. 

The National Defense Authorization Act this year does something else, though, that seems to me of far more importance to the president than the naming of military bases. 

It includes a measure known as the Corporate Transparency Act, which undercuts shell companies and money laundering in America. The act requires the owners of any company that is not otherwise overseen by the federal government (by filing taxes, for example, or through close regulation) to file a report that identifies each person associated with the company who either owns 25% or more of it or exercises substantial control over it. That report, including name, birthdate, address, and an identifying number, goes to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The measure also increases penalties for money laundering and streamlines cooperation between banks and foreign law enforcement authorities. 

America is currently the easiest place in the world for criminals to form an anonymous shell company which enables them to launder money, evade taxes, and engage in illegal payoff schemes. The measure will pull the rug out from both domestic and international criminals that take advantage of shell companies to hide from investigators. When the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists dug into leaked documents from FinCEN this fall, they discovered shell companies moving money for criminals operating out of Russia, China, Iran, and Syria. 

Shell companies also mean that our political system is awash in secrecy. Social media giants like Facebook cannot determine who is buying political advertising. And, as Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) noted, shell companies allow “foreign bad actors” to corrupt our system even more directly. “[I]t’s illegal for foreigners to contribute to our campaigns,” he reminded Congress in a speech for the bill, “but if you launder your money through a front company with anonymous ownership there is very little we can do to stop you.”

We know the Trump family uses shell companies: Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen used a shell company to pay off Stormy Daniels, and just this month we learned that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner approved a shell company that spent more than $600 million in campaign funds. 

The new requirements in the NDAA apply not just to future entities, but also to existing ones. 

Congress needs to repass the NDAA over Trump’s veto—indeed it is likely that the CTA was included in this measure precisely because the NDAA is must-pass legislation—and both the CTA and the NDAA bill into which it is tucked have bipartisan support. Trump has objected to a number of things in the original bill but has not publicly complained about the CTA in it. It will be interesting to see if Congress repasses this bill in its original form and, if not, what changes it makes.

You can read her whole column here:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-27-2020

Here’s a wonderful article on Heather in the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/business/media/heather-cox-richardson-substack-boston-college.html

I am sad to learn this morning that Barry Lopez has passed away.  

Bill Moyers reports from an interview with Barry that one of his most important teachers, never wrote a book or stood in a classroom, “I can remember walking on different — what a scientist would call a substrate — walking in sand or on rock or across water. Not on the water. But my body will talk to me and say, ‘I was listening when you were not paying attention. And here’s what your body learned through its senses about the world that you were moving in.’ So, the earth has been a teacher.”

This morning I watched Jeanine Martin in an interview with Stefan Laeng, the executive director of the Sensory Awareness Foundation, say what Sensory Awareness has meant to her this year.  “Breathing is like flowers blossoming.”

This next Saturday Stefan will lead a free class at 9:00 Pacific time.  Check it out, and if you’re intrigued, keep following the SAF offerings, and perhaps make a donation to gratefully support this powerful and life-changing work.  

Here’s a beautiful and inspiring look at sensing through Jeanine.

My young friend Katie Zarling Buono, well, the age of my sons,  survived an unbelievably challenging bone marrow transplant, and is a wonderful wife, mother, teacher, and human being.

She posted this today on FB:  Finally sitting down to do grading and I find myself getting tearful in that joyful, grateful, utterly verklempt way. I’m so proud of my students and all they’ve endured this year… One writes as part of their reflection: “I learned that I get uneasy around the unknown. I like certainty; however, during this process, I realized that I have to push myself even if I am not 100% positive the project will go perfectly.” Isn’t that just the key to it all? Learning to deal with uncertainty and moving forward regardless? Damn. If this is the only thing my students learn from me, then I’m happy.

I’m happy there are teachers like Katie.  My understanding is that teachers for K to 12 are essential workers and will get the vaccine soon.  It’s always a time of transition between Christmas and New Years, and this year feels even more clear.  

We open gratefully and with necessity and resilience to uncertainty,  stretch, and change.

For me, the day after Christmas is the beginning of the New Year.  It sparkles with new light, the light of possibility and beckoning what comes, or maybe not beckoning simply allowing the grace of embrace.

John Lewis is a light for this morning.  

And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.

One of my daughters-in-law, a doctor, got the vaccine today.  She got the notice late last night after our Zoom call where we opened gifts together.

I sit here now, so grateful. Tears came when I got the news.  She is a doctor in Santa Clara, not the safest place these days, but now we feel a level of protection, and realms of gratitude, and yes, she’ll still wear a mask.  

Four years ago, my husband was in the hospital at Christmas.  Not one’s choice but across the hall was a prisoner from San Quentin.  Though he was shackled, a guard was in the room with him, and another sat outside his door.  He didn’t look capable of escape though he was young, perhaps thirty.  

Everyone agreed that for Christmas the shackles would be removed, and he could take a shower.  We all rejoiced in this man’s shower.  

Those who worked those holidays, Holy days, volunteered so those with families could be home.  It’s a sacred time, as is every moment and day but something jingles more clearly this gathering time of year.

I continue to read Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Semenova Ginzberg, about her 18 years of unjust imprisonment in insane times in Russia.  And the rain pours down.  I’m gratefully embraced.

Last night, I lit candles, made a fire, and opened a bottle of wine. Neighbors across the valley put on a light show. We opened gifts with our family on Zoom.

This morning I rise early and as the day comes to light, there’s pink in the sky. Outside, taking pictures, drops of rain fall, and as I turn, a rainbow in the sky.

We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.  
– Neil deGrasse Tyson

I like to leave this day open to reflect.  I honor the solstice pause.  On December 21st, the sun, that appears to us to stop moving southward, pauses, and then moves northward.  

The word “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol” for sun, and “sisto” for stop.

Even as I pause, I feel myself “champing at the bit” to get back to “normal” in this new year.

My doctor daughter-in-law keeps cautioning we’re in this for a long while.  The vaccine requires two doses, so even when I qualify which is probably months away, I’ll still wear my mask and curtail my activities.  

I think in each of us, there is a felt sense of the change in light, and a movement toward the bud to ripen and grow.  I want to be the opened flower picking off the petals of my life to reach the fruit.  I think I’ve handled isolation reasonably well, but today I feel frisky.  I want to romp with family and friends.

And now I look up and a squirrel is running along the branches of the redwood tree outside my window.  Who wants to romp, squirrel or me?  And now I look at the trunk of the tree.  Let contentment root.  Birds are tweeting and threading movement in the sky.  There are no clouds today, and the blue seems still until a hawk, crow, raven, or vulture sweeps through.

May birth spin within!

Perhaps it’s winter awareness of the night sky, but today my eye is drawn to the book Grrrrr, A Collection of Poems about Bears edited by CB Follett.  

Perhaps it’s also that bears are hibernating right now so something in their dreams growls in my heart.

Maybe all animals are asking us to come together and save their habitat.

In the book, Doug Peacock writes: The richest, most diversified grizzly bear habitats were found in the state of California … The only incontestable fact about California grizzly bears is that there aren’t any left.  We shot them all.

Tears come and then there’s a knock on my door – Tom and Maggie stand there, stand back, wearing masks, bearing a Christmas bag of homemade cookies. We used to go with them to cut our Christmas tree, now we stand back and exchange.

This is hard.  It’s Christmas and we can’t see family and friends.  May we all unite in gazing up at the sky tonight.   Maybe we’ll see bears!