Lost time, found time

The Friday Photo

A weekly photo inspired by spontaneity, art, and community.

When I was a stay at home mom years ago I sewed a lot

I made play clothes and a few "nice" dresses for my daughters

When we finished restoring our simple farmhouse

I worked on curtains, chair cushions, quilted duvets, and dust ruffles

I stopped sewing when I began working outside the house

I didn't really miss it much

No time between work, dance classes and homework,
 groceries, and laundry

Last year in March, on a warm early spring day

on what should have been the last few days of 
radiation treatment for breast cancer

the computer on the equipment crashed

It was the worst day of having cancer 

Sunburned from radiation, 
 too exhausted to even think 
of anything that would have given me respite

I decided to start sewing again

This weekend I will try something new 
using cast off and thrift store sweaters

I have learned how to felt them

 cashmere, wool, angora

cabled, patterned, plain     

I hope by Sunday night to have a new scarf

and make others with scavenged finds

I sobbed outside the waiting room while my car was serviced that day

but I finally realized

that I will never have the time back

so now I want to use it well

and not just pass through so much of it  

No more rhymin' with the bitches

The materialism, violence, and blatant sexism that pervade so much of rap music are an assault against all women. The degrading way that women are referred to as a bitch or a ho doesn't pose as "art" when the images and words are repeated over and over again in demeaning tones.

If any number of reports hold true, this week a respected and successful musician and producer has sworn off any more bitches in his music. Since the birth of his daughter Blue Ivy Carter, proud father Jay-Z, has decided that calling a female a bitch just for the sake of using the word isn't o.k. In fact, he reportedly goes even further with this, “I never realized while on the fast track that I'd give riddance to the word bitch/To leave her innocence intact/No man will degrade her, or call her name/Forever young you may pass/Blue Ivy Carter, my angel."

If having a daughter brought this about, then congratulations are due to the father for quickly realizing that he doesn't want anyone calling his daughter a bitch (why he didn't give the word up out of respect for his wife or mother is another question). It is odd how a pink bow on the front door can change the way you speak (or rap). How many dads figure out that a lot of those doors will never open for their daughter?
Better pay? Women still earn about 77 cents to every dollar a man earns. Chances of leading a Fortune 500 company? The numbers are down to 12 women in that role because three left their posts in the last year and were replaced by men.

Women have made some significant gains in political leadership, but the United States Senate has 100 members and only 17 are women. In the House of Representatives 16.8% of the 435 seats belong to women. 
Last year Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta, deceased) wanted legislation passed which would require rape victims to be called accusers. If rape were predominantly a crime committed against men, would any man in the Georgia General Assembly supported a bill requiring that they be referred to as accusers? Semantics? I don't think so.

Like all new parents, I suspect that while Jay-Z and Beyonce know they can provide for Blue Ivy, they worry about the world that she will grow up in beyond their guarded home. If her father knows it shouldn't be a world where women are casually and routinely called bitches, I hope he can also do something about women also being considered a ho. That's another verse to be sung.      
     

Remember these?

The Friday Photo

A weekly photo inspired by spontaneity, art, and community.

I wonder if people squeeze into this tiny phone box,
 shut the door, and use their cell phone.

NYU Law School, 2nd floor  

A New Year and a New Adventure

Four years ago my eyes were opened wide to how fragile and vulnerable the world around me really is when a coal fired power plant was planned about eight miles from my front door. The benefits have included trying new things like paddling, fishing, looking for slave graves deep in the woods on a hot afternoon with church elders  (I was lucky and walked behind my boss who spotted a large rattlesnake obscured by overgrowth. And yes, it was a large snake and he killed it with a stick).

These adventures have allowed me to see the world around me, and especially the world outside the confines of my house and car, with a new perspective. It has changed the food I buy, what I like to eat (fighting coal taught me to like egg salad sandwiches), who my friends are (and aren't), expanded my news resources, and made me a pretty decent social media user.

In an effort to dial back the work a little, I am posting a photo here every Friday, called The Friday Photo. The photo will be something that caught my eye, maybe the first time I saw it, or the 20th time. I hope it will encourage others to look at the world around them with fresh eyes occasionally, or better yet, a world you haven't ventured into before.