Yesterday we made a day trip to central Iowa for a family funeral. On the trip to Iowa I gazed out the windows of the car and watched the beautiful green Iowa farmland unfold before my eyes.
We visited the cabin by Pine Lake that belonged to Jon’s family until we sold it after his mom died. I spent a lot of very happy time at this cabin. It’s now an AirBNB rental.
On the way home I watched the amazing clouds in the sky, pondering a verse from the song Both Sides Now about
Cloud’s Illusions…
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all— Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now
We often live our lives full of illusions about how things are or should be. I know I believed that women’s reproductive rights had been affirmed by the Supreme Court and could not be taken away.
That was an illusion.
In the U.S. legal system, there is a principle that compels judges to respect the precedent established by prior decisions on similar cases. This principle is known as “stare decisis” (Latin). This means that courts should adhere to precedent, and not stir the pot on matters already settled.
This week’s Supreme Court decisions did not surprise me. But they did sadden and anger me. It boggles my mind that our country will now allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon without regard for the increasing violence we are experiencing in our country while taking away a right that women have had for 50 years to make decisions about their own reproductive health.
Grief, Anger
The grief and anger I have feels like a dark cloud covering the sky. But still I see light through the clouds. Anger can move me to work for change. It can help me see more clearly and part the clouds of illusion that blind me.
A Just Anger
Anger shines through me.
Anger shines through me.
I am a burning bush.
My rage is a cloud of flame.
My rage is a cloud of flame
in which I walk
seeking justice
like a precipice.
How the streets
of the iron city
flicker, flicker,
and the dirty air
fumes.
Anger storms
between me and things,
transfiguring,
transfiguring.
A good anger acted upon
is beautiful as lightning
and swift with power.
A good anger swallowed,
a good anger swallowed
clots the blood
to slime.— Marge Piercy
It is up to each person to decide what to do with their anger and which actions are the right actions for them to take. For some it may mean marching and protesting. Others may write letters or give money to support organizations that are helping people in need. The important thing is to not let anger make you bitter or to give up.
In my dreams no woman would ever be faced with an unwanted pregnancy because she would have the education and resources to choose a way to ensure she did not become pregnant until she chose to. No woman would ever be raped or molested. Guns would not be needed because we treat one another with care and mutual respect. Good health care and mental health care would be free and easily available for all.
But that’s not the world we live in at this time.
Let us become truly pro-life. Let us support every person’s right to receive the health care they need, to have opportunities to grow and flourish, to be free to learn and grow, to be able to make decisions about their own bodies and lives. And let us respect all life, not just human life and work towards a more just sustainable world.
You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.―
Another photo of the cabin
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