Blog – Top of JC’s Mind

Thanksgiving Eve

Today is the day before Thanksgiving in the United States. My daughter and son-in-law have traveled 5,000 miles to be here to celebrate with us, their first trip back to our home in almost three years. As a special bonus, we are having a snowstorm. Snow is not a featured weather form at their home in Honolulu!

We have been doing some of the prep work for feasting tomorrow. Beth and Larry have the dough for chocolate babka rising in the refrigerator. They wanted to make it for a festive breakfast to fuel the rest of the kitchen work tomorrow morning. The Indian pudding is baked, ready to re-heat tomorrow. The flavors blend and deepen overnight, so we always prepare it a day ahead. Ditto for the spiced cranberry orange relish.

One unexpected aspect of the day, besides the earlier than expected arrival of the snow, was my attendance at a funeral this morning. Wednesday morning is usually the meeting of the spirituality study group I facilitate at church, but I cancelled today so that we could participate in the funeral liturgy for Virginia, who was one of our former members.

Virginia was a fascinating woman. After serving in the W.A.V.E.S. during WWII, she had married a firefighter. When she was 36, he was killed in the line of duty and she raised eight children on her own. She was a librarian and an insightful thinker. She was in her 80s when I met her and I loved to hear her perspective on life and spirituality. She had served with the Catholic Worker movement with Dorothy Day and was one of the most joyful, insightful, service-oriented women I have ever met. She was 91 when she died on Sunday. Rest in peace, Virginia.

I thank God for the privilege of having experienced your witness of true service to God and neighbor.

Writing from the heart

This is a comment that I just posted to a lovely blog posting here:  http://suchpoeticjustice.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/it-seems-i-am-a-writer/ which ends with the invitation to answer “What do you write? Why do you write it? How does it get from your heart to the page?” Please feel free to respond to these questions, too, if you are so moved, either here at Top of JC’s Mind, at her blog Such Poetic Justice, by posting a link to your own blog entry, or some combination thereof!

***************
I am so excited to read your post! In the way that the blogging world seems to unfold, my path here was from Jason Cushman, who blogs as Opinionated Man, to his mom Susan Cushman to her writer/friend/Memphis-resident Ellen to you! I will try to answer your questions and enter the conversation without going on too long….

I do several types of writing – none of which I actually get paid to do. I blog at https://topofjcsmind.wordpress.com, an eclectic mix of commentary on current events, personal reflections, poetry, and whatever else is at the top of my mind.

I write a lot of comments on news articles about shale oil/gas, renewable energy, climate change, and other environmental issues. I am part of the fracktivist community in NY, where I live along the PA border with a front row seat to the problems our PA neighbors are having. Some of this writing shows up in my blog, too.

In recent years, I have returned to my childhood love of writing poetry. I am just beginning to publish a bit, mostly in local venues, although my first appearance in an anthology in Great Britain is upcoming. Some of my poetry goes up on my blog, too, although I have to be careful not to put too much out there if I intend to submit it to journals, who generally won’t accept anything that has been published in any form, including on my tiny blog.

I was very interested to read in your post about writing sermons, which I do not do, but I have written various prayers over the years for use by my local Roman Catholic parishes. I also sometimes write on spiritual topics on my blog.

The question of how my writing gets from my heart to the page is an interesting one. Although we tend to think of writing as coming from our heads, it is really the heart source that gives writing its passion and meaning. I realized from your question that most of the things about which I write are really energized by my heart, however much all those words need to get processed through my brain. I generally reflect, mull, and, especially with poetry, draft my writing in my head before I write or type it. I do then usually go back and re-read and edit. With poetry, the writing process tends to take days/weeks/months and I am pleased to have recently been able to join a group of local poets for feedback on our work.

Now that I have been going on about this here in your comments, I think I will copy to my blog with a pingback here and see if we can get some more people sharing about their writing. Thanks so much for the opportunity!

SoCS: Insight

We are all looking for insight from the time we starting asking (incessantly) “Why?” as toddlers.

Sometimes “why” is the proper question to ask, but, as an adult, there are times when it isn’t helpful. I find it particularly unhelpful when people ask why God/nature/fate allowed such-and-such to happen.

I think a better question is “How?” How do I help? How do I move forward? How do I learn more about this situation, circumstance, idea, or person?

Why often isn’t relevant or isn’t mine to know.

Please join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. FInd this week’s prompt and more here: http://lindaghill.com/2014/11/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-2214/

socs-badge
Badge by Doobster @MindfulDigressions

Binghamton Poetry Project – Fall 2014

The Binghamton Poetry Project, which is a community outreach workshop series by the writing center at Binghamton University, sponsored a reading this evening for all the participants in the fall session. We also published an anthology of our work. Below are my three poems from the anthology, the first two of which are planned as my reading.

Brittle versus Rigid
by Joanne Corey

Too many years of Fosamax
make osteoporotic bone more brittle.

When the first vertebra shatters,
lifelong habits must change
to protect the fragile skeleton.

But you refuse to use a walker for support,
to bend at the knees instead of the waist,
to store the potholders in the drawer next to the stove
instead of in a basket on top of the refrigerator.

Will your brittle bone
or your rigid resistance to change
deal the next – or final – blow?

*********

Forms
by Joanne Corey

Could I write a sonnet?
Iambic pentameter.
ABAB…CDCD…
and so on…

Or quatrains with feet
trochaic and pyrrhic,
dactylic, spondaic,
and anapestic?

Rhymed couplets? I could,
But would they be good?

No.

My words tumble and twist
and refuse to rhyme
or neatly align.

Like Life.

*********

Aunt Gert’s Indian Pudding
by Joanne Corey

Hand-written from the recipe box
with a molasses stain
in the right corner

Promised to my daughter
who will travel five-thousand miles
to be with us this Thanksgiving

Generations of family tradition
steaming and fragrant
with a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream

lake effect snow update

Yesterday, I posted about the lake effect snow storms afflicting several areas in the US, including western New York State just south of Buffalo. Sadly, there have been twelve deaths attributed to the storm so far. Because so many feet of snow are very heavy, there have been some roof collapses with more feared to come.

Some areas are still receiving additional snowfall. The forecast predicts a warm front with some rain arriving over the weekend. This has only heightened worries of more roof collapses as the rain adds weight to the feet of accumulated snow. People are trying to clean snow off roofs as quickly as possible, but the area is quite densely populated and many roads are still inaccessible for help and equipment to arrive.

The other very real threat is flooding. With temperatures predicted to climb to 60 degrees F. (15 degrees C.), the snow will melt rapidly and street and small stream flooding is most likely unavoidable.

All brought to you by global warming. Remember, even though this is a cold weather event, it was started by a tropical typhoon.

Typhoon to lake effect snow

Connecting the dots on climate change:

A Pacific tropical typhoon is so strong that it reaches the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and disrupts the jet stream, allowing polar air to sink over much of the continental United States. When the frigid air passes over the relatively warm water of the Great Lakes, it picks up a lot of moisture and dumps it over land as snow. Some towns in western New York south of Buffalo have already received 5+ feet of snow, with an additional 2-3 feet on the way. (That’s 1.5 meters or more on the ground with another meter to come.)

A similar occurrence could have happened in the past, some time before recorded history in the region. It isn’t possible to say that any particular weather event is directly caused by global warming, However, the incidence of these extreme kinds of weather is rising quickly along with average global temperature.

It’s time for everyone to get serious about phasing out fossil fuels as quickly as possible and ramping up renewable energy in conjunction with energy efficiency. If we see this much change with less than one degree Celsius global temperature rise, we will have to brace ourselves for more as we attempt to keep the total rise under two degrees Celsius.

Dr. Barbara Chaffee

The link below leads to a few paragraphs and a short video clip. Even if you want to ignore the text – and the rest of this post, for that matter – watch the clip. It is part of a documentary nearing completion on the life of Dr. Barbara Chaffee, Binghamton physician, mom, and community member, by her son filmmaker Tim Chaffee. Barbara was at the forefront of treating AIDS patients in Binghamton back before HIV was well understood. She was a compassionate and caring person in whatever situation presented itself and her story should be preserved and shared with the world.

Yes, this is related to fundraising and I have made a small contribution myself, but, no, you don’t have to give money to support the film. If you like the link, please do share it via your blog, twitter, facebook, ello, email, or whatever mechanism you use to get the word out.

With thanks,
JC

http://wildgeesefilms.net/news-timeline/34-just-infrastructure

One-Liner Wednesday: Aging

“Fighting aging is like the War on Drugs. It’s expensive, does more harm than good, and has been proven to never end.”
– Amy Poehler

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays:  http://lindaghill.com/2014/11/19/one-liner-wednesday-analogue-or-digital/

SoCS: The Four Elements

On my newsfeed, I just saw a story about one of the First Nations equating the US House vote to approve Keystone XL as an act of war. So, I am thinking of the four elements in that context, which includes unconventional fossil fuel extraction side effects..

Water is at risk because of methane migration, the permanent removal of water from the water system, toxicity from the chemicals that are mixed into it and that enter it from underground, and pipeline leaks that damage groundwater and surface waters. Unconventional fossil fuels are very water-intensive at a time when many places are facing water shortages.

Air pollution is caused by both the extraction processes of bitumen aka tar sands oil and by the refining/processing and use of this fossil fuel. The carbon-intensity of the extraction process compounds the problems of the burning of the final product to have an outsized climate change impact.

Earth is disturbed to build the pipeline and that land needs to be kept clear of trees, buildings etc. in perpetuity. The larger earth disturbance is the tar sands area itself, which involves felling old growth forests and massive surface disruption.

Fire represents the burning of the fuel but also one of the greatest dangers of dealing with fossil fuels, the threat of explosion.

The First Nations have been leading the fight against tar sands extraction and transport, both in Canada and the US. Their spiritual connection to Mother Earth and the four elements are an example to all of us who are their allies.

This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. Join us:  http://lindaghill.com/2014/11/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-1514/

socs-badge
Badge by Doobster @MindfulDigressions

Government Gridlock: Theme and Variations

Before the Nov. 4 US elections, there was a lot of speculation about whether or not the Republicans would take a majority of the Senate seats. I thought about weighing in, but didn’t because I realized it wouldn’t really matter. We would just be swapping one flavor of legislative gridlock for another.

A primer of the US system, for those who don’t live in the United States:  Legislation must be passed by the majority of both houses of Congress, The House of Representatives and the Senate. (If each houses passes a different version of a bill, a conference committee drafts a compromise version for approval.) The President can sign the legislation into law or veto it. In the case of a veto, the bill doesn’t become law unless a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress vote to override the veto. The other important word to know is filibuster. In the Senate, 60 of 100 votes are needed to move a bill forward for a vote. This was originally designed as a way for minority views to be heard and was time-limited by the length of time that Senators could speak, but has morphed into a tool to block any legislation for which there are not 60 votes in favor, even if it has majority support of 51-59 votes.

Congress has been gridlocked for most of President Obama’s time in office. There was a brief period in the beginning of his presidency with a Democratic majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. This was when the stimulus bill and the Affordable Care Act were passed.  The Republicans had vowed not to support anything the President wanted, but they could not stop legislation, so there was no gridlock then, even though the Republicans were refusing to co-operate in governing.

Within months, due to the death of Senator Kennedy and a special election that went to a Republican, the Democrats lost the ability to break a filibuster in the Senate and the first flavor of gridlock began. Instead of the rare use of the filibuster that had been the case for the 200+ year history of the Senate, the Republicans began filibustering almost every piece of legislation and many nominations for judgeships and executive branch appointees. The Democratic majority House was still passing bills, but the Democratic majority Senate could not get them to the floor because the 41 Republicans kept filibustering.

Next, the Republicans, thanks largely to gerrymandering of Congressional districts within states, took the majority in the House, which began phase two of gridlock, where the House passed dozens of bills that were never going to be taken up in the Senate, like voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act fifty times, while the Senate Republicans filibustered almost everything that was proposed. When there was a rare instance of bipartisanship, such as the Senate passage of comprehensive immigration reform, the Republicans in the House wouldn’t even bring it up for a vote. Meanwhile, the filibuster in the Senate blocked nominations for key posts, so we faced the ebola situation without a surgeon general to lead and co-ordinate the efforts and the debacle with Russia and Ukraine without a US ambassador to Russia.

So, with the electorate already frustrated with gridlock and disgusted that this Congress is about to break the shameful record set by the last Congress for least number of laws passed, we held elections last week. Turnout was 36.3% of eligible voters, the lowest in seventy-two years. In many Congressional districts, including mine, an incumbent was running unopposed. The Republicans will hold a majority in both houses of Congress.

One could hope that the Republicans would now decide to co-operate with the Democrats in governing, as many past Congresses have done when one party had majorities in Congress with a sitting president from the other party.

Unfortunately, such hope is not warranted.

We are just going to move on to the next flavor of gridlock, although this one will probably have a bit more spice to it. Some legislation that the Democrats find particularly objectionable will be filibustered in the Senate. Other legislation may pass by both houses on party-line votes, get vetoed by the president, and then die because there will not be a two-thirds majority to override the veto.

The mystery lies in what happens after that political theater is over. Will the Republicans, having satisfied their base with their initial votes, actually work to craft a bipartisan solution which could pass both houses and be signed by the president?

I wish I could say yes, but recent Republican party history and current rhetoric do not give cause for hope.