Three selfie images…

Headshot portrait of trans-person in black and white, lips glistening with lipstick, large crystal frame glasses, sequined headband.

Bare legs extending out from a dress garment with wooden table in background top of frame.

Reflection of the lower half of a person. Yellow orange glow overlay washes up from the bottom of the frame to about 1/3 point. floorboards painted white extend up and across the frame.

Optimism assumes that all will go well without our effort; pessimism assumes it’s all irredeemable; both let us stay home and do nothing. (Rebecca Solnit, Call Them by Their True Names)

To not actively commit to possibility—to not actively commit to making some kind of humane, livable future a reality—is to help ensure that the future is not humane or livable. To abdicate to hopelessness and resignation or “realism” is to be part of the violence and destruction. (Jeff Golden, Reclaiming the Sacred)

From this morning’s walk…

Road directional signs against a cloudy blue morning sky.

Orchid flowers on a glass table outdoors.

Silhouette of building corner, utility pole with street light, and tree branches with leaves.

Revolving door entry to a building. Glass canopy overhang.

Paper towel randomly folded in an interesting way on concrete sidewalk.

With the time change, the lighting conditions change…

Side of car in the foreground, bottom of frame. Mountains in the distance. Dawn.

Rocky bottom of creek lacking water because of drought.

Closeup of pile of bricks behind construction fence.

What do you think of this idea of imagination…

Imagination is not, as it is sometimes conceived, the capacity to conjure the unreal, but, for the first time, to see the real – the real that is, for reasons of deeply ingrained habit, no longer present to us. … To see is not just to register sense-data, but to see ‘into’ the life of what is seen; and ‘through’ it to the greater picture that lies beyond it, is implicit in it, and makes sense of it in terms of the totality of experience. (Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

I hated it when it first started happening, but sadly have gotten used to it… our local theater is not so bad in this regard though…

Nowadays we go to a movie and must watch commercials first. The relaxed, receptive state of surrender we like to reserve for the pleasure of entering into the aesthetic space of a film in a dark theater is now given over to advertising, where our sense and our sensibilities are assaulted against our will. (bell hooks, All About Love)

Looking forward to the end of the patriarchy…

The worship of death is a central component of patriarchal thinking, whether expressed by women or men. (bell hooks, All About Love)

November 1, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-1-2024)

In Madison, Harris told a reporter: “What I am enjoying about this moment most is that in spite of how my opponent spends full time trying to divide the American people, what I am seeing is people coming together under one roof who seemingly have nothing in common and know they have everything in common, and I think that is in the best interest of the strength of our nation.

November 1, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-1-2024)

Trump’s mental state continues to deteriorate, taking with it the former president’s inhibitions. After going on a rant about the people he blamed for troubles with his microphone at a sparsely attended rally in Warren, Michigan, the Republican nominee for president of the United States of America simulated oral sex on stage.

From this morning’s walk…

Early morning streetscape, wrought iron gate shadow lower left corner, mountains and building in distance, sidewalk receding around corner of building on left, pickup truck parked on the street.

Early AM streetscape, Valero gas station canopy and car on left, price sign right of center, corner store in distance on right.

Illuminated front of local mosque.

Key Food grocery storefront. Empty parking lot in front of store.

Bale of cardboard boxes, white abstract shaped box at front that says “eggs”.

Public service announcement…

Plastic encased magazine on sidewalk. Cover of magazine says “VOTE”… did you?

From this morning…

Scaffolding in front of a building, illuminated by a security light. Peaked roof house structure in background.

Building in distance illuminated by street lights, some windows illuminated from within.

Store fronts on a street illuminated by street light. Early morning.

Shop display window illuminated by light in window hanging from ceiling.

… and one for the end of Halloween

Skeleton on an exercise bike in an antique shop window.

And one having nothing to do with politics…

One finds that there is beauty or at least interest in everything, seen with an acute enough eye. (And the aestheticizing of reality that makes everything, anything, available to the camera is what also permits the co-opting of any photograph, even one of an utterly practical sort, as art.) (Susan Sontag, On Photography)

This may be an extreme point of view, but views like this sour me on religion in general and Christianity in particular because it is such a sinister force in American politics.

October 31, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-31-2024)

Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

October 31, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-31-2024)

To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret.

October 31, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-31-2024)

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f-ck her…. I moved on her like a b-tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p-ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

…when buying a shirt with scrabble tiles printed on it pay attention to what can be spelled with the letters… clusters of the letters “N” “T” “U” “C” on the shirt i bought my mom to wear in her scrabble group… oops… at least she noticed before wearing it…

We must see both men and women in this society as groups who support the use of violence if we are to eliminate it. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

Truth is emphatically not a free-for-all, a matter of individual whim. (Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

From this morning’s walk…

SUNOCO gas station canopy with pumps underneath. Early AM. Scene illuminated by canopy lights.

Globe lighting fixture on side of white brick building. Shot looking up. Windows of the building disappear into the shadows at the top of the frame.

Courtyard of a bar/restaurant with illuminated sign showing graphic of flying saucer above the door, giant human skeleton in the shadows to the left.

… this sign amuses me… it reads to me like an invitation to having your car keyed…

Illuminated sign with a house key and car key, the former left to right, the latter right to left. “KeyMe” is written above the two keys.

A few from this morning’s walk…

Uranium glass goblet illuminated by black light. Other green glass dishes and glasses in background.

Car illuminated by street light. Tree and mountain in the background. Dawn sky at the top of the frame.

Book store front, early in the morning, illuminated by lights in the store.

Succulent plant in a window casting shadow on the folds of a curtain. Dim illumination from street lights.

An entry light beneath roofed entry to building on the left illuminates the pavement in front of it and a van parked on the right side.

We went to meet our new niece’s new daughter yesterday…

Portrait of four caucasian people, three adults, one baby, two adult women, one adult man.

Portrait of four caucasian people, two adults, one toddler child, on baby. One man, one woman.

How is it that so many good minds diagnose capitalism as the central problem, for women in particular, but everyone really, and nothing can be done about it?

There is no way—none—for anyone in this society to make a great deal of money without exploiting other people. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

What has to be faced now by women and men together are the life-threatening excesses of the culture of greed, of brutal, unbridled corporate power. (Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique)

Are greed and lust for power baked into the Patriarchy? Are Patriarchy and capitalism synonymous? Co-dependent?

There is a curious lack of political signs in the places we go. NY, CN, NJ… liberal states because of urban areas, but deeply conservative in rural areas. We are seeing very little overt expression of political preferences. Fear, exhaustion? What do you think?