Iris, Sugar Snap Peas and Privilege in Everyday Ramblings

Plantings on the Portland State campus on this last Friday evening. There is so much happening on the flower clock right now. We have a little ever-changing quiz on our main info page at work these days and the one this week was your favorite spring flower.

You are kidding right? I mean that is like choosing between one’s children! Or one’s cats. Not possible. I love them all! And every year they are different. This year the more delicate iris are having a good run, and the more classic deep purple ones.

Yesterday I was kind of shaky and off. A combo between spending too much time working and the heavy load of allergens in the air, we have the grasses early because of all the rain, as well as the trees and accepting and dealing with the idea that I have hearing loss that will need to be addressed.

Kes brought her charts up yesterday (she was up having her hair cut at the crazy salon I go to and then we had lunch) and her hearing loss was a bit more significant than mine is when she first had it checked eight years ago. She waited six years after that to get hearing aids. I will most likely get mine in three years. My present insurance covers $300 of the cost. I’ll keep an eagle eye on the benefit plans as we go into open enrollment to take advantage of that benefit and save in the meantime.

With this deeply depressing movement in our Congress towards less support for the vulnerable (how can people with hearts vote like that???) we need to be even more vigilant than ever before. Our lives, (and those of many who we know and love, who through no fault of their own other than say, um, design flaws, have ongoing medical issues).

I ordered a People’s Climate March t-shirt from the League of Conservation Voters this week. It says…

We resist.
We build.
We rise.
we vote

I love that. I am very lucky here that our Representative in the House is totally on the same page as I am in terms of policy. Our Senator is also, but is a little less radical. I trust them to do the right thing about Health Care, so that part is covered.

It is everyone else I am worried about.

Partially channeling my older sister this week I listened to an interview by the author of The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.

This doesn’t surprise me but it is something I did not fully understand; that fear of Communism and unexamined biases all the way up to the Supreme Court and this pretty spin on racism called Urban Renewal all have contributed…interview here

The New York Times has hired a conservative opinion writer that is a little loose with the facts. And the folks on the Left are saying that we need to cancel our subscriptions because in trying to be inclusive the editorial team has gone over to the dark side.

I live in the world. The New York Times has excellent reporting. Uber offers a service that is useful for me. LL Bean makes clothes that are a good match for me. All these are available to me because even with income inequality between men and women (and why I think guys should still offer to pay for meals out) I am extremely privileged.

We’ll be talking about that in church this morning.

And something to ponder while I snack on the wonderful first of the season sugar snap peas I picked up at the farm market yesterday morning not far from where I took the above picture on Friday.

Last updated May 07, 2017