The Tail of the Dragon in Everyday Ramblings

Yesterday. It was clear and warm(ish) for most of the day. What a gift. If you look deep along the river and a bit to the left, you can see the snow-covered dome of Mt. St. Helen’s. There was a palpable feel out locally that we made it through.

We will most likely get another cold snap but nothing close to freezing. The last two days I have taken my little leggy tomato starts (and one lupine) out into the sun for a few hours. It is too cold to even leave them in the cold frame overnight, but we are getting there.

In spite of all the distractions and obligations Frieda, Mrs. Sherlock and I went for a long walk. It was lovely. I have for sure been getting out more in the last couple of weeks. Real people contact. It was the first time almost all the guys have been in a room together in six weeks or so. Walt and a couple other folks were on an iPad but participated. They’ll be home late next week.

Speaking of guys, Walt has a guy he knows, a former actor in his prison plays who has been out for six years who has written a play himself that takes place in a prison and as it is a men’s prison, all the characters are male. We decided to do an in person dramatic table read of the play in early April to see if we want to think about staging it. Walt and a couple of his friends with theater experience love it. The playwright did some acting before he went to prison.

Walt asked me and the other woman on the board if we want to read stage directions. The other woman readily agreed. Me. I am not so sure.

I have read the play and it’s fine but doesn’t speak to me. It is full of Shakespeare jokes. The idea of being in a room full of that many men being men somehow doesn’t appeal to me at all right now.

On Thursday being with the guys was okay. We were all just being ourselves, but these are all almost archetypes, these characters, and well the tail of this backlash against woman having equality out in the world is a bit stingy right now. One of the guys, he doesn’t come that often, a professional storyteller, charming as all get out and I got into a bit of a sparring match about technology.

It turned into an interesting conversation. We were talking about talking, interacting with others in a vertical way as opposed to a horizontal way. As he put it, a deep student of myth, from soul to spirit. As opposed to repeating the news or expressing opinions. Talking about human experience and the potential for transformation.

Like all these conversations it was rich and here I am days later thinking about it and looking at the different facets of what was said.

I was saying hey, I get deep on Zoom. Particularly lately, in my morning classes, everyone is struggling to manage the news and the transformation that is going on across the world. We talk, we move, we laugh a lot, and I try to facilitate that with the poems I chose each day. We do get vertical on a number of levels.

This storyteller guy is doing something a bit different. Though I know he teaches workshops, (mostly for men) as well.

It is not like there isn’t stuff to do. I took the Oval Office thing this week pretty hard, and it has taken me a few days to regain some sort of equilibrium. The outrage is real, kind of like an unruly dragon has been let loose in the here and now I and need to learn to live with it.

Speaking of dragons, I am listening to Fourth Wing. I got an electronic copy of the book and didn’t get very far in it but I find the audiobook works if I listen to it when I am walking on my own or exercising. I was very fond of The Dragonriders of Pern series when I was younger so this isn’t as far afield as one might think from my tastes.

Still, refer above, not such a bit fan of violence and war and you know…aggression.

It feels a bit like it is everywhere these days.