Of ships and shoes and ceiling wax....

In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world and to believe that praising them is our highest calling—Joanna Macy.

Phone conversation with a dear friend who began by saying, “It was a good funeral.” Her ex-husband. Then phone calls with #2 Son and #2 Daughter. Zoom with our brilliant therapist, who I’m seeing once a month. Her first question was, “How does it feel to be eighty?” I said I’m aware that I don’t have time to waste. I want to cut back on what doesn’t really matter to me. “What will you cut back on?” she asked. Scrolling the internet, I said, shallow socializing. And sadly I can’t go down to the ICE Building to protest any more because there is tear gas hanging in the air and it activates my asthma.

Finished editing a group of portraits I made for the Old Woman project. Did a load of washing. Attended the Celebration of Life of Joanna Macy (on Zoom, 650 people attending). What an ecstatic being she was. A friend from Portland was one of the speakers.

After a late dinner I went to Powell’s City of Books to get Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2016) with a gift card I got for my birthday. Also chose Ursula LeGuin’s last book of poetry and a book of poetic prose by Han Kang (the Korean woman who won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year). Texted with Sue, who is keeping Eliana overnight. It was a fine day for me. Not so good for many others. 

Balloon Installation at Powell’s City of Books, by Michael James Schneider @BLCKSMTH.