Monday, October 21, 2024

Some instances of writing I was happy to see today:

*     All the progress I'm making with indexing the book--a task I've never undertaken before.

*     The kind, nondramatic way the henna artist responded to my gentle breakup text: "it was nice meeting you...thats fiiiinee" (She was at the party yesterday, and I'd planned to have her at our Diwali party next week too, but her work was different from what I had in mind.)

*     The most perfect set of answers to a quiz about the British Romantics from a student in Gaza. They described "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" as "the quintessential romantic poem," which it certainly is. 

*     My seventh piece of handwritten mail urging me to vote. Some were postcards, this one was an actual letter. The Michigan vote will matter, and I guess it's making non-Michiganders anxious. (How I wish Harris-Walz had treated the folks from Uncommitted with more care and respect.)

*     A weird Lord of the Rings meme At sent me at 5:25 am in the morning... I'm not sure why, but it's from my lovey, and sure, I'll take it!

Pic: I inscribed a walking path amongst the falling leaves with my rake and Max engraved his own tracks too. 

21 comments:

Sarah said...

I was just listening to a podcast that made your point about the uncommitted movement and the Harris campaign. To me, this is such a surprise-- of course she will be better than the alternative-- this is my frame that I can't see past. Perhaps the campaign made that assumption too?

StephLove said...

I'm surprised and not surprised you've gotten so many postcards. I've written a couple batches to Michigan addresses this cycle. They both went to suburbs of Detroit.

I've probably written thousands of postcards but I've never gotten one. Maryland overall is light blue (though our town is dark blue). It could make sense to send postcards right now as we have a competitive Senate race this year and control of the Senate is at stake.

StephLove said...

Was it Code Switch? If so, I heard that one, too. It was really interesting.

Jenny said...

Well, I won't be getting any postcards! That's what happens when you live in Florida.
I don't know how Harris-Walz has responded to Uncommitted, but I can imagine. As usual, we're left voting for someone who's "better than the alternative."

Nance said...

I was just reading a thread about the progressive voting bloc in Michigan, and I'm still struggling with the material benefit of them either not voting, voting 3rd party, or worse, voting gop.

Living in Ohio, our big race is the Senate race, with Sherrod Brown the Democrat looking to get back to Washington. Ohio has swung so determinedly red that neither presidential candidate has even come here. And I'm not getting or writing any postcards/letters to Ohioans, either. We need Sherrod and Alsobrooks-MD and Tester-MT to get seats.

Nance said...

I was remiss in not mentioning your interaction with your Gaza student. I'm so glad you finally got connected! And the Irony is not lost on me that they are perusing the poem about not only being able to wander in a lovely setting replete with daffodils, but also being able to call up that setting when feeling fretful.

J said...

I sent letters to voters in Florida!

J said...

I wrote letters in Ohio too!

J said...

I wrote letters to voters in 5 states - MI, OH, FL, NV, and CO. Even in a red state, if you can encourage democrats to vote, they might sway down ballot races. That's the theory at least.

maya said...

Of course Trump would be way, way worse--But 1000s of people have been mourning family and were not even given a chance to speak their pain at the DNC. There's a combination of disbelief/outrage/pain/humiliation in that and I think there's a real chance that of losing their votes. There are 100K to 1.5 million votes in Michigan at stake and Harris-Walz continues to not take them seriously/take them for granted. IDK.

Steph--I went and read the CodeSwitch transcript. It gave a good update. I really liked the This American Life episode I listened to: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/843/transcript

maya said...

Thousands?!?! Wow, Steph! I've barely crested a few hundreds... I've written postcards to Georgia and Texas, primarily...

maya said...

Jenny--Sometimes I feel we're the only ones saying this :). I'll be glad when the election is over!

maya said...

J--Yay! Nance--I love Sherrod Brown. And although Mike DeWine is Republican, I like to think Yellow Springs (A's hometown where we lived for a while) made him a little bit less conservative. That or maybe Engie influenced him when she worked for him.

maya said...

Nance--it is such a moment for us literature nerds, simultaneously so full of possibility and suffering...

maya said...

J--I smiled every time I read you comments about the places you wrote postcards to! I wrote some, but it sounds like you and other people like Steph wrote a whole lot more! THANK YOU!!! Fingers crossed that it all pays off--I can't bear to think about the alternative right now...

StephLove said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
StephLove said...

Not in this election cycle, but overall, since 2018.

StephLove said...

I have that TAL in my podcast feed but I haven't listened to to it yet. They tend to pile up.

StephLove said...

I've done a lot for Florida, mostly trying to get people enrolled in Vote By Mail, sometimes for candidates.

NGS said...

Indexing a book sounds so hard. I have considered retagging my blog and it's an indexing project of a sort and I've decided I'm not suited to it. LOL.

maya said...

I'm surprised, Engie--You seem quite methodical! It's definitely not in my natural skill set.

right to party

I spent weeks prepping, and everything went really well (I think!)!!  There was a photo booth, a henna artist, a craft table, a cards table ...