Artwala Road

Can this summer that hardly arrived be almost over already? Can I still have a pile of stuff unfinished on my work desk? Can Sarah Palin really be the Republican nominee for VP? Tell me I’m dreaming.

Hello, my dear readers! I hope you’ve all had summers filled with good fun if not good weather. I didn’t make it to Walden Pond once this summer for a swim. It seemed to rain here in Boston every afternoon in August and now there’s a nip in the air. If Indian Summer arrives out I’ll go. It doesn’t feel right for the whole season to zip by without a swim! But, otherwise, a fine summer here. Mostly we worked but there was a trip to New York, dinners on the porch with friends and one overseas visitor with another to arrive in a couple of weeks. So it didn’t feel like it was all work here, for sure.

Having taken the last three months off from blogging, I’m a little out of practice but will dive back in with what’s on my mind right now and go from there. Will be posting at least once a week now. Thanks for sticking around and hope to hear from you as I go on.

Hopes are high here in Massachusetts for Obama and I want to believe that recent choices on the other side are only going to help. We were walking down Newbury Street the other day when a wee Smart car with ‘Obama for President‘ painted all over it zipped by. We waved and the driver hooted and waved, a huge smile on his face. Visions of things to come! I actually felt a wave of euphoria. Yes we can!

Spent all day yesterday helping my daughter set up her classroom. She is a high school teacher for kids from the city of Boston and I have to say that the school is a wreck. Paint peeling from the walls in the hallway, dirty windows, grime all over the desks and chairs. How can kids feel respected and that education matters when they go to school in a building like this? The floors were spotless, all waxed and shiny, but the custodian only has time for the floors. In other words, the place is understaffed and underfunded. The teachers are responsible for their own classrooms. We washed all the desks and chairs, painted the scuffed metal legs and the edges of the tables that were missing their black trim. We threw out the teacher’s desk which had drawers that didn’t open and scuzzy stuff glued to the inside. We brought in some plants, pulled tape of the walls, hung maps. It looks beautiful now and I think the kids will benefit. But crazy what underpaid teachers are expected to do. I’m going to do some more volunteering in the schools. It feels to me that if we don’t really value education we’re going to have more of our population who’re only able to think in simplistic black and white terms and can’t see past the platitudes that have caused so much imbalance in this country.

I’m so inspired by Edward Kennedy who flew out to the Democratic convention despite ill health. When I saw that he volunteers one morning a week in the schools I really felt I had to step up. That man is so amazing. Thank you, Senator Kennedy!

Yesterday I picked up a file cabinet for the school that we scored off Craig’s list. I was a little uncertain whether I ought to actually go into the man’s house, not knowing him, but when I looked in the door I saw a room full of amplifiers and guitars and knew all was fine here. I told him I’d once been married to member of Muddy Waters’ band. ‘Oh, poor you!’ he said without skipping a beat. Pretty funny. He was referring, of course, to the financial prospects of musicians and went on to say how his own fortunes have waned in the last few years. In a material culture like this, it’s a sad thing that clubs have closed and musicians haven’t many places to play now. Very grateful I came of age at a time when music was a central focus of our lives. What good energy we brought home after a night out! I told the dude to hang in. There are other rewards and nothing like doing what you love.

The other news I find interesting is that a small group of ‘hippie’ students was arrested in Minnesota before the Republican convention. They were stunned, as were we, at the heavy hand of repression. And this a free country? Well, it’s a whiff of the old days—the days when we listened to music and said no to the politics of power and fear and privilege. The times, they are a changing.

September 4th, 2008 | Category: Dear Reader | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL