I had forgotten to post some more of our beach pictures January, so here they are. The coastline is explorable in both sunshine and in rain.
This January (tomorrow is the holiday), we again celebrate the life and achievements of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. He would have been ninety-two this year had he not been assassinated in Tennessee at the age of thirty-nine (which is my current age, and shows how remarkable his achievements are). I love reading his writings, quotes, and hearing his words. How overjoyed he would have been to see the fruits of his labor, a half-century later, including including Barack Obama get elected as President in 2008 (and this week, Kamala Harris take the office of Vice President). I'm sure he is beaming from heaven.
I am so glad that my kids, aged two and six, already know about his life and legacy (and even know his kids' names!). Niall calls him "Martha Lutha King," finding his name endings somewhat hard to pronounce (he also calls Mahatma Gandi "Hot Magandhi")! They love reading about MLK, and I'm loving finding books (both fiction and nonfiction) with other main characters/figures of color.
Iver did some impressive cartoon art, including the words to his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Despite having turned into a bit of a political science junkie in recent years, I don't think I will ever watch election night coverage anytime in the future due to the anxiety that it causes. I will forever have paranoia about "what polls say" or what networks project after being burned badly in election results starting in 2016.
I knew a lot about Georgia's run-off special election being held on Tuesday of this week. I had donated money to Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organization (fighting voter suppression) as well as to the Democratic candidates, Reverend Raphael Warnock (who is the 11th of 12 children and grew up in the Savannah projects) and Jon Ossoff (a 33-year-old Jewish filmmaker whose wife is an OBGYN resident in Atlanta!). I wrote many Vote Forward letters and over 100 postcards to Georgia voters in November and December to encourage voter participation in a crucial election. I prayed, and then I left it in God's hands.
I woke up on Wednesday morning to the great news from Kelvin (who reads his New York Times updates early!) and my sister-in-law (with a text reading "GEORGIA!!!!") that it seemed that both challengers (Warnock being the first black man elected to the Senate in Georgia) had pulled off defeat of two fairly offensive Trumpy incumbents, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler, to flip their Senate seats in the deep south. It was truly historic, and a very pleasant surprise for me, a Democrat who now always prepares my heart for the worst possible outcome come election day. Georgia's (late) civil rights icon and Representative John Lewis, who passed away last year, is undoubtedly smiling down from heaven, as is Atlanta native Martin Luther King, Jr., who we celebrate later this month and whose historic church Rev. Warnock served as pastor.
As we learned in November, Georgia, formerly a deep-red Republican stronghold, is changing pretty rapidly, demographically and, as a result, in its political leanings. It is definitely a battleground state, and the amazing organizing that Abrams (the daughter of ministers), as well as other grassroots activists, have done in the state over the past decade or so is nothing short of remarkable (now, if only we could clone her into Florida, North Carolina, and the like). I have heard many interviews with Stacey over the years and read her recent book, Our Time is Now, and find her, and everything that she's done for the state of Georgia as well as our nation, absolutely inspiring and incredible. She is a faithful patriot who, when knocked down, just kept opening doors. She plays the long game. And, in a world and times of so many villains, she is a hero.
Later in the day, we saw our joy dissipate and things turned dark, as right-wing Trump loyalists at a "rally " on the National Mall, led by the formerly impeached and lame-duck president (who still refuses to concede the election he lost more than two months ago), became an armed, rioting mob of terrorists that invaded the Capitol building to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College results by Congress (and the will of the American people), resulting in the death of at least four people and an officer, traumatizing many more, and destroying national property.
These actions (which also demonstrated the extreme privilege that comes with being white, and a white nationalist) were absolutely atrocious, and this is exactly what so many Americans like us feared would happen with having an authoritarian White supremacist and sociopath like Donald Trump elected as president (and subsequently defeated in his attempt at re-election). We progressives have been accused of being overly dramatic in our perception of the repercussions of Trump's winning an election, but our fears were obviously validated this week. Trump's false claims of voter and election fraud, as well as his efforts at mounting unsuccessful vote recounts and judicial challenges, have only made more of this country's citizens believe conspiracy theories and doubt the integrity of our free and fair (in most cases, especially for white people) elections, which comes at a loss for everyone, including for all elections going forward for both major parties. I try really hard to be gracious and forgive those that repeatedly present as enemies, but am currently having a hard time excusing their behavior in any rational way or wanting to extend any olive branches. My “hometown” being right outside Washington D.C., I have spent a lot of time in and around the nation's capital, and I was extremely disturbed (and yes, angry) by yesterday's events and the desecration of our national grounds, something (prior to Trump) that most of us never thought would happen in a "civilized democracy" like ours (was).
I don't know that I'll ever understand how such a large proportion of Americans could have enough darkness, resentment, racism, and vitriol in their hearts to vote for (and then vote to re-elect) a man I find it extremely hard not to hate because of how damaging he has been to the fabric and spirit of this country. I don't know that the people that share his views and who live in such a fictionalized version of the world can be reached or their hearts/minds changed ever by anything, including facts, the truth, connection, or kindness, that any of us humans can provide, but it's obvious that their extremism and views (bolstered by right-wing social media, Fox news as well as recent power) took things too far on Wednesday (and, in my opinion, there should be severe consequences for their insurrection. If those Proud Boys had been black, they'd have surely been shot).
Many Republican lawmakers (including Mitt Romney, of whom I'm no fan), thankfully had the courage to speak out against the terrorism unleashed by the (outgoing) leader of their party. Many Republican election officials stood their ground when asked by the president to falsify election results in his favor. While I have strongly disagreed with just about every part of the conservative and Republican political platform since I became a voter twenty years ago, and think our country would be much better off with that party (especially in its current state) basically burned to the ground, I am thankful that some of the individuals that still identify as Republicans had enough morals and basic principles of decency to stand for democracy rather than cower to the dictator that we've legitimately and resoundingly voted out of office. Too many elected officials (and citizens) were (and are) still silent and complicit, and it's still lamentable that the destructive, dark sentiments and grievance politics of Trump supporters will live on in this country, long after their dear leader is out of the White House. Many people think that Trump should be removed from office immediately via invocation of the 25th Amendment or imPEACHed again even in the waning days of his presidency, just so, with hope, he can never run for public office again (I doubt this will actually happen, but after acts of sedition like we just witnessed, I'm now convinced that it would be an appropriate step).
Despite one hundred and forty-seven Republican members of Congress (8 senators and 139 House members) objecting to certifying some states’ election results, Joe Biden (later in the night) was still (thankfully and FINALLY) certified as the next president of the United States and will take office in thirteen short and blessed days (even though Trump can still do a lot of damage in a fortnight, and we're bracing for more violence come inauguration day January 20th). All elections have consequences, and it was so critical that we had a Democratic-led House, and will have a party that can hold its own in the historically anti-Democratic Senate (with my favorite hashtag ever #KamalaTiebreaker) for probably the next two years. I'm so thrilled (and pleasantly surprised) that, due to the Georgia Senate results, Joe Biden will be able to start his term without the threat of extreme legislative obstructionism that has plagued previous Democratic presidents (most recently Barack Obama), and I can't wait to see Chuck Schumer literally rip that Senate gavel out of soon-to-be-former Majority leader Mitch McConnell's malicious, filthy, amoral hands (McConnell actually showed some courage yesterday, but it was too little, too late). I am so looking forward to see the Democratic party have some freedom to attempt to get so much positive work done-- for COVID relief that is sorely needed, for the vaccine rollout, for voter protection, for widening access to health care, for justice for "the least of these," for climate, and more, all of which just hasn't been possible in the recent past due to sheer numbers alone (and minority rule). The party representing the majority of people in this country actually has the executive and legislative power for the first time in a decade, and we'll see if some coalition of principled Republicans can get peeled off and come along to get some critical things done.
On the deadliest day of Coronavirus deaths (close to 4,000) to date in our country, and amidst shocking terrorism in our nation's Capital on a dark day in our country's history (capping a dark, four-year Trump era), democracy hung on by a thread and (thankfully) held. This wasn't the last time our nation will be tested or shaken in such a way, but it sure was alarming (while, sadly, not surprising) and I hope that even more people had their eyes opened to the dangerous road we have gone down (from which we may never fully recover) with emboldening the extremists in a political party like this one. As I've written before, we can't eliminate evil, but we can (and did) outvote it in November, and Georgia did it again on Tuesday. Votes matter. Voting matters. Being “apolitical” or "neutral" is no longer an option, as the stakes are too high. Change indeed can and should come through a peaceful, democratic process (which can include unarmed and peaceful protests), not through breaking windows and brandishing guns (and Confederate flags) in our country's capital. I hope we have all learned our lessons-- stay woke, everyone. May we never take any election, or our democracy, for granted.
While my kids have (thankfully) seemed quite fulfilled and happy-go-lucky during this whole COVID-19 pandemic (while many adults, or at least I, have had a harder time coping), I wonder a lot about how they will remember this time (or if they will remember it at all), or how this "quarantine time" will affect all children's future psychological development and relationships.
I have been stopped in my tracks a few times by some of the things my kids say, matter-of-factly and without much emotion, like "No, mom, we're not allowed to blow bubbles at school [childcare] due to CORONAVIRUS" or "When Coronavirus is over, can we....?" What's so refreshing about these young ones is that they're just living in the present-- not the past nor the future, and I so wish I could more easily adopt their very innocent perspective rather than be weighed down by the grief, anger, and disappointment about the state of things that has plagued me (and many other adults) to date!
Art is an expression of our feelings, and how we see the world. Earlier this week, Niall (one month shy of three) was playing independently at the dining room table with a Paw Patrol coloring book and a sheet of stickers, and showed me his "drawing." (None of us actually watch or know anything about Paw Patrol).
I froze, and my heart stopped for about a minute.
Like so many things have this year, looking at his decorated workbook sheet with all the dogs wearing masks over their mouths made me viscerally sad. I wonder if my young toddler will have any memories of the "days before" we all wore facial coverings, as our current masked accessorizing is what he knows to be "normal" (or has known to be normal for close to a year). Art is an expression of our feelings, and how we see the world. All the faces he sees (outside our own home) are masked.
Kelvin had a different (more positive) perspective. He asked Niall, "Why are all the characters wearing masks?" and our son responded with something along the lines of "So they can keep the germs out!" Kelvin found it hopeful, and reassuring, that, while many adults in this country still refuse to have their "liberties" infringed upon by a small piece of fabric, to or don't "buy" that adherence to universal masking could have dramatically slowed the course of this pandemic in our country or that it could, our still-two-year-old (who wears his own mask faithfully for close to nine hours a day without fighting nor complaining) just sees it as an obvious part and or normal life at this time, and that he "gets it." He's not sad or upset about it in the least. It's like putting on a sweater to go outside.
I can't wait for the day when Niall will be able to see his friends' and teachers' smiles-- and not just their eyes. Everything suggests that this time is still a long way off for those of us in this country, despite our current vaccination efforts. However, I'm trying to be more objective and positive and just accept the "state of things." I know children process their world in their play, and while this "art" seemed very jarring for me to see, it just represented him "re-creating" the world around him, one that he actually finds very loving, reassuring, and safe.
We could all learn a lot from our children (even though this is the same child that, on New Year's Day, ran with scissors, got bumped, and somehow poked a hole in his soft palate, which bled like a murder scene but which thankfully stopped with pressure, which is another story and matter. We parents also obviously still have some wisdom to impart).
3. Remove the mold from the freezer, and fill each cup with a scoop (~1 Tbsp each) of cocoa mix, crushed peppermint if desired, and top with a few mini-marshmallows.
4. Re-warm the chocolate if needed, and spoon the remaining chocolate over each cup to make a "lid" and to seal the bomb. Freeze the mold again for at least 20 minutes.
5. Pop out each chocolate bomb from the mold. Drizzle (or, um, splat) with melted white chocolate and add other sprinkles, if desired.
6. Place bomb in a mug or cup, heat milk in a saucepan or in the microwave (x 2 minutes), pour milk over a bomb, stir, and enjoy!
My sister-in-law Theresa gifted our family a year's membership, and visiting was a great thing to do on a cloudy (but not raining) morning amidst a long, wet weekend in this New Year. Iver is very into learning about all different animal species, especially reptiles (and has a lot of obscure animal facts in his head!), and was so excited. We got there right at opening time, and saw very few other families. All visitors are required to wear masks (as animals can get COVID-19, too!) despite it being fully outdoors. It felt great to get out of the house and support a local establishment in a COVID-safe way.
They have a lot of neat birds.
