In the End, Love Always Trumps Hate (If it hasn't happened yet, it's not the end!)

So today I had lunch at a beautiful hotel in Dubai with five other librarians (all women at my table). Two of us were transplanted Americans, one Canadian, a lovely Egyptian mother of two, a woman from India and another Arabic librarian slightly older than me that asked me with a bemused expression if I could explain DT's hairstyle to her. I couldn't do it and we both started laughing. Today I really felt how much more powerful the laughter we shared together was than the bullying and posturing of the POTUS... The training on our database was a bit dry and technical, but I felt SO MUCH love and connection when we all started laughing about the dumpster and talking about the marches that have been going on around the world. Watching the livestreaming from DC yesterday, Gloria Steinem's speech also made me laugh and I LOVED Madonna's F.U. to the people who say it's not making any difference! I felt so much gratitude for being born in a country where women of all ages, colors and beliefs can express themselves to the fullest and I do not want to see us go backwards into some dystopian dark age conjured up by a delusional pack of kleptomaniacs led by a Cheeto colored conman.

Women's Marches Around the World

Women of the world will not be silenced!

We must continue to fight for human rights and to share love and laughter while we do it!

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” 
― Julian of Norwich

Party Girl

 How can I help you?

When I first started writing this post, it was a few days before the election and I was expecting that the chaos and devastation would all be behind us soon. Now New Year's is already past and we are into 2017, so it seems I am always a few days late with celebrating and looking forward. As things have been grimly moving ahead with the so called "president elect" I have felt quite a bit of despair about the state of things and especially about the status of information in this new environment. I don't expect to be able to do much in the political sphere, nor do I desire to do so, but at least I can make a stand for finding true and valid information, checking sources, and using critical thinking skills! This is a major part of the job of a school librarian, as I understand it.

As you can see, I needed a laugh! This brought me back to Party Girl, which was made back in 1995, when many libraries were still using card catalogs and automation was only beginning to take hold in libraries, before social media, the same year that DT wrote off $900 million on his tax returns, and well before the events of 9/11 stole the innocence in NYC and altered so many things...

So if you have an hour and a half to spare and you haven't seen it before this movie is light enough to take away any sense of doom and gloom that may have carried over from 2016. Just click on the link below to watch the youTube version of Parker Posey in Party Girl!

   

Party Girl Parker Posey

Sending out best wishes for a very happy 2017 and may we all find ways to be strong and live in the light! 

The Rhinoceros

A Time for Refusal

It has been only three weeks since the results came in and the world has changed. I still think there must be a way to stop this rhinoceros from taking over! Or maybe it is too late... resistance takes so much energy...

I want to go back to my old life where I had the luxury of peacefully trying to mind my own business, but this is not business as usual, this is not normal, look at the cabinet picks, I am no less frightened, only more so, and I find it very difficult to resist the urge to go completely numb. On the other hand, we have to go on living!

(Which I find challenging even under the best of circumstances.)

So if thinking about this stuff is too depressing, I understand. But I want to be aware, regardless. How much I can do personally and hold down a fairly demanding job, while I try to keep body and mind together, I don't know. But this next article is yet another that shows how these fascists take over!

Prepare for Regime Change, Not Policy Change

So awareness is the first step and that's why I keep posting. There are a lot of people who are offended all of a sudden, at people who dare to disrespect an incoming president... but as I was reminded earlier today, respect has to be earned.

No, Trump, We Can't All Just Get Along

Speak truth to power!

Don't accept the unacceptable.

No justice, no peace.














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