I feel like writing today. Not because I have anything profound to say or comment on but just because I want to be typing in hopes that my right hand will improve with practice. I have always been a fast typist but obviously the wrist break and nerve compression has impacted my typing.
Clark Farm continues to be a source of joy for me. I enjoy being out there, seeing the Hawks and plants grow. Helping tend the baby plants and then doing distribution and seeing how happy people are to pick up fresh healthy produce. The crew is wonderful as is the head farmer and CSA manager. For their open house I lead a craft where I had children draw on watercolor paper with crayons, then dampen the paper and then print over it with a red beet, creating a resist. It was very successful. So successful one of the preschool teachers did the activity the following week with her class. And of course Roen, whose family came to the Open House day, loved the activity.
Art Zoom Group has wrapped up for the year. I need to add some fresh air into it next fall. Hopefully I can coordinate another print room visit. Everyone wrote really sweet notes saying how thankful they are for the group so I will plan on forging ahead in the fall. And I need to figure out where I am going with my own art. I feel a bit stalled right now. Then again I am often stalled at this time of year.
My Niece and Nephew both had baby boys recently. There is a coldness around my interactions with my niece. Maybe that is related to the narrative from her mother about me. Or maybe it has to do with my outspoken anti-Israel views and comments I made to her about how someday she would regret the positions she was taking with regard to Gaza. I know her husband’s family is very pro-Israel. I sent a baby gift and she did thank me for it. In contrast her brother has been quite sweet. I felt bad telling my dad I could not travel with him to the Bris. But I had an important doctor appointment and Shira could not afford to loose me for a day. In the end it all worked out for the best because baby Blythe started day-care last week. Tuesday she had a runny nose. Thursday both her father and I had nasty colds.
On the subject of Israel while traveling to and from NH/VT to visit our son we listened to the new book by Molly Crabapple about “The Bund” and it is fascinating to learn that from the beginning the Jews who were Zionists in the late 19nth and early 20th century were the “MAGA” like politicians and capitalists of that era. And interestingly they were not particularly spiritually religious. All the stories told to my generation about Zionism and its origins were outright lies. Time and time again revolutionaries who try to overturn power and make the world a fairer more equitable place for all are squashed and replaced. And then stories are told to make those revolutionaries seem like they are bad and dangerous.