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My sweet and smart daughter Sarah sent me the following yesterday. I know it's a meme, and there are probably flaws but, on the eve of our Florida primary (August 18), with the Post Office in crisis and blue mailboxes and mail-sorting machines being removed at an alarmingly rapid rate, we need to remind ourselves, and each other, what our true priorities are. You know you can drop your mail-in ballots in person at your voting precinct, right? Do the Next Right Thing (TM Glennon). VOTE tomorrow, but especially on November 3, 2020!
P.S. Kudos to Christine and Aidan for this spot-on parody. Music begins at about the two-minute mark, but please listen to/watch the entire thing. Thanks and love to Melanie for the heads-up... :-)
P.P.S. NR: Call Them By Their True Names: Crises and Essays by Rebecca Solnit
If the Democratic candidate turns out to be your least favorite — as disappointed as you may be — please remember:
1. You're not just voting for President.
2. You're voting for who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
3. You're voting for the next Secretary of Education and getting rid of the horrible Betsy Devos.
4. You're voting for federal judges.
5. You're voting for the rule of law.
6. You're voting for saving national parks.
7. You're voting for letting kids out of cages.
8. You're voting for clean air and clean water.
9. You're voting for scientists to be allowed to speak about climate change and for rebuilding the CDC.
10. You're voting for what a President says and does on Twitter.
11. You're voting for housing rights.
12. You're voting for LGBTQ people to be treated with dignity.
13. You're voting for non-Christians to be able to adopt and to feel like full citizens.
14. You're voting for Dreamers.
15. You're voting so that there will be Social Security and Medicare when you retire.
16. You're voting for veterans to get the care they deserve.
17. You're voting for rural hospitals.
18. You're voting so that someone else can have health insurance.
19. You're voting for the preservation of PBS.
20. You're voting to have a President who doesn't embarrass this country every time she or he attends an international meeting.
21. And you're voting against allowing the USA to become yet another authoritarian regime.
22. You're voting for sensible gun laws.
23. You are voting to save our postal service.
No Democrat is perfect. Your first AND second choices may have dropped out. Your third might. But the nominee, no matter who she or he is (and now we know it's Joe Biden with Kamala Harris!), won't be perfect. They won't pass your purity test. And yet every single one of them will be better than four more years of Trump!!! Please be reasonable.
SONG: 86 45 11-3-20 by Friction Farm
BOOK: True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump by Jeffrey Toobin
POEM: Booker T. and W.E.B. by Dudley Randall
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house.”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail.
Unless you help to make the laws,
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.—
“I don’t agree,”
Said W.E.B.
QUOTE: "Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep fighting. We're all still here." ~ Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War (Acknowledgements)
Sciatica, which is also known as sciatic neuralgia, is a condition that causes pain in the low back, down the back of the leg and into the foot. It can make sitting and standing for long periods of time difficult and can lead to weakness, tingling and numbness in the leg and foot. It will often come and go throughout a person's lifetime, causing periods of varying degrees of pain and discomfort. If left unchecked, sciatic pain will generally grow worse and the nerve can become permanently injured.
The reason why the pain travels so far, seems to radiate up and down the legs, and back is because it is caused by the compression of the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in the body. This nerve originates in the lumbar spine extends into the buttocks before traveling down the leg to the ankle and foot. When the vertebrae in the low back are compressed, the roots of the sciatic nerve can become pinched and irritated, which is what causes the pain and injury.
Most of you know that, after a two-year hiatus, my sciatica resurfaced in January 2020, and I was actually managing it very well. Even when the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020, I was walking, stretching, and doing yoga. Of course, at that time, we all (or at least I) thought we were in for just a few months of self-isolation/inconvenience... and here we are, five months later, with no sign of re-normalizing in sight... of our social calendars, much less our daily lives. I confess to having lapsed with many of my self-care routines and my daughter Sarah, being a pro-active organizer and tired of watching me attempt to curb my moaning and limping and grimacing (oh, my!), called me on Monday and told me that I had an appointment with a chiropractor on Tuesday afternoon.
I am sighing in contentment now, finally turning my sciatica issue over to professionals. After my chiropractor visit yesterday afternoon - thermal imaging (my spinal column was completely green/normal, without a hit of yellow, orange, or red/severe, no deterioration or degeneration!); X-rays (slight misalignment); some stretching; some manipulation with instruments; an adjustment of my back and neck; and some laser therapy - I almost called an Uber to drive me home. I was that relaxed! Of course, many hours later, I felt pretty beat up, so I did some stretches, drew a very hot bath with liberal amounts of Epsom salts, used the massager my sons gave me for my birthday, slathered on some CBD salve, and then divebombed into bed.
Today I had a massage for the first time since February (I cancelled my mid-March session) with my healing hands guru Karen (amazing!), and I am considering all this a re-set. I am tired of living with pain. I can see it in my eyes when I look in the mirror. Then don't look in the mirror, Susan... right?
I go back to the chiropractor tomorrow morning for a more comprehensive review of my scans and X-rays, at which point we will develop a plan for future treatment (or not). Either way, I am vowing to stretch every two hours on a daily basis, and alternate yoga with walking, even leisurely. Life's too short to experience intermittent electric shocks down the back of one's legs... 😌
P.S. I just opened a new container of HOPE hummus, and the inner seal said, "Self-Care Ain't Selfish". Synchronicity!
NR: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
SONG: Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood
BOOK: Sciatica Exercises & Home Treatment: Simple, Effective Care For Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome by Dr. George F. Best D.C.
POEM: Sciatica by Cliff Burns
You can never call Pain friend.
It is quarrelsome, insistent,
practically inescapable
like a boorish relative one must
endure at weddings
and family functions
or a childhood pal,
now out-grown,
who always overstays their welcome.
QUOTE: "Fall down seven, stand up eight." ~ Japanese Proverb
