Afterglow

Last night was surreal. We were playing Scene It at 8:03, when the election was called shockingly, historically early... we performed the celebration rites we had planned: champagne, Dan's ancient cigar, some enthusiastic "WOOHOO!!!"s off the front porch. It felt anti-climactic, our lonely celebrating, so we walked downtown in the almost-rain.

Here's where it became real to me: we were wandering through downtown's mostly quiet and empty streets when we happened upon a posh little restaurant and bar. We could see the TV through the window, and the group of us clamored in to the lobby to join the watching. As President Obama (elect, whatever) spoke last night, the symphony let out. We stood in the lobby watching his speech, and symphony goers, elderly couples, waiters, chefs, and diners stopped what they were doing and sat, quietly, to watch, to cry. All of us sat together, strangers drawn in by a face on a screen, and no one spoke. Never in my life have I seen a room full of people pay such rapt attention.

When we left the bar, there were drums on the streets, and the crowd of few quickly became a parade of many, hundreds, maybe a thousand, and there was dancing in the street in Portland, OR. We stood on the steps of the Square and sang the Star Spangled Banner off-key. We clapped. We laughed.

This is hope. It is attentive and still, it is unified and inclusive, it is joyful and impossible to contain. And though we love and support the man who has served as the voice of this hope, we know he isn't the source of it. The hope stems from all of us, strangers in a bar, familiar faces on the street, sharing a common joy... we wanted this, we worked for it, and the victory belongs to all of us. Barack Obama isn't a savior. He's a man, a good man, but just a flawed man like all of us. The hope, the hope is that we have chosen him. We doubted our ability to influence change, but we have succeeded. We know now what we are capable of... we know we can. The hope is community... something we've been missing for a long, long time.

A word to my friends in California... I'm happy we're celebrating together, but I'm sorry your joy is tainted by the Prop 8 results. Know that I'm praying for you always, and loving you from here... I'm sorry that somewhere along the way we seem to have forgotten our call to love, and replaced it with a need to enforce our interpretation of religious law. This is the sort of thing that caused Jesus to challenge the religious leaders of His day, asking them to look to their own faults instead of trying to regulate the choices of others. Please remember that many of us are for you... my heart is broken for you today.

But it's a new day. Anything is always possible.

Have hope.

love. K.

HOPE

**The blogger backs away from her computer, sits down, crosses fingers, legs, toes, and squeezes her eyes shut**

"Yes we can yes we can yes we can yes we can yes we can"

**This will continue for the next several hours, until ultimately, God-willing, tonight she and friends will drink champagne and sing a rousing chorus that goes something like this:**

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone!
I can see all obstacles in my way...

it's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day :)

Don't Vote...

Actual Knitting on the Knitting Blog.

And now it's time for...

actual knitting! Wowzers.

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf , a pretty finished product, but one of the least engaging patterns for me, ever. Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss in Parsley, which I thought was okay, but am not itching to do again.

Size 3 needles, 2 skeins, and I actually wouldn't have minded if it were longer... as is, it's cute tied up in knots.


and now, more knitting!!

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts , another beautiful pattern that I found tedious... but I'm just not a colorwork kid. Yarn: Shibui Knits Sock in Wasabi and Peacock,

Thanks be to Joe for the pics. Hooray for knitwear on the knitting blog! ;)

Look! Fall!

and look Dan! i baked!



and yes, the dog is peeing. and yes, those are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese icing. and yes, it's very yummy and autumny around here. Tomorrow: actual pictures of knitting on the "knitting" blog. :)

Fun in Patches

DSC_0111
Originally uploaded by glory8888@sbcglobal.net

yeah. we're awesome.

The Darker Days of Pollyanna

9-5-08
the man on couch corner wears his rings well
tightly clamped, he keeps them
around eyes i'll spare myself from meeting
as we pass
he is the last and first example
of what i may become in your absence
- resolve tucked snuggly in at the corners,
scars where opportunity no longer knocks -
to the dog, this man
with his layers of sweaters and regret
is a king
the prince of yesterday's garbage
the lord of all delightfully unholy things

again, not unlike you.

The city is a concentration of extremes: the rich with the poor, the sane with the lost, the very best and the very worst of what we are, or what we are capable of. Today I am witness to the clash of opposites... one man who fails to live up to my very smallest, most pessimistic hopes for humanity opposing another who far exceeds any strength or grace I am capable of. It's difficult to maintain perspective when moments like these occur... each man has his own story, neither of which I know. Each man has led a life that has steeled him for this confrontation, and who am I judge? Who am I to even have an opinion?

It's sad, though, plainly, to see someone rise above... someone who has faced ugliness so many unmentionable times that it is no longer worth acknowledging it. It's maturity, it's grace, it's the right thing to do, to rise above. But it sucks. It sucks that we have become the sort of jerks who make each other rise above our crap.
I wish we could see each other. We wander around so wrapped in our own egos we don't bother to connect, to notice, to care. How sad we are becoming.

You will walk past many people today. I hope you look them in the eye.