Looking into the Future

Love this photo of Laura. They grow up so fast.

*****

Birthday Babes

Happy Birthday and a day to my dear Laura! Not surprised to hear you say you were about to go out boating -- with Grandma on a ship and me swimming in the Pacific, we had three generations of Mc's on the water today.

Happy Birthday Aunt Ruth -- 80 today!

One more joyous occasion coming up Thursday, where I call my mother and thank her for the great gift of my life. I was a pretty strong-willed child and cannot have been easy to raise :) Thanks Mother!

*******

photo by Jessica Driver

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

crossposted saturday 17 may 2008 at firedoglake in Pull Up a Chair

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness:

Congratulations to newdealfarmgrrrlll and Al the Spook on their engagement! [video here]

Wishing you all the joy in the world!

And my engagement present is this photo of a couple who held a Star Wars theme wedding, which sounds like one of the possibilities. Thanks be to Google.

We have evolved into a real community now with joys and concerns that touch people we've never met in "real" life. Some future sociologist can expand on what it means for us to have so many traveling companions that we know only electronically.

But every once in a while there is an opportunity to put a name with a face, jump the fence into that other world out there. I've had the privilege of attending Suzanne's excellent Boulder Creek pup meetups and getting to know other folks through Yearly Kos and the trial.

The people here at FDL have touched my life in so many ways from encouragement and support to challenge -- and did I mention support? And I have a feeling that some of the rest of you have similar stories to share about FDL friends who are there in good times and in sad times.

We are hoping that QuakerGirl is reading the many, many expressions of love coming her way throughout the comments every day as she struggles with leukemia in hospice.

There are those among us who have lost a parent recently, our hearts go out to you with much love. Nothing can prepare you for this kind of grief, it is an experience that changes your world. How can the sky still be blue? Don't people know everything is different now?

We are there for each other in ways visible and invisible.

The Beauty and Fragility of Life

It was at this very hour six years ago the terror began. The world stopped. What happened? What had we lost?

Out of that confusion and grief there has evolved an ever-growing group of patriotic Americans, roused from their sleep to take action to rebuild our nation and its place in the world.

We took stock, gradually learned not only more about what had happened that day, but about the stranglehold on our nation’s fragile democracy.

Do we act as responsible citizens in the world? Does our vote count? Do we permit torture? Do we still believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Geneva Conventions?

After a moment of silence to honor our collective loss six years ago, I am prepared to get to work to help the living. We’ve got a lot to do, let’s get going.

I would say that compared with six years ago, I am much more conscious of the beauty and fragility of life. Perhaps I should say, conscious once again, because as a child this awareness was with me every day.

Being at fdl has changed me in ways known and unknown. What a great gift to find all of you. All the things I’m working on continue, but in the company of this immense number of friends and colleagues. We are connected by our desire to reclaim our nation from the abyss and make the future habitable by the next generation. A toast to the fdl community.

——egregious, 11 September 2007

*******

Sunshine in February

It may be winter for everyone else, but with the return of longer sunny days, for me spring is here.

My productivity will surge---sorry, retract that word which is stained with the blood of our brave troops. A girl I hae known since she was seven is going to Iraq this month with the Marines.

Tears and prayers for her. Speaking of life and hope.

I played Spring in the second grade play. Still have the dress. Favorite color green, new life, new hope.

The ice is breaking up and the river is beginning to flow in the CIA/Plame case. "The prosecution rests." I find little buds and shoots of hope appearing in our winter-weary nation. When will we be finished with this harsh political season, and return to running the country properly?

I think it will be 6 more weeks of meteorological winter and maybe several more years of political winter. [Groundhog Day or Candlemas, take your choice.]

But spring will come again.