About tee shirts and the question, "What can I do?"

Well, we didn't plant anything after Holly got out of school. She had a project to do with Meg; they made tie-dye shirts. O lordy. I'm glad it was not in my kitchen! I sent over a white tee shirt of mine with a quote from The Secret Garden on it and I told them to surprise me. It'll be fun! (And it doesn't count as another tee shirt, since I used an existing one.) 

Speaking of tee shirts, I have an almost embarrassing amount of nerdy tee shirts. Not so many long sleeve, but plenty of short sleeve. Everything from a fairly innocuous "POET" shirt, to quotes from Emerson, Pessoa, and others. And some snarky ones. And some that require you to know something from literature. Take, for instance, the one I wore to work Tuesday: "HWAET!" (We had a dress-up day thing, where I was twinned --well, tripletted- with two others and we wore black tee shirts and jeans.) It's the first word, in Anglo-Saxon, that starts the Beowulf epic. I have a great purple one that says "Unreliable Narrator." You get the idea. But I bought another new one and it came in last Friday-- I will wear it this Friday, I think. It's a really clever drawing of Medusa (well, her head and snakes), but the snakes are all filled in with words of resistance. Yah. I'm wearing it. 

I was talking with someone the other day about the whole "what can we actually DO?" conundrum. As a public school teacher, I am mindful of my public perception. And it'll do me no good to rant and rave as much as my inner gremlin would like. But yet, I will do what I can to help those who are struggling, who are sad, scared, and feeling displaced in my community and our country today. It's the kindest and most practical thing I can do, and it's not performatively political-- well, in the way that we misuse the term these days. To be honest, to live in society, in any community, to interact with other humans is a political act (from the Greek polis- roughly translated to city). I'll admit, I am often struggling, sad, scared, and feeling displaced myself. But if I have something someone else would benefit from -- material or social/emotional-- then I'm going to help. But it's also not in my nature to not have an opinion, and to speak in ways that I can. I have a tee shirt that says "The horrors persist, and so do I." I think that sums it up. I also have one that I wore the other day that says, "History sighs, repeats itself." That also tracks. My dad drove around for years with a bumper sticker on his truck that said "Question Authority." He also raised me on folk protest songs (Dylan! Baez! Peter, Paul, and Mary!) and made sure I learned the lyrics. My rebellious roots run deep (an ancestor in Scotland was kicked out of the House of Lords for raising a ruckus too often-- he was an admiral-- good genes, I guess?)-- that all said, I can't and won't sit idly by, wringing my hands. From me, you get thoughts, prayers, and action.

I will do what I can, for as many as I can, in ways that make sense and that have an immediate impact. 

O, and that tee shirt Meg and Holly tie-dyed? It says, "She made herself stronger by fighting the wind." 

That's me, too.

I hope you have a good day. Be safe, keep the faith, and hug people. 

C