the birds work for the celery

An important message from the National Lawyers Guild - Detroit & Michigan Chapter

Denise: Oh, hello!

Bill: We were just talking about you kids.

D: I’m Denise Heberle (HEB-er-lee)…

B: And I’m Bill Goodman.

D: Together we’ve been fighting fascism for over 50 years.

B: And so much has changed over those 50 years, such as the ingredients to a successful firebomb!

D (cheerily): And the glass that bank windows are made of!

B: But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed over 50 years, something that is so important to tell you kids who are new to this movement.

Both: Shut the fuck up.

D: You’re sitting in the police transport van after a protest?

B: Shut the fuck up. In a holding cell, with your comrades?

D: Shut the fuck up. Cop knocks on your door?

B: Shut the fuck up.

D: Texting on an unsecured device?

B: Shut the fuck up. Pulled over by the cops after a protest?

D: Shut the fuck up. Cop just asking about your day?

B: Shut the fuck up. Feds call your mom?

D: Tell your mother to shut the fuck up.

B: Now. Repeat after me. When the cops come calling, what do you do?

(Cut to Bill standing with eight kids)

Kids: Shut the fuck up!

(Cut to Card:

“Shut The Fuck up A Public Service Announcement from

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Among ND people I know, the response to masks has varied. Some really like them, because they don’t need to spend a ton of energy thinking about their facial expressions. Some have basically gone “I don’t like them, but whatever. It is what it is.” And a small few have had sensory issues they can’t figure out a work around for, so they just do curbside pickup and avoid situations where a mask is needed as much as possible.

And when you think about it, it’s not very surprising. ND people, whatever our individual issues, are pretty used to having to move through a world not designed for us. Why would a pandemic be any different?

Meanwhile, we got to witness NTs having meltdowns because they couldn’t get a haircut. The pandemic had interrupted their routine, and they couldn’t handle it. For the first time, they were living in a world that wasn’t designed around their desires.

Life at the hospital would be boring except that it was a sort of routine where I was in a constant daze and I would forget that I was ever bored at all. Few interesting or exciting things happened, just slow moving developments. Physical therapists helping me heal my leg. That sort of thing. Lying in a hospital bed. Getting some bland meal that was neither great nor gross enough to complain about.

There wasn’t really anyone my age to talk to, either. It was kind of lonely most of the time. Cafeteria would be near empty. Just a few people, if anybody at all, at any given time. Several spaces away, each with their own business.

That wasn’t quite true: There were waiting rooms. There were families. There was a ward in the hospital with people around my age, a ward I had no place being in, but sometimes I would see people from that ward. I’d hear their conversations.

“Dr. Marill can suck my jorts!” One teenage boy with dark sunglasses and a leather jacket declared while pointing finger guns at no one in particular.

Yesterday I answered the phone at work and when I said my name the woman on the other line got so excited and said “Madeline?? You’re exactly who I wanted to talk to! This is Marie, you helped me about a month ago. How late are you working today?” It was her!! And about an hour later she and her husband showed up, and she was carrying a huge stack of old knitting patterns for me, and her husband brought in a few boxes full of yarn. They couldn’t stay long but I was so touched that she remembered me, and I struggled to not just flat out start crying when she handed me the patterns. When I looked through them later I realized it was her entire personal collection from over the years, including all her personal notes and drawings and even some photographs of her finished pieces. No one in my family knits, and to have someone pass on their legacy to me like that was incredibly moving.

I

There’s that old saying: “things get worse before they get better.”

Perhaps that’s true. It is in most cases. But then there was also that one about calms before storms. Sometimes it could be hard to tell which phrase applied when.

Is it over? At last? I thought when the sky cleared and the frozen mashed potato landscape I came to know as snow lit up and an orange warm glow lit up in the distance.

I remember how I took what must have been the largest sigh of relief. For the rest of the day, even for a few days, it really felt like it was all over.

Scared refugees, people who once may have known a sense of normalcy, all huddled in fear. They too changed their tune once the beauty such a cold and barren place could bring. Less scared, more excited. Some were hesitant, yes, but a good few got up, headed for the door.

“Wait!” I snapped.

Two, no, three of them, looked my way. Both in confusion and horror at the sharpness of my tone. I too was a little startled even though I had grown used to it at that point.

“We don’t know how long it will last, or if it’s truly over,” I explained to them.

oh my goodness it’s here litha , also known as Midsummer Nights Eve. As on Samhain the veil between this world & others is really thin so protect & ward & be safe!! It’s the night to celebrate the sun & light. Traditionally bonfires were lit & herbs were tossed onto the flames to honor the Sun God & Queen Mab. This is also a very important night to the faeries as well.

litha correspondences:

symbolism: abundance, empowerment, energy, fertility, growth, harvest, health, honoring, light, love, nurturing, sun god energy

colors: gold, green, orange, red, yellow, sky blue, white

crystals: carnelian, citrine, diamond, emerald, jade, periodt, tigers eye

herbs: chamomile, cinnamon, fox glove, lavender, meadowsweet, mistletoe, mugwort, rosemary, st. john’s wort, vervain, yarrow

deities: sun god/desses, Apollo, Amaterasu, Hestia, Aten, Horus, Lugh, Ra, The Green Man