Life of Wry

At Monday’s celebration of David and the day he first stood at 3rd and C collecting compassion definitions, emcee (and former Poet Laureate of Davis) Andy Jones presented this poem:

The Giver – a Poem for David Breaux

By Dr. Andy Jones

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

— William Wordsworth

“The only way to survive is by taking care of one another.”

– Grace Lee Boggs

Gathering and accumulating, getting and spending,

We stockpile markers of success,

Hedges against downturns, such as those revealed daily in the news.

Enmeshed in fear, the primary source of superstition and cruelty,

We sometimes feel as if we sit beneath a downspout of downturns.

Before long, we stumble under the weight,

Becoming accumulators of accumulations.

We look askance at the man who doesn’t play this game,

The man who sheds rather than accumulates,

The man who reads instead of wading screen-deep into the muck,

The man whose private resolutions are sacred agreements.

Blessed be the rare man who awakens!

Such a man sees what most of us see only at the end:

That kindnesses offered and received matter,

That connections offered and received matter,

That compassion matters. Perhaps it matters the most.

Such treasures of the mystic, such treasures of the poet, 

such treasures of the well-read philosopher

cannot be gained through accumulation.

Like a twinkle-eyed smile received from a tall stranger with a notebook,

Such treasures grow through the giving.

Think of your favorite causes, think of your favorite movements:

Someone had to be there at the start who was willing to give and give and give.

Partake in the riches of a twinkle-eyed smile,

Partake in the riches of the curious poet,

Partake in the riches foreseen by a saint of compassion

By giving as he gave, by giving it all away.

~~

I also liked what he said afterward:

“I thank David for his friendship and for the ways that he continues to light a path before us, one that will require many steps yet to understand and to set into motion.“

As seen on 3rd Street!

Maya’s will open in the place where El Toro Bravo used to sit. El Toro Bravo was a pretty great place for Mexican food, if casual, but they closed just a month or so before the pandemic and that corner has sat empty for over four years. Finally, El Toro Bravo is clearing out and making way for a new restaurant.

I’m worried it’ll be just another fast food restaurant in town.. but crossing my fingers that it’s at least decent, and worth a grown up dining experience every now and then.

And, of course, fun that it’s named after Peter’s Maya. Lol.

June 3 is the anniversary of David’s first day (2009) of standing on the corner of 3rd and C — now dubbed Compassion Corner — and asking people to write their definition of compassion in a notebook. When David was alive, he’d celebrate this day by having a marathon session at the bench. Last year, Maria organized a memorial at the corner. This year, it was a gathering at Davis Community Church.

Andy Jones was the emcee and also read a poem he’d written (will post when I can get my hands on a copy). Eight of us were invited to share in 1-2 minutes our concept of compassion. And Maria gave a presentation on David and forgiveness.

The Threshold Singers sang before the program started and the event was catered. (Left overs went to the Night Market.. a nice touch.)

All in all, a really lovely way to honor David.

Me thinks 2024’s going to be a politically busy one. It feels a bit like 2020 (though nothing’ll ever top that year in terms of political action, largely due to the captive audience of the pandemic). Same candidates, same urgency, same two local orgs coordinating similar actions (canvassing, fundraising, phone and text banking, postcarding). I’m slightly moderating my involvement (compared to 2020), but have pretty much been engaged in just about all of those activities (not textbanking) and at a pretty good clip.

Gotta. It’s pretty dire out there in politicsland.

Saturday was all day door knocking in Sparks, NV and today was a Sister District workparty out at the Cannery–a new venue for us. Now, if the pandemic had not occurred, we’d probably still occupy that spiffy, gargantuan, two-story space on Olive Drive at which we had a very celebratory opening in March of 2020….

About 50-70 folks turned out, I’m guessing. It was fun energy.. people in every corner, inside and out, making calls, sending texts, writing postcards.

Just shows to go ya what determined (panicked) dems can do.

Just a couple pics…

We (twelve of us from Davis joined dozens more from all over) canvassed today in support of Biden/Harris and Senator Jacky Rosen in Reno (Sparks, actually). We were data gathering for the campaign, essentially, helping them prepare for a massive get out the vote effort as the election nears. We also did some good pursuasion canvassing. It was a productive day.

My blog title? Those were the words of an old geezer with a days-old grey beard growth and barefoot who wasn’t having my pitch for a Biden/Harris win in November. LOL. Here’s my note to the campaign (via the Mini-Van app which we canvassers use to identify which doors we’ll knock on.. maps and data prepared by the campaigns):

So many comebacks I didn’t come up with until later! And yeah, at the conclusion of his rant he said forcefully: GO AWAY!

Which I did.. (but inside I was SMH and half laughing at what just felt ridiculous).

I talked to another women — a registered voter who claims she does not vote! — who wasn’t sure who Biden was running against in November.

Good to get out of the Davis bubble once in a while.

Here’re some shots on the day….a lovely one at that!

The owner of this yard, with whom I’d had a very worthwhile conversation, chased me down moments after I’d left his house, to give me an ice cold bottle of water (he also offered me a coke). A very sweet gesture which I took him up on. Wish I’d gotten a pic of him.. he was missing most of his teeth, but had a warm smile and a funny dog. And a nice garden!

This was the morning’s training, which we skipped out on (bc we’re old hands at this stuff).

And here’s part of the Davis group:

Just some shots from a walk through campus a couple days ago.

The year is winding down, which means it’s very busy on campus right now, but in a matter of weeks, the students will pack it up for the summer and things will quiet way down on campus and in town. Yay. The Pro-Palestinian encampment is still up and on this day they were joined on the quad by a grad student walk out. I think this one is a joint UC campus thing having to do with some students who were sanctioned for their participation in the protests. I think. I also saw a large bunch of folks gathered for the “Cork Harvest,” all clustered under the massive cork trees in the grove by the law school. Big doings!

Then just a few pretty shots of other things that caught my eye.

What a sweet, sweet day.

Most of those of us following the hush money – election fraud trial were resigned to having to wait another day for a verdict. I was stair climbing and power walking around the creek (in my new boots!), listening to CNN (as I do). Taking my cues from pundits who’d surmised the deliberations would go at least another day, I’d shifted over to a podcast (Pod Save America was particularly good today). I checked in briefly with CNN while having a cup of coffee at Cloud Forest and learned the jury was wrapping for the day… In fact, I believe the judge had actually already excused them. On my way home, I dropped by Crepeville to chat with Jim for a couple minutes then as I was heading out decided to check CNN one last time to be sure nothing of note was going to happen and heard Jake Tapper say something to a guest like, “are you surprised there will be a verdict today?”

A verdict!!! What?!

So… in the great tradition of where were you when you heard the news: I was walking through Central Park on a gloriously beautiful day! I hurried home and turned on CNN, made myself a giant blueberry chocolate smoothie and was at full attention as I listened to Jake read the outcome of all 34 counts: GUILTY x 34.

CONVICTED FELON! I love the sound of that.

Accountability for something. Finally.

I did a LOT of happy yelling and swearing. So happy!

So, that was about 2:30 our time and it’s 11:30 now… I’ve been luxuriously immersed in all the post verdict analysis for about 9 hours, minus a bit of speed food shopping and a quickly consumed dinner. Def can’t get enough of this.

CONVICTED FELON!

I just hope to god the Biden people figure out their messaging and get out there quickly. The Magas are well-oiled and falling in line right now behind their beloved CONVICTED FELON, honing their aggrieved, whiny, victimy little narrative and raising lots of money already. These people shockingly have no trouble electing a guy who, in addition to now being a convicted felon, has ALSO been found guilty of business fraud (and is paying hundreds of millions in fines for that), AND slander AND sexual assault (for which he’s also paying out tens of millions (I forget how much), AND is charged with stealing (and lying about) classified documents, AND conspiracy to steal an election, AND fomenting an insurrection to overthrow the government. And these fools also seem not to mind his LIFETIME of cheating and questionable morals and ethics.

So, hurry up Biden messaging people. We got this.

Did you know that a convicted felon cannot serve in the US military? But he can serve as commander in chief. A convicted felon in Florida cannot vote or serve on a jury or own a fire arm. But he can be president.

Anyway, so that’s the wonderful news of the day. Here are some great memes from the funny people, plus headlines, mag covers, etc.

And I thought this was interesting … his lead lawyer.

And, our hero:

Well done, Alvin.

Doing another throwback, because if I were to post about today, it’d be about that stupid hush money/election fraud trial.. and as of today, there is no verdict.. only endless prognostications about the potential verdict. And me, alternating between optimism and total dread. I just can’t write about that right now.

Shudder.

So.. instead, scrolling back into my vast photo archive, I landed on May 29, 2013….

…fourteen year old 9th grade Peter, playing bari sax in what must have been the last junior high school band concert in Central Park, under the direction of conductor and music teacher extraordinaire Clyde Quick.

Look at that cutie… (and looks like he caught me snapping pics).

Looks like a good crowd. That’s nice.

Reed to the right of Peter, Daniel to the left. And a peek at those braces…

My fave in this series…

Seems a good time to defer to my favorite historian/truth teller Heather (Cox Richardson) to report on the news of the day. (These are just a couple of excerpts from today’s newsletter Letters from an American).

And this one…..

Took only a day to start and finish this book.. started yesterday afternoon, finished today. It was an immensely heartbreaking read. Everything I knew about Matthew Perry came from clips of Friends episodes that have populated my social media feed for about a year now. I never saw the show, but the clips are fun, funny, and pull you into a cute little world of people a generation below me. Through the clips, I’ve pretty much sussed out most of the salient storylines of the 10-year series (1994-2004) and came to enjoy the Chandler Bing character (and a couple others).

I’m drawn to tragic stories and his real life story is certainly that. Incredibly frustrating to follow the ups and downs (mostly downs) of his life of addiction. In spite of his obvious intelligence, talent, fame and substantial fortune, in spite of global affection, so many friends and pretty much anything money could buy, he was trapped in cycles of drug and alcohol abuse that were just jaw dropping. I can’t tell you how many times I had to just pause and gather myself after reading that he’d used again.. after a years-long, hard-won bout of sobriety. Truly breathtaking.

Lots of interesting glimpses into Hollywood life, and of course addiction. Def worth the read. Will be eager to hear the outcome of the latest round of investigations (hit the news last week) about the causes of his death (last October). It was an overdose of Ketamine, a weak heart, and subsequent drowning in his hot tub, but the hows are now in question.