I’ve been working on a grant application for an exhibit about the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, which is 100 years old this year (the amendment, not the Constitution) and gave women the right to vote. The research and information processing and articulating goals and so on for the exhibit has been really interesting. This, combined with other stuff that comes in and out of my field of vision, has made me reflect on recent history. Or what is recent to me at age 56.
- Women could not vote until 43 years before I was born. My grandma was a teenager in 1920 when the 19th amendment passed.
- When I was a child, women still had to get permission from a man to get a bank loan or credit card and they could be sent home from work for wearing pants.
- When I was a child, black people and white people could not marry each other in some states. Black people were still prohibited from some hotels, drinking fountains, and the front of the bus.
- When I was in college, I had an internship in a state government office where smoking in the office was still allowed.
- Stress prison seemed like a good idea until about two weeks ago, when it became pandemic prison and happened.
Finally, it’s our time!
There’s no shortage of websites and Facebook links to videos and entertainment of all kinds and I promise not to over share, but this. Is. Ridiculously. Cool. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has live cams for many of its critters – there’s a sea otter cam, a moon jelly cam, a penguin cam, and others. The moon jellies are the best.
“It Never Entered My Mind” is not a well-known Miles Davis cover, but it should be. He recorded at least two versions; this one is my favorite, one of my desert island songs. It brings me peace like nothing else. So listen to this with the moon jellyfish cam running. It’s better than almost anything, and definitely better than the music in the moon jelly background.
Anne Lamott said “Laughter is carbonated holiness.” I hope you find something to laugh about this week. Be well!
Cartoons stolen from The New Yorker.
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