Let's give a damn

Today’s howling winds have stripped most of the remaining leaves from their holds on branches. Morning snow showers were followed by blue skies, sunshine, and a touch of the gales of November. One of the bird feeders, plus its hanger, were blown off the deck railing. Local weather mirrors the tempestuousness of current events?

late, late autumn swans

Photo by J. Harrington

Several swans were riding out today's blow on the open waters of the Sunrise River pools well north of county road 36 and south of county road 19. In years past, they’ve kept us company into early December if enough  water remained ice free. I believe the lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas include “seven swans a swimmin” but we now lean toward goose or ham at Christmas and turkey has long been traditional at Thanksgiving.

As we begin Thanksgiving week this year, we note with some irony that the day after Thanksgiving is both  Black Friday and Native American Heritage Day. We should, no doubt, have noted the juxtaposition before this but we’ve been more inclined to treat the Friday after Thanksgiving as “Buy Nothing Day.” One of our favorite companies, Patagonia, has a great ad for this year. [see below] They’ve also provided a fantastic theme for this holiday season Give a Damn. Take a look. You’ll be glad you did. But first, the ad:

now read this bottom up

About Standing (in Kinship)

By Kimberly Blaeser

We all have the same little bones in our foot

twenty-six with funny names like navicular.

Together they build something strong—

our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.

The bones don’t get casts when they break.

We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.

(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—

find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)

Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.

Maybe we should give more honor to feet

and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—

communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.

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