Sunday, January 29, 2017

Recovering From Week 1

As I commented on Facebook yesterday, the new administration has been in office for only one week, and what a mess it has been. How much more chaos are we in for in the next four years?

As a followup to my activism in the Women's March last weekend, I have made phone calls and sent emails to Senators and Representatives in Congress, and even wrote to the President at the White House. I have posted my actions on Facebook to encourage others to also take action.

Keeping up with the political news is almost a full time job, so I try to pace myself. I finished several sewing projects and sent them off to two nieces in Massachusetts and another that I am sending to my sister who lives about an hour and a half away. 

We saw two more nominated movies this week, Lion and Arrival.  Lion is a dramatization of a real life story of a little boy who gets lost in Calcutta and eventually is adopted by an Australian couple. Later in life, this boy, now a man, has his memory triggered, and begins an all consuming struggle to locate the remote village he came from and find his family. It is a good movie. If you see it, take tissues. It will make you cry, but they will be happy tears.

After seeing Arrival last night I had to go on line for an explanation of the plot. It was that confusing. Some kind of aliens arrive in twelve locations around the planet Earth. The struggle is to find out why they are here and what they want. Louise, a famous linguist, is selected by the military and the CIA to try to communicate with the aliens that landed in the US.  But the time sequence is all over the place. What we thought were flashbacks might have been Louise actually foreseeing the future. What we thought had happened in her life might not have happened yet. It was baffling. If you have seen it, let me know what you think.

Saturday morning we changed pace a bit. We attended our garden club planning meeting, setting up topics and trips for the year. It was a very pleasant two hours. Then Tom and I grabbed a quick lunch at a Subway shop near the home where we were meeting and then connected up with the north end of the Soos Creek Trail for a destination walk. 

 Much of the trail is through wetlands. Power lines run overhead.
 Other sections are at a bit higher elevation, in the wooded areas along the wetlands.
 There is actually a creek meandering here and there between pools and marshes. 
 We walked for two miles and then stopped to turn around. A meeting of mallards emerged from the marsh to measure us up. Meh! I guess they are used to human intruders. 

 Then we retraced our steps back the two miles to the parking area. 
It was a pleasant change of pace on a mild, almost sunny afternoon. And we didn't talk politics. 

21 comments:

  1. I went for a walk this morning hoping to clear out the politics, but it didn't work. The minute I picked up my iPad I was right back in it. I'd like to move on but don't dare turn my back on the WH. We have to stay alert and motivated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That must have been a lovely relaxing walk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are doing he right thing by mentoring people on how they should make their views know. The mess is something people for awhile thought wouldn't happen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a beautiful place you have to walk. What are those trees at the end of your photographs? I've never seen roots like that before.

    At the pace #45 is trying to upset the apple cart we're all going to be have to learn to pace ourselves if we want to keep our sanity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are fir or hemlock, not sure which, growing on the rotted stump of a long ago logged fir or red cedar. When this kind of growth sprouts and grows on a rotting log, we call it a nurse log, so I guess this would be a nurse stump.

      Delete
  5. Appreciate the movie mini-reviews. I'm planning to see Arrival and now know to pay VERY close attention. I'm undecided between horrified (at the numbskull "President") and hopeful (at the continued outpouring of protest and effective action -- like the lawsuit leading to the court decision blocking some of the immigration ban order). Lots to keep up with, but important as well to maintain one's immediate personal equilibrium!

    ReplyDelete
  6. A nice walk is a good way to try and get your mind off troubling things. I fear that it's going to be a bumpy ride for a few years.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You certainly took us on a lovely walk. This past week has certainly made us all sit up and think, I am praying that the legal system you have will be able to stop some of it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I agree with your take on Arrival. I need to see it twice. Love your mild weather.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A bull in a china shop - but the china shop is our country.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Before the Inauguration even took place, I told my husband that it already felt like years had gone by. Hard not to pay attention to the news and hard not to be constantly stressed. A politics free walk is a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just saw Lion last night and enjoyed it very much. I ordered the book from the library but I will have to wait for the other nine people in front of me to read it first. I saw Arrival and was warned about it beforehand. My take on it was that a being that doesn't live in a linear timeline makes for a very different way of thinking. She was somehow nonlinear herself and therefore could understand them. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a great place to walk-cept for that section with the high tension lines. That would be a great bicycle trail also as it seems so level. Airing out the brain is welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't watch movies these days, but David does and he enjoyed Lion very much. He came home and said we should dine at an Indian restaurant, because he liked the naan bread eaten in the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your walk was beautiful and peaceful...we all need mental refreshes these days.

    My take on Arrival was that she was seeing the future--she saw that her daughter would die young and that her marriage would crumble and she decided to follow that path anyway. Okaay...

    I liked "Hidden Figures" much more.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The ending of Arrival; I struggled with it a bit. Time travel stuff kind of taxes my brain anyhow, but make it non-linear, and yup, OUCH. LOL Still loved the movie though. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  16. An intersting blog. Love your last photo of the tree. Just started blogging so still unsure of how to do things on site.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really liked Arrival. It does take some thought, but it's worth figuring out.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'am glad to read the whole content of this blog and am very excited.Thank you.

    ทางบ้าน

    ReplyDelete

I would love to read your comments. Since I link most posts to Facebook, you may comment there if you do not have an account. I have eliminated Anonymous comments due to spammers.