It is Friday evening, LL is gone for the weekend, and all the external factors mentioned a month ago—i.e., the affairs of the world—haven’t exactly improved. The internal front is equally bleak. Staff shortages have led to work being even busier than before. I’ve been struggling valiantly to reach out and ask for help, but help right now is swamped, flooded, snowed in, choose your aqueous metaphor. And while I have no illusions of fostering any grand social movements in the next couple of hours, it would have been nice at least to talk with someone; at this hour it’s looking less and less likely.
Which is why, when I get the invitation to a barbecue, I almost stay home and work on my nascent (nearly non-existent) guitar skills. It would be so easy to hunker down: it is the path of familiarity.
But I’m interested in change! Right? Surely the pits of despair haven’t been for naught? So I assemble a mixed six-pack of beer, slice some avocados for a food offering, and go.
And that is how, these odd hours later, I come to be writing about mosquito spraying and gun control.
The mosquitoes had been on my mind for a while. The train of thought went something like this:
1) There’s a great quote from activist Bernice Johnson Reagon which I first encountered in a Real Change newspaper, “If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition”.
2) How broadly does this idea of an alliance for a common goal extend? If the common goal is a healthier planet, then surely it has to reach not just to all humans, but to all life interconnected—all species.
3) “All species” includes…mosquitoes.
4) How uncomfortable are we willing to be in order to get along with each other? Are we willing to tolerate a few more mosquitoes instead of aerial bombing our own neighborhoods with the biotoxin malathion?
5) What about the agricultural watering that is feeding the mosquito population in the first place? Are we willing to grow less food? Never once, in the history of humans and food production, has increased food led to a net decrease in human hunger, never mind suffering…
Not one among this sequence of thoughts is a topic of discussion at the barbecue. There is, however, much discussion of something that makes me quite uncomfortable: guns. Guns, in the hands of people, kill people. The night before, a woman had shot and killed herself and another woman in a struggle and wounded a third. This happened just down the street from our clinic, and just next door to one of the potluck-goers. In a town this size everyone is connected to someone. It would have been impossible not to discuss.
In the course of talking various opinions come out on gun control. Being new to the group I mostly listen. It isn’t surprising in rural eastern Washington that there are staunch gun rights advocates, even among what I assume to be a relatively liberal subset of folks. Having grown up in rural eastern Oregon this is familiar territory.
It does, though, make me question my own tolerance of difference—how willing am I to sit down and try to reason with people of polar opposite opinions? Is there some common ground here? The discussion eventually turns to “the worst movie you’ve ever seen,” and no one really pushes the envelope on guns. I’m left to ponder this for the time being on my own.
How on earth does this relate to mosquitoes? Well, long after the fact, I have a brilliant idea. Why not let all those in favor of unlimited gun rights, and those in favor of mosquito eradication, find common cause in a mosquito hunting season? It could run from April through October, no limits, anything suspected of being or being near a mosquito is fair game.
Just to keep things interesting, though: Arm the mosquitoes.
3 comments:
Dearest Ned,
"Staunch" is one step too far for a gun rights advocate. A grudging advocate, or perhaps a sportsman is one thing, but there is no reason to suffer the Staunch. It sounds funny, but all kidding aside, just because you live in a rural area doesn't mean you should with more than you would on the outside. I am a local, so I have clout to call out the good old boy element in all of them, but I think "local" is really a more powerful term in how we describe ourselves, as opposed to how others describe us.
Even though you are from a small town, it is difficult for everyone to claim a new small town as their own. But to truly live in this place is to accept it as your own, not as a visitor or observer. And don't change for us, just be you, only here.
i.e. tell them they are all crazy gun nuts, and if they kick you out of their party, you can always come drink whisky on my porch and we can discuss how socialism could really inspire some nicer parks in the area.
Sincerely, your actually going to get some work done today so I can go back to my baby friend.
Ted Reinbold.
As we say in Baltimore, "I feel you"! You're not alone in your observations. Do the best you can with what you are given. And let it go. Practice letting go of expectations of reward, merit, or recognition. Just drop it--it's a practice. Accept things and people as they are. It's a practice, so you'll never be perfect at it. Keep laughing at yourself. You're doing great! Sometimes, it just has to be enough to put in a full day of work. Give yourself a thumbs-up, go home, crack a few brewskies, and play the hell outta that git-tar! Live a little. Love 'n Hugs. Josie
Wow!!! Thank you both so much for your comments. Ted, this blog reveals ME as a staunch supporter of gun control, and the rest is assumption on my part--you are right, local is the appropriate word. And Josie, thanks for the reminder to laugh and let go. Both of you in your own ways encourage me to take myself less seriously!
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