Thanksgiving note . . .

We're back in Vancouver from a six-hour drive up to Spokane and first snowfall, too much delicious turkey and three kinds of pie. Ah, all wonderful, three generations celebrating a good year together in Rachel and Nick's new home, two floors up and down, four bedrooms, lots of room for everyone and everything, even massive Mario cat and Jack the kitty. On the back porch, this view of gnome and Buddha:



Tomorrow Grandmom Leah goes back to Philadelphia on the plane, hopefully with pictures already printed out and stories to tell. I've posted pics on WEBSHOTS if you want to go look. And maybe tomorrow afternoon, we'll be back to relative quiet, some writing time, and now the real preparation for South America begins.

Celebrating President-elect Obama . . .

We're on the road in Spokane, helping Rachel and Nick pack to move. I've never seen so many boxes, and we ran out of packing materials! Oofta! But I still feel like celebrating the election, so here's a wonderful song, "There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama," wittily written by Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, and starting off with appropriate Celtic riffs. What a lovely welcome the world is giving us once again!



This week Sunday Scribblings asks us to write about change. What change can I imagine? I think President Obama will ask each of us to change in the great tradition of J. F. Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask instead what you can do for your country."

Obama has the vision and the discipline to lead our country back to its highest ideals, and at the core, freedom with responsibility for others. He will ask us to sacrifice, perhaps money or time or a way of life. Capitalism without vision, I have come to realize, leads to selfishness (the "mall" syndrome) and corruption (think "big oil buyouts" and tax breaks). We cannot afford to not "see" what changes are needed to avoid becoming a country of the rich. What I really think of this change is hope. I am remembering those young people and people of every generation and background who were pulled in by Obama's charisma. They stayed to work on his campaign because of his ideals. They will bring change.

Happy Days Are Here Again . . .

It's definitely Monday morning, with less than 24 hours to go before results from the polls start pouring in. One station will begin coverage at 5 am. We can see last moment fervor in both candidates as the tension ramps up. President Bush has retreated to Camp David, Obama and McCain are off and running to multiple states for a final push, even on election day itself. We see long lines in those states with early voting. Paranoia increases over robo-voting, that is machines that switch the voter's choice.

So it's time for a humor break. This one is to our friends, Henry and Jamie, over in Redmond, waiting out the election.

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Waiting for the election . . .

We're home from Ashland and now are hoping the last 48 hours before the election will simply pass without "surprises" or drama. The networks all pump up their 24-hour coverage, and we watch and hope. Tomorrow we'll work on Obama's campaign. "Hillary sent me" rings in my head and heart.

The last play we saw in Ashland was "Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner", a lovely, bittersweet reflection on marriage, overeating, obsessive watching of sports, and sibling rivalry -- all woven through with magical realism. Kudos go to Luis Alfaro, the playwright, as he confronts issues I think we would rather not think about. It's easier to take those we love for granted and to not look at how we run away from confronting either truth or death, in all its forms. Still, the play was not easy, though the writer used vaudeville riffs and humor very well. I'd see this one again.

And then we drove home, fall foliage brightening the road. The oaks in the slide show are at Linn-Benton Community College, my teaching home for many years.



Ashland Oregon