A truism of my winter: we have hosted teens at our house, plural—early, late, all day, all night, and often. I wrote about this—and other friends, for Brain, Child’s blog.
A truism about the teens: they use all the glasses and nearly all of the mugs. There’s a great deal of tea drinking around here. Also, if you provide food, it will be eaten (even if you don’t, the food will be eaten, picture some little emoticon of a smiley face here or just picture me going to the market—again).
Lastly, I was asked by one teen whether we possess a flat iron and so far—in March—this is the best and most humorous question anyone has posed to me in 2014. I only have a hairdryer here because one of my best friends and also my mom need one in the morning and I wanted to be welcoming. Turns out, a hairdryer helps defrost the overly frozen freezer about once a summer. It’s a practical tool. Who knew?
Grateful, I am for those fabulous teens. Grateful, I am, for the promise of any moment that rises up above thirty-two degrees mid-March (who knew?). Grateful, I am that our friends, the not-teen ones bigger and smaller, are so dear.
To share (along with my essay on friends) is the somewhat amazing fact that this song—the Sounds of Silence, just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. I listened this week, ostensibly for that reason, and was reminded what a gorgeous song, in its way an anthem that is. It’s worth a few minutes to be transported wherever that song takes you.
Finally, speaking of friends, some of mine will be bowling soon (me, too), in support of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Access to reproductive health care wasn’t an obvious pairing with pins and clunky shoes and slidy floors and odd balls a few years ago, yet now that we’ve participated in this event, it seems so obvious, even natural. I hope that you’ll support my efforts to assure access to abortion for all women.
PS: In September, the state—the whole entire state—of Texas will have six abortion clinics. I believe twenty-six million people live in Texas. You do that math and you know that legal isn’t accessible isn’t really all that real. So, I am bowling from Massachusetts for women in Texas (and here, because our local Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts, is a stellar organization).
PPS: I’d have some pics here, except the site won’t upload ’em.
