I spent most of the day at the cumbersome work of going through hundreds of my photos to select the best eight that I will have enlarged, matted and framed to display at my first public show on April 4, in Bend. I can’t decide if the frustration with this task came from not being able to narrow it down to just eight top notch pictures–out of about 800–or from the sense that none of them seemed quite good enough to share with strangers. Quite a contradiction in my self-esteem I’d say. But what’s new about that?

 

 

It was clear and sunny but the earth held onto winter with a stern grip. It only broke the 40-degree mark for an hour and the dramatic wind made it feel like the heart of winter. The tips of my many tulips and hyacinths turn dark with their freezing each night but they seem to thrive on it. They don’t die and more and more keep peeking above the earth. In another month I expect I’ll have a stunning kaleidoscope of color in the front gardens.

 

I watched the late night news hoping to learn that Hillary had turned things around but they weren’t quite ready to call Texas and Ohio so I guess I’ll have to wait until morning.  I vehemently want Ms. Clinton to win because I think she has the experience needed for this tough job, and because I want to show the world that a woman is capable of running the most powerful country in the world. Most people think that gender shouldn’t be an issue, and it is a small factor in my choice, but I’m a daughter of the women’s right movement, I marched and burned my bra. It irks the hell out of me that nearly 40% of Americans don’t believe “our country is ready for a female president”. This is a euphemism for women aren’t capable. I believe we are and that Hillary is and I want her to prove us all capable. However, I’m not going to lose any sleep over who wins tonight, or any other. I think Obama will do a fine job if Hillary doesn’t get the nod, and even John McCain will be leagues better than the Bush administration. No matter what happens, the politics of the world are going to get much better in a year. Let’s just hope Bush and his buddies don’t fuck things up too much more in the time they have left. I wonder if I’ll see the recovery in my lifetime of this planet, its people, and especially the American Constitution, after the disaster of the Bush/Cheney bullies.