Back in 2013 I revisited a 2010 diary story blog in which I did a rewrite of a diary I first penned (typed? pecked?) in 2008. It's one that lends itself to updating and this year feels like a good time to do so...
Every year at Thanksgiving, a certain song reminds me of its existence, and gets serious airplay :-). It's the closest thing to a "grace" set to music I've ever heard, and as those celebrating American Thanksgiving with friends and family born and/or chosen recover from tryptophan and carbohydrate overload, I'd like to share a it with you tonight, after a word from our sponsor!
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!The song is May The Light Of Love, by David Roth (song starts around 4:09).
As we come around to take our places at the table
A moment to remember and reflect upon our wealth
Here's to loving friends and family, here's to being able
To gather here together in good company and health
This year will be a new table- after many years of planning and a year of construction, Mr. Brillig’s parents and one SIL’s family have moved into the NH house they will co-share for as long as the Universe dictates. All three siblings & families will be there, giving us 8 adults and 7 kids ages 1-17. This is the last Thanksgiving where the two eldest will still be at home, as K1 and her cousin head off to college next year. Mom and Dad are getting frailer and my SIL has some health issues from exposure to black mold that remind us how fragile life is, and how important it is to be together when possible.
We don't usually say a nightly grace at Casa Brillig; these days we consider ourselves lucky if we all manage to make it to the table at the same time. On major holidays, we try to do so. The Great Thanksgiving Incident of 2003 (in which I added a prayer for the innocent civilians whose lives were lost during the Iraq & Afghanistan wars to the end of one praying for our troops) means I likely will never lead grace when with Mr. Brillig’s side of the family (11 years and counting :-)), but no matter who does and what they say, I give silent thanks for good friends, good family, and good health. I look around at my DailyKos family, and see in all of you a loving family of great wealth. You enrich my life with wise words, fantastic political insight, good humor, sage advice, comment nominations I'd otherwise miss and friendships which mean more than I will ever be able to put into words. Attending Netroots Nation (even with this past year’s awkwardness) is so much more than a conference - it's a reunion of friends old, new and not yet made all in one. As the years cycle, I mourn those no longer with us physically, but whose presence graces our memories forever. "Good health" takes on a new baseline as arthritis, diabetes, cancer and other health issues become part of life.
May we be released from all those feelings that would harm us
May we have the will to give them up and get them gone
For heavy are the satchels full of anger and false promise
May we have the strength to put them down.
From the constant attacks leveled at, well, everyone who isn't rich and conservative by the radical right to the divisiveness within our community, our party, and our country, we've all got a lot of hurt and anger to release. It is hard to wish the best for Tea Partiers, for example, when we are not sure they return the sentiment pretty damned sure they do NOT return the sentiment. But in order to be true to the ideals I believe we hold in common as Kossacks, liberals, and just plain good people, we must. To heed these words is hard to do. I used to be one who held grudges, carried them like lead bricks to weigh down relationships great and small. Who used words spoken in different times and under different circumstances to prejudice my reactions to present-day interactions. I HR'ed the commenter, not the comment, as it were :-). Honesty requires me to say I don't succeed at this nearly as well as I'd like. I strive daily to do better, but it is HARD to let arguments go, to move on to a new day and forget the past. To leave jealousy behind and be happy for the richness and joy others find. I know many of you know this deeply and personally. To those of you who say "but the anger focuses my activism" I don't entirely disagree. I suggest refocusing it into passionate purpose; letting the anger transform into action.
May we wish the best for everyone that we encounter
May we swallow pride and may we do away with fear
For it's only what we do not know that we have grown afraid of
And only what we do not choose to hear
I find I do not believe that all Americans wish the best for all they encounter, and I think this is due to fear. Fear of the unknown, or of what a biased media tells them to fear. I truly believe that one of... perhaps THE... root cause of so many of the troubles we have as a society and as a country is fear. We fear what we do not know. Fear it will change what we do know. Fear someone else may have more or better than us. Fear being fearful.
When the cry of a population terrorized by violence from both neighbors AND the law enforcement allegedly sworn to protect all lives rises into the direct actions of #BlackLivesMatter, fear of confronting explicit and/or institutionalized racism and white privilege leads away from “we hear you, we believe you” to the denial of “but all lives matter”. Fear of the unknown generates too many Good Guys With Guns because they believe Guns equal Protection, when far too often they lead to Dead Toddlers/Spouses and Unfortunate Incidents.
With few exceptions, NONE of us can claim we were here first, or "legally". The Republican Clown Car driven by Trump, Carson, and the rest incites an ugly, dangerous streak of xenophobic reaction. We scapegoat Muslims, heedless of the lessons of history, believing the destitute refugee family clamoring for the same opportunity our ancestors had instead ARE the danger.
WE NEED TO CONQUER FEAR. We need to see in what we do not know an opportunity to learn and grow richer together. We need to protect ALL our people, all our children, by drawing a wider circle of Us that includes everyone.
As we bless our daily bread and drink our day's libation
May we be reminded of the lost and wayward soul
The hungry and the homeless that we have in every nation
May we fill each empty cup and bowl
SNAP cuts. Vilification of the homeless, the poor, the out of work, the disabled. The pitting of children, homeless, poor, veterans, etc disadvantaged groups against one another when the real goal of the Republican machine is to lift up NONE of these groups. We have it within our means to provide for our brothers and sisters. It requires that we move beyond "I got mine" to "Here, have some." This takes more than a feel-good bag of groceries to the food pantry the week before Thanksgiving. At the very least, commit to a bag of groceries some random day in February. And May. And then support a program that provides food to kids during summer vacation when their two guaranteed meals of the day are gone.
The refrain goes as follows:
May the light of love be shining deep within your spirit
May the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way
May the horn of plenty sound so everyone can hear it
May the light of love be with you every day
May you have each and all of these, and may the vision of ourselves, our communities, our nation and our world come to pass because we work to bring it to fruition.
It appears that collaborating on diaries blogs once again is a possibility, so tonight’s is a joint presentation by myself and BeninSC. YAY! All feels once again good and right correct in the world.
Tonight’s Top Comments!Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Angela Marx: I'm nominating this comment by nail bender, in this diary, by trosen76.
The real Top Comment portion is the ending. It's a doozy:
Now I know what it was like to live in Germany of the late ‘20s and early 30s, except, thank god, there are proportionately more of us standing against the bigoted crazy than there were back then and there.
I only hope this commentor has the right of it, and that there ARE more of us and less of THEM now. Othewise, godz help us all... and our grandchildren, who will bear the brunt of the shame of what is to come from the actions which the unhinged, xenophobic Rightwing wants our nation to engage in right now as regards the Syrian refugees in particular, and brown and black people in general.
Thanks TC Team!
--angie
From ZenTrainer:
In this diary from Steve Singiser on Democratic down ballot hemorrhage, MBNYC wrote this comment, in response to this comment by Queries. In that diary, this comment made me laugh!
From Yours Truly, brillig:
In David Harris Gershon's If heavily armed masked men protested outside a synagogue it would be national news, AntonBursch suggests not giving them exposure. Both niemann and HenryHank have replies.
Top MojoTop Mojo for Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject!
1) I’m getting more angry and upset each day. by Denise Oliver Velez +152 2) Beautiful diary, man. Just phenomenal. by geebeebee +125 3) Maybe you’re not sure how this works, or you’re... by delphine +119 4) Calling out Republicans for denying climate cha... by OLinda +117 5) I am beyond furious at the propaganistic nature... by lunachickie +112 6) It would be great to regain our standing as a n... by elwior +96 7) Not what I said at all. JFK declared we were go... by One Pissed Off Liberal +93 8) So Mr. Bell, you’ve invented a telephone….one. ... by WineRev +89 9) This is why Bernie Sander’s grassroots 50-state... by New Minas +86 9) WOW! I can't believe you said that. by Raggedy Ann +86 11) You have to first make up your mind to do it. H... by One Pissed Off Liberal +81 12) Brilliant, thoughtful writing. Naturally, those... by Audieb +79 13) I was watching some of that speech when it happ... by Antitheist +77 14) In the linked article: by Another Grizzle +75 15) Agree. I love how the dominant strategy against... by flitedocnm +76 16) Me too, Sis Dee. I am just furious. I hate the ... by blue jersey mom +74 17) This is a man who has been violating civil righ... by Another Grizzle +70 18) No. The power of fucking well giving a shit abo... by delphine +68 18) They’re not mistakes, they’re decisions that ge... by The Dead Man +68 20) Trump is what happens when civics courses are n... by SparkyGump +67 20) And What Was The Result? by Hugh Jim Bissell +67 22) Read that piece this morning. It reinforced wha... by Bob Johnson +66 22) When you’re having a miscarriage (also known as... by Cali Scribe +66 22) Are they mistakes? They are certainly mistakes ... by Mosquito Pilot +66 25) Or is it the sound of another GOP sweep? by Hugh Jim Bissell +65 25) you can almost count on it, seeing as how Sande... by Sybil Liberty +65 27) Excellent diary. by jfromga +63 28) You seem like a very nice person. Bless you and... by Peggyjanesway +62 29) Riiiiight. by delphine +61 30) That is nonsense, labor is not the primary expe... by RMForbes +60 Top pictures2015-11-22 Top Comments with Pictures, courtesy of jotter!