We choose to stay safe. We chose those to be in our bubble. The distrust of those wandering the stores without masking, and coughing brought my own awareness of trying to be safe a bit unsettling. Judgment followed those who did not protect me. But I digress. My downfall was (and always be the political unrest in this country). I did not feel safe. I am a participant and choose those who think like me to be in my company. Over the last 35 years, I have fine-tuned what I believe a government should be like. Perhaps it was my upbringing as an Army Brat. My father, as a career soldier was the basis of my beliefs. Being a child of a miliitary man, patriotism was loyalty of country, but during the Viet Name war, I was conflicted. It was unpatriotic to revolt, but then I protected myself from my desire to say or participate as I watched the draft of young men just older than me going to the war and not coming home.
It wasn't much later in my own career (a civil servant, through and through) that my activism ignited. Women were speaking out about their sub-level of employment. I was molded by a business school and became a "secretary". As a secretary, we were taught our skills of typing, preparing text, editing, and little creative license from our male bosses who maintained their positions. When I joined the union (because I was sexually harassed, and the company did nothing to mitigate), I became the femanazi--as the despicable radio talk show hosts would label women who speak out.
I pushed and pulled through my career, trying to obtain that glass ceiling, only finding it barely inches from my fingers, but then the only way out was to change jobs with the skills I learned and obtained a better one after 15 years. That worked for about 6 years. I was in management and had a staff. But then the budget cuts came. At the age of 51, I was cut from a great job...offered a pay cut of 20%, but decided to resign.
So here is the real story. Girl meets Boy in college. Girl and Boy lived together for 38 years. Boy dies. Girl tries to re-invent herself at the age of 56. Girl meets another Boy and they are now together 14 years. Boy is fun. He love jokes, sometimes naughty ones. Pandemic comes and secludes them. They manage. Boy gets diagnosed with terminal illness. So the fun begins.
Just a girl, living her life, hoping to find purpose (and definitely has, many times over). Riding the edges of care-giving with hopes of keeping her Boy for another 6 years.
Girl just reached 72 years old. Girl is tired, and can't sleep. Girl needs a full-on rampage on how awesome she is. And so it is. Here she is with her Dolly, taken in 1952 on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic ocean on a military transport to France.