I’ve been giving people rides this week. It’s something I love doing. For fourteen years or so, we were stuck in Steubenville without a vehicle. I never learned to drive as a teenager and Michael’s family couldn’t afford a car or driving lessons in the first place. We walked a mile to the supermarket and back, or rode the bus when we could catch it. I remember how horribly frustrating it was to never be able to go anywhere when... Read more
I’ve been helping my friend who needed food last week. Her story is a little more complicated than I had time to tell you in that one post. I want you to try and envision the most pro-life and “deserving” poor family you can. You can’t do that, because the notion of “deserving poor” is deliberately nebulous and no real poor people actually meet that standard. But these people come close. They are a lovely couple with four children under... Read more
I want to say something about the horrific racist terrorist attack that took place in Buffalo over the weekend. And I want to keep it brief, because there are other people you should be listening to instead of me. You should be listening to the Black Americans who can say a whole lot more about the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and the violence it inspires than I can. You should always try to listen to the actual victims of an... Read more
“Can you voice?” said Rose, in the back seat of the car. She was coming with me to take a friend running errands, before we ran our own errands. Voicing is how Rose and I bond, as I’ve chronicled before. Sometimes we act out stories sitting in front of the d0llhouse, but we also improvise dialogues about the magical utopia of UltraVille while driving back and forth to run errands. I have learned recently that the librarians in the... Read more
I want to address the public statements of several politicians, all Republicans, as regards the current formula shortage crisis in America. Congressman Troy Nehls of Texas tweeted tersely “Baby formula should go to Americans before illegals. This should not have to be said.” He then linked to an article in the Washington Examiner about palettes of baby formula being delivered to a holding facility for immigrants. The article quotes extensively from the Twitter page of Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida,... Read more
Everyone’s talking about infant formula today. And well they should– America’s formula shortage has become a crisis. We all ought to be paying attention. But the problem with paying attention is that everybody has an opinion, and most of those opinions are terrible. I have seen terrible opinion after terrible opinion on formula lately. Some of the worst come from Catholic circles. I’m not going to call out anybody by name, but there are quite a few naive people, most... Read more
We went back to Pittsburgh one more time. Our memberships will last for a year– the zoo, the Carnegie museums, the Phipps Conservatory. Even though the April money ran out, we can go whenever we have enough gas now, at least until next April. We decided to spend Mother’s Day in a place less triggering than Mother’s Day always is for me, and go to Mass in a church less likely to give me a panic attack. I was... Read more
Yesterday was a Rose Day, a day where Rose gets to choose what to do. The day before was also a Rose Day of another kind: she gets to choose her extracurriculars, when we can afford them. She was in soccer already and I finally, finally managed to sign her up for martial arts again, her first martial arts class since the pandemic began in Ohio. Martial arts are Rose’s passion. She is happy and focused when she gets to... Read more
One of the first things I did when I found out that Rosie existed, was go to the local crisis pregnancy center. I didn’t want an abortion. But I needed proof of pregnancy to get on Medicaid and see a doctor. And, since I had no insurance, I couldn’t go to a gynecologist for a signed statement that I was pregnant. I could have gone to the walk-in women’s health center with the sliding scale, but I didn’t even... Read more
I went back to the Secret Garden. We’d filled two beds on community work day, but there were still half a dozen to go. I wanted to plant my corn, but it seemed selfish to grow my own plants while the other beds were empty. So I tucked my shovel under one arm, and I pushed my new red wheelbarrow. I pushed it right past the door to the evil menacing neighbor’s house, but she didn’t stir. On the way... Read more
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