When It Rains, It Pours

With Lander experiencing spring floods and myself treading water as I learn the ropes at a new job, the question of character has been on my mind. The greatest gift of this professional transition so far has been the opportunity to practice maintaining perspective, grace and humor amidst the unknowing. 

Given that all I can control is my response to the present moment, who do I aim to be? What do I hold myself accountable for? How do I frame and narrate this experience? I find myself wrestling with questions of identity and referencing Positive Psychology's periodic table of elements...

WISDOM

creativity, curiosity, love of learning, perspective

COURAGE
bravery, perseverance, honesty, enthusiasm

HUMANITY
love, kindness, social intelligence

JUSTICE
social responsibility, teamwork, fairness, leadership 

TEMPERANCE 
forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-control

TRANSCENDENCE

appreciation of beauty, gratitude, optimism, humor, spirituality

So while we jury rig the sump pump, wring out the mop into a bucket, and shop vac in order to keep the water at bay in our basement, I am thinking about how to be appropriately porous and bounded.

Leo Albert Dodson Gast

Welcome to the world, sweet child o' my brother!

This guy.

After his first ever bath:

So with it. He's like, "What in the hay?!" Situationally appropriate response.

Now he's cooing gangbusters at seven weeks old. Firstborn son of the next generation.

More cooing...

I am in love.

Global Citizenship

Thanks to my new job, I actually celebrated Earth Day this year! 

One of the many highlights was seeing these free condoms designed to raise awareness around the connection between human population growth (every day adds an additional 227,000 people to the planet) and current extinction rates (dozens of species a day). 

I was up in Jackson to hear the likes of Harvey Locke from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative speak and to watch two excellent films: NOVA's Wild Ways, about the critical role of migration corridors in the survival of terrestrial animals, and Our Local Epic, about the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. It was completely inspirational. 

I was blown away (again) by the power of film as a storytelling and educational medium and it made me all the more excited to join my dad and his partner for the Telluride Film Festival this year. 

Harvey Locke has the enviable ability to identify essential guiding principles in conversations about complex conservation issues. In our hyper bipartisan country, he suggests moving away from the "I'm right, you're wrong" argument and instead embracing the question "What can we do right together from here?" 

I was reminded of the agency individuals have to affect positive change, especially when working in concert with each other.

Oh, Hello.

I could watch this throwback dance video forever. A tonic for whatever ails you.

  

The People Have Spoken

Give the public the chance to vote and be prepared for the consequences. They could be brilliant. 

Case in point: In 2007, Greenpeace asked the public to name a humpback whale and he was christened Mr. Splashy Pants. 

Yesterday, the British government experienced this...

It doesn't get much better than Boaty McBoatface. Unless, of course, we're talking about finally voting women onto US currency.

Due to popular pressure, Harriet Tubman is to kick Andrew Jackson to the back of the 20 and suffragettes are to have Lincoln and Hamilton's backs on the 5 and 10. 

Now we can say, "women are on the money" in this country and it'll have a sly double meaning.

Sure, it's small and symbolic. But it's something. 

And something, as they say, is (sometimes) a heck of a lot better than nothing.

Blackbird

Standing O

I gotta give it up for my partner-in-crime: god bless my husband. I fucking miss him when he's away. And I am so proud of him and glad of his adventuresome spirit. Every day, I choose him anew.