Slumber Soft Moon Blanket

Moon oversees the football field
October 2015

The astronauts on the Integrity spacecraft are full of wisdom.  More than once they have recognized the fragility of Earth and of human life.  I feel gratitude for the technology that makes it possible for us to see a fraction of what they have seen, and to hear their thoughts as they pilot past the moon.  There have been several mentions of joy.  And togetherness.  And common purpose.

My understanding is that this type of spacecraft is named “Orion” and this particular spacecraft is named “Integrity”. And “Artemis II” is the name of the entire mission.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  

I need there to be some integrity in the universe.

By far the most stunning and emotional photo of the mission is this one.

Saturday April 4th.

CBS News journalist asks:  Do you have a message you'd like to share from space about Easter Sunday?

Astronaut Victor Glover: “You know, I don't have anything prepared. I'm glad you brought that up, though. I think these observances are important, as we are so far from earth and looking back at the beauty of creation. And I think for me one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see earth as one thing. And, you know, when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, you have this amazing place –  this spaceship – you guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from Earth.  But you're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. I think maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we're doing is special, but we're the same distance from you.  And I'm trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special.  In all of this emptiness –  this is a whole bunch of nothing this thing we call the universe – you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing. And that we got to get through this together." 

Imagine that!  Victor Glover is one of only four humans making this extraordinary trip, further than any humans have traveled from our home planet, and he turns it around and says we earthbound humans are special.  

Wednesday April 8th

Astronaut Jeremy Hansen:  “The perspective I launched with was that we live on a fragile planet in the vacuum, in the void of space. We know this from science. We're very fortunate to live on planet Earth. And the other perspective that I've sort of learned from others through life is that our purpose on the planet as humans is to find joy, to find the joy, and lifting each other up, by creating solutions together instead of destroying, and when you see it from out here, it doesn't change it. It just absolutely reaffirms that. It's almost like seeing living proof of it.”

WE KNOW THIS FROM SCIENCE.  That was my awed thought when I saw the solar eclipse on Apr 8, 2024.  The scientists predicted this and it happened exactly as they said it would.  And we were all strangers together experiencing it.  Many types of scientists have worked so that all of us on Earth, strangers together, can see and hear these astronauts.

Cleveland, Ohio, April 8, 2024
pano, before the moment of totality.
Common Household family members at left

Cleveland, Ohio at the moment of totality.
Happened just like science said it would.

The Wall Street Journal reporter asked: How has this trip contributed to the broader Artemis program?

Astronaut Christina Koch:   “... part of our ethos as a crew and our values from the very beginning were that this is a relay race. In fact, we have batons that we bought to symbolize physically that we plan to hand them to the next crew, and every single thing that we do is with them in mind. …. We're always thinking from the perspective as:  what is the next crew going to think about this, how will this help them to succeed?  So, manual piloting the vehicle, making sure that the procedures and the processes for making everything work are all as they should be. Then there's the human side of it. How are our provisions? How are our food? How is the human system working in here?   ….. So both in the vehicle and all in the last three years, we've really just worked to make sure that they are set up for success. And that's all of the teams, not just the crew, but the flight control teams, the mission engineering rooms, the launch teams, everyone. …”

They trained for three years for this mission, which was not the end but the beginning.  They are thinking always of the future.  That's both wisdom and hope.

A journalist asked what it felt like for the 40 minutes when the spacecraft had no communication with earth.  On the far side of the moon.  

Astronaut Reid Wiseman: “... It is amazing to watch your home planet disappear behind the moon.   You could see the atmosphere. You could actually see the terrain in the moon projected across the earth as the earth was eclipsing behind the moon. It was really just an unbelievable sight and then it was gone. It was out of sight and we took a moment here. We had a lot of scientific work to do right there. That was probably the most critical lunar observation for our geology team. But the four of us took a moment. We shared maple cookies that Jeremy had brought and we took about three or four minutes just as a crew to really reflect on where we were and then it was right back into the science.”

Maple cookies on the far side of the moon!

I hope I will always remember the immense privilege I had, on April 8, 2024, to witness with my whole being the total eclipse of the sun, in Cleveland, Ohio.  Now I have seen, via the cameras on Integrity, a total solar eclipse FROM THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON.  And Youngest Daughter pointed out that I have been alive for two moon missions – Apollo in 1969-1972.  

Thank you, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and  Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian), for bringing to us the sheer beauty of our Earth and our Moon, and the incomprehensibleness of space. 

Edited to add: In my view this mission is a triumph of DEI. Victor Glover is a Black man. Christina Koch is a white woman. Reid Wiseman is a single parent. I don't know if Jeremy Hansen belongs to an indigenous tribe but the internet tells me: "He commissioned an Indigenous-designed patch for his mission to honor Canadian Indigenous peoples." And every unique individual working on the mission on Earth. All of them capable human beings. Go stand in the corner, DEI haters.

I end with two poems by Older Daughter, written when she was around 4 to 6 years old.  

Slumber soft moon blanket

By Older Daughter

Slumber soft moon blanket!

Slumber soft moon blanket.

If I were to catch you

I would sing you my song.

Music is your night.

When I will hold you,

You will be my slumber.

Slumber soft moon blanket!

Slumber soft moon blanket.

The moon is a spy

By Older Daughter

The moon is a spy

With only one eye.

She peeks down at the world

To make sure it’s asleep

Then she dances around like a ballerina.

All night long

The moon sings a song.

When it’s time for the morning,

The sun says, “My turn!”

The spacecraft Integrity has brought us the comfort of our soft moon blanket. Our dancing, singing moon.

The Common Household Son, ~age 2,
photoshopped onto the moon.

Poetry Writing Workshop for a Snowy Day

It's pretty, as long as you don't
have to go out in it.
Photo from 2011.

How to write an “imagist” poem, after William Carlos Williams, and after a snowstorm that you shouldn’t have been driving in.

The original –

This Is Just to Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

The Common Household Line-by-line tutorial

First stanza

1. “I have” + verb which connotes consumption, such as “eaten”, “used up”, “smashed”, “drove”

2.  Insert the delectable foodstuff or other item which you ate/used but which everyone else wanted to consume

3.  “That were/was in”

4. Location of said delectable

Second stanza

5, 6, 7. “And which”

             “You were probably”

             “saving”

8. “for “ insert use for which delectable had been intended

Final stanza

9.  Blithely ask for forgiveness

10. State how much you enjoyed said item that you deprived everyone else of

11. “So “ + adjective describing the delectable item

12. “And so” + a different adjective describing the delectable item

Final steps

Finally, think of a nonchalant or understated sort of title for your poem.

Do not include any punctuation.  I would say punctuation is so twentieth-century pre-texting era, but Wm. C. Wms wrote his poem in the 20th Century so there

Here is my poem, after enduring a 1 ½ hour drive home (2 hours if you count that I had to detour to a local mall because the road was closed, and I got a sub-par lunch there) from church choir rehearsal in a snowstorm, a drive which usually takes 15 minutes. 

Cutting the Cheese

by Common Household Mom

I have eaten

the New Zealand sharp cheddar cheese

that was in

the tupperware on the second shelf of the fridge

and which

you were probably

saving

for your high-protein low-carb breakfast

Forgive me

it was delectable

so buttery

and so stress-reducing after the most harrowing drive home on the suburban streets woefully unprepared for the snow (as was I)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Here are two versions written by Older Daughter, way back in 2005, when she was a teenager.

Variations on the Theme

Yesterday, I broke the piano that you had been saving to teach with.

I’m sorry, but I was practicing karate.

I’d regret it, but it was the perfect target.

I’m sorry, but I burned the school yesterday.

I didn’t know that you were using it.

And besides, I’m a firefighter, and there was nothing else to do.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

But I think Older Daughter was actually riffing on this:

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams

Kenneth Koch

I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.

I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do

and its wooden beams were so inviting.

 

We laughed at the hollyhocks together

and then I sprayed them with lye.

Forgive me.  I simply do not know what I am doing.

 

I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.

The man who asked for it was shabby

and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

 

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.

Forgive me.  I was clumsy, and

I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Also, I had a big mug of hot chocolate, with dark chocolate.

I feel a bit better now.  Yes, yes, I am indeed grateful that I didn’t get in a wreck or sustain any injury.  (My feet were wet and cold, though.)  My rage is contained, and I am home and back to using punctuation.

Einstein was also perturbed by snow (2019).

Inspiration, Deficiency, and Nuts

In November, my friend from college baked cranberry bread, and inspired me to do the same.  Except I did not bake it until this week.  That’s delayed inspiration.  

It was a bit time consuming, but there is merit in completing the task of slicing each cranberry in half, in zesting the orange -- you must not skip this, O Best Beloved! --  and in chopping the nuts.  Cranberry nut bread requires much prepping of ingredients and following the recipe.  No creativity required.

A few days ago, another friend posted this:

 

Always search for truth.

Show your work and cite your source.

Evidence is key.

 

And then this:

 

Facts facts facts facts facts.

Facts facts facts facts facts facts facts,

Facts facts facts facts facts.

 

My haiku proficiency is inconsistent.

 

I thought my friend was, in fact, highly proficient, and she inspired me to write my own haiku in appreciation of hers. I labored with the words, and wrote this:

 

Factual haikus

from my friend hold truth

And banish fake news.

 

Then another friend gently corrected my haiku’s second line, by writing, “I think you mean ‘from my friend hold the real truth,’ right?”

 

That’s two instances of inspiration in one week!  But not only does my creativity remain diminished, but I have lost my ability to count to seven.  That’s haiku deficiency. 

 

(After extensive research, I discovered that the plural of haiku is haiku.  One haiku, two haiku, red haiku, blue haiku.)

 

From these experiences I conclude that my brain is beyond fried.  Creativity jumped out the window a while ago, and is lying on the pavement. It’s not clear if it is ever going to come crawling back.   

 

I have much to rejoice about, but angst still tinges everything.  Here in Pennsylvania, democracy seems more threatened than ever, and most citizens have turned their attention elsewhere.  Who can blame them?  We are all exhausted, which is, for some political operatives, the desired outcome.  There are complete nuts who have been elected to Congress, and their party supports them wholeheartedly.   I see little progress on racial justice.  I recently found out that the Senate Russell Building is named after a white supremacist.  My grief over my mother’s death is not overwhelming, but always there.

 

But I did get the car washed.  I changed the sheets.  I called the legislators.  And I made the orange-cranberry-nut bread, finding solace in chopping the cranberries and the nuts.

Let’s all chop the nuts.  Therein lies healing.

There is also some solace to be found in Peach Schnapps.

The recipe:

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread A.k.a. Holiday Cranberry Bread From the Pillsbury Cookbook we received as a wedding present. 1 cup sugar 1 Tablespoon grated orange peel ¾ cup water ⅓ cup orange juice 2 Tablespoons oil 1 egg 2 cups all purpose flour 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 cup halved fresh or frozen whole cranberries 1 cup chopped nuts Heat oven to 350 F. Prepare the cranberries, orange zest, and nuts. Grease 9x5-inch loaf pan (or 3 smaller loaf pans, muffin pan for 16 muffins). In large bowl, blend sugar, orange peel, water, orange juice, oil, and egg; mix well. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, stirring just until moistened. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (Bake for less time for smaller loaf pans or muffins.) Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. Makes 1 (16-slice) loaf OR 3 mini loaves OR 16 muffins.

Stopping in Loneliness on a Pandemic Evening

 

Whose love this is I think I know.
Their feelings are quite distant, though;
Though depth and distance don't relate
When joy and laughter hold their glow.

With distance, strength and sorrow find
A waxing, waning. Love can bind
Across a screen, a show, a call,
But cannot tell your truth of mind.

Inadequate, how words can be
Unable to write poetry,
How gestures, touches, simple modes,
Tell more than frail writers like me.

My love is lonely, dark and deep.
But buried still, I can but weep,
With miles to go to reach your keep,
With miles to go to reach your keep.

A poem for the covid-19 era

by Younger Daughter

A few Fridays ago, Younger Daughter was having a difficult day, one of those days where the pressures of the world seemed too much.  On days like that, add pandemic restrictions, and loneliness sets in.  For some reason, we couldn’t talk at that moment, so I emailed her this:  “Do you know how much we love you?  We love you to the moon and back!”

In less than an hour, she replied with the above poem.  I think it captures the difficulty we are all in right now, at how to express our care and fondness for our loved ones over video chat.  Love can bind us together across a screen, and I am grateful that at least we have that technology.  

This happened a few days after a family Poetry Slam - a gathering (my siblings,  and their young adult children and ours) over zoom where we each read a poem (no longer than 2 minutes reading time!).  There was not anything slam-like about it, but we had a great time. I recommend this activity.  So poetry was on our minds.

Note:  As you may have guessed, the poet is in debt to “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost.

First lines: September and October 2019 edition

In September I finished four books.  In October I only managed to finish two books, and one was a slim volume of poetry.  There was just too much else to read, too much in the news cycle to try to comprehend.  And a fair amount of canvassing and time spent managing some aspects of the life of elderly relatives.

At the synagogue, we recently finished this book, collectively: 

This photo only shows half of the torah scroll.

This is the tradition on Simchat Torah.  First we dance around joyously with the Torah scrolls (in their covers).  Then one of the Torah scrolls is unrolled all the way.  It goes across the entire sanctuary, and requires the participation of lots of people to hold it.  Then Rabbi reads the end of Deuteronomy, runs across the sanctuary to Genesis, and reads the beginning of the Torah.  Then he rolls it up so that it is set at the beginning again.   This process is joyful, but it also gives me an appreciation for the invention of the book (with pages) as opposed to a scroll.  

The first lines are 

When God began to create heaven and earth — the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water — God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Rabbi said that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." is not a good translation.   The translation he prefers gives more of a feeling of continuity.

Here are the first lines of the books I finished in Sep and Oct, followed by the titles.

Book 1

The cross and the lynching tree are separated by nearly 2,000 years. One is the universal symbol of Christian faith; the other is the quintessential symbol of black oppression in America.

Book 2

Big Moccasin Gap

Gate City is more than four hundred miles from Arlington, down the long spine of mountains that marks Virginia’s western border. 

Book 3

I saw you once.  I saw you and you noticed me because you caught me looking at you, seeing you.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Good-looking women do that.  Lock eyes, then look one another up and down.

Book 4

My mother and I drove east across the flatlands, along the vast floor of an ancient sea. We had come to West Texas to spend Thanksgiving in the national park where my mother worked as a ranger during the years when I formed my first childhood memories—images of wooded canyons and stone mountains rising up from the earth, the sound of wind whipping across low desert hills, the warmth of the sun beating down upon endless scrublands.

Book 5 – full disclosure – did not finish this one

Chapter 1: Jojo

I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that it’s something I could look at straight.

Book 6

Ove is fifty-nine.

He drives a Saab.  He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s flashlight. 

Book 7

To the Fig Tree on 9^th and Christian

Tumbling through the

city in my

mind without once

looking up

the racket in

the lugwork probably

rehearsing some

stupid thing I

said or did

some crime or

other the city they

say is a lonely

place until yes

the sound of sweeping

and a woman

yes with a

broom beneath

which you are now

too the canopy

of a fig its

arms pulling the

September sun to it

…

The titles and authors revealed:

Book 1

The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James Cone. 

Theology.

Excerpts:

Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a “recrucified” black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy.

What I studied in graduate school ignored white supremacy and black resistance against it, as if they had nothing to do with the Christian gospel and the discipline of theology. Silence on both white supremacy and the black struggle against racial segregation made me angry with a fiery rage that had to find expression. How could any theologian explain the meaning of Christian identity in America and fail to engage white supremacy, its primary negation?

Book 2

Born Fighting by Jim Webb. 

History of/apologetics for “Scots-Irish culture” in the United States.  Good writing; disagree completely with the thesis.  

I have to stop here and say that I was reading these two books (Born Fighting and The Cross and the Lynching Tree) at the same time, which was a great way to produce intellectual whiplash.  I hope to find time to tell you more about these books.  But there is an election in two days, and there’s too much to do.

Book 3

Lady in the Lake, by Laura Lippman.  © 2019. 

I did not like any of the characters.  Certainly did not like the main character, Maddie Schwartz – she was shallow and self-serving.  But the writing was good and after about 100 pages I settled in to enjoy the narrative style which alternated between 3rd person omniscient, and then first-person as told by a minor character in the preceding chapter.  The book takes place in Baltimore in 1966.  Ironically, the residential street I grew up on is mentioned!

Book 4

The Line Becomes a River, by Francisco Cantu.  © 2018. 

The author served as a border guard from 2008 to 2012.  He left that job to get an advanced degree.  This book gave me a lot to think about.  I recommend it.

Book 5

Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward.  © 2017.   Excellent writing, but I could not finish.  

Book 6

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch.  © 2014.   Funny and poignant.  We read it for book club.

Book 7

catalog of unabashed gratitude by Ross Gay.  © 2015 (University of Pittsburgh Press).  Poetry. 

This poet does not much believe in the period.  Each poem is pretty much one long run-on sentence, and this style propels the reader through each poem like the Niagara River rushing to its destiny at the falls.  That’s not necessarily bad, for poetry, but at first it was shocking to me.   It was nearly impossible to find a stopping place for my quote of the “first lines” above.

I do not claim to understand each poem, but I read this more as I read the book of Revelation (the Bible).  The reading technique is to just read the words and soak in the images and feelings.  Ross Gay’s poems in this volume include a lot of fruit and sweetness, and above all else, motion.