libra

Look!  A magnolia, at the beginning of spring!  YAY!  I slept pretty well last night, thankfully, and had enough energy today to bake some bread.  I’m sitting here writing this before I head off to bed.  I’ll be fairly brief, as I don’t want to give my back any excuse to twinge at me for no real reason. Jerry is wearing his little collar because he was barking almost nonstop today so the collar came out.  Since then, he’s been really quiet and snuggly.  He doesn’t like his collar, even when it’s turned off (as it has been all day) but he is quiet finally.  I didn’t want our neighbours to complain because of his noise.  Don was happy that there’s bread, but he was catching up on his sleep because for some reason he didn’t get much sleep last night between hockey, baseball and a small black dog who wanted to play.  Next time he’ll just leave the games and get some sleep!  Or not.  Who can tell?  😂 

I made myself a promise that I would take a break from the book series that I’m currently reading, because it’s REALLY good and addictive and I’m a little concerned that when I’m done with it I’ll have serious challenges rejoining life.  So, on the advice of my uncle, I read Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.  It’s a very easy read, took me just over an hour, and I could almost hear it in his voice.  It brings to life the impact of apartheid on the people who lived under its pressures.  I mean, the deep divisions that were reinforced, no matter how utterly ridiculous they were!  We can all pretend that we’d never, ever, in a million, zillion years support or encourage or fall prey to a system like that… but the sad truth is that under some pressure we’d not only embrace it, we’d try to ensure that we were as high as possible in the hierarchy!  The worse, and saddest part was when he talked about his mother being shot in the head by his stepfather.  And worse, when she tried to report spousal abuse, the police not only didn’t take her report, they joked with her abuser about “how women are.”  She was fortunate, and survived the attack, but there are far too many women who don’t.  Too many women who are afraid to leave because “he will kill me.” Or who have no resources.  We cannot judge them and say, “well, why didn’t they just leave?”  Sadly, sadly, it’s not that easy.  And in so-called developing nations, it’s harder than in “developed” nations, but even those don’t make it easy.  We do need to ensure protections for the vulnerable in society without judgement.  

There are way too many stories of women who have suffered at the hands of men they tried to leave, or men with whom they had a child, and it’s the same story on loop.  Why do we raise men like that?  Why haven’t we taught our sons to be able to accept refusal?  Why is the male ego so fragile that being told “no” is enough to shatter self-confidence?  Happily, there are those who do not fall into this category and we need more like them.

OK, bedtime!  (After watching a bit of the Oscars!). Good night!