hanging in there

onyxlynx just wished me a happy birthday, despite Tuesday, which is basically my goal for the day. I said to her:

I'm doing my best. Cats help.

It feels as though pleasure is going to be easier and closer than happiness, which is going to be easier and closer than calm, for the next while.

So, hot chocolate with whipped cream, and then a lunch salad of smoked salmon and late cucumbers from the farmers' market, and lettuce from my front garden(!).

I have talked to my mother, who called to say happy birthday, and was pleased to hear that I am donating some of the money she gave me for my birthday to the ACLU and other places that need it.

I have also decided not to go places without the kindle for a while. Yes, I have a kindle app on my phone, but it's too easy to grab the phone and look at news or twitter instead, which is the exact opposite of calming.

Hope and anger are both better than despair

I wanted inspirational music, and after listening to a bit of VNV Nation went to YouTube, for the "Internationale" and "Which Side Are You On?" and Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and a lot of other people singing "This Land Is Your Land" at Obama's inauguration in 2009. (Yes, all the verses, including the one about the relief office.) Then I decided I wanted to listen to Paul Robeson. "Ballad for Americans" is almost certainly on there, but first I found what was described as the best black radical socialist speech ever, Robeson's testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee.