Clean Closets and a Soapbox
Deb and I have spent a good deal of time reminiscing about our mother. It has been a truly enjoyable experience, however, this blog was also to be about conversations, the important ones that we need to be having. So, in true Katherine Mae style, we have invited someone to the blog for tea, a dear friend and or editor, Missie Brown. Mom loved to share her table and so we are doing the same…Welcome Missie!
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This is supposed to be about cleaning out my closet, cue the Eminem ear worm. The sorting of stuff, things, and memories in to piles of yes, no, and maybe had 78 Cups written all over it. I would know, I've polished a number of the pieces here. When I asked The Sisters about guesting, I could almost smell the cup of tea Kathy would sip as I recounted tales of the point shoes I found in my my old dance bag and the flute from the top shelf that I can still get Twinkle out of. I would invite my Gram to the conversation because Edie Munn and Katherine Mae came from very similar strains of Cape Breton Common Sense. I would weave their farm and sea colloquialisms with the wisdom of my geekdom and quippy pop culture references.
I was working on a wicked lil' bit about the sentimental weight of souvenir t-shirts when Georgia, Ohio, and Alabama decided that a dead body has more bodily autonomy than a pregnant woman. As Gram would say, you have to make hay while the sun shines and we have bigger fish to fry. I wanted to tell tales of hockey jerseys and concert tees but we have to have a conversation about bodily autonomy because a dead body currently has more than a women living in Alabama.
The cowboy boots from the corner of my closet have stepped in manure as well as $1000 a plate dinner. They came third in a swing dancing contest with a professional rodeo rider and got within twelve feet of Garth Brooks while standing next to Doreen. Instead of delving into those memories we really have to talk about how a woman who leaves the state of Georgia to terminate a pregnancy in a state that allows for full access to reproductive healthcare can be prosecuted upon her return home.
The shoe box of photos from a time when you had to pay for film and developing, before there were cameras on phones or phones in pockets for that matter was going to be a treasure trove of blogging gold but a bunch of Canadian MPs attended a rally last week where they pledged to make abortion unthinkable in our lifetime. We need leaders pledging to end poverty and sexual violence, not toss bodily autonomy out the window.
This was supposed to be about cleaning out my closet but that's how the conversation over a cup of tea goes in these parts.
