Thank you Saskia! I have thought of you so often lately as you have dealt with the loss of your mother. I'm glad you found my rant entertaining rather than depressing. It felt good to write because, while gratitude is something I heartily endorse, this Thanksgiving it felt dishonest to join the holiday cant. I am truly grateful for you and everyone here. Yes to continued support, laughter and joy in the time ahead.

I thought of you as I was writing because you are always the clearest, most consistent voice for social justice amongst my friends. Your quote about truth is right on, except that truth itself has been deformed and obfuscated to the point of incoherence (as a conscious political ploy!!) and I don't know how we as a society can get back to a common ground from which to move forward. The success of the machinations of the 1% has shocked me and yes, made it hard to feel hopeful about the road ahead. And yet...what else can we do but walk it as best we can? Thank heavens for your company as we go.

Thank you Nancy! I am grateful for you.

I am always so glad that we can meet here in this electronic world. Perhaps someday we will meet in person. I would like that.

So true Mo...may they always prevail!

It does feel personal. Thanks Deb!

For me, the lessons about the Constitution and the mechanics of government are inextricably tied to the patriotic background of my earliest education...the stories about Paul Revere (Listen my children and you shall hear...) and Nathan Hale and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I can still see the illustration of young Abe reading by the light of the fire in his log cabin in one of my library books. I absorbed and felt pride in the lofty view of our country that those stories held, even when they were revealed later to be superficial whitewash of the extremely complicated truth. My basic belief in the goodness of our democratic experiment has never wavered and that makes all these lies and the subversion of our system so painful. My identity is being attacked.

Yeah, who knew then that all that dry stuff would turn out to be so important? I have to admit that I am very highly influenced by my public school education.

Yes!! Thank you Saskia! A long slow exhale of relief.

Ha ha! Thanks Hazel!

I'm just trying to bring my scattered thoughts into words as a way for me to see more clearly what they are. I hope I don't sound like a pedantic lecturer, which sometimes I know I do.

Oh I hope so Mo! Fingers crossed!

Me too! The founding fathers are coming in for a lot of rightful criticism for their acceptance of slavery and their narrow views of who was equal, but they did create a soaring path toward inclusion that is as compelling today as it was two hundred years ago.

Good question, Grace! Being open to the possibility of goodness is the best way to elicit it.

Thank you Nancy. I'm glad you are not having any trouble commenting because I always appreciate what you say.

Thank you Deb! I'm glad you like it. Yes, my mom is one of my loyal readers..

Thanks Jude! Good news about Typepad. I wasn't looking forward to making changes.

Hi Hazel! Yeah, indigo takes a surprising amount of energy for something that can be only a matter of minutes in actual contact with the cloth. It is magical though.

Yeah, it is tricky sometimes. Tablecloths are quite utilitarian at heart. Still, everything I make gets washed and washed as I am making it so they are certainly washable afterwards. I'm glad you find the process interesting. Thanks Dee.

If you called on Monday, all of our phones and internet were down for most of the morning. Otherwise, yeah, I was probably in the studio. Love you, Mom.

Ha, yes, I can see how this might look like an undersea vignette. Thank you Marti! Apparently Firefox, Safari and Edge are all okay. It must just be Chrome.

You can click on the picture and zoom in, I think, but next time I will include a close-up. Thanks for your kind words Liz.

Hi Cynthia! Thanks for commenting. I'm glad you like the result.

Thank you Fiona! I think Macs work just fine, so that's good.

Thank you Mo! Firefox is a good browser, or so I am told. Outside of the programs I learned as a designer I am as dumb as post about computers.