People. Hello.
This post was published June 18, 2020… so, 6 months into covid, shortly after George Floyd protests began… that’s the vibe here.
It’s been a while.
How are you?
I am… fine?
I guess?
Assuming we now define FINE, as: ever-escalating incredulity, and disbelieving rage.
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I have not been here since before Coronavirus… the past months, panic– my baby brother works in an emergency room, Paul cannot work from home.
I wrote 87,900 pages…
… summed up:
I did NOT expect the apocalypse to have infomercials.
SCIENCE IS STUPID.
LET’S GET THE MY PILLOW GUY.
This, out of all the– THIS IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE YET IT IS HAPPENING ANYWAY… returns to me occasionally and I wonder if I HALLUCINATED that during a pandemic, the American people were addressed by THE MY PILLOW GUY.
Did that actually happen?
OR HAVE I TAKEN PEOYTE AND FORGOTTEN?
Then Armaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.
I’ve been thinking how humanity is still in the middle ages… we think we are evolved, but it has only been 157 years since we ENSLAVED BLACK HUMANS.
That’s basically no time at all.
Black humans, alive today, remember not being allowed to drink out of the same water fountain as white people… we, the United States of America, did not even TRY to end this, until 1964.
1964 was YESTERDAY… 30 seconds ago— the humans who approved of this system, are still alive, they raised children. They voted. They RIOTED when we tried to change their mind.
WANNA TALK ABOUT #RIOTS?
This picture is from Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1957. As many as 600 RIOTOUS protesters gathered to terrorize the first Black family, Bill and Daisy Myers, to move into this all-white development.
White riots ≠ Black protests #BlackLivesMattter pic.twitter.com/LlLKFykPsi
— André Marcel Harris (@andreharris89) June 7, 2020
Now, the POLICE are rioting, as we lecture PEACEFUL protesters about how THEY must be CALM in response to police terrorizing Black humans.
Ummmm… no.
A TIDAL WAVE OF RAGE IS THE CORRECT RESPONSE.
Especially considering how humans will riot at ANYTHING.
Basically, we are all just sitting around waiting.
I am certain of this because when the Eagles football team won the Super Bowl a year and a half ago, Philadelphia’s response was to set the city on fire, flip cars, loot stores, and eat dog poop.
Oh, wait no, that’s fake news… sorry!
I googled it. It was HORSE poop.
AND APPARENTLY the city EXPECTED this— because ahead of time, they greased lamp posts with Crisco so nobody could climb them and HURT themselves.
The headlines were NOT: idiots riot, because idiocy.
The headlines were: celebrations turn rowdy.
So it makes me wonder– should the response to the public execution of a handcuffed man, lying immobile on the ground, be more, or less, rowdy, than when you win a football game?
Fun Fact: The first Pride was literally a riot against, you guessed it, POLICE BRUTALITY! ✨ HAPPY PRIDE MONTH pic.twitter.com/JQmz0t4HLF
— tim hell. (@itsTimHell) June 1, 2020
I’ve been thinking that MAYBE Coronavirus isn’t just a weird timeout in human history… MAYBE it will be the impetus that shifts our collective perspective… MAYBE NOW, a radical transformation of a system that gives safety, only to those born with privilege.
For months now, every day, I think about the people who are existing in a place of enormous stress, financial insecurity, housing, food, SCARCITY… panicked, just surviving.
We force the least-privileged, to scramble, just to endure a HARD existence… we gesture to their bootstraps.
WHERE IS OUR EMPATHY?
It’s literally ALL we need.
My initial response to Coronavirus was to re-read And The Band Played On, and Polio… both survived my decluttering phase— they are excellent.
And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts is an extraordinary documentation of the Aids epidemic— the first time I read it, I literally COULD NOT BELIEVE how INEPT AND BLIND AND DELIBERATELY STUPID our government was… and even while I KNEW the outcome, my brain STILL could not process such disbelieving horror… like, MAYBE I’m wrong! Maybe this will be FINE because SURELY we would not have been like— the blood supply is killing people? Bummer for THEM!
Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky, is a less-dementing book; because not only did we get a vaccine, it turns out people are SUPER into their children, so nobody was like— OH WELL SHRUG EMOJI.
I have a lot to catch up on here… Yes. I have a kitchen update.
Figured I would first say hello and confirm that I am alive, and thank you for your messages… I am sorry I could not respond… my catatonia has been REAL, YO.
But I guess I’m adjusting to the dystopian sideshow that is now our existence because we have a sample cabinet door, (Paul is not doing the drawer fronts) and I’m finally finding a stain place… Weirdly, I haven’t felt like emailing around, being like— hi, I know it’s the apocalypse but are you available to stain some drawers?
I am thankful this started in spring— getting the garden in has been a great distraction; and especially at the beginning, helped alleviate my fear that the food supply would be affected… we have a LOT of kale for End Times, and this is very reassuring to me.
Ok. That’s it.
I’ll go write a kitchen post.
ALSO the post about what I bought on Craigslist*… NOT giant, or fancy, just a smallish box… but still!
*driveway pickup, masks
I HOPE YOU ALL ARE WELL AND SAFE.
xo
June 19, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Dear Victoria, I loved your blog before this post. Now I love you even more.
June 19, 2020 @ 5:07 pm
I love your posts, always have, but will definitely not keep them to myself anymore! This has been such a heartbreaking time in America. I’m a nurse a talking to officers over BLM protests what I am hearing is “they followed protocol” which has lead to these deaths. That is very sad to me. Police reform is essential and passive racism is unacceptable. Bigotry on any level is unacceptable, even bigotry against police! Please vote in November and let’s see what kind of country America is! Thank you for (usually) making me laugh!
June 19, 2020 @ 9:35 pm
Love this post and couldn’t agree with you more! So glad you’re back and yes, I too want to rage at the top of my voice! Praying that times are finally changing to make all of us truly equal!
June 20, 2020 @ 10:53 am
Dear everyone who seems to have a problem with this blog post,
Did you know that you possess a super power and it’s something quite magical. Take your pointer finger and hit the unsubscribe button and magically, just like that… you won’t be subjected to these blog posts any longer. Kind of like Dorothy‘s ruby red slippers, where she had the power all along. There’s nothing worse than cyber bullies who threaten a blogger to either change her ways or they are leaving. Just leave already, you don’t need to announce it, we don’t want to hear it.
Dear Victoria, as someone said in a previous comment, I liked you before and now I love you. You’re not alone in your rage, a vast majority of us are feeling the same way. I’m glad you’re using your platform to voice how you feel. People need to be out raged and speak up for Change.
Thank you again and please ignore the negative comments and keep doing what you’re doing whether it be decorating, playing with kittens , or by speaking out you are trying to make the world a better place for all of us to live. Rock on girl!!!
With admiration…Janet xx
June 20, 2020 @ 3:00 pm
Hello Victoria,
As you can see, if you read all of your comments the vast majority of us are happy for your return to blogging and have nothing but good thoughts for you and Paul. Unfortunately a few feel the need to insist you stay in your lane or worse… tell you you have it all wrong and bitch and moan about various groups of human beings
So if you’ll allow me, I’d suggest that you turn off comments for any of your writing which may be construed as “political”. Why give the negatives a platform here? Let them spew it elsewhere.
June 20, 2020 @ 6:18 pm
Thank you for so eloquently saying what I have been feeling. Thank you for admitting to being astonished and sort of frozen. Thank you for making us laugh and relate. Thank you for sharing your journey. Above all, THANK YOU for having the courage to write what had to be written NOW and putting it into context with such recent history. Thank you!!!
June 20, 2020 @ 11:31 pm
So happy to see a post from you. You have been missed.
June 22, 2020 @ 12:20 pm
I am glad you are back!
June 22, 2020 @ 3:28 pm
“A TIDAL WAVE OF RAGE IS THE CORRECT RESPONSE.” Yes.
June 24, 2020 @ 11:06 am
I am so thankful you are well and back to talking to us! I’ve missed you and worried about your health. Hopefully, many wonderful changes are coming to improve what has been accepted behavior in so many areas for way too long.
June 25, 2020 @ 10:03 pm
I can no longer watch the news. Sadness fills me. I cry. I have lived through having polio, the riots in the late 50’s through the 60’s. the Vietnam war and it’s riots, women’s rights, legalized abortion, and SO MUCH MORE. I tell myself everyday that because I have lived through all aforementioned things/events/history, I WILL live through this. All of us will live through this…….and while we do, we can read this blog. Look at the wonderful photos, and give thanks for some giant pretty things !
Thanks Victoria !
June 26, 2020 @ 7:15 pm
So glad to hear you aren’t dead. You should feel entitled to post whatever you want to post, be it kitchens or kittens or political outrage. It’s your blog — people who don’t like it are welcome to start their own, or suck eggs,
I’ll be here no matter what (and a lot of others, too, it looks like!).
Stay healthy!
June 28, 2020 @ 2:13 am
You are everything that is Real! I love you.
June 29, 2020 @ 8:14 pm
So thankful you are safe and alright Victoria, or as alright as any of us are these days. I’ve thought of you often and hoped everything was okay. And I couldn’t agree more heartily with everything you’ve said. Thank you for having such a good strong heart and the bravery to share it with others! I’m really grateful for your words.
June 30, 2020 @ 4:13 pm
Well said, VEB!! I couldn’t imagine your first post would be anything other than an acknowledgment of the suffering and injustice that is currently happening. Vegans just don’t take a head-in-the-sand approach to life : )
“…Never doubt that a small group of of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
July 4, 2020 @ 8:41 pm
I still love you. You speak the TRUTH.
July 8, 2020 @ 9:24 pm
Yes! Sing it, Sister. I, for one, am glad to see your outrage. I’m right there with you.
July 12, 2020 @ 12:11 am
Since comments are open and an invitation to the conversation, I will add mine.
I’m out. I disagree with what I could understand from what was an incoherent rant. I read this blog for a respite from the world, and that’s not what this is. I know it’s your blog and you can do what you like (calm down haters), but that might affect your readers, and so in my case it has.
BLM is a violent Marxist organization. White Fragility is racist trash. And veganism is a death cult. I just can’t anymore. Good luck with the kitchen.
July 12, 2020 @ 11:15 am
As I unsubscribe to this blog – I hope that you all will read Blitz by David Horowitz. This book tells the truth the mainstream media won’t tell you.
July 16, 2020 @ 10:34 am
You are my spirit daughter and I’m continually proud of what you do and what you say. And I’m no bs-er, since I’m from Philly. So there’s that. Now – here’s a link to a product you MUST buy. Pretendmama says so.
https://www.rubylane.com/item/320363-1972?utm_medium=email&utm_source=events&utm_campaign=2020-07-15%20%20Stylish%20Vintage%20Living%20with%20Ruby%20Lane&utm_term=320363-1972