For 2013 I only made one resolution.  It’s bad form to tell you what it is, so I’ll just say that it has something to do with Melissa McCarthy.  Got my fingers crossed.
For the Winter Solstice, a friend gave me an engraved cube of burnished lead on which is etched, “Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.â€Â  Lead and flying angels. Like an ironic pet rock. I don’t know if she intended it and I won’t Pema Chodron you, but that is the dilemma isn’t it?  How to live lightly amid heavy times.
Certain anonymous programs, that shall of course remain nameless, counsel an attitude of gratitude for hard times.  I am grateful for my dear life partner, my work, my health and my family and friends.  They have seen me through crass idiocy, violence, endless greed, cruelty, illness and loss of shoreline.
For me there is no better way to start my year going in the light direction than attending the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force [NGLTF] Creating Change Conference.  NGLTF is expecting 3,500 LGBT activists from all over the world – China, Honduras, Uganda – for its 25th convening in Atlanta, January 24-28.
Half the participants are under 30 – buoyantly radical, practical and can-do queers.  While I hope for good results with the Supreme Court decisions on DOMA and Prop 8 – a girl can hope – I know that with these LGBT activists, the heavy lifting on racial and economic justice, transgender violence, homelessness, school bullying, and HIV-AIDS will continue.
Not like I’m kicking back. My Sis-Boom-Bah tour will celebrate the sisters, the boom in LGBT equality, and bah to those who are in our way! I’m no angel. Hope to see you at Creating Change or out on the road! Bring your pom poms!
Kate Clinton is a faith-based, tax-paying, America-loving political humorist and family entertainer. With a career spanning almost thirty years, Kate Clinton has worked through economic booms and busts, Disneyfication and Walmartization, gay movements and gay markets, lesbian chic and queer eyes, and eight presidential inaugurals. She still believes that humor gets us through peacetime, wartime, scoundrel time and economic down times. Visit her at www.KateClinton.com.
The irony is striking indeed, my dear Kate! I can’t help but be reminded of the reputed ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,’ because we certainly do. I’m not only crossing my fingers but my eyes, my legs, my “t”s, and everything flexible save my purposes, of course. I once had a very dear friend when I lived on the Cape who taught me the hard way that we do reap what we sow, so I learned a great deal about leaden times, if not about mythical angels. It may be that some people are simply so toxic that the most sensitive among us can’t help but avoid the poisonous fallout, especially those of us with a womb and a real point of view. Over the years I’ve grown to take care of my own seeds, so to speak, and where best I should plow. “To live lightly in hard times,” as you put it, truly is quite the dilemma, so I endeavor always to tread softly but carry a bit shtick
It should go without saying, although say it I will, that I wish you and Urv both the very Happiest and Healthiest of Gregorian New Years yet!