Morning Contemplation

Morning Contemplation     Dolores Maggiore Nov. 17, 2017

 

The mountain– or rather the storm obscuring Mt. Hood–draws my attention during breakfast this morning while a crème brûlée incense stick heightens the pleasure of my spinach eggbeater omelet.

Bursting out from under this sheet I write on, the Southern Poverty Law Center newsletter screams out Hate and Extremism in 2017. I contemplate that along with the stormy mountain for about ten seconds and zero in on my personal extremism of the moment: cancer and my wife, although she’s not quite extreme.

I roll the word wife around in my mind. Hmm! Wife…Funny how that word used to seem extreme, and at different times and “factions” of LGBTQ history, radically conservative. I sit here having just boomed it on the phone to my wife’s surgeon.

“Please give me the info. I’m her wife!”

Amazing how the long fought for word opens doors to extreme findings. Surgeons report the results to us. They perk up at our questions and refrain from flinching when we ask if the aggressive surgery will damage the vaginal wall. Amazing, too, how this behavior no longer seems extreme.

And so only the surgery appears radical. Perhaps radical is the best word, getting at the root of this hateful growth.

As I reach for a second blank sheet of paper, the word hate from the SPLC newsletter cover takes center stage again, reminding me where to focus. I take a deep breath and in my mind rethink the rooting out process. The surgery will eradicate the cancer. It’s up to us to cut out the hate.

By | 2017-12-09T20:04:54+00:00 December 9th, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Morning Contemplation

About the Author:

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Dolores Maggiore soon began a search for some place “homier” – some place without the elevated “A” train, without the rattle of the wooden blinds blocking the view through the bedroom window. Dolores roamed through the Maine woods and found a temporary home she would continue to visit in the summer and in her dreams well into adulthood. Her vagabond spirit also brought her to other faraway places to study and then teach French and Italian and to search for her grandparents’ home in Sicily. While Dolores grew up on tales of Robinson Crusoe, her wanderlust also included landscapes of the mind: she worked as a psychotherapist with children of all ages, adults included. In addition to writing young adult novels, Dolores blogs about life in rain (Oregon), as well as in drought (California). She has had poetry published in anthologies as an undergraduate student and reference materials on lesbians and therapy and lesbians and child custody after graduate school. She is a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Willamette Writers, and The Golden Crown Literary Society. Dolores, her wife, Xander, the lynx-point cat, and Murphy, the 14 year-old rescue poodle make their home seasonally in NW Oregon and Borrego Springs, CA, hiking, birding, and enjoying nature. (Xander birds from his perch inside the house!)