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.