Nomad exploring life wherever I am
weath·er-beat·en /ˈweT͟Hər ˈbētn/ Damaged or worn by exposure to the weather. Spending most of 2022 so far dealing with weather left me a little less resilient than usual. So settle in for a longish read about me vs. the weather, a little play in five acts and six lessons learned.
This last week was another painful one if you live in the United States. 19 fourth-graders (10 and 11 years old) and 2 teachers shot in Uvalde, Texas. How this has happened YET AGAIN in America is what I can’t stop thinking about. It’s kept me up past midnight the last two nights, trying to understand how we got here and how we can stop the gun violence without falling into the trap of polemics or politics. I’m not sure we can at this point, with the post-shooting discussions taking wildly divergent paths, from banning AR-15 rifles to arming teachers….
The Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma is a comprehensive look at the life and works of Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, better known as Woody Guthrie. Born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912, he became one of the most prolific and influential folksingers in America by following his heart and singing his truth. Everyone from Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan was inspired by Woody to get up and DO something, and the museum does a really good job of explaining why. I wish Woody was still singing, we could use his truth-telling.
There are few museums that I can’t describe in a half-dozen photos and some text. This is one of those. It’s the first museum I’ve visited that documents and explains the treatment of the First Americans from their point of view, from initial encounters with outsiders to the present day. This is a place of truth, of telling the lived experiences of the 39 tribes that now reside in Oklahoma. It’s not an easy place to visit, nor a quick in-and-out experience. There’s a lot of reading, a fair amount of comparing what you were taught in school (or not…
If you ever thought banjos were boring instruments that belong at the bottom of the ocean (an old banjo joke), you’ve never visited this place!