The Furious Spinner

Good morning! I have been gone. After seeing the horror unfold about torture and beheading, I had nothing to say. Yesterday I sat in my garden. Next to me was my rosemary bush which I grew from a seedling of about two inches tall more than ten years ago. Now it is nearly as tall as I am and as wide as I am tall. Next to the rosemary bush is the small strawberry field. The strawberries are fat and green, their weight pulling them down to the coriander-colored dirt. The fava beans are getting fat, too. I have never grown fava beans before, so I'm not certain when to pick them. Growing at their feet are tiny dark green leaves which will grow into lettuce. Beets going to seed tower over the lettuce bits. Hills of potatoes roll next to the beets. The deep green nightshade leaves push up through the tops of the hills, like slow green lava. Overwintered kale and carrots stand side by side. The kale is as tall as I am, thin stalks reaching up, popping out tender yellow flowers at their ends. I sit in the stillness and put my fingers in the Earth and am grateful for this place and time.

This morning while I ate breakfast, I watched the Ken Burns film on Thomas Jefferson. I have mixed feelings about Mr. Jefferson, but I was interested to learn that early on he wrote legislation to separate church from state. This was exciting to me. Nowadays the conservatives claim we have always been a Christian nation, and here's proof that at the very conception of our nation, our founding fathers wanted separation.

The statute reads: “Be it enacted by the General assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, not shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, that that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities....”

This was legislation for Virginia which took ten years to enact. Nevertheless, there it is. When Madison was fussing about how they were going to write this separation of church and state into the Constitution—pointing out that the statute in Virginia was not enforced, Jefferson wrote, "Put it in the law, and then judges in the future will apply it and begin to enforce it." They did not want an official chaplain, did not want the commandments anywhere in public life. Jefferson wrote that there would be no infidel if there were no priests.

The sun is out. The rhododendron outside my window has bloomed. Scarlet blossoms shiver as a bee flits from one tongue to another. I love these flowers. Their colors are so vibrant, gaudy, even when they are white. They line the streets of my town now, like hookers on street corners of big cities, showy and gregarious. "Hiya, sailor." On one petal of every blossom is a patch of dots which somehow remind me of a tongue—a reaching longing tongue. I think I'll go outside and see what the girls are up to. Celebrate a bit of life.

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