Thanks*Giving

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

November 7
I would like to give thanks for an awesome community of coworkers, an awesome job and a phenomenal company.  I got together over lunch with some of my coworkers today to do NaNoWriMo sprints (where one person provides a prompt and everyone writes), and I was able to get another 1000 words closer to my goal as a result.  The people I am surrounded by care about each other, and I have many mentors I can turn to at any time (and am thankful in some small occasion when I can return the favor).  I share an awesome, vibrant community with incredible people.  I am so very lucky.

November 8

On this day I am extraordinarily thankful for my right to vote.  My dear friend Lisa shared a song (a poem, really) by Ani DiFranco about feminism as she gave thanks for the suffrage ladies, and as I think back on them and all those who came before and fought for the rights we enjoy today, and I'd like to share it with you.


 Grand Canyon
By Ani DiFranco


I love my country
By which I mean, I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right

Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water

So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Cut a grand canyon of light

Yes, I've been so many places
Flown through vast empty spaces
With stewardesses whose hands
Look much older than their faces

I've tossed so many napkins
Into that big hole in the sky
Been at the bottom of the Atlantic
Seething in a two-ply

Looking up through all that water
And the fishes swimming by
And I don't always feel lucky
But I'm smart enough to try

Cuz humility has buoyancy
And above us only sky

So I lean in
Breathe deeper that brutal burning smell
That surrounds the smoldering wreckage
That I've come to love so well

Yes, color me stunned and dazzled
By all the red white and blue flashing lights
In the American intersection
Where black crashed head on with white

Comes a melody, comes a rhythm
A particular resonance
That is us and only us
Comes a screaming ambulance
A hand that you can trust
Laid steady on your chest
Working for the better good
(Which is good at its best)

And too, bearing witness
Like a woman bears a child...
With all her might

Born of the greatest pain
Into a grand canyon of light

I mean, no song has gone unsung here
And this joint is strung crazy tight
And people been raising up their voices
Since it just ain't been right

With all the righteous rage
And all the bitter spite
That will accompany us out
Of this long night

That will grab us by the hand
When we are ready to take flight
Seat back and tray table
In the upright and locked position
Shocked to tears by each new vision
Of all that my ancestors have done

Like, say, the women who gave their lives
So that I could have one

People, we are standing at ground zero
Of the feminist revolution
Yeah, it was an inside job
Stoic and sly
One we're supposed to forget

And downplay and deny
But I think the time is nothing
If not nigh
To let the truth out

Coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
I mean
Why can't all decent men and women
Call themselves feminists?

Out of respect
For those who fought for this
I mean, look around
We have this

Yes, I love my country
By which I mean I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right

Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers

Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water

So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Is cutting a grand canyon of light