Greetings! Since I last wrote, Kansas had a birthday (on January 29, turned 151) and my nerves over the session have settled down. I feel good about what I have been doing, but I haven't been doing it alone. I have been working with others and am fortunate to have help and support from my husband, many friends, family, colleagues, folks at the Statehouse and others. I have a lot of criminal justice policy topics to talk about, but I am going to save them for later. Right now we have a holiday to acknowledge.
Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of today, below is one of my favorite poems. As my friend Connie says, it is a perfect midwestern valentine. Today when I read this poem, I am thinking of all of the hardworking people I come in contact with at the Statehouse.
To Be Of Use
by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire must be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
(from Circles on the Water, 1982)
One of those hardworking people I see at the Statehouse is my friend Callie. She fights for justice and looks super cute while at it. She came to Senate Judiciary when I happened to be there and she took my picture. If you think I look happy in this "before the hearing" photo, you should have seen me after. People who almost never agree with me did so that day and we were asked to work together to see if we could reach agreement on any other parts of the bill at issue.
Senate Judiciary, February 1, 2012
Callie has inspired me to think about the legislative experience in different ways - the Statehouse as a place of beauty, for example. I am going to start taking my camera with me.
Recently another hardworking, inspiring friend - Melinda - wrote me about a mentoring experience she had where she was the mentor. She gave her "mentee" a file folder with a pretty bird design on it. I had given Melinda the file folders after she told me about the marked-up manila file folders she takes to meetings. The mentee asked Melinda why she chose the field of work she did. Melinda replied: "I had to think - it's because I had a great support network encouraging me and cheering me on. Little bits of beauty keep us moving on. Like pretty folders."
If I was going to have a grave stone, I would want it to say "little bits of beauty keep us moving on." Being creative and incorporating little bits of beauty into everyday life is what keeps me sane. And if there is a way to incorporate work and little bits of beauty, that's even better. For instance, I made myself composition pad covers from a pattern in this book. I use one at work for phone messages, one for taking notes on legislative matters and one for sewing class.
I made business cards and post cards from moo.com. I used the photo from my blog header, a photo I took out of a moving car while driving across Kansas this summer and a beautiful sunflower photo taken by my friend Meryl.
How do all of these points relate? Well, it goes back to the "jump[ing] head first into work" line. I know a lot of hardworking people. Some of them work outside their homes, some work in their homes. Jumping head first into work takes its toll on people, regardless of the work they do. And to them I say, make sure you take time for little bits of beauty. It will keep you moving on.
I hadn't come up with an ask for this post (I couldn't even come up with a unifying theme, as you can tell) before I came to work. In my inbox was a Valentine's Day present from my best friend Stacey. This magnet is my ask.
P.S. Have a great Valentine's Day, everyone. I promise to have more public policy talk and less mushy stuff/crafts in my next post. Goodness knows I have lots of material. :)
Now I am home from the Statehouse, can breathe, and can thoughtfully read today's V-Day BTJ post. Thank you, Jennifer. Your compliments are one of the nicest Valentines I've ever received and I treasure them! Your passion on justice issues inspires me. I know we will continue to cheer each other on under the Dome and everywhere else. And look super cute at the same time. xoxoxo
Posted by: Callie Denton | 02/14/2012 at 07:16 PM