The Crossing

November 1962

I was about to take a ship from New York to Le Havre, France to join my husband who was stationed in an army band in Germany. A year before, I was a college freshman not allowed by my over-protective mother to even visit a friend in Attleboro, MA less than an hour from my home.

I had met my father's family for the first time at a shower where all my aunts, uncles and cousins gave me cash-filled envelopes attached to a model ship. As I opened each envelope and said thank you to Uncle...and Aunt...I scanned the faces until someone reacted.

My father and stepmom drove me to New York City from Scituate, MA. My dad was so excited. He adored boats and was building a 38-foot cabin cruiser in his back yard.

As was the custom of the day, everyone was dressed up. My stepmom even wore her mink collar. Heels and stockings were required. 

My dad saw that my much-traveled trunk, a gift from my stepmom's father, was properly stored aboard. I knew as we walked the deck, looking for my economy stateroom, he would give anything to be going too.

Once installed in my stateroom (no window) my dad left me with my stepmom . He reappeared with a German passenger, about my age. Heidi was an army wife going to join her new husband. She had moved from Germany to live in America and was less than happy at going back. I noticed she wore white shoes, something that was a no-no after Labor Day where I grew up.

My dad had arranged the table where we would eat and made sure I knew how to reach the lifeboat that I was assigned to. Heidi and I chatted through the drill later that afternoon.

Reluctantly I had a final hug with my parents, the parting whistles blew, the tug boat pulled the ship, and I watched the Statue of Liberty disappear.

Meals were wonderful. The other people at our table were older, but not old. We would share all meals with them.

There was a library where I selected reading matter. At the movie theater I watched Gypsy. A number of young officer wives were traveling first class but snuck down to economy to join us because we were more fun, especially at night when a band played. We danced and danced. A German young man named Dieter feel in love with Ellie, an Army wife, who didn't reciprocate. I listen to him describe a broken heart.

A woman, maybe in her sixties who got so drunk each night that she had to helped to her stateroom. I felt sorry for her while relishing my youth and future.

A storm hit on our third night. The band skidded across the dance floor. We were told to return to our cabins. We needed to hold the side ropes as we made our way. The next day I was sea sick, but when we outran the storm, I recovered.

Coming to the green Irish coast, row boats met us with Irishmen selling Irish knit sweaters. I did not have the funds to buy one.

A stop in the U.K. was followed by crossing the English channel and lots of tossing, but then all was calm in the Le Havre port. Economy passengers were the last ones off, but the boat train taking us to Paris waited.

The train ride to Paris was exciting as I imagined what it had been like when the Allies fought their way through the German troops. 

I managed to buy train tickets in Paris and then in Nancy before I stepped off the train in Stuttgart into my husband's arms. 

For someone who wasn't allowed into Boston, who didn't speak French, who didn't understand the 24-hour clock, who had a six hour wait in a train station, and said no to a Frenchman who wanted me to go home with him, I managed it all, although the Englishman, who worked with baggage in Paris, put me in a taxi with directions to the driver to take me directly and not run up the bill was a help.

For the rest of my life whenever I see movie or a TV program on a luxury liner, I realized that I had lived the experience and was grateful. All other crossings of the Atlantic have been by plane.

Visit D-L's website https://dlnelsonwriter.com
 

Demonstrations-YES!

 

In the mid 80s when I was writing The Card, a character was caught in the 1968 student-led Parisian riots. I spent hours and hours at the Brookline, MA library going through microfilm (pre-internet) trying to glean enough information on the riot. I used my imagination to write it.

Today, I was reading Paris Notebooks by Mavis Gallant who wrote a day-by-day account and mentioned Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a red-headed instigator of the demonstrations. Last night Cohn-Bendit, at 79 and white-haired was on French television. He'd been active in politics throughout his life. Part of me felt smug that everything I wrote could have happened, but had I had Gallant's first-hand accounts, I could have added so many details.

The 1968 demonstrations were a watershed moment in French politics. 

April 5, demonstrations are scheduled all over the U.S. Find one near you and go. The only way to stop the destruction of the good things in the U.S. is with action. Make April 5th a watershed moment in the U.S.

 

 

Free Write - Empty Chairs in the Sun

 

This week's Free Write still has three writers in two different countries. Rick's prompt was a photo was taken in our small French village, but the country isn't important. It is the chance to poke one's creativity encouraging it to slip into other aspect of our  creative lives. Anyone reading this might want to try a Free Write. If you want to share it, please do.

Rick's Free Write 

Empty chairs, empty tables.

Reminds me of a Les Miserables song after so many young men had died in a failed revolution.

But these are peaceful empty. A Sunday afternoon in a quiet village in the south of France. Normal. Tranquil.

The next morning these chairs will be filled with people talking, sharing their lives over café, thé and chocolat chaud. If the wind is down and the sun is out, the umbrellas will be up.

Sundays are my favorite in the village. Fewer people, fewer cars. Mostly dog walkers. Maybe kids playing football on the church plaza (unaware it used to be a graveyard).

Sunday afternoon used to be the time we caught up on news from our birth country through the talk shows. But they have become nauseating since the election as we witness the country’s accelerating destruction.

We think we are ‘safe’ in our little out-of-the-way enclave. But are we? Will there be war in Europe? Will the forces of evil stimulate civil unrest that reaches even us?

It would be wonderful to imagine we are immune, living in a bubble of the past, carefree… but is there any such place on the earth anymore?

Will these tables fill with happy people again? Or will they remain empty through intimidation and fear?

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com 

D-L's Free Write

Toni walked by the tea room's outdoor chairs and tables. The sun was bright. No one was sitting there. The tramontane was blowing at full force sending leaves racing down the street. 

It had been five years since she been there. She and Paul had had coffees after their divorce hearing.

It had been a friendly divorce, if such a thing was possible. She and Paul had thought they'd found their life's partners in each other. The problem was they wanted different lives.

Paul loved his florist shop, owned first by his grandparents and parents. It was part of village life. Toni found herself sneezing when she was near many of the flowers.

She wanted to be a game develop and when she had a chance to work with two friends from her tech school, she couldn't pass it up,

Unfortunately the job required a move to Paris, or made not unfortunately because she loved Paris.

Today, she had not planned to get off the Paris-Barcelona train where she'd left her marriage. Something seemed to propel her when the train stopped at the station.

In the last five years some stores had changed. Some were the same. So many espressos had been shared by her and Paul while sitting on those chairs as they people watched.

She peeked inside. She saw the back of Paul's head. He was holding the hand of a very pretty woman as he used to hold hers.

On the way back to the train station she felt sad at what wasn't yet happy they'd made the right decision.

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com 

 Julia's Free Write

It was a beautiful sunny day.

The terrace lay waiting, every chair and every table still empty.

Who would come to sit and enjoy a coffee or tea?

Who a snack and a glass of wine?

Who perhaps a full meal?

It looked to be a great place also for people watching – a small Pedestrian zone.

Oh, here comes the first client of the day: the chap in somber clothing, always with a hat on his head, never a smile for either

The waitress nor the waiter – and just barely a word either, simply the strict minimum: “a glass of white wine, a Chablis, please”.

He is soon followed by the second – a woman in her 50ies, wearing a lovely spring dress, the appropriate handbag, shoes and jewelry,

In truth a bit fancy for this part of town. She orders “a small glass of red wine, the pinot please. And settles in to await a friend.

Her friend duly arrives – an indeterminate 40-something, dressed in very casual slacks, but a nice blouse. She turns out to be a teetotaler so orders only a coffee.

Then comes the young couple, so much in love that they have only eyes for each other. They order a sandwich (after consulting their change) and a soda.

The family is next: loud, boisterous – they order a small meal.

And so it goes until the lonely terrace is full of various individuals

All enjoying their time in the sun in this small town in Southern France.

Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/

What would you do?

 

If someone offered you a choice between taking $1,000 or $50,000 as a gift, no strings attached, which would you select?

I imagine the $50,000.

I don't understand why people say the 1,000 people killed October 7th in Israel gave Israel the right to kill 50,000 people who do not have the right to defend themselves. Not just kill but destroy everything in their lives, starve them, destroy their hospitals.

It's amazing that according to Netanyahu they only bomb where Hamas is hiding. 

Growing up, I learned about the Holocaust. I believed Israel had a chance to build a place free from prosecution. Up until the 1967 War, I thought Israel could do no wrong. Okay, I was naive and really hadn't read much about it.

Only when I was student teaching, did I meet my first Palestinian. She talked about how her family had been displaced, the land Israel had stolen from her family, the limitations forced upon them by Israel.

Moving to Geneva in 1993, I had Palestinian neighbors. One woman taught me and other friends belly dancing followed by great meals.

I met more and more people, not just from Palestinian but also from other countries in the region, especially Egypt and Syria. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor that became a sister-of-choice and spent time with her family in Damascus seeing life through the eyes of people who lived daily with the uncertainty of the region.

In the U.S. if you are pro-Palestinian, you are considered anti-semantic and thus anti-Jewish. People forget that almost all of the people in the area are semantic people. 

Taking a country from one people to give to another is a sure way to breed hatred. I imagine that the Gaza children who survive this war, whose parents and siblings were killed, will have little mercy for Israel. Destruction breeds hatred.

The argument the land belonged to Israel historically is equally sick. Country borders move. They are artificial. I wonder what would happen if everyone in the United States that is living on Indian land was suddenly driven from their homes so Indians could have it back.

There was no way that I could be anything but horrified by the genocide of the Jews during World War II. I am also horrified by the genocide in Gaza even if the numbers are smaller. The Oct. 7th attack was terrible by a group that is fighting back against the Israeli oppression.

1,000 against 50,000 is disproportionate. 

Taking hostages inflamed Israel, understandably, but the hundreds of Arab prisoners in Israel who are held without trial and rough conditions again tips the scale on what is disproportionate.

I'm horrified about the illegal settlements, the unfair rules the Arabs lived under that make it almost impossible to have even the base things that we take for granted. 

Destroying a people does not make anyone safer. It creates more hatred.

I am horrified that if Israel does it, they get carte blanche along with weapons from the U.S. to increase their killing ability. I am horrified about how they treat the Arabs in the area, the breaking of international laws. That people fight back, is totally understandable.

When Americans talk to me about Israel having the right to defend themselves and I ask them what they know about the history, it is next to nothing. Gaza has the right to defend itself too.

I wish everyone of them would invited a Palestinian to dinner and listen to their side of the history over the last decades.

Now merely saying you are pro-Palestiniancin the States, especially if you are not a U.S. citizen can get you deported, denying the speaker's freedom of speech. If you invited Palestinians to your home, and under these current U.S. Administration you are leaving them open to  being grabbed and deported even if they did nothing but have ordinary lives. 

So $1,000 or $50,000...what will it be? Isn't it time to look at both sides? Invite a Palestinian to your home and listen to what they have to say.

P.S. I am not anti-Jewish, but I am anti the atrocities of the Israeli government.

 

Holding My Own?

 

Rick's parking karma held as he slipped into the last spot in the bibliothèque parking. I looked up to see pretty blue shutters and flowers in a house. The wall is on a house that is probably at least 300 years old. It was more than a pretty window. It was a reminder that not everything in this world is coming apart.

In the center of our French village, the houses, including ours, are 300-400 years old. The ground floors used to hold goats, cows and chickens, but are now modern living and dining rooms and kitchens. The streets are narrow and parking is non-existent which is why we search public parking. 

I've been fighting with myself against frustration and depression about the destruction of my birth country by incompetent, demented, immoral people. There are people too afraid to fight back, or too greedy to do what is right. I feel anger too at the people who voted them in, for not seeing what was there if they'd just taken the time to look.

In our village, we find many French who want to talk about Trump, usually with disgust. Canadians, Danes, Swedes, Germans, Brits ask us if we are relieved that we are no longer American. They were anti-Trump during his first administration. Now they express shock that America could sink so low so fast.

This tiny village has a long history of pain from bad rulers. It was territory that went back and forth between French, Spanish and Catalan aristocracy over the centuries. Towers still sit on mountain tops to help who ever was in power to see the latest invasion. 

Power struggles aren't new. Fighting against them isn't new.

In 1939 the 3000+ village residents became 103,000 as people crossed the Pryenees, fleeing Franco. These refugees were put in concentration camps along the beach. The bad treatment of refugees and immigrants is not new.

The village did not submit easily. Women protested in April 1942. An elderly man, who lived through it, told me how there were resistance fighters living in the village. He lived on the renamed rue de Resistance.

We tried going off grid to restoke our morale, but when we're on our computer information about evil acts of the administration sneak in. Then we give in and check news in France, England, Switzerland, U.S. and sometimes Germany. We see old and new frightening stories. I will look at Fox News on the internet and see a totally different world to what other news sources are reporting adding to my pain, fear, frustration at the lies and manipulation.

I am trying to hold on to hope for sanity, by hanging on to what is good in my little village: our friends, local and international, the wonderful fruits and vegetables, our pup, the smell of bread baking from the boulangeries, the cafés where we can sit and people watch, chatting with those walking by. There is the surprise of a beautiful window when we lucked out by finding a parking place. It helps, but it is not enough.

Hopefully, the village, the U.S., the world will survive the maniacs in D.C. and those enabling them, just as this village has survived everything over the centuries and too many battles to list here.  

I wish I could do more. Making phone calls, sending emails and writing essays isn't enough. On April 5, I wish I could be on Boston Common, in front of the State House where my grandfather did engineering repairs in the early 1900s. 

Can the people who failed to see the danger before November 5 see it now and act?

Will Republicans develop backbones and stop bleating their approval?

Will the many Americans who will suffer, and suffer they will even more than now, fight back?

Will the Army refuse to fight if America attacks other countries Putin-like? 

Meanwhile I will try and channel my pain, frustration, disgust, fear of what the U.S. is becoming.  

Those shutters are a lovely jade of blue. The flowers mean spring is coming. My dog wants to sit on my lap. The weeks of rain seems to have stopped lessening the drought. 

Hang on, hang on, hang on. 

Like all bad governments, rulers, things will change. Don't think about the price in lives ruined, think of the shutters which are a lovely shade of...

Check out D-L's website: https://dlnelsonwriter.com

 

 

 

My Russian Slippers

My Russian slippers are beginning to wear out. After 10+ years of wear, that's not a surprise. The blue mark comes from dropping my fountain pen on one of them.

They were given to me when I visited a Russian friend in St. Petersburg, something I had never thought I'd do. Like many of my friends, her family substituted slippers for shoes in the house. As a good hostess, she'd bought slippers for Rick and me.

Our friendship had started in Geneva on a beautiful day with a not too warm, not too cold day, a blue sky as a backdrop to Mont Blanc's snow tops, much too beautiful to take a bus. I was walking to the train station through the UN complex of alphabet agencies when a woman asked directions to the train station.

She was a Russian attending a conference. Her English was as good, if not better than mine. We walked together chatting the entire way. At the station she was to take a train and I had errands. We exchanged emails.

We began a correspondence and found a lot in common: one child each, a lover of reading literature and history, food. She invited me to St. Petersburg, which I delayed. A few years went by. After I married, she invited my husband and me to visit.

We applied for VISAs. Interesting that his as an American was about $125. Mine as a Swiss, was charged at about $25.

She met us at the St. Petersburg airport. We stayed in her flat meeting her son, husband and cats.

The woman was determined to share the city she loved and had an itinerary that included churches, famous building, museums, the incredible subway, a river ride, a classical ballet and an evening of folk dancing and a boat trip on the river. Some meals we had at home including a wonderful cucumber salad. She gave me the recipe, some meals were at restaurants. We didn't eat at the McDonald's.

We began to understand the Russian letters.  

I've never seen so much gold leaf and beautiful art work from small icons to huge statues. My friend, who knew history, gave me enough background that had I recorded it, I could have given professional tours to tourists. 

 

The metro stations were works of arts in themselves.

She took me to a book store, where my first novel Chickpea Lover: Not a Cookbook was for sale. After the Russian Cosmopolitan had given it a good review it had been on the best seller list for a week or so I was told.

Her knowledge of Russian history was a gift. One of the thrills of the trip was to see the room where Rasputin was fed cyanide. We stood by the door where he escaped to jump in the Neva river. It is one thing to read about history, but another to stand where it happened.

Seeing where Fydor Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov was thrill. As a writer I like to be where books were written as if their talent vibes in the wall will fill my brain and nerves to my fingertips.

Because we were with a native, we had experiences that would never have happened otherwise.

After the ballet, our hostess did not like the look of the taxi drivers. "Wait here," she said.

She ran into the street and pulled a driver, a stranger over then waved for us to get in the car. She had negotiated a price with him to take us home. I tried to imagine doing that in Boston, Geneva or any other major city. I couldn't imagine it in our little French village either.

My life amazes me sometime. I bumble into things that end up giving me incredible experiences.  

Dusty pink is my favorite color. The slippers trim is dusty pink. No matter what the color is, I put them on and walk with memories.

 

 

 

Uncle Sam Needs You

Uncle Sam doesn't just want you, he needs you to save the country from the current destruction being forced on the United States by Trump, Musk and the scared and/or immoral or amoral Republicans.

 

According to one survey, only 13% of Americans who did not vote in the last presidential election like what is happening. Had the other 87% who didn't vote and disapprove of what is happening, the United States, the world and their economies would not be in the mess they are in.

 

What can you do? Fight back within your means of time, health and energy. 

 

How? Where do you go?

 

On April 5th, there are massive rallies planned across the country via a coalition of 83 organizations. This includes international labor unions like CWA (https://cwa-union.org/) and SEIU (www.seiu.org), as well as progressive groups like MoveOn (https://front.moveon.org), Indivisible (https://indivisible.org/groups), and DemCast (https://demcast.com). The event, billed as “Hands Off!” currently has a list of 514 actions planned.

 

DEMONSTRATIONS

 

April 5 - Hands Off demonstrations are planned in many U.S. Cities supported by a large number of organizations some of which include:

• https://theblop.org/ lists many of the protests.
• www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/764476/
• www.womensmarch.com/initiatives/peoples-veto-day-washington-d-c 
• https://portside.org/2025-03-15/why-were-mobilizing-april-5th
• https://earthlaw.substack.com/p/hands-off-march-on-dc-april-5th 
• https://front.moveon.org 
• https://cwa-union.org
  
• https://redwineblue.controlshift.app/events/april-5th-demonstration
• Social Security Works @socialsecurityworks.org
  

GOVERNMENT

 

Start by following every bill in Congress that will hurt people such as changing medicare, social security, food stamps, civil rights. For anything you think is unjust call your senator/congressman. They probably won't be happy to hear from you.

 

SENATORS

https://www.senate.gov

 

Become familiar with the site.

Far left corner under Senators find your Senators.

Call or email and leave a message. That is both Republican and Democrats.

If you want to get word to a Senator in a state where you don't live, find a zipcode from that state and put it into the contact form. 

 

REPRESENTATIVES

https://www.house.gov

 

Far left corner under Representatives find yours

Call or email. 

Use a zip code in their district even if it isn't yours

Check legislative activity (Today's message - There is no legislative activity at this time) 

Look through the site to see what is important. Some committees can be seen live.

Follow bills that can hurt you and other Americans 

If you are not in a Representatives district find a zip code in their district and put that in.

 

TOWN HALLS

Find out which Congressmen and Senators are holding Town Halls.

Go and tell them what you think whether it is your party or not.

 

        ORGANIZATIONS

 

Support organizations on issues that are important to you. It is not possible to support them all, but identify the issues you care about and work with those fighting fort hem. Some organizations fight for several causes. 

 

Below is a list of  many groups that are working to preserve what Trump and Musk are trying to do away with.                                                                                                                 

BOOK BANS

 

UNITE AGAINST BOOK BANS  https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/ 

 

On Monday, April 7, Unite Against Book Bans will ask readers around the country to raise their voices online and in person for the third annual Right to Read Day.

                                                                                                                                           

CIVIL RIGHTS

AMNESTY  www.amnesty.org                                                                                                                   

Amnesty International USA has more than a million members and activists in all 50 states.They work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

NAACP www.naacp.org 

 

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the longest-serving organization dedicated to fighting for civil rights of people of color.

PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY www.peoplefor.org 

 

People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. For more than four decades, they have been dedicated to making the promise of America real and where basic rights and freedoms are upheld for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. 

GUN SAFETY

EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY  https://everytown.org

They push for common-sense gun control legislation by lobbying lawmakers and fighting against extreme NRA proposals. 

IMMIGRATION

IMMIGRATION IMPACT  https://immigrationimpact.com

A project of the American Immigration Council, this organization lobbies against deportation policy both from the White House and the halls of Congress.

YOUNG CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN'S RIGHTS https://theyoungcenter.org

 An organization focused on protecting the children of immigrants and fighting against deportation and family separation.

LEGAL

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION  https://www.aclu.org

A nonprofit assisting in civil rights legal cases including abortion care, trans people's right to live freely, and people's right to vote. It also hosts the Drag Defense Fund.

AIJUSTICE     www.aijustice.org                                                                                                        

Americans for Immigrant Justice, a nonprofit law firm, fighting for justice for immigrants through a combination of direct representation, impact litigation, advocacy, and outreach.

CAIR  www.cair.com 

Works to educate the public on mainstream Islamic faith and prevent legal obstructions to their rights, including policies proposed and enacted by Trump's first administration.

LAMBDA LEGAL  www.lambdalegal.org

For over 40 years, Lambda Legal has led the way in advocating for the legal rights of HIV-positive and LGBTQ+ people.

SOUTHERN LAW POVERTY CENTER www.splcenter.org

A nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights, fighting to strengthen democracy, counter white supremacy, end mass incarceration, and eradicate racial inequality in the American South.

LGBTQ

 

ADVOCATE www.advocate.com 

 

For those who are able to give, here are 26 groups whose work is going to be critical during a second Trump administration that you can donate to. They say if you can't contribute money, they give a list and other ways to contribute. 

 

GENDERCOOL https://gendercool.org

 

A public outreach campaign made up of "champions" – trans youth who work tirelessly to transform the narrative surrounding them.

GLAAD  www.glaad.org                                                                            

A media monitoring organization focused on inspiring cultural change to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of LGBTQ+ people.

ORAM  www.oramrefugee.org 

It provides legal assistance, advances economic inclusion through livelihood programs, champions the rights of LGBTIQ asylum seekers and refugees on the global stage and provides critical emergency response to under-served communities.

SHERLOCK'S HOME FOUNDATION https://sherlockshomes.org 

The Sherlock's Homes Foundation provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system, for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves.

SYLVIA RIVERA LAW PROJECT https://srlp.org 

SRLP seeks to guarantee people's freedom to self-determine and express their gender identity, fighting for both financial and legal empowerment for everybody across the spectrum of gender.

THE TRANSGENDER LAW CENTER https://transgenderlawcenter.org

The largest national, trans-led organization fights to change law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN https://www.hrc.org

 

HRC lobbies for queer rights and candidates, fighting to "ensure that all LGBTQ+ people, and particularly those of us who are trans, people of color and HIV+, are treated as full and equal citizens."

 

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH (ABORTION)

ELEVATED ACCESS  www.elevatedaccess.org

A nonprofit dedicated to helping patients receive reproductive health care, offering flights at no cost to those who must travel for abortions.

MIDWEST ACCESS COALITION (MAC)  www.midwestaccesscoalition.org 

An abortion fund helping people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest to access safe and legal abortions.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD https.plannedparenthood.org

 

A nonprofit organization providing reproductive and sexual healthcare and sexual education, including abortions and birth control. 

 

TRAINING

Emily's List  www.emilyslist.org

Trains Democratic women (who are pro-choice) in the basics of running for office, from school board to senator. The group had a hand in getting Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Maggie Hassan elected.

WRITERS 

 PEN https://pen.org

 

PEN America wants to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide, championing the freedom to write. It recognizes the power words to transform the world by uniting writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that making it possible. 

PROPUBLICA  www.propublica.org 

A nonprofit model to produce and disseminate investigative reporting. It has continuously fact-checked the Trump Administration to dispel the misinformation.

Free Write - Imagine

 

Once again two of the writers are in France and one in Switzerland. They write ten minutes on a prompt and then compare what they've written. Two of us took a dark turn. Thank goodness for the third who reminded us of the good things.

The prompt: I can just imagine is from Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread. It was D-L's Free Write. Next up Rick.

D-L's Free Write

Salvah was wet and cold from her hiding place under the red maple leaf pile that Papa had raked yesterday.

Today, rather than bag the leaves, he was at the demonstration at his university. 

When she woke this morning, she could imagine all the wonderful things that would happen on this, her eighth birthday.

Mama took her to the zoo to see the elephants. Salvah loved elephants, but instead of a happy herd like on the videos, there was just one lonely, sad elephant.

Back home, three men had forced their way into the house.

"Run, hide," Mama said.

As she did, she heard one of the men say "Shut up" when Mama asked who they were and why... The rest of the question was stopped by a slap and she heard the word "bitch."

Salvah was used to listening to her parents talk about "home" not this home, where she'd lived from when she was born, but a "home" far away. This home needed a green card, which they had. Salvah was surprized that the card wasn't green but a grayish plastic like Papa's driving license.

Her parents would cry watching the rubble-filed news from "home." They would cry when they learned of their parents' death and Papa's nephew and Mama's sister.

From her hiding place she saw her mother pushed into a car,

It rained harder. She never imagined hiding in a leaf pile. Leaf piles were for jumping in, not hiding.

It grew dark. She snuck into the house to wait for Papa and wait, and wait, and... 

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com 

Julia's Free Write

Sitting here at my desk and seeing the pouring rain outside leads to reflections of sunny days elsewhere!

Having had to attend weekly religious services in my youth, followed by many a boring conference as I entered the adult world, first I escaped with a book or magazine discreetly tucked in on my lap: thank you Reader’s Digest for allowing me to escape.

As I progressed through life – mostly wonderful – I hit a few road bumps along the way, but it wasn’t until I turned 50 and needed chemotherapy that I realized “I can just imagine.”

Stuck in a chair in a hospital room in the days before better patient management, I realized that I could escape in my mind by just imagining.

Need a PET scan? Just shut your eyes and return to your favorite beach.

Need to stay still for cataract surgery? Just transport yourself to your favorite mountain peak.

Bored during a meeting? Just imagine the lovely buffet to follow.

Feeling down? Just imagine that last family reunion or party with friends.

Just imagining can bring a wealth of positive to the worst of circumstances.

Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/

 Rick's Free Write

I can just imagine being awoken in the middle of the night to the explosions of bombs being dropped on the city where I live.

I can just imagine having to live in underground rail stations or tunnels with no heat or electricity.

I can just imagine queuing up for handouts of bread and water amidst the rubble of our homes and schools and places of worship.

I can just imagine my sons in uniform, marching to the front lines to face an unseen terror of land mines, drones, razor wire and disease.

I can just imagine the elderly dying in a makeshift hospital without modern medical equipment, lying near a young mother in the thralls of birth.

I can just imagine my country’s ‘friends’ turning their back on the plight of my people, leaving us to the mercilessness of their new ‘friends’ – our enemy.

I can just imagine receiving the letter that informs me my eldest has been wounded, my youngest killed, my niece captured and deported, my mother raped…

No, I cannot imagine. Cannot possibly imagine the agony, the fear, the pain, the heartache, the hopelessness…

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com