A local brewery was targeted because Drag Brunch is held there. Adults dressing as they like and eating a meal with other adults is offensive, it seems, to a hate group who busted windows and doors at the brewery claiming drag brunch to “justify” their violence. Here’s a recent newspaper article about this topic. https://www.columbian.com/news/2023/mar/11/heathen-brewing-feral-public-house-vandalized-saturday/ So in support of Heathen Brewing and our community my wife and I went with our Fairy Goddaughter to happy hour!
There was a line inside and almost every seat filled!! We had beer, nachos and sweet potato fries. We talked with people in line. We talked with people at the tables next to us. We petted dogs. We laughed! And we all had a grand time! Love is definitely winning!! The Go-fund-me page shows they’ve gotten more than 3000 dollars ABOVE their goal! Yea! Love wins again!!!
The current outpourings of love in response to hate reminds me of the late 1980’s gay rights activism in Oklahoma where I participated. We did what we called “Love Ins”. Wherever hate had happened or was happening many of us, LGBTQ and allies, would fill the floor space with our bodies. We would sit and spread out on the floor playing cards, coloring in color books, building things with toy blocks and we would sing or read poetry outloud. Sometimes a drag queen would read a story aloud. We had printed signs addressing the specific issue at hand. (The basic human right to access healthcare, the right to equal employment, the right to fairness in housing, the right to marry the person we love… to name only a few issues.) We also had general signs saying things like “We’re here, we’re queer get used to it”. But we did NOT verbally shout back at the people shouting hateful things at us. We played our games on the floor and ignored the haters. People had to step over and around us. Whenever a hater purposefully kicked one of us – the person who had been kicked said to another person on the floor “Ouch! Did you see that?” to which many of the floor sitters would loudly respond “I saw that! Are you okay? We love you!” and various other phrases in support of the person who’d been hurt. The perp, the kicker, was deliberately, overtly, ignored because we were focused on creating the loving world we wanted to inhabit. Often the shouting and kicking from the anti-gay side stopped in the absence of reciprocal violent exchanges – or if not completely stopping the violence failed to escalate – it seemed hard, for most, to keep yelling and kicking at people who were just playing cards and loving everyone even if some of the card players were wearing sequins.
And the LGBTQ community did, slowly, gain basic human rights – including the right to marry – even in Oklahoma. Love totally wins!
While thinking about all of this I created a sketchbook page and shared it on my email newsletter… it’s another description of why I do the kind of artwork I do.
Yes, it was so good to see love winning again more recently at the local brewery! Life, love and good things are for ALL of us! That’s what the ideals of equality and democracy are reaching for, however imperfectly, and it’s a worthy goal. It’s a goal for all of us by all of us!
What if our innovations, our future advancements, rely on how well we’re able to care for and about ourselves, people and plants? What if life, the future and everything is really all about love and how well we can do that loving of ourselves, each other and the natural world? (Rebecca Solnit writes a wonderful essay here about the real potential of this!)
Anyway, as I forcasted in my last blog post Amie McGraham at Cook &Tell interviewed me about my kitchen sketchbook and what was on my St Patrick’s Day menu! There are photos and sketchbook pages and recipes – https://amiemcg.substack.com/p/shot-in-the-kitchen-sue-clancy
Here’s a leprechaun, aka me, in the kitchen. 👇
Below is a quick look at my St Patrick’s recipes and what they looked like when served… more details on Cook & Tell.
Here’s one of the Irish poems I enjoyed with my Irish Coffee. It’s by Andrew Cherry. I find it both fun and encouraging.
This is the book the poem came from. 👇
Here’s some green plants in a recent painting I did titled “White Elephant” which I had also mentioned in my email newsletter.
Ah the hardiness of plants like those mentioned in the poem by Cherry! Love and luck to thrive anywhere and everywhere like clover! 🤔😊 Such an inspiration for humans don’t you think?
We’re in this life together. See you next Mondayish.
Your description of the “love in” events reminds me of my preschool classroom in a key way. The way you would handle conflict by focusing on the person who had been hurt while ignoring the person who had done the harm is exactly how I handle such interactions as a preschool teacher. It seems apt that we have to manage prejudiced people in the same way as 3 year olds. Of course, I am doing it to role model kindness and empathy for my students. We can only hope that some of those adult individuals also had some social-emotional growth.
Yes!! Glad you caught that!!! The way to handle preschoolers was exactly our model!!! Preschool was also the model for the floor activities we adults used to occupy our time, attention during the “love in” events!! Perhaps we played more adult type card games: Gin Rummy or Poker rather than Memory or Old Maid but the idea was definitely inspired by preschool classrooms!!
Even if the people behaving in hateful ways did not themselves have any social-emotional growth that day it certainly helped us who were sitting on the floor! It helped us to model kindness and empathy for each other. The thing I remember most vividly, even all these years later, was how many of us left those events feeling better than when we had arrived, and openly said so. We felt better for having been loved and being loving…independent of whether our actions succeeded in changing the harmful policies that day or not. Preschool teachers, like you describe yourself, are excellent life coaches!! Thank you for being and doing what you do!!!! ❤❤
As my mother used to say, “Don’t reward bad behavior. She, too, taught three-year-olds for a time.
Absolutely!!! And your mother’s saying applies to all ages!!! Reward good behavior!! Openly like and enjoy pleasant things! Be proud and happy about ordinary things that work well! We get “more” of what we focus on.
It shouldn’t be a difficult concept to grasp that rewarding bad behavior only begets more bad behavior.
I was heartened to read that love overcame hate at Heathen Brewing. Bring on the tsumani of love!!
Yes!!! A tsunami of love!!!! ❤
Apparently today is my day to be reminded of ‘One Love’ and to focus on the positive. Indeed when I move forward with this always in view it becomes reality, even in the face of adversity or division around me. It tends to encourage unity with others when one walks in love. As you noted those who want to rail against it just kind of subside when faced with unified love and joy. It may or may not change their hearts, but it changes their actions which begins to change our shared world. Thanks for continuing to share your love and positivity with us, Sue!!
I love the White Elephant. 😀 Made me smile. Have a great week!!! <3
I enjoyed your descriptions of overcoming prejudice with the loving behavior (ignore the perpetrators of bad behavior). Hey, I use the ignoring technique on my dog, too. 🙂 One thing that amused me (and I relate to) is the positive feeling of your favorite socks being clean. What is it about favorite socks? Love it!