Midday Matinee is our people watching, people doing and people being feature. Join the Woodland Creatures for an afternoon break.
I am not a big crier. I did cry over sappy commercials when I was pregnant. I remember being especially moved by the Inglenook Wine commercials of graduations and weddings (late 70s).
Other than the state of hormones that accompanied pregnancy, I’m not much subject to being overcome by tears. I am much more of a fix it person than a sob over it person.
For some reason this video of protesters in Wisconsin and the bagpipers from the fire department moved me.
Otteray Scribe’s description of his 6-year-old daughter wanting to play the bagpipes because “because when I hear the pipes it makes my heart beat” moved me. Well, it had a cumulative effect. I was moved beyond tears to a state that might best be described as sobbing.
I am pondering this with a box of tissues as I write. I am also listening to bagpipe music on my iPod. I am embracing this sobbing state of being. One of my sons just called with a Minnesota snow update and picked up on my emotions. “Are you crying?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
As I started to try and explain, he interrupted me with advice I had once given to him. “Mom, take a deep breath and blow it out slowly.” I laughed which must have relieved him. “So what’s up Mom?”
I think since the elections I had been feeling so very much in the minority. I didn’t want to think that people could be so easily duped as they were by the Tea Party’s shallow promises. A lot of things I have believed in strongly for my entire adult life were being dismissed. Trashed. Ridiculed.
Somehow, the protesters in Wisconsin touched my heart deeply. I wish I could send each of them a personal thank you email. Seeing 70,000 people standing together for the right to bargain collectively was impressive. Reading their signs and their t-shirts got to me. There is strength in numbers.
A lot of times in my career in corporate America when I was the first woman or the only woman, tears might have done me in. I learned to fight back and to win. I taught myself to not cry. I brought more women and people of color into the management ranks. But most of the time, it was lonely.
Wisconsin was not lonely. It was a video documentary of the power of people standing together. Honestly, I’d much prefer that the protesters prevail but in a sense, whether they win or lose, they have given us all a gift- a reminder of the power of the people.
So why I am sobbing? Because I know that I am not alone.
Reader Comments Welcome.
5 days of protests in Madison WI
Feb 15-17
Feb 18-19
Wisconsin “Budget Repair Bill” Protest Pt 2 from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.
My Capitol building has never looked so beautiful. (Sorry … I have to go get a box of tissues also)
Thanks for the videos Jan and Crissie.
It is one thing to see vote totals on election night (or for up to 6 months if you’re a Minnesotan) and know lots of people voted the same way I did. It was different to see people”voting” with their presence at the protests.
And some pipes to round it off:
Lone Piper playing for a fallen hero
Thanks for this moving post, addisnana.
Fist bumps, my friend! You are NOT alone.
I intellectually know that I am NOT alone. I certainly feel in the company of kindred spirits here. I felt it working on Tarryl Clark’s campaign too. The Wisconsin protestors touched me.
Thanks, addisnana. You captured my feelings exactly. When 70,000 people can get together in WI to protest injustice, then we can all do it. I’m looking forward in coming days to ways I can join this fight.
I really feel the public is waking up. Having the Tea Party in power has been the ultimate shock as they see what is really planned.
Again, thank you.
Hugggs!
Huggs back my friend. I hope the public is startled into realizing that the Tea Party is nothing more than a wealth redistribution party like a Reverse Robin-hood.
Thanks addisnana
You are welcome JBF. Thanks for reading.
Ira Gershwins lyrics from 1938 reached me yesterday.
The more I read the papers, the less I comprehend
The world and all its capers and how it all will end.
Nothing seems to be lasting, but that isn’t our affair.
We’ve got something permanent,I mean in the way we care.
Jan: Can you Embed this?
😉
Thanks for that Jim. We have love and determination.
Here is a bit of music for anyone who has a bit of Celtic blood. For those who do not, you to can be a Scot for a moment in time today.
(Edit: Otteray Scribe – only Editors and Admins can link videos. It is a bandwidth protection issue. Just do what you did … post the link and someone will embed it)
Wish my daughter still played the pipes, OS. 🙂 Love them. For about five years she played in competitions. I miss the sound.
When we were in Key West we met “The World’s Southernmost Piper” as he called himself. He played every night on the pier and we were so impressed we bought his CD.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve seen the Edinburgh Tattoo before, but not this particular one.
Thanks OS. I know the pipes can sound melancholy because of the minor keys, but I was at a nature center wedding where a lone piper came piping up a ridge and it was beautiful.
Westerners tend to hear minor keys as poignant. The Japanese song “Sakura” …
… sounds like it must be sad, to Westerners. In fact it’s a celebration of Spring:
The Japanese use a different musical scale, and don’t hear minor chords as poignant.
The bagpipe drone is not only a minor chord, but a constant chord. The only pitch that changes is the melody, on the chanter. Playing a melody over a constant chord creates tension; we want the melody to resolve to the chord or vice-versa. Playing a melody over a constant minor chord adds poignancy to that tension. A march like “Scotland the Brave becomes ‘stirring.’ A ballad like “Amazing Grace” becomes ‘haunting.’ It’s what we’re trained to hear from birth.
Thank you for writing so eloquently what I think many of us have been feeling, addisnana. The protests in Wisconsin, and the outpouring of support for them from around the world, have shown that we are NOT alone in standing up for workers. I’ve cried more than a few times the past few days too.
The MN DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) asked for phone bank volunteers. Finally something I can DO! I think I’m past the crying stage today.
email for the wisconsin dems to volunteer to phone bank.