Thursday, March 5, 2020

Roll On

Inspirational song: Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)

Today was a hard day for lots of people, me included. Misogyny is still very strong in this country, and we had to face it publicly while still maintaining equanimity all day. The most talented, empathetic, qualified human I could have hoped for has been drummed out of the race to lead this country. I have to hope a dream deferred is not a dream denied. I need a day or two to grieve properly before I am back on my feet, ready to keep moving forward. And that's all I will say about that.

I'm used up. I had to get to work early this morning, to do my annual update continuing education class. We were supposed to have this a month ago, but a snowstorm made the roads unsafe, so we delayed it until today. I have been still a little out of my headspace while I keep chasing down the bits of me that are falling apart. Even with noticeably reduced mental acuity, I was much more focused than during this same class last year. This year the details made sense, my questions were relevant, and my participation in class discussion was informed. When the test was handed out, the words didn't dance off the page unread as they did last year. (I failed last year's quiz by a point, because I just could not read words. I've long blamed the illnesses that were as yet undiagnosed, fairly or unfairly. This year I passed with no trouble.)

Among the things we discussed at length were intellectual property rights and permissions for photography in marketing and social media. We talked about what is and isn't appropriate in this age of documenting and posting everything we look at, everywhere we go. It drove home to me how close to the edge I've been playing it by taking pictures as I worked, like when I did open houses. Sometimes I'd take a picture of a bookshelf or a kitchen or whatever. I have decided from here on out, I'm not ever going to do that again. I don't know that I'll go back and scrub out photos I posted in years past (I might), but going forward, there won't be any from inside houses unless I have explicit permission to put in this space. It doesn't seem worth the risk. I can find other ways to illustrate my writing. It's not like the pictures always match the stories anyway. To wit:

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