It is Sunday evening at the cottage; the floodlights just got turned on so I can look at the creek as I write. An other worldly fog hung about the creek this morning as I rose early to prepare for doing coffee hour after the 10:30 service at Christ Church. About every six weeks I do one and it always is comforting to me, a bit like throwing a small party [which everyone who knows me, knows I like to do every now and again].
Friday, Donald J Trump became the 45th President of the United States. As unlikely a thought as it might have been a year ago, it is now our reality. My best friend from high school, Tom Fudali, and still one of the dearest people on earth to me, said tonight when we were chatting: we own him. He IS our President. So, he is.
Mine eyes dazzle…
Like doing coffee hour at church today, I have found myself in doing things that make me feel cozy. Right now, while looking at my creek, Ella Fitzgerald is singing the great American songbook. There is a fire in the Franklin Stove.
It is my intent, going forward to embrace hygge. Now what the hell is that you are asking. It began to surface just a few weeks before the election and there have been a number of articles since the election about hygge.
It’s a Nordic word for living a cozy life. And if ever there was a time when I wanted to be living a cozy life it’s now. Recently, I find I am reading the Food Section of the New York Times before I look at the news. I think that’s hygge. By the way, it’s pronounced “hue-gah.”
It’s become a phenomenon in Britain. After all, they must deal with Brexit. We must deal with Trump. Seems to be a time for a little bit of hygge.
Which is why I am sitting here, a martini next to me, the lights on the creek, Ella Fitzgerald playing. How much more hygge could I be?
And that’s not the whole story, a retreat into comfort while the world is teetering. Away from hygge, is the fact I am becoming, more than I have ever been, an activist.
Yesterday, there were marches by women to protest the President’s questionable record of dealings with women. The women were joined by many men. Some of my friends went to New York and some went to Washington, DC. Me, I marched here in Hudson. It’s been a long time, maybe ever, that I could deal with the kind of crowds that were in New York or Washington or Sydney or…
So, I marched in Hudson. It was expected there would be about 200 or 250 people who would show up and it was more like a 1000 or 1200 and everyone was amazed. And that seems to be the story around the country, more showed up that were expected.
Donald Trump has disputed the numbers who showed up for his inauguration. Sean Spicer has claimed the numbers were amazing but the facts don’t seem to cooperate that. Spicer gave “alternative facts” to the facts.
Do I feel I am living in an alternative reality? Oh, yes.
And in my time when I am not being an activist, I am determined to be very hygge. God knows I will need it. And I was doing hygge before hygge was fashionable.
Go, be hygge! And do not hygge so much you forget about what is going on…
Letter from the Vineyard 
January 23, 2017 at 3:49 pm |
I guess that is why it means so much to me to sit quietly in my comfortable chair and just think or be or write. Other times I like to cook something that makes the whole house smell delicious. I guess I too am in that mode when I am not signing petitions or discussing the current situation. I think many of us are. I think that is because deep down we know that this could be a long up hill battle that we must win so we want to have strength when it is needed. Thank you Mat for this clarification and for sharing both your adventures and comfort with me and all of those who read this.
January 23, 2017 at 7:02 pm |
Thanks, Susan. I just got a new chair to do just that and I cook too, loving having people fill my little cottage with their warmth. We will all be hygge for the reason you said — strength for the battle.