A Stone in the RiverSolstice, Book Group, and Sweet Treats
First, Happy Solstice! James decided it was a good burger holiday and whipped up some lentil-beet-seitan burgers with sautéed onions, mushrooms, radish from the garden, arugula from the garden, and a tasty vegan ranch dressing sandwiched on whole wheat multigrain sourdough bread that I made. A delicious way to celebrate summer!
Second, Happy Father’s Day to fathers and father-figures!
Book Group
One of the things that has grown out of all the community and neighborhood stuff post Operation Metro Surge is a neighborhood social justice book group. We had our second meeting yesterday on Saturday at a nearby park because the weather was so fine.
Because we are all busy people, the group organizers decided that we would give ourselves two months and two meetings to discuss the book. That way at the first meeting you don’t have to be finished with the book, just far enough along to discuss some salient points. It kind of drags things out, but also I completely understand the reasoning and I am just fine with it.
The first meeting in May had an attendance of about 17 people. Yesterday there were only six of us with a number of folks out of town or having to deal with last minute emergencies of one sort or another.
I have not been involved with a book group in years, but a social justice book group, one in which we read pretty much all nonfiction, lends itself to a broader discussion beyond, “did you like the book?” That is a nice thing. But it turns out there are still people who have not read the book and yet manage to nearly monopolize the entire conversation. This happened yesterday when a person who just found out about the group Thursday turned up without even knowing what the book we were set to discuss was.
The book, One Day Everyone Will Have been Against This by Omar El Akkad, is about the Palestinian genocide and an indictment of the press, writers, and liberals who always have room on their lawns for signs but when it comes down to brass tacks have zero commitment to making any sort of change or even bearing witness to atrocity (too depressing and upsetting!). It is a very good book I read last fall and then skimmed through to refresh my memory. I highly recommend it. I really want to read his novel, American War. Has anyone read it?
So new clueless person joins the group and any time someone says something specific about the book, they start talking, veering off on tangents not related to the book, but to personal thoughts and experiences that were sparked by what someone said about the book. And they talked. And talked. And talked. People were clearly frustrated. I, or someone else, would try and bring the conversation back to the book, and then this person would once again launch the conversation away from the book. So frustrating!
Our book next month is Seize the Time by Bobby Seale about the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. It will be interesting to see what happens with this person next month. The book is sadly out of print so extra grateful for libraries! And also, I just discovered the Internet Archive has the book available to borrow.
The best thing about the meeting was sitting outside on a beautiful morning connecting with neighbors. And also, there were some baby sparrows practicing flying near our picnic table. One of them landed in the basket on the back of James’s bike. Another landed on my shoulder! The parents were frantically trying to keep track of the youngsters and keep them safe. They kept flitting around, calling to the kids, and trying to keep them sort of contained and not succeeding, which raised the pitch of their calls. I’m sure parents everywhere can relate!
Food
James asked me to take the weekend off from sourdough bread baking because we still have most of a loaf of multigrain whole wheat in the freezer. So the magnificent food making goes to James this week with some delicious sweet treats.
Cinnamon rolls:
And for our Beloved Community Circle gathering Friday night, a rhubarb crisp made with fresh picked rhubarb from the garden:
I was off Friday for Juneteenth and we took the opportunity to go grocery shopping. The place we shop has a large serviceberry tree that was covered in ripe and ripening berries and no one eating them except the birds. So we helped ourselves to some and James put them in our Sunday morning sourdough discard waffles. Soo delicious! There is a serviceberry in the garden but it is too small yet to fruit. I look forward to the day when it does so we can enjoy more than one morning’s waffles’ worth.
After our book group meeting Saturday we biked over to a nearby mulberry tree and picked some ripe mulberries. Those will go in our morning porridge Monday or Tuesday. There is a mulberry tree in the garden, but it is still too small to fruit. It has grown to shoulder height, so maybe in a year or two there will be some fruit.
I am on vacation all of this coming week and look forward to spending the entirety of every morning in the garden. I’m sure I will have stories and photos to share.
#BobbySeale #bookGroup #cinnamonRolls #mulberry #OmarElAkkad #Palestine #rhubarbCrisp #serviceberry #sparrows #summerSolstice
Iridie
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