Rebecca and I hiked Taylor Mountain again today. Summer feels like it’s racing towards us like a lion bearing down on the wounded gazelle that is my anxiety. Once we get through graduation, it feels like we’re getting set adrift in the ocean of Adult Life and being told to swim. We were lying on a grassy hillside near the top together when I told Rebecca that, and she laughed.
“I don’t know,” she chuckled. “Maybe not an ocean, but kind of like climbing a mountain.”
I made a show of shrugging my shoulders. “Oh, well, we’re already doing that,” I said, “so then no biggy.”
“Exactly.” She let a sigh escape through a brittle smile, then held my hand a little tighter.
I just watched the clouds drift lazily overhead.
“Mt. Adulthood, Expedition Log, Day 17,” I said, like I was speaking into a voice recorder. “It feels like years since leaving base camp, um, Childhood Charlie. The time goes by fast. The crew seems excited to reach the Early-Twenties Foothills, but looks like a lot of steep climbing from there.”
I could feel her looking at me, but she didn’t add anything right away.
“Day 28. Thirties Ridge is a lot closer now,” she said. “Some of the team are scared. It’s those damn economy nightmares again. They keep saying we’re going to be poor forever. It started a fight, with others saying we should have taken TikTok Trail earlier, made it to Influencer Station by now.”
I laughed. “Day 33. We got snowed in by another storm of marriage pressures the other night. We lost Jeff. Between that and losing John and Cheryl, our numbers are starting to dwindle. They left for Parenthood Pass yesterday. Radio-silent, beacons dark on radar. Hope they’re okay, but I hear those are some sleepless slopes.”
Becky turned to me. “You really think John and Cheryl stay together after graduation?” she asked.
I chewed my cheek for a second. “I guess not,” I said. “She wants to move to Arizona, right?” She shrugged her shoulders at that.
“Yeah,” she said finally, “but she also talks about studying abroad in France. She says a lot of things.”
“Oh, that’s a good point.” I clear my throat dramatically. “Day 45. A lot of us are scattered now. I asked our guide, Joel, if he thinks we’ll ever reach American Retirement Summit. He laughed and told me to focus on getting across the Mid-Life Narrows and then we’ll see.”
The wind blew up the hillside and whistled through the grass, neither of us saying anything.
“Or,” Rebecca whispered, “we could just burn the whole system down.”
“We’re here! This is the place!” Becky enthused, blue sky eyes twinkling with the assuredness of being in the right place among the right people.
“OK, you’ve talked me into it, but I still just don’t know how yoga is going to do anything for me. I just can’t stand the smell of incense; it’s so weird,” said Debbi.
“I told you, it’s not yoga! You’re not getting any younger, girlfriend. Just try it. If nothing else, everyone leaves with really good posture,” Becky replied.
“Well, as long as it isn’t all weird…” said Debbi, nose wrinkling at the imagined sandalwood smoke and sweaty brown bodies.
But no, it wasn’t like that at all. The closed venetian blinds swung and rattled slightly when they opened the glass door; the women and few men inside were all red-blooded Americans.
Soon, Debbi and Becky were settled on the mats, warming up, waiting for the class to begin.
“Oh, I’m so stiff,” said Debbi. “Right here in my back.”
“You slouch too much,” said Becky. “These classes are all about feeling proud of who you are. It’s your right to stand tall for Chrissake.”
“Well, I am sick of feeling bad about everything all the time. I just want things to be normal, you know?” Debbi looked around the room again as she reached weakly for the toes of one foot, then another.
Just when she was starting to wonder when the class would begin, a teacher came out with a headset mic and an outfit she was truly envious of—rock hard body sheathed in a MAGA-red headband.
“I’m Kaitlyn, y’all,” hollered the instructor into the PA. “I hope you’re here to get out of your own way, cause we’re about to kick your Debbie Downer in her flabby butt!”
Becky winked at Debbi.
The exercises started simple, then instruction got more specific. Kaitlyn’s corrections became more harsh, as the group became more in sync. Soon no deviation from the group in form or movement was spared a recrimination from the ruthless teacher.
“Whether you are ready or not, we’re going to get you there! You’re about to be who you really are! And-a one, and-a two,” said Kaitlyn.
Bodies moved in unison, backs, legs, arms, heads held just so, one bold, brave, uniform mass of unity visible in the mirror.
Debbi watched her reflection as she followed the shouted instructions. Each person stood tall and proud for Kaitlyn’s every word.
“Legs now! March in place!” she commanded. Debbi matched the others as they swung up their legs straight forward, then back down, left, right, left, right.
“Now, add your arms!” Kaitlyn shouted, “Like your life depends on it, and … Right! … Right! … Right!”
In the mirror there Debbi was, standing tall, launching forward her right arm, saluting her growth, her freedom, her right to be herself—one goose step at a time.
Ask Ann Tussey what motivated her to start Southern-style Sweet T’s Restaurant + Bar, and she’ll tell you it was her husband’s love of Southern barbecue.
She is the co-owner, chef and managing partner behind Sweet T’s, the family-owned and operated Windsor restaurant and the winner of the Best of the North Bay’s Best Restaurant and Best Fried Chicken categories for Sonoma County.
Ann is a charming, friendly Southerner who cajoles clients and teases staff and will pose in a selfie with you. She was born in Virginia but grew up in Arkansas. She also lived in Mississippi, New York and finally Georgia, where she worked in mortgage banking–a career path she had chosen when restaurant work proved unconducive to raising a child. This is where she met her future husband, Dennis Tussey, the inspiration behind Sweet T’s.
A Southern Californian with a 30 year career in mortgage banking, Dennis relocated to Sonoma County in 1983. Ann and her daughter, Megan, joined Dennis in Sonoma County in 2004.
In 2008, the economy went into a recession, particularly affecting the mortgage business, which was the impetus for starting Sweet T’s.
In 2011, Dennis suggested starting a Southern restaurant because of his fondness for chopped-pork barbecue, lima beans and all the other familiar accompaniments he experienced while working in Georgia.
Ann was skeptical that Nor Cal wine lovers and foodies would welcome such humble food and drink, but they found a beautiful ready-to-go spot in the Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa. Sweet T’s opened its doors in November 2011 serving southern favorites such as Memphis-style BBQ, fried chicken, shrimp and grits, catfish and other Southern favorites. Similar to the more elegant restaurants of Savannah and Charleston, Sweet T’s also offered a full bar with an extensive bourbon and whiskey collection, a requirement of Dennis’s.
Their customer base grew tremendously through word of mouth as their neighbors on the hill began to share their neighborhood restaurant with friends and family. “Customers used to say, ‘I tell everybody about this place!’ Once we became busy, they started jokingly saying, ‘I’m not telling anybody else about this place; y’all are too busy! I can never get in.’”
Visit Sweet T’s Restaurant + Bar in Windsor, California, for some authentic Memphis-style BBQ.
The name Sweet T’s was in part to evoke the notion of sweet tea, often the beverage of choice throughout the South. Ann jokes, “When the staff asks me if the sweet tea is sweet enough, I tell them it’s sweet enough if your lips stick together.”
Sweet T’s is also a reference to Dennis’s demeanor–and the first initial of his last name. Ann’s late mother, Carol, originally from North Carolina, referred to Dennis as “Mr. T” and thought he was “the sweetest man in the world.”
They miss their original location and neighbors in Fountaingrove, but the new location in Windsor has proven to be a great second home after the Tubbs Fire. While Ann loved the charm of the original Sweet T’s, it was a lot of fun working with designers Mark Wilson and Yoko Ishihara to redesign the former Denny’s space into something “straight out of San Francisco.”
They reopened in their new Windsor location on March 7, 2019, and have been busy ever since. Their team includes local legend George Ah Chin and a lot of the original “OG’s” from Fountaingrove, much to their regulars’ delight. They’ve also recently hired a new GM, Summer Hamilton, and Director of Operations, Todd Philips, who’ve both recently relocated from Savannah, Georgia. Their backgrounds are in hospitality, and their focus at the moment is revamping the wine list to include more small-production wineries that are focused on sustainable farming and growing practices.
A large selection of southern favorites populate the menu at Sweet T’s.
Also new on the horizon, next door to its Windsor location, Sweet T’s is opening its take out operation “Sweet T’s On The Fly”. Featuring an a la carte menu, as well as weekly specials exclusive to the counter service eatery, they will also be offering bottled wine, a selection of bottled craft cocktails, and bbq rubs.
“Restaurants are more than a place to eat,” Ann said, describing the pleasure she and her staff get from seeing the expressions on customers’ faces when they’re enjoying the food. “We love what we do, and we love to eat. Hopefully that comes through in the food. ”
What’s the secret to Sweet T’s often-honored fried chicken? Ann characterized it as having a crispy outside and a moist, juicy inside. A lot of people love buttermilk fried chicken, but growing up, Ann remembers her mom cooking chicken in a cast iron skillet. That’s the inspiration behind their fried chicken.
“I tell my staff you’re only as good as the last plate of food you served. You can’t rest on your laurels. You have to care every single day and always put your best foot forward. And that way of thinking has paid off. Our customer base has grown extensively over the years through word of mouth. We’re thankful for that, and for the diverse community that we’re part of.”
Sweet T’s Restaurant + Bar, 9098 Brooks Road, South, Windsor, open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, 707- 687-5185, SweetTsSouthern.com.
The San Geronimo Valley Community Center makes a birthday wish on behalf of its recently retired youth team director, Howie Cort, and invites community members to celebrate her “Birthday Palooza” with her band, Howie’s Persuasion, with the release of their new Aunt June’s Basement. The gig starts at 6pm, Thursday, April 6 at Giaco’s Valley Roadhouse, 625 San Geronimo Valley Dr., San Geronimo. This is the first of several fundraising concerts hosted in partnership with the center and roadhouse—proceeds will benefit the center’s food bank, youth tutoring, childcare and athletic programs, and myriad arts and events. Tickets are $50 and are available at bit.ly/howie23.
Santa Rosa
Dynamic Duo
Montana natives turned Angelenos turned traveling musicians Joselyn & Don find their way to The Lost Church at 8pm, Thursday, April 1, where they will share the bill with local folksters The Musers. The duo perform a mix of modern folk/Americana with additional hues of blues and jazz (their recent release, Seeds & Bones, is currently number five on the Roots Music Report’s Americana Album Chart). The Lost Church is located at 427 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $20 and are available at tinyurl.com/JoselynDonTheMusersApr1.
Petaluma
Whiskey School
Barber Lee Spirits head distiller Mark Barber invites whiskey fans of all persuasions (novice to expert) to an epic info dump that could aptly be titled, “Everything you wanted to know about whiskey but were afraid to ask.” The educational evening and tasting will explore the liquor’s different production methods, ingredients, the secrets to decoding whiskey labels, as well as the various histories of different whiskey styles by country—from Scotland, Ireland and the U.S. to Japan and Canada. Class begins at 7pm, Thursday, April 13 at Barber Lee Spirits, 120 Washington St., Petaluma. Tickets are $40 (and include notes, snacks and water). Visit bit.ly/whiskey-class.
Napa
Little Italy Historic Walking Tour
On Saturday, April 15, local retired judge and native Napan Ray Guadagni conducts a walking tour of Napa’s Little Italy neighborhood, which thrived in the mid-20th century. The two-hour tour begins at 10am, Saturday, April 15, in front of Avow Restaurant, 813 Main St., Napa (which is the site of the former Fagiani’s Cocktail Lounge and Liquor Store and where, incidentally, one of the most infamous murders in Napa history occurred. In fact, Guadagni presided over the 2011 murder trial and wrote the book, The Napa Murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews: A Cold Case That Caught a Serial Killer). Refreshments will be served at the tour’s end. For more information, visit Napacountylandmarks.org.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sometimes, I give you suggestions that may, if you carry them out, jostle your routines and fluster your allies. But after trying out the new approaches for a short time, you may chicken out and revert to old habits. That’s understandable! It can be difficult to change your life. Here’s an example. What if I encourage you to cancel your appointments and wander out into the wilderness to discuss your dreams with the birds? And what if, during your adventure, you are flooded with exhilarating yearnings for freedom? And then you decide to divest yourself of desires that other people want you to have and instead revive and give boosts to desires that you want yourself to have? Will you actually follow through with brave practical actions that transform your relationship with your deepest longings?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have done all you can for now to resolve and expunge stale, messy karma—some of which was left over from the old days and old ways. There may come a time in the future when you will have more cleansing to do, but you have now earned the right to be as free from your past and as free from your conditioning as you have ever been. APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, you still need to spend a bit more time resolving and expunging stale, messy karma. But you’re almost done!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Businessperson Robert Bigelow hopes to eventually begin renting luxurious rooms in space. For $1.7 million per night, travelers will enjoy accommodations he provides on his orbiting hotel, 200 miles above the Earth’s surface. Are you interested? I bet more Geminis will be signing up for this exotic trip than any other sign. You’re likely to be the journeyers most excited by the prospect of sailing along at 17,000 miles per hour and witnessing 16 sunsets and sunrises every 24 hours. APRIL FOOL! In fact, you Geminis are quite capable of getting the extreme variety you crave and need right here on the planet’s surface. And during the coming weeks, you will be even more skilled than usual at doing just that.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to become the overlord of your own fiefdom, or seize control of a new territory and declare yourself chieftain, or overthrow the local hierarchy and install yourself as the sovereign ruler of all you survey. APRIL FOOL! I was metaphorically exaggerating a bit—but just a bit. I do in fact believe now is an excellent phase to increase your clout, boost your influence and express your leadership. Be as kind you can be, of course, but also be rousingly mighty and fervent.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his poem, “The Something,” Charles Simic writes, “Here come my night thoughts on crutches, returning from studying the heavens. What they thought about stayed the same. Stayed immense and incomprehensible.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you Leos will have much the same experience in the coming weeks. So there’s no use in even hoping or trying to expand your vision. APRIL FOOL! I lied. The truth is, you will not have Simic’s experience. Just the opposite. When your night thoughts return from studying the heavens, they will be full of exuberant, inspiring energy. (And what exactly are “night thoughts”? They are bright insights you discover in the darkness.)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): If there will ever come a time when you will find a gold bullion bar on the ground while strolling around town, it will be soon. Similarly, if you are destined to buy a winning $10 million lottery ticket or inherit a diamond mine in Botswana, that blessing will arrive soon. APRIL FOOL! I was exaggerating a bit. The truth is, I suspect you are now extra likely to attract new resources and benefits, though not on the scale of gold bullion, lottery winnings and diamond mines.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Do you have a muse, Libra? In my opinion, all of us need and deserve at least one muse, even if we’re not creative artists. A muse can be a spirit or hero or ally who inspires us, no matter what work and play we do. A muse may call our attention to important truths we are ignoring or point us in the direction of exciting future possibilities. According to my astrological analysis, you are now due for a muse upgrade. If you don’t have one, get one—or even more. If you already have a relationship with a muse, ask more from it. Nurture it. Take it to the next level.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Dear Valued Employee: Our records show you haven’t used any vacation time over the past 100 years. As you may know, workers get three weeks of paid leave per year or else receive pay in lieu of time off. One added week is granted for every five years of service. So please, sometime soon, either take 9,400 days off work or notify our office, and your next paycheck will reflect payment of $8,277,432, including pay and interest for the past 1,200 months. APRIL FOOL! Everything I just said was an exaggeration. But there is a grain of truth in it. The coming weeks should bring you a nice surprise or two concerning your job.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian poet and artist William Blake (1757–1827) was a hard-working visionary prophet with an extravagant imagination. His contemporaries considered him a freaky eccentric, though today we regard him as a genius. I invite you to enjoy your own personal version of a Blake-like phase in the coming weeks. It’s a perfect time to dynamically explore your idiosyncratic inclinations and creative potentials. Be bold, even brazen, as you celebrate what makes you unique. BUT WAIT! Although everything I just said is true, I must add a caveat: You don’t necessarily need to be a freaky eccentric to honor your deepest, most authentic truths and longings.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Some of my friends disapprove of cosmetic surgery. I remind them that many cultures throughout history have engaged in body modification. In parts of Africa and Borneo, for example, people stretch their ears. Some Balinese people get their teeth filed. Women of the Indigenous Kyan people in Thailand elongate their necks using brass coils. Anyway, Capricorn, this is my way of letting you know that the coming weeks would be a favorable time to change your body. APRIL FOOL! It’s not my place to advise you about whether and how to reshape your body. Instead, my job is to encourage you to deepen and refine how your mind understands and treats your body. And now is an excellent time to do that.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I invite you to make a big change. I believe it’s crucial if you hope to place yourself in maximum alignment with current cosmic rhythms. Here’s my idea: Start calling yourself by the name “Genius.” You could even use it instead of the first name you have used all these years. Tell everyone that from now on, they should address you as “Genius.” APRIL FOOL! I don’t really think you should make the switch to Genius. But I do believe you will be extra smart and ultra-wise in the coming weeks, so it wouldn’t be totally outrageous to refer to yourself as “Genius.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Your body comprises 30 trillion human cells and 39 trillion microbial cells, including the bacteria that live within you. And in my astrological estimation, those 69 trillion life forms are vibrating in sweet harmony with all the money in the world. Amazing! Because of this remarkable alignment, you now have the potential to get richer quicker. Good economic luck is swirling in your vicinity. Brilliant financial intuitions are likely to well up in you. The Money God is far more amenable than usual to your prayers. APRIL FOOL! I was exaggerating a bit. But I do believe you now have extra ability to prime your cash flow.
Voted Damn Best Hair in Sonoma County—John Courage Trio, with special guest, 8pm, Friday, April 7. $10.
The Flamingo Resort
2777 4th St., Santa Rosa. vintagespacesr.com.
jackLNDN is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and producer, known for electronic music (and aversion to vowels). 9pm, Friday, March 31.
21+. $15-$20.
Green Music Center
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. gmc.sonoma.edu.
Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott (famed cellist and pianist, respectively) will thrash and trash everyone from Mendelssohn to Piazzola at 3pm, Sunday, April 2. Tickets $65–$175.
Hopmonk Tavern Sebastopol
230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. Hopmonk.com.
Pete Floyd (a Pink Floyd tribute) wishes you were here. 8pm, Friday, March 31. $20.
The Lost Church
427 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. thelostchurch.org.
Folksters Joselyn & Don and The Musers join forces and launch Folktopia. 7:30pm, Saturday, Apri 1. $20.
The Phoenix Theater
201 Washington St., Petaluma. thephoenixtheater.com.
Cartilage, Iron Front, Wroht, Hexen House, Postnasal Drainage. All ages, of course.
8pm, Friday, March 31. $10.
Peri’s Tavern
29 Broadway, Fairfax. peristavern.com.
Get wrecked and/or strange with the Wreckless Strangers when they play this beloved West Marin enclave. 9pm, Friday, April 7. $10-$13.
Our people need to wake all the way up before we can claim to be woke.
Being woke to national socialism that tries to impose an end to racism and sexism, or being woke to fascism that wants to enforce the same parental rights for everyone isn’t very politically enlightened at all.
America today is like America during the pandemic, only just a little less rattled. Then, education was put on hold, criminal justice was put on hold, social life was put on hold. Today we are back to “normal,” but that normal is our pre-pandemic habit of backsliding into ignorance, lawlessness and social isolation.
A few generations ago, kids actually learned something in school, society prevented and punished crime, and young people got married and had kids. Not so much anymore.
Given our lack of real wokeness, our recent public health crisis was just the first of others to come. Our educational pandemic is only in its early stages.
Our justice pandemic is digging deeper roots yet. Our social pandemic is looking more and more like China’s. Our overall political pandemic is just heating up. The framers of our Constitution had the key. We need to study the history of our own laws before we can be truly woke. We need civics in a big way.
Kimball Shinkoskey is a North Bay native, author and longtime state government worker who frequently speaks to the need for citizen participation, a renewed democracy and constitutional limits on absolute power.
It was the late 1970s. Molly Murphy MacGregor, a graduate student at Sonoma State University (SSU), taught a lively class on Women and Social Change at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Petaluma campus.
Momentum to study, uplift and celebrate women grew throughout the decade nationally and in Northern California; students and faculty at SSU pushed to create a women’s studies major in 1972, the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade in 1973 and Dr. Angela Davis rose to international renown as a professor, author and revolutionary fighting for women’s rights and Black liberation.
MacGregor and a group of local women would go on to create the first Women’s History Week in Sonoma County schools in 1978. Two years later, President Jimmy Carter called for Women’s History Week to be recognized nationally. In 1987, a Congressional resolution established Women’s History Month as a national phenomenon. This year will be MacGregor’s 43rd and final year as executive director of the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA).
She didn’t grow up planning to dedicate her life to teaching women’s history. Her conversion, as she calls it, took place while she was a high school teacher. When a student asked her about the women’s movement, MacGregor found herself speechless. At that moment, she recognized how little she knew and taught about women. That recognition proved pivotal, changing the course of MacGregor’s life.
At SRJC, many of MacGregor’s students were young mothers returning to school. A few of these parents went to their childrens’ grade school libraries to check out books about women’s history. According to MacGregor, they found almost nothing—five to seven books, which hadn’t been checked out for years.
“We knew they hadn’t been checked out because teachers hadn’t assigned them. And teachers hadn’t assigned them because teachers were never taught women’s history. All of us teach what we know,” MacGregor says.
Galvanized by a shared desire to provide the curriculum schools lacked, MacGregor and her students approached the Sonoma County Office of Education and asked to put Women’s History Week on school calendars. Soon after, MacGregor was among a group of women who formed the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women.
MacGregor says, “We would provide teachers with resources and resource women to come in and talk during that week. Our goal was always to empower teachers and educate them as much as we could.”
GROW Women’s History Week eventually became National Women’s History Month. Photo courtesy of Molly MacGregor
To create women’s history curricula, the women had to rely on source materials that underscored how dire the need for women’s history truly was. “When we started writing all the biographies we wrote, the most prestigious [source material] we read would make you think all these women had sprung from the head of Zeus—all you heard about were their fathers,” MacGregor exclaims.
Over the past 43 years, MacGregor says the country’s collective awareness of women has grown exponentially. Much of the misogyny was not deliberate, according to her.
“There was extraordinary unconscious bias against women. We had to really prove that women had been great artists and scientists….Going back to any culture at any time, you’ll find out that women were substantial in every single aspect of the development of history, but people did not realize,” she says.
MacGregor attributes the national success of Women’s History Month to bipartisan support. In 1981, Reps. Orrin Hatch and Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first joint Congressional resolution proclaiming Women’s History Week.
Yet the need for bipartisan support also kept MacGregor and other lesbians in the movement in the closet about their sexual orientation for decades to come. While supportive of women’s history curriculum, Hatch opposed LGBTQ+ rights bills until at least 2012.
“Was there lesbian energy behind our work? You betcha,” says MacGregor.
She continues, “Lesbians were among the first people to understand that women were important. Women’s studies was always a women-loving-women supportive space.”
Each year, the NWHA chooses a theme for Women’s History Month. In their magazine, Women’s History, MacGregor writes, “Throughout 2023, ‘Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories,’ encourages recognition of women past and present who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling, including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts and more.”
Articles within the issue highlight women storytellers who amplify stories from within their own communities. The magazine spotlights Indigenous women storytellers who upheld their cultural traditions even when the U.S. outlawed storytelling in the Code of Indian Offenses in the 1880s.
In the article, “Telling Black Women’s Stories,” Cynthia Denise Robinson Smith writes, “Storytelling is important and dates to slavery. Blacks were forbidden to read and write. It was illegal and could also be fatal. The only avenue available to them was talking about it.”
MacGregor says reading the stories of countless women of color throughout history has shaped and expanded her. “I grew up with a terrible amount of white privilege, and I was so under-educated about it. I’m 77 now, and I say that means I’ve had a lifetime to unlearn some of the lies I was told growing up,” she says.
Although she is heartened by much of the activism and care she sees locally, MacGregor feels there’s a lot to fight for in the U.S. right now. She is deeply shaken about Roe v. Wade being overturned, calls to ban books and attacks on trans children.
“It’s facism that we’re facing,” MacGregor says. Then she asks, “Who are these people that are so afraid of learning about the complexities of our history?”
Despite her many grave concerns, MacGregor is confident that younger generations have the numbers and power to fight.
As quickly as she gets fired up about what worries her, MacGregor becomes effervescent about what makes her hopeful. Last week, women in Vietnam, Spain and Germany called her to ask advice on how to start a Women’s History Week.
“I know you’re writing about me, but I can’t tell you how important it is to recognize all the women who founded this with me and the hundreds of thousands of women since,” MacGregor says.
***
Continuing Education: In celebration of local activists uplifting the history of women in and around Sonoma County, the author of this article recommends:
“I feel strangely awake,” Cleopatra says as she readies the poisonous snake that will take her life, “as if living had been just a dream—somebody else’s dream.” The poignant scene comes at the end of the 1963 cinematic masterpiece starring Elizabeth Taylor, and harkens to the famous Latin quotation, “Vita somnium breve est,” or life is but a short dream.
The deeper we journey into the inner world of the soul, the more unreal the physical world starts to seem, ruled as it is by the law of impermanence. In hypnagogic states—which can be achieved by lying down in the afternoon and entering that twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep, when visions seem to dislodge from some inner wellspring and float into our minds like soap bubbles—we find that there is a hidden realm ever creating the soul’s reality while eliminating everything external and extraneous.
In the ancient symbol of the cross—formed by two intersecting lines, one infinite and the other changing—we see that this deepest part of ourselves belongs to the vertical line of Being, and intuit that this self must have descended into earthly incarnation to live out a dream in the realm of Becoming before reawakening and returning to the light from whence it came.
In an Italian esoteric text from a century ago, an anonymous initiate speaks of his first experience of entering a state in which he felt “whole, sufficient unto myself, independent of any person or circumstance, eternal, inhabitant of my own universe,” and “awake in that immense peace in which all beings were dreaming and sleeping.”
Gone was everything in life that was “muddled and confused in the disquiet of desires,” and his sense of self felt purified, released into pure intelligence “to behold in a timeless world the infinite marvel of all things.” This deepest self was experienced as “something absolutely impersonal living in me,” a “supreme beauty” that could be summoned at will when the mind is untroubled and still.
“It is the dream of a god,” writes the initiate, “and I am the dream and the dreamer.”
Cleopata’s earthly life as an embodied ego was torn between romantic passions and clashing empires, all of which went the way of sand and dust. But before the writhing asp—fitting symbol of the primordial serpent of the life force—sunk its fangs into her body to release her soul, she was able to waken from her earthly dream and snatch a glimpse of the true empire of light, where the queen of the Nile would go after closing her eyes and crossing the wide river.
A one-time payment of $5 million to each eligible Black resident is among recommendations unanimously accepted by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors as part of a draft plan by a panel proposing reparations.
I am a 415 native, but even by San Francisco standards, this is beyond stupid. I look forward to giving a “thumbs down” to this pathetic gesture. Yes, a gesture. What about Asian Americans, women or Hispanics, as well as the myriad of other groups in San Francisco? It appears that the city is going to have a shortfall this coming fiscal year. So, how is the city actually going to make this gesture (payout)?
I suspect that the city will have to go to the state and request funds to do this. How is Gov. Gavin Newsom going to look declining this grotesque reparation? Will Sonoma County gleefully chip in to make San Francisco feel better? Will California?
Gary Sciford
Santa Rosa
Send your letters to the editor to editor@pacificsun or ed****@*****ys.com.
It’s about the journey
Rebecca and I hiked Taylor Mountain again today. Summer feels like it's racing towards us like a lion bearing down on the wounded gazelle that is my anxiety. Once we get through graduation, it feels like we're getting set adrift in the ocean of Adult Life and being told to swim. We were lying on a...
Yoga with an agenda
“We’re here! This is the place!” Becky enthused, blue sky eyes twinkling with the assuredness of being in the right place among the right people.
“OK, you’ve talked me into it, but I still just don’t know how yoga is going to do anything for me. I just can’t stand the smell of incense; it's so weird,”...
Sponsored by Sweet T's Restaurant + Bar
Ask Ann Tussey what motivated her to start Southern-style Sweet T’s Restaurant + Bar, and she’ll tell you it was her husband’s love of Southern barbecue.
She is the co-owner, chef and managing partner behind Sweet T’s, the family-owned and operated Windsor restaurant and the winner of the Best of the North...
San Geronimo
Holding Cort
The San Geronimo Valley Community Center makes a birthday wish on behalf of its recently retired youth team director, Howie Cort, and invites community members to celebrate her “Birthday Palooza” with her band, Howie's Persuasion, with the release of their new Aunt June’s Basement. The gig starts at 6pm, Thursday, April 6 at Giaco's Valley Roadhouse, 625...
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sometimes, I give you suggestions that may, if you carry them out, jostle your routines and fluster your allies. But after trying out the new approaches for a short time, you may chicken out and revert to old habits. That’s understandable! It can be difficult to change your life. Here’s an example. What if I...
Elephant in the Room
177 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Elephantintheroompub.com.
Voted Damn Best Hair in Sonoma County—John Courage Trio, with special guest, 8pm, Friday, April 7. $10.
The Flamingo Resort
2777 4th St., Santa Rosa. vintagespacesr.com.
jackLNDN is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and producer, known for electronic music (and aversion to vowels). 9pm, Friday, March 31.
21+. $15-$20.
Green Music Center
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. gmc.sonoma.edu.
Yo-Yo...
Time to study civics again
By Kimball Shinkoskey
Our people need to wake all the way up before we can claim to be woke.
Being woke to national socialism that tries to impose an end to racism and sexism, or being woke to fascism that wants to enforce the same parental rights for everyone isn’t very politically enlightened at all.
America today is...
It was the late 1970s. Molly Murphy MacGregor, a graduate student at Sonoma State University (SSU), taught a lively class on Women and Social Change at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Petaluma campus.
Momentum to study, uplift and celebrate women grew throughout the decade nationally and in Northern California; students and faculty at SSU pushed to create a women’s studies...
“I feel strangely awake,” Cleopatra says as she readies the poisonous snake that will take her life, “as if living had been just a dream—somebody else’s dream.” The poignant scene comes at the end of the 1963 cinematic masterpiece starring Elizabeth Taylor, and harkens to the famous Latin quotation, “Vita somnium breve est,” or life is but a short...
Reparations Reply
A one-time payment of $5 million to each eligible Black resident is among recommendations unanimously accepted by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors as part of a draft plan by a panel proposing reparations.
I am a 415 native, but even by San Francisco standards, this is beyond stupid. I look forward to giving a “thumbs down” to this pathetic...
