Bride of Good News Communique

by Ruby Sara

Hey friends and beloveds!  The weather has turned deadly gorgeous here in the fiercely wild urban midwest, which is a relief to many of us here in the city.  Today I bake bread!  Today I cook in my kitchen!  The light dapples and the wind sighs – the taste of autumn is hovering over the ground, and soon there will be more bread than iced tea.  The diamond days of rain struck by evening sunlight are nigh.  The grass mellows and sings, and the heat has a desperation to it, seeing in the ripening tomatoes its own mortality…

But I digress.  The other day, I was chatting with my co-ritualist and erstwhile roommate/squatter Johnny, who was remarking on his new-found love of short, link-heavy blog posts that allow him to feel like something is happening on his blog in between his longer more content-heavy posts.  “Ah yes,” I thought to myself, “I remember those…” and lo and behold, I decided right then and there to resurrect an old and semi-regular feature here at PG: the Good News Communique.

What was the purpose behind these originally?  Well, here’s the thing.  First, the World (meaning monocultural, hegemonic, patriarchal, military-industrial civilization) sucks.  You don’t need me to tell you that.  The heartstopping and ongoing ramifications of the recent oil spill in the gulf should be enough to prove my point, and that’s just the tiniest, weensiest tip of the shitburg.  I won’t litanize you with horrific details.  If you really want them, go read a newspaper (newspapers are those quaint anachronistic pieces of folded paper on which people used to acquire the news – like old school proto-twitter, man).  Point is, times are rough.

The other thing is that I happen to think the World (meaning the glory-filled, gobsmacking, a-mazing, astonishingly diverse wow-cool planet and the equally astonishing and hilarious art-making human animals that create on it) rocks.  When I read about the natural history of saffron or about some hedgehog that takes three days to perform its mating dance, I say to myself “Mama, you are effing and remarkably awesome.”

So, in the face of the horrible World, why not relish the astonishingly gorgeous World?  Good News exists, beloveds.  And don’t we all need it sometimes.  Now, I don’t believe in “positive thinking” and people who spout off dismissive platitudes about “attitudes of gratitude” make me throw up.  But I do believe in Good News.  I watch a potato plant skyrocket from an inch to three feet in a month, and I am on fire with amazement.  So it’s not about being positive, friends (frankly, I’m not sure that’s possible…again: see newspaper), but rather, it’s about celebration – dancing in the teeth of destruction.  Celebration as dissent. To celebrate that despite the horror, the planet is gorgeous and more incredibly complex than we can ever imagine, and people are weird, creative, interesting and wild.  Holding these two opposing emotions simultaneously is a challenge I put to myself, and to you.  The result may be the explosion of our hearts towards bliss, our minds towards revolution, and our bodies towards dancing.  Also, it will give me a chance to lighten up a little and read fun stuff about weird amphibians…and maybe even post more.  It’s a win-win, peeps.

So, without further blithering, I present to you the New and Just-As-Awesome Good News Communique #3012657, Creatures of Night, Brought to Light edition:

1. I anticipate not a few bits on every subsequent GNC to include something I read at Environmental Graffiti, which kind of has the GNC’s mission at heart.  Maybe one day I’ll have the chance to write for them – I think that would be super fun.  But for the nonce, it makes me happy to peruse its offerings and highlight faves, like the ephemeral amazingness of dirty car art or the totally fantastic Rainbow Dance of the Jumping Peacock Spider.

2.  Speaking of weird amphibians and Peacock Spiders, have you visited the Centre for Fortean Zoology lately?  Well why not?  There is little doubt in my mind that given the tiniest twist of fate and a childhood interest in biology instead of religion, I would have been a cryptozoologist in a nanosecond.  My area of focus, besides the Loch Ness Monster of course (another childhood obsession of mine), would be the Australian bunyip.  Though I admit it would be hard not to want to join the expedition team in search of the Mongolian Death Worm as well.

3. And finally, unrelated to strange creatures, or maybe related, depending on your opinion of political activists, this fantastic protest of Target (link discovered via Hecate) made me smile and cheer on the efforts of those opposed to corporate “personhood.”  Rock on, friends!  Tubas for justice!  And for those that agree with the sentiment, I encourage you to participate in the boycott.  No matter your beliefs regarding the efficacy of boycotting, refusing to shop at stores that are not in keeping with one’s ethics promotes a sense of spiritual integrity, solidarity, and encourages us to seek out and patronize local and community-oriented businesses.  All good things, in my humble opinion.

Celebrate the colorful and the strange, beloveds!  Celebrate art and crazy artful protest!  The Mama laughs in flowers, yes, but She also laughs in salamanders, hedgehogs, mermaids, mysteries, and a people committed to justice.

Grok Good News, friends and beloveds!  Pray without ceasing.