And why did the chicken cross the road?  (3/7/24)

January 16, 2025

Anybody wanna guess?  Hanging out by my car when I got into it early this morning.

Good afternoon rookery.  There was not a lot of activity up there today, no birds, big or small for the watching.  I thought the tree top was a hawk until I took it's picture.  This is a newly broken one that is turning colors now.  The pond was snow covered and no major prints on it.  

Then up and around to the beaver pond.  It too has some new fallen trees, but they had some help.  I thought I might see some new work on a dam, but I didn't.  And again, there were no birds hanging out. 

I was too early for interesting color and light over the Berkshires.  It was just a slow gentle ride after a full day of doctor appointments.

I came home and talked to my college advisor, a life long mentor and friend.  I give Tom the update on my projects and he encourages me to keep plugging along.  It's just like when we met in his office at Marlboro.  I actually remember the first time.  For some reason we talked about Mark Twain.  I was so insecure about being there, so sure I wasn't able to do the work.  But I've always loved the act of learning so I was willing to give it a try.  I also knew another 3 months in Wilton would be the death of me.  

This guy is so pretty.  I'm in the car, talking to Tom on the phone in my driveway and the bushes next to me are full of birds: junco, titmouse, bluebird, sparrows, finch. I managed to snap a couple of them.  

1990 I was teaching part time at GCC and part time for the state of Massachusetts System for Adult Basic Education.  I worked on several really exceptional grants and with exceptional people.  One woman was Rosemarie Freeland, who was in 1990 a student, mother of 3 bi-racial children, smart and motivated.  She went on to Smith, she became the director of the Women's Resource Center at GCC, and is still there.  We saw a lot of changes together and fought some good fights.  In the end I got knocked out of the field, but she kept moving forward.

Today we bumped into each other and talked for 45 minutes about the early history of creating a sense of diversity in a small rural Western Ma. town.  We all did some good work back then and incorporated some good practices in the college.  And here we are 2025 feeling as though it is all about to get washed down the drain.  One reason for the backslide is the lack of institutional history.  No one knows what it was like 35 years ago.  I'm going to write a letter to the paper.  That's what I thought about today, what lessons did we learn, what fights did we fight?  Which ones did we win?  Which ones did we never win?   Which ones do we have to keep fighting; can we not afford to give into?  We're about to find these answers out.  Let's all keep talking and telling our stories, please.