So this will be a personal reflection — a story about mom, apple pie, cancer, and politics.
In the mid 2000’s, I spent 4 months living near Dothan, Alabama. My folks had retired to AL to be near a military base (retired military, for the health care) from California and my mom was diagnosed in 2005 with esophageal cancer. I would fly back and forth, and finally decided to use FMLA time plus vacation to go stay for a while with them and help with care giving.
This was in the middle of my outrage overload toward the war, toward the Bush II regime, toward the unfairness of the USA systems, toward the gap between wealthy people and the poor, and toward rethugs like Roy Moore of Alabama notoreity.
In my outrage, I loved that I could spend time with my folks. We did argue a lot about politics. They liked GWB. Tho not religious, they thought he was a decent human and they both disliked Hillary (thanks to the VRWCFBFNARWHRANFD*, sigh). My mom loved to bake and though she was undergoing some strong chemo (the cancer was non-resectable, stage IV when found) and radiation treatments, at least a couple of times a week she would make something nice and I would try to help. She trusted in her doctors. They helped keep her alive under Feb 2007 — 2+ years after giving her 6 months in the original appointment. We loved to watch the massive storms, the sunrises, the sunsets. Alabama, especially the coast, could be stunningly beautiful at times.
In the time I stayed with my folks, mom and I would make apple pies. It is what my whole family loved best. Sometimes, it would be lemon merengue, or rhubarb strawberry, or even pecan, as they have a dozen pecan trees on the property which were very productive. But apple was the pie of choice. Very American. Those pie-making days were great. In 2005 for the autumn giving campaign at work, I made a dozen pies a month for a charity for the 12 people who had donated $10,000 total (half matched by our employer) — mom thought that was amazing that people would do that for charity. That, and the fact that I could make pies on my boat (I did have an oven, which still amazed my parents at times). So as we rolled into 2007 I knew I should go back more than I did, but mom was on good maintenance chemo and was managing.
But, back then, in mid-2000’s Alabama, when America was not really great for a lot of reasons, but good for many reasons (FMLA for example), I was outraged and could not imagine that only a short few years later we would have President-elect Barack Obama.
Getting thru the dark days after my mom passed away involved a lot of drinking for me to cope. Not the best way, but it was my choice then. I did not bake much. I escaped with some dubious life decisions.**
Today, I made an apple pie.
I usually make pies in the autumn, and in many years in Seattle I would go with good friends to Leavenworth to buy flats of apples and spend a 10-hour day on a weekend making pies to freeze for the holidays to share with friends. I miss that a lot, but am glad to see via social media that the tradition is still being driven by a dear friend who started the trend...I think in like 1997? 8?
The election results in PA, KY, VA, IN, AZ that I have read about on this blog in the past two days have given me some of the hope I had lost since Nov 2016. The last 3 years, personally, have been great and not so great. For America too. America is teetering still on the edge of FUBAR, I think. For many of the folks who are living near or below poverty lines, for asylum seekers, for women needing reproductive health care, for our LGBTQI+ friends and family, for the uninsured and sick, for those who have lost homes and livelihoods to climate crisis events, for people who are discriminated against whether because of skin color, gender, etc….America’s apple pie dreams are in many cases just out of reach — even when they try to reach for those fabled bootstraps to leverage against. If we do not start dealing with the criminality, the unqualified judges set in place by the R’s, the influence of Russia on our elections, the shitty election processes and lack of paper trail, and more….that teetering could be a slide into a very dark timeline.
In this essay title I mention ‘a cancer of Republicans’. Well. It is how I view this ‘political party’ that has been taken over by the teabaggers, the liars, the corrupt ones, the followers of the Newt Gingrich wingnut/shithead branch of the Rs that now dominates.
This essay came up in the past month after my own diagnosis with breast cancer. A friend said to me that the ‘f*ckface will not have any good times, it will be destroyed’ and I asked if she meant 45 or my tumour — because both are cancers and both, and their surrounding cells, need to be excised. I am sure this concept is not new. And by no means should what I say be mangled into dehumanising these R f*ckers. They lost any benefit of the doubt when they started their decades-long campaign of hate and discrimination and destruction of laws to benefit corporate interests and damage the environment of our planet.
Today, I made an apple pie.
To celebrate the victories for the Dems on Tuesday in many places across the USA.
To say that I have the same trust in my docs that my mom had in hers.
To channel the strength of my mom and of my friends who are — and who, sadly, are not — survivors of cancer of many types.
To celebrate today’s sunrise — not as nice and the one above but pretty good.
To say that I have a lot of hope. And...
To aim my hope like I aimed it in 2008’s campaign. Toward the future. Toward the immediate, and toward the next year. Toward progress which we, as Dems, HAVE to continue to push for. Getting out The Vote. Combatting gerrymandering and electioneering. Dealing with the bulls*t that is the Electoral College. OUTREACH. Donating to progressive values, causes, candidates.
Making a pie is a symbol of my resistance because my American values are values of progress, equality, equity, a just society, education, science, and trust. Truth is truth, lies are lies, and American apple pie will win out. I hope. Roll on to 2020 and to a big blue wave to wash these criminals right into jail after due process.
*Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Fueled By Fox News and Right-Wing Hate Radio and No Fairness Doctrine
**Do not date drummers. OK maybe if Tico Torres was single. But no. Just don’t.
Edited to add I love pumpkin pie and forgot it in the poll. Very sorry. Also, chemo brain is a thing.
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 · 3:02:36 PM +00:00
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LokiMom
As Treehuggeralways asked here is the outline of the recipe I use normally… it is mostly by feel and I tend to not measure things. But here you go:
preheat over to 150C (300F).
1. I used a store bought gluten free crust. To make a crust tho, my mom would use regular flour (2 cups?), very cold butter (3 tablespoons about), and teaspoons of ice water — hand kneading it til it became crust.
2. Apples: depending on pie pan size, between 5-7 apples. Chop into 1 inch square bits. Put in a bowl. *Save the seeds to plant, for Treehuggeralways.
3. Into apple-filled bowl add: juice of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of ground ginger, a pinch of salt, a cup of oats, ½ cup brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of cold butter. Mix very well.
4. Place apple mix into raw crust. Cover with more crust. Decorate with cut outs (cookie cutter shapes work for this). Bake about 40 min until done and light brown.
May vary based on attitude, altitude, humidity, apple water content, butter type, oven type, pan type and depth, and phase of the moon. Enjoy.