Someone I don’t know sent me a link to someone he believes to be Eugene Kelley, so I sent a message this morning to see if it is, indeed, him. If so, he’s an attorney and his son may be, too.

 

I think De would love knowing that. He’d be proud.  I know my parents were proud that my older sister became an attorney.

 

Becoming an attorney is a high hurdle, and the good/ethical ones do a lot of good, which I would expect of a Kelley relative.

 

I hope it is him, so I can send him De’s poems to publish. De wanted them published, and said he and I were going to publish them, but time got away from us and I never got that agreement in writing from De (although I got written authorization from Carolyn to publish a few  of his poems in my book), so I think the Kelley boys have to decide whether or not to make them public. I think they legally belong to them.

 

I do know fans want to read them, and that I’m not gonna live forever, so it’s up to the Kelley heirs to fulfill his wishes in this matter…

 

I just want the matter resolved so I don’t feel like I’m the one holding up the publication. I’ve been looking for them,  off and on, for years while hoping they’d reach out to me. So far, no success either way. Hopefully, that is about to change.  We’ll see…

 

In Other News…

 

I just received a high compliment from a long-time friend, who called me to catch up and make plans for a get together shortly after the start of the new year.

 

She called to tell me she was excited about my new book, LOVES the cover and the title, and wants to get together as soon as I have a few on hand so she can get one from me. That was the initial reason for the call.

 

Her name is Judi Cooper. We grew up during the same era very close to each other for the first several years of our lives and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. I’ve written about her mother, Mary Jane Cooper, before, in this space (or another blog) before.

 

Like me, Judi lives in a politically divided family. I don’t know how the topic came up but, at some point she said something very much along the line of, “I think you were born too soon. I think you live on the next step up on the human evolutionary scale.”

 

WOW!

 

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a throwback, but then I get a comment like this that changes my perspective.

 

Over the years, I’ve suspected myself of being a “star seed” or star child.  I resonate most to the Indigo spirit than to the Crystal and Starseed categories, but there are elements in the all three that define some of who I am.

 

Perhaps this is why I have always resonated to the gentle, loving, compassionate spirits that are so well known: Jesus, Mr Rogers, DeForest Kelley, Jane Goodall, Kamala Harris, the Dalai Lama, Brene Brown, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Joe and Jill Biden, RFK Sr., and the like. These folks share a universal love for all of humanity and for animals.

 

In fact, I have often wondered if the human race is split (certainly not evenly) between peacemakers and warriors (in the sense of brutal empire-building warfare, not in the sense that Indigenous people mean when they deem one of their own a warrior–by which they mean a benevolent defender and protector).  I find it hard to square the reality that there are keepers and killers, caregivers and care parasites/takers in the same species.

 

I have always figured that the killers/takers among us have been malformed in some way by the ways in which they were reared. I have rarely considered the presence of an Evil so total and pervasive that it takes over someone’s soul…not even Donald Trump’s. His psychopathic father twisted little boy Trump’s  mindset and character; I find it hard to believe that little Donald (and he remains Little Donald, a textbook case of arrested development if ever there was one)  arrived on earth as utterly damaged and depraved as he has proven himself to be during his entire adult life. I’ve read his niece’s book about his upbringing, and it’s easy to see what happened to turn him into the person he became. He must never get close to the reins of power again, and he deserves prison and perhaps even capital punishment for the insurrection he inspired and fomented (and continues to inspire and foment despite the 91 criminal charges against him that are making their way through various court systems), but he does deserve my sympathy and compassion. He didn’t become the man he became without a lot of help. He was encircled and emboldened by people who preyed on his insecurities to get what they wanted: greater control of affairs of state.  He was a pawn of Putin, evangelicals and other power-hungry miscreants, the perfect patsy.

 

So, hating comes hard to me. I’ve read too many books to be able to hate anyone as a common thing. I can hate (and I have) what they do, but when I  read their backgrounds, I can see that, “there but for the grace of my own upbringing go I.”   We all have a little Trump in us. It’s usually just trained out of us by the time we become teenagers. We’re taught empathy, the ability to put ourselves firmly in another’s shoes before declaring “off with their heads!”  Not everyone is, and that’s where the problems begin.

 

If I am evolved beyond the norm, it’s because I read voraciously. I have lived at minimum two thousand lives, not just my own. I have been a black person (vicariously), a man, a woman, a Jew, a Buddhist, a shaman, a communist, a capitalist, a socialist, I have been straight, gay, bi, intersex, and ace. I have read racist tracts and anti-racist tracts. I have been an astronaut and a scuba diver. I have been a raccoon, a beaver, a horse, and a possum. My perspective has been fashioned by this disparate menu of experiences and literature.  For this reason, I feel about as related to everything else as a being can feel. I’ve been selfish and unkind, and impatient.  I’ve been ashamed and brave and at times so far beyond brave that I’ve been absolutely fearless.  (Being brave requires a degree of fear.) Not in every way and at all times, but AT TIMES. I know what fear and fearlessness feels like, what they do to  my internal structure and activity.

 

I prefer being alone usually because I feel so deeply. For an empath, separation is a frequent means of survival.  I have to keep reminding myself, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

 

But the fact remains. I care deeply about this planet and its inhabitants, and I always will. If that makes me the next step in human evolution, well, that’s terrific! But it’s completely achievable for anyone with a working, wondering, inquisitive mind. Just start reading lots of biographies, histories, and animal books!

 

I know a great many people who are already there, including the person who gave me this enormous compliment. It takes one to know one, as the saying goes.

 

Thank you, Judi.  You made my day. I hope I can live up to the kind comment you bestowed on me today.

 

Judi Cooper back in the day…

In the background: Judi Cooper, Penny Cooper Howard, and Greg Cooper

At the table: Mary Jane Cooper (at her 100th birthday celebration) and Lisa Twining