Friday, September 6, 2024

life goes on

 


 

Last week, one of Sharon’s cousins died. He was roughly her age.

A few months aga, the wife of one of our cards- playing friends died at the age of 68.

Over the last 5 years, I have lost a number of cousins (Frank, Tom and Mary) and none of us are getting any younger.

This spring, we went to a seminar at a local restaurant that focused on end-of-life planning, and in June, a representative came to our house to discuss our end-of-life decisions, like cremation, death certificates, and other details.

One of the best obituaries I have ever read was the one written by the late Mike Royko in November of 1979, shortly after his wife died.

Here it is:

Editor's note:  The Chicago Sun-Times published this column November 22, 1979.  Royko wrote it several months after the death of his wife, Carol.  In 1985, he married Judy Arndt. Mike and Judy Royko bought a vacation place together, on the water in Florida.

The two of them first started spending weekends at the small, quiet Wisconsin lake almost 25 years ago. Some of her relatives let them use a tiny cottage in a wooded hollow a mile or so from the water.

He worked odd hours, so sometimes they wouldn't get there until after midnight on a Friday. But if the mosquitoes weren't out, they'd go to the empty public beach for a moonlight swim, then sit with their backs against a tree and drink wine and talk about their future.

They were young and had little money, and they came from working class families. So to them the cottage was a luxury, although it wasn't any bigger than the boat garages on Lake Geneva, where the rich people played.

The cottage had a screened porch where they sat at night, him playing a guitar and her singing folk songs in a sweet, clear voice. An old man who lived alone in a cottage beyond the next clump of woods would applaud and call out requests.

One summer the young man bought an old motorboat for a couple of hundred dollars. The motor didn't start easily. Some weekends it didn't start at all, and she'd sit and laugh and row while he pulled the rope and swore.

But sometimes it started, and they'd ride slowly along the shoreline, looking at the houses and wondering what it would be like to have a place that was actually on the water. He'd just shake his head because even on a lake without social status, houses on the water cost a lot more than he'd ever be able to afford.

The years passed, they had kids, and after a while they didn't go to the little cottage in the hollow as often. Something was always coming up. He worked on weekends, or they had someplace else to go. Finally the relatives sold the cottage.

Then he got lucky in his work. He made more money than he had ever dreamed they'd have. They remembered how good those weekends had been and they went looking at lakes in Wisconsin to see if they could afford something on the water.

They looked at one lake, then another. Then another. Cottages they could afford, they didn't like. Those they liked were overpriced. Or the lake had too many taverns and not enough solitude. 

So they went back to that little lake. They hadn't been there for years. They were surprised to find that it was still quiet. That it still had no taverns and one grocery store.

And they saw a For Sale sign in front of a cedar house on the water. They parked and walked around. It was surrounded by big old trees. The land sloped gently down to the shore. On the other side of the road was nothing but woods. Beyond the woods were farms.

On the lake side, the house was all glass sliding doors. It had a large balcony. From the outside it was perfect. A real estate salesman let them in. The interior was stunning -- like something out of a homes magazine.

They knew it had to be out of their reach. But when the salesman told them the price, it was close enough to what they could afford that they had the checkbook out before they saw the second fireplace upstairs. 

They hadn't known summers could be that good. In the mornings, he'd go fishing before it was light. She'd sleep until the birds woke her. Then he'd make breakfast and they'd eat omelets on the wooden deck in the shade of the trees.

They got to know the chipmunks, the squirrels, and a woodpecker who took over their biggest tree. They got to know the grocer, the old German butcher who smoked his own bacon, the little farmer who sold them vine-ripened tomatoes and sweet corn.

They were a little selfish about it. They seldom invited friends for weekends. But they didn't feel guilty. It was their own, quiet place.

The best part of their day was dusk. They had a west view and she loved sunsets. Whatever they were doing, they'd always stop to sit on the pier or deck and silently watch the sun go down, changing the color of the lake from blue to purple to silver and black. One evening he made up a small poem:

The sun rolls down
like a golden tear
Another day,
Another day
gone.

She told him it was sad, but that she liked it. 

What she didn't like was October, even with the beautiful colors and the evenings in front of the fireplace. She was a summer person. The cold wind wasn't her friend.

And she saw November as her enemy. Sometime in November would be the day they would take up the pier, store the boat, bring in the deck chairs, take down the hammock, pour antifreeze in the plumbing, turn down the heat, lock everything tight and drive back to the city.

She'd always sigh as they pulled onto the road. He'd try to cheer her up by stopping at a German restaurant that had good food and a corny band, and he'd tell her how quickly the winter would pass, and how soon they'd be there again.

And the snow would finally melt. Spring would come, and one day, when they knew the ice on the lake was gone, they would be back. She'd throw open all the doors and windows and let the fresh air in. Then she'd go out and greet the chipmunks and the woodpeckers.  And she'd plant more flowers. Every summer, there were more and more flowers. And every summer seemed better than the last. The sunsets seemed to become more spectacular. And more precious.

This past weekend, he closed the place down for the winter. He went alone.

He worked quickly, trying not to let himself think that this particular chair had been her favorite chair, that the hammock had been her Christmas gift to him, that the lovely house on the lake had been his gift to her.

He didn't work quickly enough. He was still there at sunset. It was a great burst of orange, the kind of sunset she loved best.

He tried, but he couldn't watch it alone. Not through tears. So he turned his back on it, went inside, drew the draperies, locked the door and drove away without looking back.

It was the last time he would ever see that lovely place. Next spring there will be a For Sale sign in front and an impersonal real estate man will show people through.

Maybe a couple who love to quietly watch sunsets together will like it. He hopes so.
 


 

https://michaelsherwood.com/RoykoNovember.html

The irony of Royko’s column is that it was published precisely 6 days after our daughter was born.

My dad died on October 31 of 1994 – the exact same day that her cousin Tim welcome a new daughter into his family.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Royko




Mike Royko lived roughly 18 years longer after his wife Carol died.  Long enough, in fact, that he married again 7 years later.

 

None of us know when our time on this planet is going to end. For that reason, it’s important to savor the good times when they occur, and to shrug off the times when things go bad.

 

 


Monday, September 2, 2024

and baby makes three

 

It’s no secret that Tucson is more liberal than many other cities in the state. Pima county, where Tucson is located (district 7), has a Cook Partisan voting index of D+15, which means that it leans strongly to the Democrats. In contrast, district 9, which is represented by Paul Gosar, is the most conservative district in the state, with a rating of R+16, which is why he always gets at least 60% of the vote in the final elections.

The most conservative large city in the county is Mesa, Arizona. However, Mayor John Giles just endorsed Kamala Harris at the DNC convention, so Donald Trump is going to find it very difficult to win in Arizona on election day.

https://www.cookpolitical.com/cook-pvi/2022-partisan-voting-index/district-map-and-list

I work as a substitute teacher for TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) , which just announced paid parentally leave.

 

https://tucson.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/tusd-teachers-staff-could-soon-qualify-for-paid-parental-leave/article_c7ea9d98-6593-11ef-b008-e791d6bf90cc.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest

Some Tucson Unified School District employees could soon be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave under a new policy being considered by the governing board.

“As a recently new father, who about a year and a half ago was constantly logging on to see how many personal days I was burning on my paternity, this is going to be a really good thing for employees in their parenthood journey,” TUSD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo said Tuesday at the governing board meeting just before the first reading of the proposed policy.

The policy is the result of an agreement reached between TUSD and the Tucson Education Association that started in the spring, Karla Escamilla, a TUSD spokeswoman, said in an email.

If adopted, TUSD would be the first school district in Arizona to offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave to public school teachers and staff, the teacher’s union said in a news release.

The policy states employees’ eligibility for paid parental leave in the life events of “birth, surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth.”

The board unanimously approved moving forward with the policy.

“This policy is the product of union educators using their voices and practicing their power to bring public schools into the modern era by providing compassionate and evidence-based paid parental leave,” said TEA President Jim Byrne in the news release.

“Not only is this policy the right thing to do for TUSD families, but this policy will help TUSD recruit and retain the highly qualified educators our students deserve on every campus and in every classroom.”

The origin of the policy began at the end of 2023 and early 2024 when educators across TUSD discussed the difficulties of navigating parenthood due to the lack of paid parental leave, said Carmen Smith-Estrada, one of the organizers pushing for the policy and a teacher at Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School.

The conversation included educators who had to leave the district after having babies, educators who had stayed on after giving birth, as well as educators who didn’t have children since they didn’t think they could financially support them with no paid time off, said Smith-Estrada.

“A lot of people have been forced to leave the district, forced to leave teaching because they haven’t felt supported,” said Smith-Estrada, stressing the importance of TEA and what educators can achieve.

The policy mandates that employees asking for the 12-week paid parental leave need to be at TUSD for at least a year and includes a “payback provision” in case the employee doesn’t return to work at the end of the time-off period. Exceptions to this would be if the employee’s inability to return is due to the “onset, recurrence or continuation of a serious health condition of the eligible employee or the child,” the policy reads.

The tentative agreement between the TEA and TUSD also included $1,500-$2,500 raises for classroom teachers and certified staff, 1% raises for education support professionals with an additional stipend for those who qualify and a sick leave sell-back policy, the TEA release reads.

         


The policy’s full adoption is expected to take place in about four weeks.

On a federal level, only 11 states offer paid maternity leave.

https://www.newsweek.com/which-states-offer-maternity-leave-us-1929135#:~:text=Only%2011%20states%20currently%20offer%20paid%20maternity%20leave%2C,most%20of%20these%20concentrated%20on%20the%20East%20Coast.

According to the state's Employment and Development Department, Californians are entitled to up to eight weeks of partial wage replacement to bond with a new child, and this paid family leave is fully funded by employers.

In Oregon, employees may take up to 12 weeks paid leave and receive 100% of their weekly wages equal to or less than 65% of the state average, according to the Center for American Progress. All wages above this threshold are deducted 50%.

According to a 2021 report by The Century Foundation, Oregon received the highest rating for its family care policies.

In addition, Washington also offers paid parental leave, as so 8 other states, all of which are on the East Coast. The remainder of the states guarantee unpaid leave to take care of a newborn, or no leave at all.

The remainder of the states guarantee unpaid leave to take care of a newborn, or no leave at all.

 

Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow at the think tank New America, and a paid leave policy expert, spoke to Newsweek about the unique state of parental support in the U.S.

According to Shabo, of the 38 OECD states, The U.S. is the only country that "that fails to guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers and one of a handful that does not guarantee paid parental leave to new fathers."

When asked why the U.S. was so unique in its family care practices, Shabo said this was due to the country's "very individualistic, pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps mentality," which is compounded by "business lobby efforts to stop government regulation and keep taxes low."

"All of this has stymied federal paid family and medical leave policy efforts," Shabo added.

While certain employees may be entitled to up to 12-week of unpaid leave under the 1993 U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act, Shabo said that this only covered those who work for an employer with over 50 employees in a 75-mile radius, and who meet "both tenure and hours-worked requirements."

"Just 56% of U.S. workers are eligible for these job protections," Shabo said. "Some states offer greater protections, both for unpaid leave and paid leave, but tens of millions of workers are without any protections at all."

"Notably, not a single state that has banned or substantially restricted abortion provides a paid parental leave guarantee and many actively restrict localities within their states from offering paid leave," Shabo said. "Whereas many of the states that have protected the right to abortion also offer paid leave and other supports to facilitate families' economic security and health."

However, Shabo said that calls for change are growing louder, and that "a broad and large coalition has been working with members of Congress since 2013 to pass the FAMILY Act (Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act)."

This would create a national paid family and medical leave program, "guaranteeing workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave each year to care for a new child, a seriously ill or injured loved one, a workers' own serious health issue and care for a military service member."

Shabo noted that Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the November election, has long supported the FAMILY Act and, in her 2020 presidential campaign, proposed a plan for six-months of government-paid family and medical leave.

 My wife and I are long past the age where we could have children. We DO have two grandchildren, but there will not be any more, so why is the action of TUSD important to me?

 For one thing, it means that there will be fewer unfilled teacher positions, which will lead to smaller class sizes.  I’ve been in a few classrooms with more than 30 students, and it is not fun.

 In addition, the TUSD policy highlights which political party is actually the one with “family values”- and that will have a strong effect on the November election, even if some of the voters are childless cat ladies.