Family Zoom
Dec. 22nd, 2020 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraWeather was eminently trompable yesterday as temps had risen to a balmy 40°, so tromp I did and am a better person for it! Kinder! Gentler! Peals of laughter instead of snarls of surliness!
When I did nothing all day yesterday, I forgave myself because really, what is it that I could possibly do that would make one iota of difference to this fucked-up world?
I might as well stay entertained, right?
And because I am so very, very lazy, doing nothing is very entertaining!
###
RTT joined us for Family Zoom.
At the Beau Zoom memorial, Ichabod had been one of the very few people who spoke to what Beau had been like as an adult. Beau as an adult had been passionate about wilderness and meticulous in prepping for his wilderness expeditions. He’d also become something of a survivalist—incipient mental illness alert!—and increasingly difficult to contact. Ichabod would call; Beau wouldn’t answer.
“I have another brother I love very much,” Ichabod said at the memorial, “who’s also hard to contact—”
RTT, who was also at the memorial—he’d actually dressed in a suit!—heard the call-out.
Hence the Family Zoom appearance.
And the Family Zoom was actually kinda fun!
I am always over the moon whenever my two offspring and I occupy the same time/space continuum even if that continuum is virtual.
And the six of us just chatted away, sharing amusing memories. I reminisced about the time I was baby-sitting Alicia and took her to a People’s Park protest where the cops decided to tear-gas us—
“Wait!” said Haley. “My mom was tear-gassed?”
“Oh, yes!” I said. “I thought Rik would kill me. But he was surprisingly okay. Do you remember that, Alicia? You would have been about three—”
“Were there helicopters?” Alicia asked. “I remember helicopters.”
“Tons and tons of helicopters,” I said. “And I was sprinting across campus with you in your stroller, the cops in hot pursuit.”
###
Alicia also did something that simultaneously touched me and made me feel weird.
The week before at Family Zoom, the topic of Synanon had come up.
“I remember that!” said Annie. “How did that happen?”
“My mother,” I said.
“I remember hearing about that,” said Alicia. “What was it like?”
“Think Jim Jones before he came up with the recipe for cyanide KoolAid,” I said. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”
So, Alicia went out and bought a book about Synanon! “Well, you wouldn’t talk about it!” she said.
I laughed. “And I still won’t talk about it,” I said.
That’s partly because I’ve repressed all those memories.
I mean—I have this vague memory of standing in a meadow in front of the Tomales Bay compound doing killer assassin exercises at five in the morning while the sun struggled to break through the fog.
I suppose if I put my mind to it, I could dredge up more memories.
But why would I?
Synanon is definitely the reason why I loathe and despise nearly all groups and human collectives, though, and prefer to do all my connecting on a one-on-one basis.
Still, I was kinda touched that Alicia wanted to find out more about my personal history.
When I did nothing all day yesterday, I forgave myself because really, what is it that I could possibly do that would make one iota of difference to this fucked-up world?
I might as well stay entertained, right?
And because I am so very, very lazy, doing nothing is very entertaining!
###
RTT joined us for Family Zoom.
At the Beau Zoom memorial, Ichabod had been one of the very few people who spoke to what Beau had been like as an adult. Beau as an adult had been passionate about wilderness and meticulous in prepping for his wilderness expeditions. He’d also become something of a survivalist—incipient mental illness alert!—and increasingly difficult to contact. Ichabod would call; Beau wouldn’t answer.
“I have another brother I love very much,” Ichabod said at the memorial, “who’s also hard to contact—”
RTT, who was also at the memorial—he’d actually dressed in a suit!—heard the call-out.
Hence the Family Zoom appearance.
And the Family Zoom was actually kinda fun!
I am always over the moon whenever my two offspring and I occupy the same time/space continuum even if that continuum is virtual.
And the six of us just chatted away, sharing amusing memories. I reminisced about the time I was baby-sitting Alicia and took her to a People’s Park protest where the cops decided to tear-gas us—
“Wait!” said Haley. “My mom was tear-gassed?”
“Oh, yes!” I said. “I thought Rik would kill me. But he was surprisingly okay. Do you remember that, Alicia? You would have been about three—”
“Were there helicopters?” Alicia asked. “I remember helicopters.”
“Tons and tons of helicopters,” I said. “And I was sprinting across campus with you in your stroller, the cops in hot pursuit.”
###
Alicia also did something that simultaneously touched me and made me feel weird.
The week before at Family Zoom, the topic of Synanon had come up.
“I remember that!” said Annie. “How did that happen?”
“My mother,” I said.
“I remember hearing about that,” said Alicia. “What was it like?”
“Think Jim Jones before he came up with the recipe for cyanide KoolAid,” I said. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”
So, Alicia went out and bought a book about Synanon! “Well, you wouldn’t talk about it!” she said.
I laughed. “And I still won’t talk about it,” I said.
That’s partly because I’ve repressed all those memories.
I mean—I have this vague memory of standing in a meadow in front of the Tomales Bay compound doing killer assassin exercises at five in the morning while the sun struggled to break through the fog.
I suppose if I put my mind to it, I could dredge up more memories.
But why would I?
Synanon is definitely the reason why I loathe and despise nearly all groups and human collectives, though, and prefer to do all my connecting on a one-on-one basis.
Still, I was kinda touched that Alicia wanted to find out more about my personal history.
