Happy 1st Birthday, Beauty!
This Substack is year old! The Plan, The Strike, and everyday has felt like Groundhog Day.
The Plan worked just enough
I planned to write on my Substack’s actual birthday, January 31st, but my family has had to play each day by ear because of our city’s ongoing teachers’ strike—which thankfully ended this evening.
There is a Yiddish saying, “Der Mench Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” which Woody Allen famously paraphrased into, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Given my propensity for preparation, I can only imagine a physical God looking like one of these guys.
On the last day of January 2023, I published my first post on Substack: The Plan. At the time, I was a middle-aged mother of five who was tossed from one crisis to another, and my only real respites were in reading and writing. I was desperate to get into an MFA program at the University of St. Thomas. The only way I thought I could make this financially feasible was by starting a Substack.
A year later, I am still a woman tossed from one crisis to another, but at least I am in graduate school! And it is all thanks to paid subscribers. Just to be transparent, I did not meet the goal of 100 paid subscribers. But I am getting by on paid subscribers I do have and a one-time fellowship from my MFA program. (If you are a paid subscriber I really hope you continue!) At the founding level, I have added the benefit of a small hand-sewn chapbook, and as I told one of my friends, if I become famous this thing will be worth a lot of money… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?
The Strike is over
Almost 12,000 children in our school system will be going back to school on Monday after having been out of school since January 19. They have missed 11 consecutive school days, in what is one of the longest teachers’ strikes in Massachusetts history.1 It is legal for many unions to strike, but it is illegal for public employees who provide vital services. This would include police, firefighters, and teachers.
We have seen how crucial it is to have a functioning school system. Children with special needs have gone without services or a stable routine. Parents have had to pay a lot of money to put their children in hastily organized day programs or keep them home with little supervision. Many parents have had to take time off work to care for their families. For those who are faced with food insecurity, the meal pick-ups were scheduled during working hours, which made it inaccessible for some families.
High school transcripts that were to be sent to colleges for applications were missing grades for the previous term because the teachers were supposed to submit them in the first few days of the strike. There are juniors and seniors who have gone without 2+ weeks of AP class instruction, and they had no access to their teachers for letters of recommendation.
By Massachusetts law, we cannot have school past June 30, which means that February vacation is now scrapped; school will be convened during that time. People who have booked vacations, travel, or camps will either have to cancel all their plans or forego a week of precious instruction.
I have specified previously why the teachers were striking and the importance of what they were asking for. I agree with a lot of what they were negotiating, but here was so much hurt that was done to the most vulnerable children and families in order to get here.
This has been a very painful time for the whole community. I do not think anyone—teachers, parents, students, administrators, or politicians—thought the strike would last this long. However, going forward, all districts must know that this long siege is a possibility. Being one of the largest and wealthiest in the state, our city was likely targeted as a battleground. A win for the teachers here is going to establish the power of unions going forward, in different areas of the state and the country.
I have seen significant fracturing in our community. Despite this negativity, I have been thinking about this recent post by
:
She relates the Taoist story, as retold by Alan Watts:
There was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. His neighbors came around to commiserate and said, “We are so sorry your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day, the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening, everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”
The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”
It’s a bit like how my children are taught about mindset in school.
My family is okay. Far worse has happened to other people, and the goal for me is to make sure my children get what they need. I also can’t sit back and watch the community fall apart as it has been for the past year. We can work to bring us back together. It will take a lot of listening and investing in spending time with people. Instead of seeing something as bad or good, we can think of how we can move forward and solve problems.
How can we grow from this? There always seems to be something suffering can teach us.
Groundhog Day
How symbolic is it that today is yesterday was the day Phil didn’t see his shadow, and now we get an early spring?
Every evening since the strike families in our city waited for the phone call at 7:30pm to tell us whether the strike was over. It felt like we were trapped in a Groundhog Day loop, and just like Bill Murray’s character, there was a point where it was easy to grow despondent.
But now it is over. We are starting an hour late on Monday, but we are starting. We are going to move forward and learn how to make this place better for our children. The city will hopefully learn how to not push fiscal responsibilities to the next year and the next year and the next year until all of a sudden the system breaks—like it did in the middle of January after 16 months of failed negotiations with the city and the the teachers.
I am personally ready for a brighter, warmer and prettier season.
Bring on the spring and another year of writing!
I am the one that searched for Catholic Imagination Conference and came up with the one in DC. I couldn't find anything about the one in Notre Dame, which is the one I want to go to. He will probably want to go to if I give him the right info. At Dallas, when I stopped to speak with Dana on the last evening, he stood up for a photo with me and my friends. I noticed he was sitting across from Cynthia Haven and Sally Thomas, and I didn't know you but you were there too. That's how close!
🎉 congratulations 🎉