Where have all the foxes gone?

By Roxanna López

https://roxannalopez.com 

Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash



I am busy. Who isn’t? But I like people who ask for what they need and also I’m rather grateful and loyal to people who are helpful or supportive of me in any way. Therefore, when Snowy asked for an OP I almost agreed to do one even though I am rather…busy.

Also, I like it in this forum, I think this is not the first time I say that. There a number of people who have been very supportive and fun to interact with, Snowflake himself, Susan, Marie, Milo, Red Sea Robinhood, Miss Violet, SuzieZeller, Peachy Keen, MoonChild, Ronson, StarDust, Kaarin, Drew, and whole bunch of others. There have also been—I am happy to say just very few—some others that like to be listened to but do not take the time to interact productively with other people. It doesn’t matter, I still like to come here and hang out when I have the time. But if you invite me to an OP and I take some of my scarce time to read it and comment, the least you can do is upvote my comment if you like it, or at least politely disagree with me if you don’t. “Shouting” matches and name calling get old fast for me. Also, if somebody who never reads my OPs or interacts with me in anyway keeps inviting me to their OPs, meh. Sorry, busy. We all are. I am saving my time to support those who support me.

And that leads me to the origin of these piece. I really wanted to support Snowy because he is fun and he keeps his forum as a mostly safe place to visit. The thing is, what to write about? 

I thought I would do a political piece since I am reading Barack Obama’s book A Promised Land and it has me thinking about politics. But I am interested in politics mostly as contemporary history and I figured maybe that is not the fun part of politics for most people. Anyway, about this book, the only thing that I want to say right now is that from the very first time that I encountered Obama’s campaign tactics they blew my mind away. I voted for him when I lived in Illinois. I have always wonderingly exclaimed, “Wow, Obama’s campaign managers are so brilliant! I wonder who they are.” I new about David Axelrod and David Plouffe, I knew they were just the tip of the iceberg. Reading the book I am getting a new appreciation for the inspirational power that a well-conducted political campaign can have, and the hordes of people that need to be involved in order to make it successful. And the vision and faith— yes, faith, the collective delusion, the being part of a thing bigger than oneself—that it takes to keep the machinery moving. And money, of course.

Anyway, this is one of those nights in which I cannot sleep. I’ve been working on a new mix-media canvas that is coming off really ugly, not at all as I see it in my mind. It doesn’t worry me; it is part of my process to go through layers that look ugly to then find some sort of fix that make my paintings look beautiful, at least to me. The process keeps my mind on high alert though, a kind of unshakeable obsession. It is worse when I am trying to fall asleep, I see paintings wanting to be painted, hear novels wanting to be written, and occasionally, snippets of tunes that want to be sung.

So unable to sleep and tired of working on that ugly painting, I hid behind the curtain of the living room and tried to catch a glimpse of the foxes. There were, by my imprecise count, about six foxes in the neighborhood, mostly showing up by night. By the end of the summer they seemed so well pleased with themselves that you could also see them during the day. I even found myself no more than ten feet from one of them in one of my afternoon walks. I stoped and stared at it, it stared back. I was amazed that it was so nonchalant and that it looked exactly like the Fantastic Mr. Fox from the movie. In the last two or three weeks I haven’t seen another fox day or night and I was wondering if they migrate somewhere during the fall of if they had been killed—I hope not.

So here you have it Snowy, my political, non-political OP. One thing only is left for me to wonder: where have all the foxes gone? Do any of you know?


By Roxanna López

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

Image
Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda. By   DARREN LINVILL   &   PATRICK WARREN Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t  “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,”  as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy. Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously. MORE: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/ P...
Read more

The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term

Image
The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term   (Photo: Photos: Getty Images) Americans will almost certainly go to bed on Nov. 3 without knowing who won the presidential election. Since millions of people will vote by mail, constraints on time and resources will slow ballot counting into potentially a weeks-long process. Voting patterns suggest it’s likely that President  Donald Trump  could end Election Day in the lead in certain key states, only to be overtaken by Democratic opponent  Joe Biden  when more votes are tallied.  This could create a nightmare scenario during the three months stretching from Election Day to the Jan. 20 inauguration: a battle on the state and congressional level over who is the legitimate winner. This could include Congress reconvening on Jan. 6, presided over by Vice President  Mike Pence , with no consensus over its potential role in choosing the next president. This...
Read more

When Life Hands You Lemons

Image
 It's like this folks: sometimes your mind goes blank. Happens more than usual with me of course. Take this forum for instance. I wanted to post something today and couldn't think of a topic. At least not a non-sexual one and we know sexual ones lately have been frowned upon.  Then along comes one of our regulars and complains about something. Well, they might not say it was a complaint, just an observation, but it was a complaint. A minor one. It has something to do about being able to make something out of nothing. Sort of like me this morning, how to make a thread out of an empty head? But they (notice I am using the correct pronoun, not saying he or she), by what they said got me thinking. What I thought was: Not sure if that is the actual saying, if I remember correctly, I remember the saying going something like this: Umm, no, I don't think the saying I am thinking of goes that way either, maybe ONE of you good folks can remind me how the saying goes. Either way, when...
Read more