{"id":134,"date":"2020-06-10T21:28:03","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T01:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/?p=134"},"modified":"2020-06-10T21:28:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T01:28:03","slug":"10-summer-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/2020\/06\/10\/10-summer-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"#10 summer summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This morning when I could do nothing else I took a photo of my morning coffee against a protest photo from the Washington Post. The sign in the foreground read &#8220;no justice no peace;&#8221; in the background loomed the Capital building. This evening as I lingered on the porch, the best seat in the house for breezes bringing some cooler air, I saw my first fireflies of the season. I wanted to ask them, how is your life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10-summer-2020-1024x448.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10-summer-2020-1024x448.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10-summer-2020-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10-summer-2020-768x336.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10-summer-2020.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TODAY,  WHEN I COULD DO NOTHING<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, when I could do nothing,<br>I saved an ant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It must have come in with the morning paper,<br>still being delivered<br>to those who shelter in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A morning paper is still an essential service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am not an essential service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have coffee and books,<br>time,<br>a garden,<br>silence enough to fill cisterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It must have first walked<br>the morning paper, as if loosened ink<br>taking the shape of an ant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then across the laptop computer \u2014 warm \u2014<br>then onto the back of a cushion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Small black ant, alone,<br>crossing a navy cushion,<br>moving steadily because that is what it could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Set outside in the sun,<br>it could not have found again its nest.<br>What then did I save?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It did not move as if it was frightened,<br>even while walking my hand,<br>which moved it through swiftness and air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ant, alone, without companions,<br>whose ant-heart I could not fathom\u2014<br>how is your life, I wanted to ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I lifted it, took it outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This first day when I could do nothing,<br>contribute nothing<br>beyond staying distant from my own kind,<br>I did this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8211;Jane Hirshfield, published March 23, 2020 in the <em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning when I could do nothing else I took a photo of my morning coffee against a protest photo from the Washington Post. The sign in the foreground read &#8220;no justice no peace;&#8221; in the background loomed the Capital building. This evening as I lingered on the porch, the best seat in the house [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rough-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}