E14: Dear Mrs. White Lady, What Color Do You Get When You Mix Violet-Blue Sadness With White-Hot Anger?
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Dear Mrs. White Lady,
Madame Matisse was dressed in all black when she sat for this portrait. 🔗
Matisse’s extraordinary use of color does not attempt to alter the sadness and pain in her face. The tear-stained cheek. The slightly elevated jaw. The downturned lips. I know this look. It is the look of a woman who has had enough.
I’ve been thinking about you these past few days. I try to stop in. See how you are. Keep you updated on a few things happening out here in the land of White Ladies. Maybe try to get you to read something other than AITA on Reddit.
I read a bit myself. But the most inspiring things I see, don’t make the news. And you may have missed them too. They are illuminated by friends. And friends of friends. And strangers here.
A woman of a certain age carrying a sign with one hand—and teetering on her walker with the other. The 91-year old White Lady’s courage to hoist the placard, “Be glad we just want equality, not revenge.”
The Mrs. White Lady who gave Trump the middle digit while riding her bicycle outside Doral last year—is the same Mrs. White Lady who ran and won a seat on the Local Zoning Commission overseeing Trump’s Florida properties. 🔗
I love these Mrs. White Ladies.
Thousands of Ukrainian flags waving blue and yellow 💛 🩵 with the shared sentiment, hang tough, we’re with you.
Then, I read Ukrainian, citizen-journalist Viktor Kravchuk’s words of encouragement to us last week. His home, Sumy, was bombed on Palm Sunday. At least 30 killed. 🔗 The uncertainty of what the next hour will bring. Loss of heat, light, internet. The pang of 20,000 Ukrainian children abducted and held in Russian reeducation camps. 🔗
And yet. And yet—Viktor sits down to write a love letter to encourage us in our protests—knowing he may not survive long enough to send it. He is infinitely more gracious than we deserve. Take a moment or two to read his letters. They are lovely. He is lovely. 🔗🔗 🔗 🔗
And there is Larry, a 76-year old White Gentleman who writes to me in tears, acknowledging that, yes, some things need to be said.
We belong to each other. And I am perpetually choked up.
Violet-Blue Melancholy Everywhere Descending
In between feelings of what-the-what rage. I feel a deep sadness—a blue-violet, violet-blue melancholy that bears down on me like fog.
In the wee hours, I have a recurring dream that my six and 1/2 pound Pomeranian, Miss Emma jumps from the pier to play with dolphins. (She does this.)
In my dream, I’ve forgotten to tether her to me. My agony as the current carries her out. I cannot get to her. It’s like “wee Jamie” in The Secret of Roan Inish. 🍿 🔗 (A beautiful movie if you care for Irish folklore, Irish pubs and seals.)
Awaking from my anguish, I know that something I care deeply about has been lost through my own carelessness.
I fear for all of us now Mrs. White Lady. I fear you won’t see the tide coming in. And when you realize it—it will be seconds too late. I worry then as I do now—that I won’t be able to reach you—that you will be too far gone.
My 2nd Grade World of Unbridled Color!
As a child, I possessed little artistic talent or ambition. But I liked everyone on my 2nd grade coloring project immensely. If Mrs. Chojnowski‘s April-showers-bring-May-flowers-art-project-charade distracted us from the dullest days of Winter/Spring AND got me out of a geography lesson or two—I asked no questions.
I did, however, fancy myself a bit of a curator of color. I would present each Crayola crayon to my coloring associates with the ritual afforded a debutante’s introduction to polite society.
Plucked from the obscurity of a triple-decker yellow and green box, (you know the one with the sharpener on the side?) I assured each color, she would be made known to all.
Raw Umber! (Did we even know what umber was as 8-year olds? I know I didn’t.)
Dandelion!
Mulberry!
Clementine! (Okay, I made that last one up but it really should be a color.)
This was years before Chartruese made her Crayola debut. Fun fact: Did you know Carthusian monks at Vauvert, near Paris, developed Chartreuse liqueur—the elixir of life.” The alchemy of 130 flowers and plants gives way to the liqueur’s green and yellow hues. 🔗
At my unveiling of HELLO SPRING FLOWERS! no ode to nature was played. No one recited “these flowery waters, these watery flowers” by Robert Frost. 🔗
And yet, HELLO SPRING FLOWERS! was a testament to vibrancy. To awakening color. The hue of robins’ eggs, daffodils, crocus, and the Lenten Rose (hellebores). 🔗
Oh! Before I forget.
ASIDE: Charlotte? Would you remind me to put in my order of 200 ladybugs? Ah. Last year I forgot 🐞. And the aphids had a field day. The rose bushes did not.
Did I mention the NYC Flower Show is coming up? I once saw a sculpture of a Standard French Poodle fabricated entirely of white chrysanthemums, peonies, carnations and vines. I believe her nose was made of button moss!
Oh, sugar! I was going to help my dear lady get her trash out to the bin. I’m going to move my orchids outside too. They love the night air.
brb.
Let’s Talk About Catholic Monks and Hooch
With Easter around the corner, and all this talk about vibrant colors—I never even mentioned that our Marshmallow President was seeking a corporate sponsor for the White House Easter Egg Roll. (This is me exercising restraint.) I didn’t even make one marshmallow Peep 🐣 about it.
***MARKET REPORT*** DJT EGGS are $11.99-$14.99. DJT DJIA closed down to 4,400 points since the Inauguration. Augar. Interesting word. augur: v. n. portending both good or bad fortune; common usage: Trump has not augured well for America. 🔗
Oh, where was I? Oh, yes. Easter. Catholics. Jesus being handed over to a cool dictator like Caesar or Bukele. Oh wait. I’m confusing centuries.
Of course. Of course with the Catholics, there’s the spiritual transmutation of water to wine at a wedding. (Even someone with my Mrs. White Lady education knows that.)
Then, Chartreuse appears in Paris in 1605. Seems there’s a bit of a gap from b.c. to 1668 when Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon of “Come, I am tasting stars” fame was credited for producing champagne by divine fermentation. 🔗
Fun fact: Sparkling wine was produced a century earlier, but I think the “God so loved the world he wanted us to have wine” makes for a better story.
Next someone’s going to tell me that Trappist monks are brewing small batches of bready, sourdough ales in the cellars of Belgium Abbayes. 🔗
What does all this have to do with White Ladies, immigrants or race you ask?
Beer with me. I’m getting to that. The rabbit hole is deep enough for all of us.
The Beauty is in the Cruelty
The air around me carries the sounds of grievous torment. Suffering. Degradation. Mr. Abrego Garcia. The names of those taken—whom we don’t even know.
I contemplate my neighbors living in fear. Elementary schools being raided. My Haitian friends expecting a child.
I fear for my former foreign students—and any one of us—who believed the 1st Amendment protects everyone against attacks from the government. Snatch up a few Arab students—let’s call them terrorists. Hispanics? Let’s call them gang members. And the homegrown criminals? They could be you or someone you work with, live with or gave birth to.
When MAGA folks said they liked Trump’s policies—but would be hard pressed to name one—I understood that was code for DEPORT! DEPORT! DEPORT!
“I Support the President” is code for:
Woo-hoo! Government-sanctioned sadism. Yes, please.
If the plan involves anything to do with immigrants and their children, by all means—be as cruel as possible.
Taken away by masked men? No warrants required here!
They spoke Spanish in the school parking lot. Deport!
She held a protest sign, “Genocide is a War Crime!” Hang her for treason!
He had an autism awareness tattoo. Put that man in chains!
An Hispanic, gay make-up artist? Violate him.
Oh. Here are a few other MAGA wins to celebrate.
Deported: Well-known, Venezuelan PRO EU footballer was illegally taken into ICE custody, put in chains and sent to El Salvador because had a Real Madrid tattoo. He has U.S. legal status. 🔗
These ICE agents couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade reading comprehension exam.
Deported to Mexico: a 5-year old undergoing chemo treatment—despite KNOWING she is a U.S. Citizen. Her high crimes and misdemeanors: Speaking Spanish at the Bodega.
Cut-off from Legal Aid: Infants, toddlers and minor children will now go before judges in asylum hearings, without speaking the language, without a law degree, with no legal advocate, and some barely able to walk or talk. 🔗
No Sugar Coating This One
If you’ve gone along with the most grotesque, the most vulgar, the most depraved, obscene acts—know this—you’ve sent these men, women and children to torturous, brutal deaths.
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR THE PREMIER OF “DEPORTED”
Starring Taken’s Liam Neeson & Mr. Robot’s Rami Said Malek
I don’t see the Proud Boys selling any merch emblazoned with, “I’D RATHER BE IMPRISONED IN EL SALVADOR THAN VOTE FOR A @#@ BLACK WOMAN.”
Editors Note: The Proud Boys lost their trademark to AME Baptist Church after failing to pay a $2.8 million judgement against them (February 2025). 🔗
The Constitution? I Mean, Just Because We Wrote It Down…
The Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal. Oh! That’s adorable!
Preamble to the Constitution: To insure domestic tranquility… promote the general welfare… lol 😝
1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law prohibiting freedom of speech or of the press or of the people to peaceably assemble. Unless it’s the Associated Press being barred from the WH or AF1–or unarmed blm protesters in front of St. John’s Church in D.C. (That’s the upside-down-bible church).
4th Amendment: To be secure in one’s persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures without a warrant or probable cause—unless you’re an immigrant or a Canadian citizen going through Customs/Border Security.
The 5th Amendment: No persons shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. (They always put that property, aka enslaved people in there.) 🔗 hahahaha!
19th Amendment: White Ladies voting! Well, we all know that’s just silly.
How Are These Images of the Slave Trade Any Different From the U.S. Sanctioned War Crimes In Salvadoran Death Camps?
Our shared histories—however tragic or difficult to look at—belong to us all.
We own the present day atrocities as well. Because they happened on our watch.
This poster was prescient. (And the definition of being woke.)
CAUTION COLORED PEOPLE OF BOSTON! Avoid Conversing with the Watchmen and Police Officers of Boston. For the order of the Mayor they are empowered to act as Kidnappers and Slave Catchers. They Have Been Employed in the Kidnapping, Capturing and of Keeping Slaves. If You Value Your Liberty, Keep a Sharp Look Out for Kidnappers and Have Top Eye Open. April 24, 1851.
The White Lady Klan, America First “One God , One Country, One Flag”
I found this in the Way Back Machine.
In the ‘20s, the KKK sermonized that only White Anglo-Saxons could be Real Americans. They warned the country was under siege by Catholic immigrants—by their foreign ways, their drinking and of course their criminality. 🔗
While Black Lady Suffragettes were marching for The Vote—The White Lady Klan paraded unmasked in white hoods. Enforcing violence neighborhood by neighborhood.
We’ve been so conditioned to think of White Ladies as abolitionists. I had no idea that Prohibition was just another competing faction of White Supremacy. Just goes to show that we White Ladies don’t know our history. Check out DMWL-Episode 7 🔗
Springtime Color and Golden Beets
Farmers Market
If you can find golden beets this spring, do yourself a favor and spend the $3.89 lb on a bunch. You’ll want to buy them with the greens attached.
Slice the top of each beet to make a little hat. Wrap the beets individually in tin foil so they vent at the top. Add a little olio, s&p and you’re in business. Roast these lovelies with their chapeaus for an hour at 400°. Let them cool in the foil—then remove the skins.
Slice them in rounds and present them atop arugula, greens, goat cheese, candied pecans and ground black pepper. It’s one of my Spring favorites.
If you prefer a warm salad, as my husband once did, replace the goat cheese with uncured bacon. (Uncured bacon is cured with beets and celery. So it’s a perfect compliment.)
Oh. Would you excuse me for a moment?
ASIDE: Hey, Charlotte? Is tin foil the same as aluminum foil? Would you kindly check today’s tariff on Canadian aluminum? She’s amazing. I couldn’t manage without her.
Anyone who dares say horticulturalists lack imagination have never heard the names of beet varietals. Who could not delight to receive heirloom seeds for beets named Touchstone Gold, Detroit Dark Red, Sangria or Avenger? 🔗
So What Now?
With each breath, and the next, and the next, and the next—we are in a battle we cannot walk away from. Through my melancholic, anger-sadness. I’ve come to know that shared pain exists.
Talk soon,
-m.
P.S. If I’ve convinced you to make a 🐝 line to the NYC Flower Show at Herald Square, April 27-May 11, I’ll give you a full day’s itinerary!
Take Metro North to Grand Central. (Photos in the main lobby are a must.) Skip Annie’s Pretzels and head straight downstairs to the Oyster Bar. 🔗 Treat yourself to some “orsters” with mignonette sauce. Tell ‘em I sent you.
After that, walk to 14th Street and 8th Avenue, and take the A-C-E to The Whitney in the Meat Packing District. (Also a great place for photos.) Among other works, Michelle Obama’s iconic portrait is on exhibit right now. 🔗 Then, take the train back to Christopher Street and 33rd and walk the one block to Herald Square. Oh, did I mention? Wear sensible shoes.
P.S.S. Now I’m homesick to see the sun streaming through the windows of Grand Central. I’m hungry for orsters, art and flowers. Much love.
Oh sister... thank you for the continued education... those white ladies marching in their white robes... the horror!!
Violets blue. Blooming where and when you thought things were gone and dead .. color persists https://share.icloud.com/photos/07fzSbxJfi471y-aZ-EhTOE_Q