Carry

Carry

Adult nonfiction
"On Magpie Road, the colors are in riot. Sharp blue sky over green
and yellow tall grass that rises and falls like water in the North
Dakota wind. Magpie Road holds no magpies, only robins and crows. A
group of magpies is called a tiding, a gulp, a murder, a charm..."
The first sentences of Toni Jenson's Carry: A Memoir Of Survival
On Stolen Land show Jenson to be a true wordsmith, endowing prose with
a real lyrical sensibility and exploring the origins and meaning of
words in a way that never occurs to most of us. Sadly the topics she
brings this sensibility to involve violence.
There is the past violence done to the indigenous peoples.
Jenson, who is Metis, shows us where the lands were occuppied by
different tribes before the widespread theft by whites. "My first
campus is the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Much of the
Great Plains, including South Dakota, was and is Lakota, Dakota, and
Nakota land. This corner of South Dakota was Yankton Sioux or Dakota
Land..."
There is the current harm done to the indiginous peoples by
fracking and those who attack peaceful protesters in order to enable
this toxic practice. There is also the damage to land and water and
the rise in violent crimes, including rape and human trafficking that
accompanies the arrival of extraction workers.
Then there are the other kinds of violence which Jenson
intertwines with her life story: in the home violence inflicted on
family members and companion animals, the violence and fear of
violence that accompany an overabundance of guns with too few
restrictions on who can own them, violence inflicted on brown and
black bodies by white police officers, the violence of grinding
poverty..."
Carry is a lyrical and profoundly disturbing narrative, a must
read for all of us who care about replacing entrenched systemic
violence with healing and justice.
On a purrrsonal note, I hope you had a good weekend. I did. After a
morning shower Saturday I was totally back to myself and my work. In
fact I even started my spring cleaning. Sunday I was fully intending
to attend zoom church. Only Eugene asked if I wanted to go on a
ride. We had a great road trip. Although the trailer park is free of
snow, a part of Maine a short distance away still looks like February.
It was surreal to ride through. We got blueberry doughnuts made the
old way (fried in fat) from a place we visit in the warmer months and
then McDonalds lunch. We saw a turkey and a fox. Later back at home
I was taking a few minute break from writing to look at cat themed
clothes on my smart phone. Usually I have good will power. I buy
almost everything second hand at thrifts and yard sales. But then I
saw this purrrfect hoodie. It had a picture of kittens and said
"admit it--life would be boring without me." I imagined how eye
catching it would be when I go back on campus, hopefully in the fall.
I was like, I have to have this. Eugene was like, well order it
already. Then when I tried to pay him back from my Christmas money he
wouldn't take a cent. Before the night was over we had a short power
outage (I kept reading by candle and flashlight) and a lovely phone
call from our son, Adam. (Jules)
A cat hoodie. A purrrfect fashion statement. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to the workers at that very distinctive
doughnut shop and all others who run and work at local non chain
businesses--the kind that keep money local and create a sense of place.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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