The Tales of Mary and Maya

Some friends you don't see for months, or even years, at a time but when you do it's as if no time had passed. Mary is that kind of friend. She lives in Hawaii, so how often do we get to see each other?!? But it doesn't matter.

Mary's dad lives on the Oregon Coast, not far from here. His nine children were plotting to surprise him on his 80th birthday. So Mary flew from Hawaii to Portland, and her siblings were coming from all over, but mostly California.

We were the first leg of Mary's two weeks on the mainland. The weather was not bitter cold--like it could have been--but she was a bit chilled at first, and then acclimated. In fact, it snowed two days before Mary arrived, but the whole time she was here, it was mild and sunny. As soon as she left the temperature dropped and the rains came back. Hmmm, could we pay her to stick around?!?

When Mary first called to say her trip was planned for March I warned her that March was a busy time--with several events back-to-back--and that I would put her to work. Mary is an event organizer extraordinaire, so she wasn't put off in the least.

The first day that Mary was here we picked up Ben in the afternoon from Inez, his other grandmother. It took Ben about 5 minutes or less to warm up to Mary. She's got quite the way with kids. Could be why she's got the job she's got.

Mary's work-a-day life in Hawaii consists of driving around the island in a Head Start van and setting up her mobile classroom wherever she finds homeless kids that aren't going to school. Sometimes it's on the beach, or in a park, or the week before she'd taught in an alleyway. Most of her students are from Micronesia, so her work is cross-cross-cultural. I just bet Mary is the teacher we all wish we'd had when we were kids.

Below's a shot of Ben playing with us, but you won't see Mary in any of these photos. She likes getting her photo taken about as much as I do. But I'll tell you she's a beautiful woman--inside and out. When she's at home in Hawaii, most mornings she watches the sun come up from her surfboard, riding along on the waves of the Pacific. She says that's her early morning meditation.




That first day Maya came over after work and spent the evening with us. She and Mary have been buds ever since Maya was a kid and Mary taught her how to hitchhike. One of Mary's jobs in the summers in Jackson, WY--where we met--was moving cars for rafters on the Snake River. After she'd drop the rafters' car at the end point, she'd hitchhike back to her own car at the starting point. While I'd be working the lunch shift at the Sweetwater Restaurant ( in downtown Jackson) Maya would be out on the road with her thumb out, alongside Mary. I guess Mary's always been an "educator."




The second day Mary was here we went to Eugene. Originally the plan was that we'd pick Aaron up after school and bring him back with us for the weekend. He had a three-day weekend because of "grading day."

But at the last minute plans changed because Aaron got a better offer. His friend Buck invited him to go with his family to Sun River Resort, by Bend. So Mary and I, being our flexible selves, adapted to the new plan, went to Eugene and took Aaron for a shopping stop at Buffalo Exchange and then out to dinner.

It had been a long time since Aaron and Mary had seen each other, but it didn't matter. We had lots of laughs over dinner and it was a fun time for the three of us. Mary capped off the evening teaching me and Aaron an exercise to prepare for surfing--and you can do it on your own living room carpet!

Much of the time that Mary was here was spent hanging fliers for upcoming events. After a couple of days she knew her way around Corvallis, from one bulletin board to the next. (Poor girl--but I warned her.) The day after she left was a Second Saturday benefit concert for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Two days after that was to be our Palestine Action Group's "Gaza Mourning Tent" on the OSU Quad in front of the Memorial Union Bldg. (That got canceled the day prior because of wind and rain.) Then later in the week, on March 19th, was the 6th anniversary of the bombing of Baghdad and the beginning of the Iraq War.

Below is our contingency of 50 who marched single file through the campus, many of us carrying signs saying "Occupation: Wrong in Iraq, Wrong in Palestine." We had a die-in on the Quad, in the center of campus. It was important to do, we made the front page of the local paper, people stopped and watched us go by. But somehow it didn't feel like nearly enough of a statement. It feels like the Iraq War is invisible--in the US, at least.





Well, one last story about Mary's time here was that we went on a tour of Maya's new job. She's working on the OSU campus in Conference Services as an event coordinator. It's a fabulous job in lots of ways--great people to work with, interesting and creative work, good pay, outstanding benefits--and I'm pretty danged proud of her, as you can imagine.




Meanwhile, the man of my dreams, Courtney Childs, is now officially a farmer. He owns a pair of overalls (that was my first clue) and he's recently graduated from his Master Gardeners course.
So he doesn't have class all day on Wednesdays anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not taking a pruning, or composting, or duck raising workshop every chance he gets. Immersion, they call it.

Anyway, I'm very grateful that he's investing his time and money into learning food production. As he explained to me and Aaron the other night at dinner, he's not doing all this just because he likes to garden. It's more that he's doing this for the family--so that we'll always have food. He plans to teach me and Aaron what he's learned so we'll be more self-sufficient too.

Pictured below and above is a little starter garden that sits on Courtney's window sill above his computer. Something growing everywhere. And it's not even completely spring yet.



One last thing, earlier I promised to tell all about Alison Clement's two novels that I love so much. But I'm going to wait until the next time, because it'll fit with that story better. So tune in again shortly.

Happy spring, and with much love,

Valori