Three Artists, an Activist, and a Canadian

Seattle's dark evenings and rainy days hit hard this autumn and our family definitely felt it. I usually don't mind the seasonal changes, but the combination of sick family members (it's not a stretch to say that one of the five of us was under the weather every week between Thanksgiving and Christmas), being housebound, newly adjusting to life without a nanny, and being in the 20th month of a pandemic made the bleak weather weigh a little heavier this year. My biggest remedy was sticking to my Pilates routine, connecting with friends, and cracking open books. A trend of brief biographies and more memoirs emerged and I was further introduced to five very different people. Sometimes learning about someone else's life can bring light into your own. 

E.B. White | I learned about his pathway to writing, including his career at the New Yorker where he met his wife, Katharine Angell, the fiction editor (an uncommon position for a woman); and enjoyed familiarizing myself with his humor and writing style. He had a love for both Greenwich Village in New York City and the rural farm charm of a second home in Maine. 

- [During a cross country trip] White had to walk 32 miles to the nearest town to get a spare. The walk must have seemed even longer because he was carrying Kush's typewriter the whole way -- they were forced to sell it to pay for the tire. 

- [During the birth of his child] In remarkable circumstance, a taxi driver waiting for a fair outside the hospital responded to the emergency and came in to give blood. [White's wife] needed a blood transfusion or she would die. 

- One of the librarians made every effort to keep the New York Public Library from acquiring a copy of Stuart Little. 

- "The time not to become a father is 18 years before a war begins." 

Brandi Carlile | In my college days, I definitely listened to Carlile's album The Story but couldn't have told you she is a gay PNW native. Basically, I knew nothing about her! Growing up poor, her childhood was rather tumultuous, and her whole life felt very different from my own. That said, I found her musical pursuits both fascinating and inspiring. Knowing some of the stories behind certain lyrics, I also appreciate her music more.

- "I still can't bring myself to go out on stage in ordinary clothes. I see it as a sign of disrespect to the audience and to the art of entertainment. It's not about having fancy clothes and being rich, it's about communicating to the crowd that you understand the evening is special for them."

- "I am two women. One of them is theatrical. She loves attention and detests false humility. She believes the things her grandmother told her and believes she is an extraordinary singer. That's very important to her...she loves fancy shoes, details, being right, and expensive blazers, champagne and fedoras, and did I mention attention? This person is an entertainer. Perfectly at home on the stage in a darkened auditorium striking a Shakespearean pose and absolutely infatuated with her audience. The other woman is a scallywag. She bites her fingernails no matter how dirty they are. And they are always very dirty. She's got flat hair. She wears only faded, baggy jeans for yard work. Loves finish carpentry and horses. Spends two days on a tractor or a four-wheeler and grows tomatoes. She wears glasses, cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and has a weakness for very expensive candles, bedding and soap, and she builds a fire every day. She's bad with money and doesn't care. More than this, she fishes..."

- "I recommend hanging a photo of yourself being honest in your living room." 

Charley Harper | As a fan of Harper's artwork, it was fun to see more originals and get a sense of how his iconic style developed through the years. He designed numerous covers of Ford Times magazine, the entirety of The Giant Golden Book of Biology, and even a Betty Crocker cookbook. Harper considered puns "the whisks that stir the creative broth" and had both a playfulness and intentional diligence toward his work. I was impressed by the amount of research he did on each subject before beginning a sketch. 

- "If you chuckle when you look at one of my wildlife prints, I'll be happy. And if you tell me, hey that's right, but I never thought of it that way, I'll be delighted. I like to believe I'm showing you an alternative way of looking at nature." 

- "Each new painting is so difficult to birth that each one makes me feel as if I have never painted before. Whatever the reason, each picture brings a period of total depression, utter discouragement, frustration, hopelessness. Then it begins to take shape, everything falls into place and there comes a feeling of ecstasy, of rightness, certainty, of course, this is the way it had to be. Why did it take me so long to unlock the secret?" 

- "The more I become involved with [nature], the more I am troubled by unanswerable questions about human exploitation of plants and animals and our casual assumption that the natural world is here only to serve people."

- "I don't count all the feathers in the wings -- I just count the wings." 

Ida B. Wells | Of this grouping, I knew the least about Ida B. Wells -- her name didn't even register with me until the recent flurry of literature celebrating and commemorating African Americans in U.S. history. She was a teacher, journalist, civil rights activist, suffragist, social worker, wife, and mother. Known as "The Princess of the Press" she was one of the few women in the country to be both editor and owner of a newspaper. Wells wrote scathing articles and worked "toward justice, not just away from racism." 

- Wells was an educated, professional woman who had paid her fair, yet she had been accosted simply because she was a black woman. In addition, she found it particularly insulting that a black woman who was taking care of white children could ride in the lady's car, but she as an educated, adult woman could not...At 22 years old...she hired the only black lawyer in Memphis and sued based on the fact that the rail cars were separate and unequal...her case was overturned by the state supreme court. Not only did Ida never see the $500 that had been originally awarded, but she was ordered to pay $200 in court fees.

- Ida and Ferdinand managed to keep the Negro Fellowship League open for a total of 10 years, until 1920. During that time [she] helped find jobs for approximately 1,000 men and provided a place to stay for many others who might have otherwise been left to roam the streets.

- She met with President William McKinley in 1898 to talk with him about...the need to make lynching a federal crime...There have been over 200 attempts within the last century to pass such laws -- the most recent introduced by the 116th Congress in 2019. 

- "Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so." 

Alex Trebek | With a fanatic love of game shows since childhood, I have watched my fair share of Jeopardy! episodes. Although Alex Trebek was a routine staple, always appearing on the three-channel TV at my Papa's farmhouse, I never knew much about him. Come to find out, he's a great chap who grew up in a hotel kitchen where his father cooked, had a great voice, and got lucky in show business. My favorite part of his book was learning about his preparation for each show along with his take on popular contestants like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer. 

- "Even if you are learning facts that you are not going to be able to use in your daily life, it enriches you -- the fact itself just enriches you as a human being and broadens your outlook on life and makes you a more understanding and better person." 

- "I don't like to use the words battling or fighting when talking about cancer. It suggests that there are only two outcomes; winning and losing. If you don't get well, then you are a "loser." If you have decided to stop treatment, you are "giving up." That's nonsense...It is not a fair fight. Not even close. It is simple biology. You get treatment and you get better. Or you don't. And neither outcome is an indication of your strength as a person." 

- "I think more people should include silliness as part of their daily routines." 

What a fun dinner party this would be, 

- SJW