Foro goes a-wandering: Bern

I started writing a blog because I had no one to talk to about my divorce, and life was crazy and confusing. It helped. I archived the site and saved the posts on my personal computer, but they are no longer available. That iteration was completely anonymous.

Then I started writing with Foro, my little stuffed cow, who I take with me all over the place. The blog today is about positivity. This was before COVID, but it became even more necessary for me the world went through strange gyrations trying to limit damages from the virus.

I’ve always kept it half anonymous. It would be easy, if someone took the time, to figure out where I live and work. It would take a bit of reading between the lines, but it’s entirely possible. I just choose to make it more universal, and less tied to where I live and what I do.

Next year I’m going to go traveling, and Foro will, of course, come with me. So sometimes the posts are going to be about places. I’ll put those in the title so that if the place doesn’t interest you, you don’t have to read it.

I will also, hopefully, write about climbs. Those will also be place specific and I’ll put the name of the climb or summit in the title, in case it does or doesn’t interest you.

And I will still write about positivity, because the world needs more of it and it’s harder and harder to find. Some things are very, very grim at the moment. It is worse than before because I’ve asked my step-mother, who’s 96. She’s seen and lived through a lot, and there are many things that are quantifiably worse. She was a young teenager when WWII broke out, just to give a bit of perspective. She thinks US politics are at a standstill. There is no way for them to work together to get almost anything done. I think back to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2HKbygLjJs

Many other things are also quantifiably better. I mean, I think it’s never been easier than today for the LGBTQ community in many places; we’ve come a long way from putting the Oscar Wilde’s in prison. And the US did have a person of color as president, and one of color at the moment as vice-president.

But many other things are quantifiably worse: we are shitting where we eat, so to speak. The environment is seen as a few crazy tree huggers while “real” people with “real” concerns talk about “real” subjects, like how, I dunno, Bill Gates is following us with nanoparticles in vaccines or whatever nonsense is going around the loop that week. The environment is not separate from us; it is us. We are a part of the world and it is a part of us, and we are not cleaning our bedrooms. Mother (Earth) is getting fed up and isn’t going to give us our allowance. And I will try to find a bit of hope in all that, if I can.

Therefore, the blog will change a bit.

So the first, new post features Foro on a visit of the city of Bern with us. It was a beautiful day, and Foro was happy to see the sun, and relax, and visit a café and watch the people walk by. He’s still got his winter sweater on, because it’s been a bit chilly, but soon he will be ready to bear his chest to the sun.