Eliana is five

Sue's granddaughter Eliana is five, starting kindergarten, and we celebrated her birthday, her mom's birthday, and her maternal grandfather's birthday with her friend Emily (also five), Evan (four), and a roomful of cheerful grownups. 

Sue has been away for over a week, hiking Yosemite with her elder son and a couple of her siblings, and I'm happy to have her back in town. She had no wifi on the trip, so she hasn't blipped any of it, but I'm hoping she will.

On her trip she was reading Todd Miller's brilliantly researched book about the militarization of the corporate state to fend off climate refugees and protect billionaires. It's called  Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (2017), and that's what we've been talking about. Miller says it's all worse than any of us ever imagined, but there is hope in community, and in the response of masses of people, such as Extinction Rebellion.