I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Author: Sheila Morris

  • gimme a break – no, seriously – time out?

    gimme a break – no, seriously – time out?


    The mid term elections are in the past now, but my nerves continue to jingle jangle like the spurs on my boots used to do as I anxiously await outcomes. I find myself turning to movies of questionable taste on Netflix to keep me from watching election news, but then cheating on myself by looking at my phone for hints about leaning this way or slightly that way. Maddening. I need a mental break before I have a breakdown. Good news: we’re taking a break.

    Thank goodness I have a wonderful friend in California (which way is California leaning? Stop it!) who has a birthday this month – a woman I’d like to celebrate not only for the personal fun experiences we’ve shared over many years but also for the amazing contributions she’s made to the LGBTQ community on the west coast, her chosen home away from her native roots in South Carolina.

    Happy Birthday, Audrey Prosser! You are a woman of substance, a woman I admire for all the right reasons. Your commitment to social justice for your community, your state, your country is inspirational to your friends in South Carolina who have had the privilege of sipping cocktails with you in foreign and domestic countries while we discussed, among other topics, the issues facing us as lesbians who cared about each other and creating positive change regardless of where we lived.

    Pretty and I regret we won’t be able to attend the 80th. birthday bash with you and your wonderful wife Debra, but know that we will be with you both in spirit and in sisterhood. Rock on, Miss Thing. Whatever music is played at your party – you keep on dancing.

    Audrey Prosser

  • the ONE thing you’ve got going: your ONE vote – Shirley Chisholm (1924 – 2005)

    the ONE thing you’ve got going: your ONE vote – Shirley Chisholm (1924 – 2005)


    In 1968 Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress; she served in the House of Representatives from 1969 – 1983. In 1972 she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States, the first Black candidate for a major party nomination.

    Shirley Chisholm had spunk. Unlike Lou Grant (who told Mary Richards in one classic scene from the Mary Tyler Moore Show: Mary, you’ve got spunk – I hate spunk) I admire spunk so Rep. Chisholm is on my list of most admired people. I hear her voice with its crystal clarion calling out of truth to power echoing through the halls of the US Capitol today as surely as her footsteps walked those halls more than a half century ago:

    “It is incomprehensible to me, the fear that can affect men in political offices. It is shocking the way they submit to forces they know are wrong and fail to stand up for what they believe. Can their jobs be so important to them, their prestige, their power, their privileges so important that they will cooperate in the degradation of our society just to hang on to those jobs?”

    Yep. Sure sounds like it, Shirley.

    **********************

    Every vote matters – don’t sit this one out. Vote Tuesday, November 08th!

  • what is really on the line November 8th?

    what is really on the line November 8th?


    A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done. No matter how brave its warriors or how strong its weapons.

    Cheyenne proverb

    We cannot be distracted by the noises that surround us. The Republican Party seeks to conquer our hearts by controlling our bodies.

    I Voted this week to say Not on My Watch. Plan your vote. We are not done.

  • the Urban Legend we called Carport Kitty was a Seeker

    the Urban Legend we called Carport Kitty was a Seeker


    ?? – October 22, 2022

    I am a seeker
    A poor sinful creature
    There is no weaker than I am
    I am a seeker
    And you are a teacher
    You are a reacher
    So reach down
    Reach out and lead me
    Guide me and keep me
    In the shelter of your care each day
    ‘Cause I am a seeker
    And you are a keeper
    You are the leader
    Won’t you show me the way

    I am a vessel that’s empty and useless
    I am a bad seed that fell by the way
    I am a loser that wants to be a winner
    You are my last hope
    Don’t turn me away

    Oh, you are a mountain
    From which there flows a fountain
    So let its water wash my sins away
    ‘Cause I am a seeker
    And you are a keeper
    You are a teacher
    Won’t you teach me the way
    Reach out and lead me
    Guide me and keep me
    In the shelter of your care each day

    Pretty and I shared many tears as we stood next to Carport Kitty when her brave heart came to rest yesterday. Congestive heart failure was the culprit, but this first and last visit to a vet confirmed what we suspected when she first appeared in our carport during the fall of 2021 – frail, limping, exhausted but adamant in her refusal of our attempts to touch her – equally determined to avoid the crate we borrowed from our friend Francie to try to get her to the vet.

    And yet she survived with us in her own way. Pretty began her rescue efforts with a bowl of fresh water every day; I told her I was definitely against any cat rescue since we had three dogs in the house plus my cat allergies. Anyone could see (except Pretty) that we didn’t have a place for an urban feral cat. Sigh. That’s about the time I started feeding her Meow Mix and named her Carport Kitty. Meow Mix moved on to Temptations which led to the canned food delights of Fancy Feast and Little Friskies. CPK became a celebrity to our cyberspace friends through her adventures on Cardinal Street during the changing seasons. Carport Kitty had a following. Never a loser to Pretty and me – always a winner.

    Carport Kitty moved through three other neighborhood homes this summer – I thought she was following the sun to avoid the extreme heat but in retrospect I think she was following the instincts that helped her survive on the streets for who knows how many years or the circumstances that created her journey. One neighbor told us when we first asked last fall if the calico cat belonged to him that she had been roaming this neighborhood for years. He had given her and her friends food, water and shelter from the cold. The calico cat was a stray.

    Over the months Carport Kitty gradually began to trust Pretty and me. I often sat on the kitchen steps outside with her at night to give her last meal of the day – usually her third! Lately she had seemed to want more than her typical head pats from me, a few meows, rubbing against my legs, longer visits than we shared in the summer heat. The black Tuxedo cat, the Bully Cat, the Yellow Cat – all her friends came around at dinner time now but were afraid to come close to her turkey and giblets because the old white woman chased them away to protect the calico cat.

    Somehow in the vicissitudes of life as my daddy used to talk about, I heard Lauren Daigle sing “The Seeker” for a Dolly Parton tribute the night before we lost Carport Kitty. Dolly wrote the song for an album released in 1975 – her words haunted me during these past painful hours because I do believe Carport Kitty was a seeker who came to our home searching for keepers. She found these keepers brought much more than water, food, places for her to reign supreme in her carport kingdom. They gave her their love.

    No matter what time Pretty and I drove up the driveway we both looked for the little calico cat who stood guard over our carport, waiting for us to come home. I’d like to think she might still wait for us…somewhere.

  • Boo at the Zoo in 2022

    Boo at the Zoo in 2022


    For all our friends in cyberspace who have been with us longer than a hot minute (or at least a year) you will recognize changes in our family photos for our second annual Riverbanks Halloween Boo at the Zoo experience. Taken last night, the first night of the 10 night Boo extravaganza we find Pretty in a very large witch’s hat standing behind me in my disguise as an old lady with white hair; to our right the witch family with Pretty Too as Mama Witch holding baby witch Molly now almost 9 months old, 3 year old witch Ella being held by Number One Son Daddy disguised as Gamecock fan minus gear. To the left of Pretty and me Pretty Too’s twin sister Pretty Also (with fangs) plus Super Bro in Law Seth and their 3 months old adorable Cousin Caleb.

    The night was a perfect one – not so cold as we had thought – mild 60s. Most of the animals had wisely stayed in their sleeping quarters as the hordes of costumed children and frazzled families descended for utter mayhem. Or, as Ella told me when I wasn’t quite quick enough to lift her to see the one brave black monkey stick its head out for a peep at the crowd, I think he had to go potty, Naynay. Brilliant.

    As I let Ella slide to the ground, she said, I think you’re too heavy to carry me. Her legs are almost as long as mine!

    Thanks to the thoughtfulness of Pretty Too and Pretty Also combined with the commercial acumen of the Riverbanks Zoo, we have a few pictures to remember the night. (Luckily, or unluckily, videos of my ending dance (following a mug of witch’s brew spirits) with Ella to my all time favorite group Abba’s Dancing Queen were unrecoverable. Pretty forgot to hit the “record” button. Ella will one day thank her for that, too.)

    A few noticeable differences in the Boo experience this year, the most obvious the addition of two children who still qualify for free admission. Two strollers required this time with related diaper bags containing well, you know, what diaper bags all over the world contain. With the little girl who now required a ticket to enter, a decided shift in focus from being mesmerized by the millions of lights outlining ghosts, goblins, witches, bats, pumpkins that had so thrilled her last year – to wait for it, candy acquisition and consumption. The war with sugar has begun.

    The kindness of strangers moved us all when we entered the zoo last night. Somehow in the frenetic pace of parents getting home from work to dress children and themselves in festive Halloween costumes, no one brought Ella’s candy bucket. As Pretty turned to make an emergency run for the candy container in the zoo store, a young mother stood nearby pushing a stroller herself with another child by her side. She gave Ella a bucket with the words, we have two and only need one. Sharing is caring, right? Ella saw a very good example of what those words really mean, and we did, too.

    From our family to yours, have a safe and Happy Halloween.

    ********************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.