I drove my father from his residence in Connecticut to our Pennslyvania lake house yesterday for our Passover celebration. Since Passover coincides with Easter this year, I reminded dad that four years ago, when the holidays also fell on the same days, we adopted our dog, Moses. We had found him at a local rescue organization on Friday, and picked him up Sunday morning.
As we traveled west on I-84 through Connecticut, I recalled a story when I worked as a reporter for the News-Times, (Danbury, CT), many years ago. I interviewed Kathleen Tenk, a barmaid who was arrested on Good Friday in 1981 after serving alcohol to patrons at the Countryside Inn in Newton, a favorite watering hole of residents and reporters. The police had responded to an anonymous phone call turning her in. https://cyclingrandma.wordpress.com/?s=blue+laws
At the time, Connecticut’s “Blue Laws” prohibited the sale of liquor on Good Friday, Election Day, and Sundays and Holiday Mondays. These laws, dating from Colonial times, regulate behavior and business on the Sabbath. The prominence of Sunday shopping evolved from the repeal of Blue Laws and varies state by state.
Thankfully, to Tenk’s relief, Connecticut struck down its Good Friday rule shortly after her incident, making her arrest moot. However the state did not enact into law a Sunday liquor sales bill until 2012.
What sweetens the story for me, was a comment I received on my blog from Tenk’s daughter, three years after my initial post. https://cyclingrandma.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/blog-connections-the-power-of-writing/
Thinking about Kathleen Tenk and her stance against what she considered unjust, reminded me of Robert Hubell’s post I read: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/be-a-hero-of-the-resistance?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDQxMjUyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo1MjI1NzAzOSwiXyI6InJyMVVJIiwiaWF0IjoxNjUwMTI0OTI4LCJleHAiOjE2NTAxMjg1MjgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNzEzNTgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.HHX_qeFvwO8s75EyuLJtiC2Q8ymUgHrEBtz-deuJoCU&s=r
It’s easy to feel helpless in these troubling times. I have not written a blog in months. How could I write about my happy and safe life when a country is being destroyed? When civil rights in our country are being stripped away? And so on. Reading people like Robert Hubell helps. Also check out Jessica Craven’s blog: https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/. She suggests many opportunities to get involved. As individuals, we can participate and affect change.
This holiday season, let’s join together to leave a better world for our children and grandchildren.
LisaKWinkler 
Robert Hubbell’s article reminds me of Harriet Lerner’s writings about the triangle of our relationships. There’s me. you. the relationship.
If I change, the you in the relationship inevitably resists, wanting to hold onto status quo. The relationship is stressed until one of us (it only takes one to affect change) divines the path to harmony – it also requires me to not give up on harmony, even when the other is acting out etc.
I think the world is in such a space right now — change is afoot — there are those who resist — the challenge and the gift — is to not give up on harmony, justice, peace, joy, love.
I look at my grandchildren and some days I despair — what kind of world are we creating for them? Will there even be a world for them to grow into?
And then I remember to breathe and to give into harmony, justice, peace, joy, love.
I enjoyed your read Lisa. Thank you for always sharing your best so I can delve into mine. ❤
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Thank you, Louise. I appreciate you, your comments, your writing and art. You have managed much better than I to keep writing in the face of all this despair. I am trying now to resume my blog. We are at an age where more of our lives are over than ahead– and that makes it so much more disturbing. Yes, hope for hope, love, peace.
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Thank you, Lisa, for this inspiring post.
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