KIT AND JANE @ ...OUR MARRIAGE, NOT AGE!

JOHNSON

family

JAM

the 2011

2011

Welcome, Sarah

Anne (Lumnah) Johnson! June 11,

Jane flew to Colorado for her 50th H.S. reunion. Ben, in a remarkable act of loving kindness, went along and helped the aging OWLies produce a special edition of the old student newspaper!

Greetings, old friends and fam!

Time never marches; it sneaks up and befuddles us these days as we weed things out and prepare for Transition–ours and the Earth’s.

Munro continues to job-search in NYC, but it's a tough market, so he’s still reverse-commuting to his good job in CT. Ben’s WNYC public radio job moved to Boston, so he moved to a YouTube project at Slate.com, where he had been a weekend reporter but will now be an editor with regular hours instead of working two jobs seven days a week. Sarah also switched–from editing at St. Martin’s Press to PR for Brooklyn Public

Library. We and our kids feel fortunate and happy that they are so close. Kit spent some up-time in Oregon with the old grammar school gang for his 50th HS year, followed by downer time in AZ moving his dad into assisted living after a tough battle with a hospital staph infection. Dad has miraculously bounced back in time for his 98th birthday! Kit still plays, teaches, & directs. Jane still writes poetry (samples au verso) & “rages” with the “grannies” for peace, earth, & social justice. Be well and find happiness in 2012!

Cranking ice cream at our wedding-eve family picnic.

Something old, someone new, something borrowed, nobody blue ...

Finally another woman!

Greetings, old friends and fam!

Time never marches; it sneaks up and befuddles us these days as we weed things out and prepare for Transition–ours and the Earth’s.

Munro continues to job-search in NYC, but it's a tough market, so he’s still reverse-commuting to his good job in CT. Ben’s WNYC public radio job moved to Boston, so he moved to a YouTube project at Slate.com, where he had been a weekend reporter but will now be an editor with regular hours instead of working two jobs seven days a week. Sarah also switched–from editing at St. Martin’s Press to PR for Brooklyn Public Library.

We and our kids feel fortunate and happy that they are so close. Kit spent some up-time in Oregon with the old grammar school gang for his 50th HS year, followed by downer time in AZ moving his dad into assisted living after a tough battle with a hospital staph infection. Dad has miraculously bounced back in time for his 98th birthday! Kit still plays, teaches, & directs. (www.kitjohnsonmusic.com) Jane still writes poetry (samples au verso) & “rages” with the “grannies” for peace, earth, & social justice. Be well and find happiness in 2012!

2

Here’s looking at you, kids, and looking at not being kids anymore–a couple of Jane’s 201 1 poems… SEE-SIDE: WEDDING PHOTOS loving the looking at the loving looking at the looking at the loving the looking loving the me in you loving the you in me looking at you seeing me seeing you loving seeing me loving you seeing we see wee seas weeping with the seeing all tied into pools of the loving in the looking we love to love seeing you loving looking at us all loving you loving and looking and seeing us in you two wedding in the looking and loving and marrying you too

LOVE LETTER TO MY NECK

Ah, there you are, hanging out under my chin, as usual. Rather not as usual, exactly. You’ve loosened up lately, lost your grip. Yet, you old turkey wattle, I love you. I buy you pretty scarves and a new turtleneck to hug you, neck and neck. Okay, to hide you. But I can see not wrinkles but reminders that you have held my head high in the face of hurt, that you have allowed it to bow in reverence, humility, loss. That you have made possible my head turning to satisfy my heart and my natural bents. I see this flabbiness as flexibility: the give and taking of a peek at the star -studded treetops and into the tiniest neighborhoods at my feet. Well, that’s a stretch repeated and recorded until your elastic’s worn out. Now you drag my redoubling chin down with you and even replace my rosy cheeks with jowls. Still I will love you, my good old neck, for all these years you have made way for head, body, and heart to conNECKt. Now here’s an interesting note. We ran across our 2002 Xmas rhyme Jane wrote back then, and here it is  again. And yes, I’m married to a prophet! –Kit  

CHRISTMAS  2002:    WE’RE  WISHING  1…that  the  wealthiest  1%    would  see  the  Light  above  the  hovel,  the  Halo  in  civilization’s  cradle,  and  the  wisdom  in  the  bearing  of  gifts.    2…that  the  fruits  of  your  labors  would  be  returned  to  you    by  the  robber-­‐kings  who  went  looking  for  stars  and  found  more  than  one  Family  frankly  incensed,    3…that  we  would  stop  harming    harmless  children  with  Weapons,  arming  the  Masses,  and    teaching  Destruction    4…that  a  New  World  order  would  be  heard  on  high,  an  order  that  can’t  be  ignored  anymore,  for    goodwill  to  all,  including  the  99%.    5…that  a  new  Behavior  would  be    born  this  day,  trickle  up  and  Stable-­‐ize  all  the  human  varieties  of  mindless  sheep,  spineless  chickens,  greedy  pigs,  gutless    asses,  and  corrupt  elephants.    6…that  our  sheep-­‐herders-­‐on-­‐high  would  get  the  Vision  Thing,  stop  cultivating  Columbines,  remember  Jesus  didn’t  even    drive,  and  wake  up  in  time    to  hear  the  angels  of  mercy  sing.    7…that  we  would  stop  the  Crusades  by  Good  Friday,  leave  Crosses  uncut  in  Old  Forest,  not    dance  on  Arabia’s  belly,  nor  drain  the  Arctic,  nor  melt  the  icebergs,  nor  oil  the  waters      8…that,  for  Pete’s  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  Mike  (Mohammed,  Naomi,  Sarah…)  under  stars  and  in  hovels  everywhere,  we  would  all  make  wish-­‐lists  for  water,  air,  kindness,  tomorrows…and    not  just  send  them  to  Santa

This blank page just won’t go away...one of those exasperating mysteries of micro-hard life on the little screen. I’ll take that as a sign that the Johnson family story isn’t over yet. Who knows? Maybe there will be news to fill it before I actually get this thing mailed/emailed to you! jj