Tours, Corn and Seeds

Wow. This tour is feeling endless. We are exploring in the overly extensive fields of Minnesota corn. It's so interesting to see the reactions of the people we have events with. We've been to the edge of the farmlands where the girls are squeaky white and no one has ever heard it pronounced "Me-hee-co". Some are dumbstruck and ask no questions, others cry, one guy yesterday who had an arm that wasn't working gave Patty 50cents for her organization because it's all he had. It's alternately devastating and hopeful.

Duluth is beautiful, Minneapolis a place I really want to hang out in. May we never have need to return to Marshall (sorry!). We've met some incredibly great people, including smarty smart students and a woman who used to keep bees in Mexico who made us vegan pie and treated us like queens. I was really impressed with the Resource Center of the Americas in Minneapolis, some serious community support going on there. And I finally got to see the cherry in the spoon.

Patty and I hit some really big bumps. I have a really hard time spending 24hours with anyone, much less someone who is suffering from the loss of daughter and the absence of justice. My confidence has been shaken a bit (she says I don't speak Spanish very well and I need all the confidence I can muster each time I translate...) but we've pushed through and managed to over-eat (a good sign for some reason I can't explain) and even laugh a bit. And we got pedicures yesterday, which was the her daughter's birthday. Interesting that pampering one's body and getting your toes airbrushed with little stars makes you feel better on a difficult day. I've also been running a lot, which I rarely do. Not only do I get some time to myself in the morning (I'm a hideous morning person), but I get to run through the firey turning trees and get my adrenaline that makes the rest of the day that much less of a struggle. As I write I feel like a jerk because I keep comparing my own feelings to Patty's who I can't possibly understand.

It's hard to feel like I deserve to be critical of anything sometimes- when I
have so very much.

Each day we are farther from Chicago but closer to the end of the trip. I wonder if we've picked up anyone along the way who will get invested in this issue enough to do anything about it. Patty insists we are planing lots of seeds.