Why I am Fasting
When I talk about my reasons for going on a long hunger fast, people often look at me like I’m crazy and I’m reluctant to correct them because fasts are difficult to explain. But I will explain, again. Before the hungerstrikes, my life belonged to the bay. My dad and his Dad and his Dad were commercial fishermen so I was the daughter of a son of a son of a son of a fisherman. Then, too, growing up on a Texas bay and having a Cherokee grandfather who liked talking with the dolphins and spotting moon signs in the sky before night turned to day made me into something of a mystic.
. I remember being out on the shrimp boat with my daddy and feeling my skin stretch and thin like fog, leaving gaping holes that the waves and wind would run into and the sea would fill until my blood was so thick with salt that I could taste it on my tongue. At night, we anchored in a far far bay where sea horses hid under the rocks and pink sea birds dined on oysters and I’d lay on top of the wheel house with a blanket up to my nose, and it was like going to bed with a hunk of seaweed and deck load of shrimp and fish and crabs. I didn’t need a sleeping pill. The smell knocked me out.
I learned a lesson or two on the bay. How to spot shrimp from a mile away. (Look for the sea gulls!) What does a watermelon smell on the bay mean? (trout just threw up) How to tell if a squall was gonna knock your boat over or lay down as harmless as a kitten. (anybody’s guess) But the best lesson that came home to roost was that boundaries were lies. There was no separation or division. No brick wall that divided San Antonio Bay from Spirit Center Bay. Nothing to keep the sky from the water or the wind from the sea. Nothing to keep one person from a billion others. There was just flow and continuity of water and moon and dolphins and ratty ole captains in ratty ole shrimp boats hauling boogie across the bay to find those most elusive shrimp.
Hi, Ms. Wilson:
I wanted to write to let you know of yet one more person you have influenced and inspired. I’m finishing up your book An Unreasonable Woman right now and plan to read Holy Roller next. I live in California right now but was born and raised in Fort Worth and lived 50 years in Texas until 3 years ago when I moved here to become a CA resident while my son attends UC-Berkeley. I became convinced of the need to bring the climate change message to as many as people as I could back in 2004. I’ve written and presented several papers on the subject including one that I researched about the air quality situation in the DFW metroplex. I saw you in “Texas Gold” a couple of years ago and was enthralled, but didn’t follow up on it until I bought your book at our store recently (I work for an environmental nonprofit in Berkeley, CA). I’d like to send you the paper I wrote on climate change and presented in Washington, DC a few years back, if you’d be interested. I am worried about your health and wish that you’d reconsider doing so many fasts - there arent’ many people that we can all look up to - you are definitely one of those. I listened to your interview last week on a radio program and was struck by your answer when asked who takes care of you…I expected you to say “I do”. And instead, you said “Nobody takes care of me”. Please think about that. I understand having a will stronger than your body is - please, please take care of yourself. I hope that you will consider a book tour to the San Francisco Bay area. I would love to meet you in person. I share your devotion to nature and feel happiest when I’m outside in it alone. California offers so many beautiful places to remind one of why we must fight for the earth and all species…my heart stays in Texas, though, as I have finally realized that I’ll always be a woman of the prairie no matter where I live. Peace and good wishes to you, Ms. Wilson. You have won my admiration bigtime!! Thank you, Debbie Beyea
By Debbie Beyea, Albany, California [Fort Worth and Denton, TX] on Sat, 28/11/2009
“The smell knocked me out.” Oh my goodness. You are hilarious! Love you sis. Why no coffee allowed? It dehydrates you, and throws your metabolism even more off!!! Please take electrolytes, potassium, vitamin, and sodium. PLEASE. It’ll protect your circuits for the next battle. WE NEED YOU WHOLE FOR THE FIGHT. LOVE YOU LOTS, Start
By Start Loving, White House, DC http://www.prop1.org on Mon, 30/11/2009
Thank you for article
By tekne, on Sat, 02/01/2010