WHAT IS A SAFETY PIN?

This description was originally the first post here. It's pretty much why I figure it's worth a page to get at, easily.

In my naive and innocent world, the safety pin is a common fastener first introduced to me by my mother. I watched her use them to hold her shorts up, or keep her cotton blouse together instead of sewing a button. The quick fix wasn't lazy, it was practical. I was a girl in post WWII Hawaii, life was simpler (at least on the surface of things) and there is a nostalgia that carries over for me. I am transported to a big neighborhood backyard with no gates or walls, banana plants with giant shaggy, waxy leaves and arms of green pendulous fruit and plumeria trees twice as tall as me with fragrant yellow, white and pink blossoms. 

Helen Mokihana Calizar, my Ma and my friend, Teri Wise in my family's backyard. Kuli'ou'ou Valley, O'ahu. 1983

There's nothing fancy about safety pins. They do the job, hold things together and work great when you've got a splinter. Through practices like that my mother was preparing me to see what was important and how simple fixes could hold over time and in spite of newer, bigger, better solutions or inventions.

The shorthand involved with the safety pin's confusing messages that came along with political shenanigans and illusions of alliances? 

"After the election of Donald J. Trump, fears are growing that segments of his base may physically or emotionally abuse minorities, immigrants, women and members of the L.G.B.T. community. As a show of support, groups of people across America are attaching safety pins to their lapels, shirts and dresses to signify that they are linked, willing to stand up for the vulnerable."

 "The safety pin movement has been both praised and shouted down, mostly by people from those vulnerable demographics who are at best skeptical and at worst think it’s nothing more than white savior complex shenanigans, a hollow gesture sure to be unaccompanied by action. For black people, it’s akin to police officers handing us ice cream when we asked them to stop murdering us."

Way before the safety pin fad and controversy, my mother showed up one winter, dropped a bronze-finished pin on the floor of our local post office leaving me inspiration to use it. I began spinning a tale for my birthday on a 'day a duck could love.'  I'm not a white woman saying "I am an ally with 'everyone else.' I AM everyone else! A FILIPINO-HAWAIIAN-CHINESE OLD WOMAN WITH A CHRONIC ILLNESS brought on by chemicals and everyday practices in every neighborhood living in a wagon without running water. The safety pin was an early gift of practical magic -- a mother's legacy. The fastening and unfastening of the magic has been my reminder to keep on.

Fasten Your Safety Pins means you hold your pants up or keep your old winter coat tight with a safety pin; pin up that old heavy woven rug for a door on your winter shelter on the only public campground on Whidbey Island; dangle and pin two safety pins from the corners of a worn but fragrance-free flannel sheet on those windows at night. Make do with pot baths and sponge baths and heated water on a hot plate, for years, because they work ... like a safety pin! Fasten Your Safety Pins means you value the practical magic of being helped, and helping out not for the profit involved or the pay-back. Fasten Your Safety Pins means you have stories that hold you together for a moment or for awhile.

My astrologer inspired me to take full advantage of the Full Moon in Virgo March 9, 2020 energy ...

"To make the most of this, be willing to pitch in. I know this is really hard for some people to do. They will stand there and watch a person struggle when they could easily give them a hand. It’s a habit! This is the time to be moved to do the right thing. If you take the opportunity, I think you’ll be very pleased with the result!" - Elsa P. of Elsaelsa

What are the safety pins in your life?  Where do you use them, and how do you share the ones you have? 

Safety pins are holding that rug-for-a-door

My mother's birthday comes up in a few days. My nephew Kawika's birthday is today. He's thirty-five today. We will celebrate my Ma's one hundred and two years. Fastening safety pins for me has so much to do with remembering the memories and spun tales that make life sweet, strong and endurable. Fastening safety pins means see how to make do, and help others make do.

Writing stories, creating blogs and sharing them via this highway of the Internet ... they're my safety pins! I wrote the original tale, "Like Raising Fish" for my nephew Kawika many years ago when Pete and I were living on the land where shaggy waxy banana leaves and plumeria taller than me grew. Link here to read "Like Raising Fish."

Happy Birthday, Kawika, and Ma.