365 Days | Cirque Colors in Halcyon

January 20, 2018

365 Days | Cirque Colors in Halcyon

Direct sunlight

365 days ago, Donald fucking Trump officially took office as President of the United States of America. The role of our president was irrevocably changed. And we haven't stopped fighting. We haven't stopped working. We haven't stopped listening. We haven't stopped moving. Our voices will be heard. #Timesup. You can donate to the TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund, which provides subsidized legal services for individuals subjected to workplace sexual harassment and abuse here. You can donate to Planned Parenthood, which provides high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, as well as sex education (so needed in this day and age!) here. You can donate to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), which works to defend and preserve the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States here. And try to take some time to volunteer, or make your voice heard in some way. Every voice matters.

Trump has done a lot of shit. Puerto Rico is still devastated and in need of aid. Here's just one article on Trump's response. CHIP (the Children's Health Insurance Program) has been in danger for months because Republicans haven't been willing to pass a clean bill to extend it. DACA - well we all know about DACA. Public school education is under unsteady, ignorant leadership with Betsy DeVos. It's not over for Flint, Michigan, and the EPA's head (Trump-appointed) Scott Pruitt has no plan for how to move forward - Scott Pruitt is just horrible for our environment in general, no surprise. And plain old morality, sexual safety, racial and gender equality, and decorum are a daily joke.

So 2017 was a rough year. It was kind of devastating actually. It was hard not to be cynical. While I was keeping myself informed and educated, and avoiding the TV news media like the plague, I tried to keep in mind this part of Stephen Colbert's 2006 commencement address to graduating seniors at Knox College, which as always stuck with me:

Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying "yes" begins things. Saying "yes" is how things grow. Saying "yes" leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say "yes."

And, as much, as I watched us lose special elections in Kansas and Montana and Georgia and South Carolina with a cynic's eye, and then win the governorship in Virginia, I shielded myself again for Alabama despite everything swirling around. But now, I'm choosing "yes." (Even though, Jones, I'm watching you, I saw your yes vote on the spending bill.) I went into the New Year wearing Cirque Colors in Halcyon.

hal⋅cy⋅on | a: calm, peaceful; b: happy, golden

The world's history is a diving poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian - the humble listener - there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.

- James A Garfield

20th President of the United States

Opposed Confederate secession in the Civil War,

Served as major general in the Union Army

Advocated an educated electorate

Advocated civil rights for African Americans

Cirque Colors in Halcyon is a stunning rose gold composed of metallic rose gold flakies that lie flat on the nail. It builds up to opaque in 2 thin coats, and is almost opaque in one. Great formula. No need for a thick top coat, but the flakies kind of stick to your skin when you remove it, so you might want to do some less stringent variant on foil removal. This was part of their Holiday 2016 collection, but I believe it is now part of the permanent line. Cirque's website has a list of stockists.

Pin from For All Womankind - support small businesses!

Okay, one last fired up story. The word "halcyon" originates from the Greek word for "kingfisher," and the story told by Ovid of the ruler of the winds Aeolus's daughter, Alcyone:

She ran and leaped into the water [...] and then oh, wonder, instead of sinking into the waves she was flying over them. She had wings; her body was covered with feathers. She had been changed into a bird. [...] Every year there are seven days on end when the sea lies still and calm; no breath of wind stirs the waters. These are the days when Alcyone broods over her nest floating on the sea. After the young birds are hatched the charm is broken; but each winter these days of perfect peace come, and they are called after her, Alcyon, or more commonly, Halcyon days" (145).

- Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton

After the last year, this is what I wish for us in 2018. Let us get through the storm, and emerge into something better. Let us appreciate everything more because of what we have been through. Let us strive to make it better because of what has come before. Let us bring on the halcyon days.

And then...let us rain hell on those who did us wrong. 😈