It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, nearly two months to be exact. And so much has happened since then, though in other ways, things seem almost exactly the same.

Four days after Election Day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners

My last post was November 9, just after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners of the 2020 election. We all know that former President Trump never conceded, that he reluctantly left the White House after urging at least some of his loyal followers to keep fighting, leading to the insurgency that threatened the Capitol, our lawmakers, and our very democracy on January 6.

And yet, democracy prevailed, and Biden and Harris were sworn in as President and Vice President on January 20.

So, are we back to “normal” now? Am I finally done with the Flags of Resistance?

The Fifth Flag of Resistance, September 27, 2020 - January 20, 2021, complete.

Yes, and no. There has been so much damage done in the past four years, and extremely serious cracks in our democracy have been revealed. It is naive, and dangerous, to think that just because Trump is no longer President, therefore everything goes back to being as it was before 2016. Of course, as it turns out, even in 2016 things were, in fact, not that great; the divisions and hatefulness that would soon erupt were there all along, just covered over with a thin veneer of “normalcy.”

And so, while I will no longer stitch the Flags of Resistance, I feel compelled to evolve and continue my daily stitch practice. After a great deal of thought, I have decided to make a calendar of 2021 (and perhaps beyond). In my kitchen, I keep a large wall calendar on which I note the important domestic items for each day and each week: dentist appointments, meetings, birthdays, and so on. For my stitched version, I will have a “page” for each month, but instead of stitching the little details of daily life, I will stitch what strikes me as the most important headline for that day.

This is, of course, highly subjective. What I choose to stitch now may, in time, prove to be unimportant, and sometimes key stories will escape my needle. Though my primary focus will be on what is going on here in the United States, I will also keep an eye on what is happening in the rest of the world.

I will stitch plenty of bad news, I am sure, but also sometimes some good news.

Each “page” will be a snapshot of the month, and all 12 pages once completed will be a snapshot of the entire year. It is so easy to forget what happened just yesterday, let alone last week or last month or six months ago! I see this project, therefore, as a way of bearing witness, without comment or commentary, to the events that shape 2021.