December 2020: A Year in . . . what was that exactly? How’s America doing? Read how The Mauve Report got started, and how it really got going. Plus, the Best of Autumn. And what are we looking forward to for Winter? Maude reports.
It’s been such a spectacular autumn! A truly Mauve one! So much has happened. A new President: officially elected! COVID vaccine: authorized, distributed, and going into the arms of healthcare workers as we speak! Senate: could go either way! Supreme Court: still honest! And Americans are absolutely exhausted. The holidays are upon us, and we’ve never known anything like them. For some, it will go on as almost usual. For others, COVID will catch up. And our hero hospital workers, going to the ends of the earth, through every holiday this year, while some won’t take the simplest precautions for them–they are human, and they are not tireless. School is again on vacation, and what a relief, because that hasn’t been good for anybody since March either.
So I’ve had plenty to write about.
Lately anyway! The Mauve Report was an idea I thought about for at least a couple of years before I finally decided to act on it, last summer. I was going through what I considered to be a very tough time. And it was; we just hadn’t met 2020 yet. I had suffered a fatal blow to another professional ambition, and I decided it was time to finally just do what I wanted to do: write. So I pulled the trigger. I set myself up with a domain and proceeded to write and learn how to build a website!
Well, that wasn’t easy. I still had to work and take care of my family and bust my butt trying to survive in the city. And then a couple more hard blows came my way, for my family and for my health. So after I’d published a couple meager entries, The Mauve Report kind of fell by the wayside.
Then came 2020.
Like many others, my life slowed down in the craziest of ways. I went from being a frazzled, overworked mom to a stay-at-home mom/improv homeschool teacher. A job furlough turned into a forced resignation and a cross-state move to live with family, when I realized I wouldn’t have childcare for the summer, may be supervising virtual learning indefinitely, and didn’t know how long I could float on temporary income. My first ever hand at what would normally be referred to as “funemployment”, in the midst of a pandemic just presented itself as mostly staying home, watching and reading dreadful news, and trying not to get sick. But, I’d had one epiphany about opportunities for my professional life. And then I had another one! And now you’re reading it.
The Best of Autumn
In June, I was inspired by difficult current events to start writing again, and also to do a lot of thinking about who I’ve been, who I am, and who I want to be, whenever this hellscape of a year might end. And before I knew it, a near complete unraveling of my life as I’d known it a couple years before was starting to look like one of those masked blessings people tell you about, that you just roll your eyes at when you’re going through a trial nobody understands. Gears started to move on my plans to make something of the trash fire. The self-taught website-building began to click (still learning!), and I got the most unexpected wind of creative and entrepreneurial spirit. After I found our stunning and perfectly appropriate Golden Gate Bridge photo, I wrote a shot-in-the-dark email to its photographer, Karen Smith, a sweet retiree in California, and I was thrilled when she gave me her blessing to use it. By September, I was writing on a daily basis again, something I’ve wished I could do, but haven’t done, for years. Like everything else this year, I never saw it coming.
Of course, still, the world . . . America . . .
It wore me out. It wore you out. It felt like there really just wasn’t anything else to do, but to try to improve. We did what we could, right? Sometimes, you just take what you’re good at, and do what you can.
And then, the election. It finally came, and then it finally went, but we all knew we’d be just as divided after the ballots were counted and the questions were answered. There’s just more work to do. So that’s what we’re going to do here.
Since November, I’ve also written a lot about gender awareness, a very Mauve subject, and there will be more to say on that. But there will be more to say on so many things, won’t there?
My biggest effort by far this fall was the “Thirteenth of March” series, a three-part and three-angle breakdown of the Breonna Taylor story. “Thirteenth of March” tells Breonna Taylor’s story from the night she was killed until this fall, after the grand jury decision on her killers’ futures. But it’s also loaded with sources that go further in-depth, including most importantly, how Breonna Taylor lived. And then, for those of you who read it, I have a special update to the story here. “Thirteenth of March” is The Mauve Report’s first serial feature. I hope there will be many more.
You can always find my favorite pieces, along with the Quarterly, on the Maude’s Choice menu.
I also worked hard this fall to provide some coverage for every issue and topic I want to discuss. While I didn’t quite hit 100%, and while some issues and topics are more sparsely covered than others, foundations are laid for most of these important subjects, and for us to go forward!
Another important element to The Mauve Report are media sources. I am trying to pick sources that are representative of our country and our populations, from different sides and angles, without going too far to one side or another, unless it’s absolutely necessary. This is something I’m still figuring out and working on, and I would love your input on how I’m doing. My most used news sources this quarter were:
In first place, local news sources. And I will keep striving to ensure those closest to the story get the loudest voices. This fall, the Louisville Courier-Journal was a star news source, for their coverage on Breonna Taylor.
But as far as the national media go, here are the news sources I used the most: USA Today, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and Fox, and Axios. I also found some excellent content from Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, Forbes, Smithsonian, and Vox. You can search these sources by category or under the American Media menu, to see where they were used. (The Rolling Stone content, as well as some other great stuff, can all be found under Mauve Music as well!)
Come Winter
The “Mauve Quarterly” will be our second series! I will come back here in March 2021 to wrap up the winter and welcome the spring. As you can probably guess, I am a mild season fan myself, so I’ll be very happy to be there. In the meantime, I’ll just stay inside and write, and it won’t be that long. 2021!
Our goal at The Mauve Report is to show a well-balanced picture of the American story. We want to to voice experience from every side of any issue, perspective from every side of any topic. And that takes just that: voices. But you won’t find the typical comment boxes here. We would love nothing more than to hear from Mauve Report readers, and also writers, and photographers too! If you have some thoughts you’d like to put in on a subject, a news source tip, or a personal experience to share, we want to hear them! We need your viewpoint. You don’t have to have a Master’s Degree in English to write to us, just your perspective. We would love to add it onto our existing coverage, or publish it as an original piece (or photos). You withhold the power to be published as publicly or anonymously as you wish.
Take a look at our issues and topics, and at the Mauve Mission. You can find other readers’ comments on any story under the Commentary menu. Anything you have to add, we’d love to hear. If you feel inspired, peek at our brief submission guidelines, and email me at maude@mauvereport.com!
This winter, here are some topics and issues we’ll be talking about:
Inauguration 2021. The Georgia Senate runoff. An update on Lisa Montgomery. COVID, vaccination, and education. People experiencing homelessness. Black police officers, and Black trans lives. The Breonna Taylor investigation. And I’m sure we’ll hear more about QAnon.
I thank you so much for reading my little venture. I’ve had so much fun putting it together this fall. Keep checking in, follow us, bookmark us, put us on your home screen–whatever you do–and come back to read some more! And if you love a particular article, share it with your friends.
The sooner we start conversations with others, the sooner all sides (will) come together.
THINK love!
December 18, 2020