It may well just be me at Christmas time.
I’ve posted pictures of my Christmas tree over the years. It’s 14 feet tall and plastic. My daughter, Vanessa, persuaded me to stop using real trees about a decade ago and I must admit plastic ones are easier cause the lights are already attached (but I add some red heart-shaped lights). It’s also easy to put up but the decorating part takes 2 days each way…2 days to put up and 2 days to take down and this Holiday I’ll be on my own to do it…with a very tall ladder.
Still, I’m going to do it. I decided today. I’ll start the day after Thanksgiving. I mean, if I’m going to do it I might as well have it up a full month.
My squirrel can see the tree through the window. She’s quite fat now. We’re talking liposuction fat. Should I stop feeding her? There are squirrel experts among you that’s why I’m asking. BTW, when I’m late putting peanuts (in their shells) in her feeder, she comes onto my porch and looks through the window for me.
Most of my time these days is spent writing climate articles and my opening for our weekly virtual Fire Drill Fridays and reading. I read about a book a week. I stop everything around 6pm, watch the Rachel Maddow show and then scroll around for shows to watch. I’ve pretty much scraped the bottom of the barrel watching things I never thought I’d see. I won’t name names. But last night, the new season of “The Crown” started and it’s really good. Also, a multi-parter on Showtime about Ronald Reagan which tells the real story of his rise and the effect he had on American politics. Finally the truth!
I mentioned this before but if you haven’t already seen “My Octopus Teacher,” a documentary on Netflix, you must! It’s amazing and very moving.
We’ve gotten word that “Grace & Frankie” will continue filming our 7th and final season in early June of 2021. A long time to wait but, given the age and vulnerability of the 4 leads, it’s best. I’ll be headed into 84 by the time we’re done. Yikes! This last season will have 16 episodes instead of the usual 12.
It’s clear (and it makes me sad) that when I write a blog about something serious, like the climate crisis, way fewer people follow it as opposed to when I write this sort of every-day-what-I’m-doing blog so I’m trying to intersperse them. And big thanks to those of you who follow regardless. Believe me, I notice.
Cynthia Bemis Abrams
Your sadness and disappointment are warranted. It’s difficult to put out serious messages to a world that in ever increasing ways only wants the easy and safe. Interspersing is key and I strive to do that with my podcast. I’ve been thinking about your statement for 2 days and this morning read that a study of podcast listeners aged 13-34 (US and UK) “prefer podcast to books, most prefer unscripted podcasts and the main characteristic they want their host to have is to be funny.”
While I started my podcast Advanced TV Herstory to share stories and information about the women of TV (in front of and behind the camera), its tone has become more intersectional (read: not funny). I’ve taken it to #MeToo – (That Girl!), racism, sexism and the importance of representation. Listeners tell me they want nostalgia. I want to tell them this is no time for nostalgia. So instead I’m interspersing feminist lessons of more icons into the mix.
Your legacy of activism is your entire life story. That’s why My Life So Far is so transformative for the reader. Artificial Christmas trees are not only simpler to put up and easier on people with allergies, but there’s an environmental cost to bringing a live tree to market. I’d venture to guess most decisions you make in your every day life are climate-strategic. Your followers are interested in what you do and why you do it. That’s where your influence is strongest. Thanks for all you do –
Pamela Clifford
Hi Jane Fonda, OMGoodness I read everyone of your blogs and stay w it until I understand what you are communicating. Now, we are finishing a remodel of a 1911 chapel in Bow, WA (the kindness town) and I took a couple weeks off from texting and reading. However, I’m back starting today. I enjoy your day to day blogs-but, I need FDF and your serious articles. See you at 11:00 for FDF!
Best,
Pam Clifford
Dona
Wow! the Harper’s Bazaar “conversation” was perfect. Smooth as silk and covered everything, that I’ve heard you say before, but all in one great piece. I wish I could own a copy and play it to my friends and anyone I could share it with. If it was on a disk, I ‘d send it for Christmas. It was just perfect. It was Jane 101 as the passionate, caring, dedicated, inspired, knowledgeable, brave person, I see in my heart. I loved it!
Stunning. xx Dona
Jen
Hi Jane!
I started feeding a squirrel at the beginning of the pandemic because he was always at the bird feeder and he has a little gimp leg… he is also quite chunky now, but I think it’s good for the winter! I just finished watching The Queen’s Gambit— a very interesting story and well done! I am always searching for something new to read—any recommendations? Stay well and happy decorating!!
—Jen (from book club in PA)
Floren Carreño
Hola,
Veo que no se actualiza la página desde hace días, ¿debo hacer algo? ¿Es por el idioma?¿Se puede escribir en español como yo hago o se tiene que escribir en inglés?
Floren Carreño
Hola,
No puedo creer lo que está pasando con Trump, cada noticia es peor que la anterior. Esta semana he visto a Guliani en unas tristes imágenes diciendo que Alemania y España recontaban los votos de EEUU a través de empresas afines a Maduro implantadas aquí, es una afirmación espantosa sin ningún fundamento que pretende confundir a los ciudadanos norteamericanos y al mundo entero y de paso desacreditar a Europa. Lamentablemente todo apunta que veremos un final de la función con estas argucias que separan a los ciudadanos, ojalá me equivoque.
Luiza
Dear Jane,
I´ve been sleeping really badly since some days. I´ve been feeling restless and depressed. No motivation for anything since the Covid-Lockdown here in Germany has started. Then, this morning I watched a video of you and Lily Tomlin on Youtube and in one of them you mentioned your blog. I took the chance and started reading it, then I started watching the other videos on your website and I am here to thank you, so so so much: this is the inspiration I was seeking for. YOU are the inspiration I needed. I´ve been feeling so lonely and uncapable of anything in these last weeks. I have so much the need of action, of exchange. I am a brazilian multi-disciplinary artist and activist based in Germany and I find so hard to “keep moving” in those Covid times… I feel so blocked. It is wonderful to know that there are people like you giving so much support to those important causes. The love and energy you are investing in all this gives me life. I´m glad that I discovered your blog and that I can share those words with you. I believe that “to connect” is very powerful.
Much love,
Luiza Braz Batista
ruby
hi Jane im ruby im in love with your show with grace and Frankie and when I started watching it it made feel so warm and fuzzy because I have a best friend who like Frankie can get annoying sometimes but its all out of love and I wanted to thank you and lily Tomlin for making me know that I want to grow up with her and grow old with her.
also I want to be more of an activist for girls everywhere in my town so any tips?
Elaine Rawls
Your comment is awaiting approval.
Hi Jane
This tree is beautiful! You must be careful climbing ladders! I won’t be putting my tree up myself this year. Still recuperating from back surgery. But my son and daughter-in-law will do the honors. I usually decorate the whole house, inside and out.
I follow you on everything you do. I read all your blogs, though I don’t always comment. I attend all Fire Drill Fridays and, there again, I may not comment other than a Hi Jane from Charleston, SC, I do find the meetings helpful and informative. I have stepped out of my comfort zone, and contacted my congressmen, where in the past I would not have done it, but with your encouragement, I did it!!
Sorry to hear Grace and Frankie won’t be filming until June, ’21 instead of January, but I do understand the cautions that must be taken. I will continue re-watching seasons 1-6.
Again Jane, be careful climbing that ladder!! We do not need any broken bones!!
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. With much love and admiration!!
Elaine
Sara Vian
Hello from England! Been watching Grace & Frankie! And now the latest film with Robert Redford! X
Dona
Sara,
What latest movie with Robert Redford?? I haven’t heard that he has done a new one. Dona
Floren Carreño
A propósito de los árboles de Navidad, ¿a nadie le da pereza quitarlo cuando pasan las fiestas? En mi país las fiestas duran hasta el 6 de Enero dia de los Reyes Magos que es cuando nos hacemos los regalos y muchas veces no consigo quitar los adornos hasta 15 dias después, ja ja, todos los años me pasa lo mismo.
Mucho cuidado con las reuniones familiares, aquí recomiendan que solo nos juntemos como mucho seis personas, así que este año celebraremos la Navidad mucho mejor en verano cuando ya tengamos la vacuna, un año estuve unos dias en Diciembre en la playa en Cabo Verde y era extraño los adornos de Navidad en las sombrillas y la gente con los gorritos de Papa Noel al sol, a mi me resultaba muy simpático, así que tendremos que hacer algo así, juntar todas las celebraciones para cuando estemos seguros. Mucha suerte para todos
Giovanna Montanhan Banho
Jane, I don’t know If you received my message, because I have been updating your blog since the day you posted about the Xmas tree and did not see my comment. I don’t know why It hasn’t been approved, If you felt offended by anything I said, I’m so so sorry, It was never my intention. I just wanna say that it will mean a loot for me if you read what i commented about the tradition we have in Brazil to set up the Xmas tree on the first Sunday of Advent and I really liked all your decorations.
On the other comment which was not approved I also said how much you inspire me on college, the course I do which is Translation ( Portuguese and English), we have a subject for Environmental Issues and my professor showed us a video of you and Annie Leonard. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing with us all your knowledge, dedication and passion for a better and more sustainable world. I watch all the videos on youtube about Fire Drill Fridays and they enrich me a lot, from these videos I started to be able to communicate more in class on this subject, because I will confess one thing to you: I was very lay in this subject before starting to watch your videos, so here is my huge thanks for providing us with this knowledge bag so important and in my opinion, little talked about. So good to know that a celebrity uses his voice for such essential matters.
You said you notice who engages in your comments to talk about politics or environmental issues or just common, everyday posts. I try to comment whenever I have something to add and I try not to be too much of a drag, as I know this can sound a little irritating, even if the intention was the best.
Sorry, but I have to say that in the artistic world, you are one of my biggest inspirations. I am 20 years old and have many health problems, and whenever I went to the doctor, he almost begged me to start doing physical exercise, and now in quarantine, I started to suffer from a lot of anxiety and started working out with your videos and my god I’m loving it!! Maybe it may seem a little old-fashioned to you, after all it’s been many years since you released, but believe me: it’s working, I’m loving doing it. I feel that when I do the exercises, I feel less anxious in the day and I can sleep better, because I also suffer from insomnia.
About Grace and Frankie: I’m sad that the last season will take longer to be released, but at the same time happy that you will be back when everything is normal again.
I’m a big fan of the show, I’m watching it for the third time right now and I just love watching it before bed, after a stressful day and having a glass of wine, nothing better !! Very sad that the show will end, could you tell me why? Did Netflix tell you about the reason for the cancellation of it? For me it could be like Grey’s Anatomy, thousands of seasons. I’m absolutely sure that Marta and Roward would handle, there is a lot to explore on the show, several plots.
XoXo,
Giovanna Montanhan Banho
Deanna Piercy
What a gorgeous tree! It looks to be full of memories – just the sort of tree I like. Do be careful on that ladder; we need you healthy and unharmed. One Christmas I stood on a chair to place some ornaments high on the tree and slipped on the chair pad. It jarred my back something awful. I now try to be especially careful.
I’m eagerly awaiting the final season of Grace and Frankie. My husband and I both adore the show. We don’t usually watch much television as we ordinarily lead a pretty busy life promoting music and the arts via our nonprofit. Needless to say, things slowed up tremendously for us this year. I recently finished watching all 7 seasons of The Golden Girls and am almost through Keeping Up Appearances (it’s been good to laugh every night). I’m finding comfort in older shows so next up for me will be The Odd Couple. I’ll have to check out “My Octopus Teacher”.
Our adult son lives next door and is quarantining with us. We’ve been watching a lot of movies together. A couple of weeks ago we watched “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” which I had never seen before. Excellent! One my all-time favorite movies is “Barefoot in the Park” and my son hadn’t seen it. We watched it together last week and he really enjoyed it, too. So, thank you for entertaining us during this crazy time. 🙂
Bob Robert
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in the US!
Some of you will have enough food to put on your table, but can’t share because of self-isolating.
Some of you won’t have any food, and the number is growing as I’m writing this.
While sorting out my PC I found a silly, old joke, but how relevant, still, after all these years.
It won’t feed anyone, but maybe it can put a smile, even if a faint one, on some faces.
There it goes:
A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN with the only question asked being:
“Would you please give your honest opinion about the solutions to the food shortages in the rest of the world?”
The survey was a failure because:
In Africa they didn’t know what “food” meant.
In Western Europe they didn’t know what “shortage” meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn’t know what “honest” meant.
In China they didn’t know what “opinion” meant.
In the Middle East they didn’t know what “solution” meant.
In South America they didn’t know what “please” meant.
And, in the US, they didn’t know what “the rest of the world” meant.
Wishing all the people in the world all the best possible xx
Stacey
Jane
So my worst nightmare came true. COVID hit my family. My brother and sister in law both have it. Which I thought was because my brother is a musician and he was starting to play again. He played at a wedding and some private parties and also at some bars. They have temps and lost taste and smell. Hopefully it’s not to bad for them. Also I am watching this 8 episode documentary called Trial 4 on Netflix. It’s about journalists who expose corruption and racism in the Boston police Department. I just can’t believe what the police get away with. It’s so eye opening . Just wow. If you ever get time it’s really interesting. Hope all is well.
Love always,
Stacey
Snigdha Das
Hi Jane! I am from India, but still, we celebrate Christmas every year. Decorating the Christmas tree is always so enjoyable. Best of luck with your decorations!
I am also watching The Crown and am really liking it.
Keep yourself safe and happy.
Yours sincerely
Snigdha
Candita
Jane why the calamary? I Love it too😢😢😢
Candita
Jane the new movie from Mary Steenburgen “happiest SEASON” is very good.
Carley
Hi Jane Fonda! My sister loves working out and she was just pondering on the thought if you were working on any more workout projects. I just started learning French in my high school class… J’adore ton blog 🙂 As I am writing this, I was just informed that my Uncle attended your wedding.
Happy Thanksgiving and God bless,
Carley
Lyn Morano Lord
Hi Jane. Normally I would never reach out (I know how private people are, my daughter is a director) but whether you see this or not I wanted you to know I’ve followed your activism a long time and modeled it whenever I could. I teach Anthropology and we spend most of our time on climate science. Your Firedrill Fridays are part of my curriculum through IG. So we are listening. And acting.
Also my son is co director of NOAA drought task force and he believes that what you are doing has an important role in establishing a conversation for all of us. So please know we are listening and teaching future generations the importance of agency.
Thank you for your commitment to all of us
Lyn Morano Lord
Dona
Jane, Here’s my “re-send”. Nothing special, just a sharing. As long as it wasn’t offensive, I’m happy.
Hi Jane, So this is weird, sort of. Last night, after a nice thanksgiving and the only person in my pod/bubble had gone home I watched Kiss the Ground. As I watched, I thought, “I don’t remember Jane saying that she actually watched this yet, I’m going to ask her on the blog tomorrow.” (Just now I learned we were both watching it at the same time). Today, I went on the FDF to see the rerun I had missed last Thanksgiving. Just great! What a perfect trio with complimentary information and perspectives! I very much appreciated each one of them and what they had to say. Vanessa said many good things but I loved it went she said that she “grows soil!” Your devil’s advocacy question, excellent! We really need to stop trying to feed the world when it is really about our greed and not how to support their own capacity. I loved Ricardo referencing slavery as the reason our carry-over thinking keeps us from insisting on fair wages for those in the fields. Jim was awesome. What a journey this man has made in his growth and knowledge as a rancher/farmer to believe in the wholeness of the GND. The timing for me to see this after seeing KTG, was also perfect. Now, I had seen the piece on the place in China that had been regenerated and I had seen a short piece on a farming couple who had been regenerating the land by movement of the cattle from field to field, so I had that to start with, but then adding both KTG AND FDF information was such an aw-hah lightbulb coming-together moment of understanding, it was an explosion of I GOT IT! The rain in Spain moment! One thing I am so happy you asked Jim was regarding eating red meat, because KTG didn’t really put the point across that not only does the animal need to be raised differently to even be healthy eating but eating LESS meat is part of the solution all the way around, better health for the human and the planet. There were many vegan chatters with strong feelings aired on the side. (I remember watching five hours of all the animals we eat, showing how inhumanely we slaughter them but I’m still eating chicken.) I’m so glad you did the rerun. Thank you! This was a HUGELY IMPORTANT FDF! There were 69 watching according to UTube.
I try not to get distracted by the chatters that are constant during the FDF presentation, but I did catch some info there. Someone kept mentioning the movie, The Big Little Farm as a must see. So I will check it out. Much love, Dona