Echoes of Fairydale: Memory, Courage, and the Turning of the Season

In Fairydale, by Veronica Lancet, Darcy doubts Fairydale is a popular destination for millionaires. The town is historic and located in northeastern Massachusetts. When she tells Allison that she’ll probably have to split the inheritance with the decedant’s other children who are probably more deserving, Allison tells her to stop what she’s saying.

After a spooky night at the church, a shiver goes down Veronica’s back. She refuses to believe she imagined what she experienced. She believes that Caleb Hale should be able to tell her she’s not going crazy.

When Caleb drives up, he has a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He orders her to “Hop in.” She finds herself trapped in the allure of his presence. The inside of the car is as luxurious as the outside. She asks them where they are going. Caleb tells her that if were going to murder her, he would have had plenty of opportunities the previous night. She asks him to confirm that the door to the Old Church was open.

The next morning, it takes her a moment to recognize her surroundings. She thinks of Caleb and how he chased her in the rain. She notices there’s a bandage on her forehead.

After a dream in which her lover Amon dies in her arms, tears stream down her cheeks. She thinks to herself that he can’t be dead. It doesn’t matter to her that it was all a dream, and it doesn’t matter that Amon might not be real.

Staring at the suitcase she’d thought lost forever, Darcy notes Caleb’s genuine smile. He seems almost confused that she’s not happy. She doesn’t know if she should be.

A later conflict between Rhiannon and Mr. Nicholson ends at a standstill. Caleb excuses himself to attend to business. Darcy swallows hard and plasters a smile on her face.

In November 1790 in London, Lizzie’s first season begins uneventfully. She, her mother, and her sister Olivia have been there almost a month. She’s barely found time to breathe.

On October 26, members of South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society discussed how to respond to current social justice issues. Reverend Lora discussed how democracy is a radical idea and how the UU tradition has a long tradition of speaking to power. She invited the congregation to share ideas on how they could respond collectively given the current challenges.

The discussion started with reflections on border communities and and cultural identities. Unitarian Universalism has had an “outsized influence” on American culture. Transcendentalists were Unitarians that responded to the religious stagnation of their time. Sacrifices have been made by social justice activists throughout history.

Today, we are called to connect with our ancestors for wisdom, guidance, and support. This connection with ancestors provides resilience for the coming winter, acknowledging that fall is a season of "fear and dying" but also of "memory and hope." We are asked to recall and invoke the memory of something important that we have lost. Memories of what we’ve lost remain with us.

All things have a beginning, a time, and an end as part of the turning wheel. Change brings grief and suffering which is not always welcome. Some people turn to the memory of our ancestors for help in navigating difficult changes.

On October 27, I attended the Sips for SCOTUS event hosted by the ACLU, in which the discussion of Supreme Court cases was discussed with wine pairings. The staff attorneys talked about several cases of concern, two from the preceding session, and two from the upcoming session.

Hecox v Little is challenging Idaho’s law that bans transgender women and girls form competing in women’s sports. Lindsay Hecox sued the state in 2020. Hecox asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case citing personal challenges, but was denied. At stake are how laws banning trans athletes are handled nationwide, whether the ban is necessary to ensure fairness for cisgender women and girls, and whether laws that discriminate against trans athletes violate the Equal Protection Clause. Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court and recent decisions, I don’t have a lot of hope that the decision will be a fair and rational one. The only hope right now is that the decision, if it does go in favor of the defendant, is a narrow decision.

Trump v Casa is a consolidated Supreme Court case that was decided on June 27, 2025. At issue is President’s Trump executive order to deny birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa orders, a clear violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, its original purpose to apply to slaves and and their children. The Supreme Court ruled that universal injuctions exceed the federal court’s authority, even though the federal courts were in alignment. Instead, they suggested that the plaintiffs could just run a class action lawsuit instead.

As a result of Mahmoud vTaylor, public school districts are now required to allow parents a religious option to exclude their children from lessons that include LGBTQ+ story books. This is another example of redefining religious freedom in favor of white evangelical religious privilege. There is no rationale that exposing children to concepts in elementary school that they will encounter in real life will do them harm. Instead, it will prepare them for it. It is wrong to teach our children to not respect others who are not like them.

United States v Skrmetti upheld the Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors, claiming that the discrimination was based on medical care and not on sex. Originally President Biden’s administration was on the side of Skrmetti, and made arguments to dismiss the case. The Trump administration reversed course, with the net impact that many transgender youth are not getting the care they deserve.

That night, I received a text asking me to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the Eleanor Roosevelt Award Luncheon. The recipient was for representative Dr. Rosemary Lesser, who also has been serving on the ACLU board. The Executive Director wanted a woman veteran to lead the pledge. After I agreed, I bought a ticket online. When I got there, I was surprised to be seated at the Chair’s Table, where I got the opportunity to meet the Utah Democratic Party Chair’s wife to my right, and a linguistic student to my left.

I was expecting to do my part after the welcoming statement and reflected on the fact that on the drive there, I had temporarily forgotten the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance. I was soon notified that I would be first up before the welcoming statement. So when I was announced over the speaker, I proceeded to the stage, after asking everyone to join me in the pledge with my hand halfway up I suddenly didn’t know what do with my hand. Quickly recovering after realizing I was about to salute the flag, I gently placed my hand over my heart, and proceeded with the pledge.

I paused for a moment at the words “under God,” because those words were added in in another push for religious privilege. I usually don't say them. Realizing I needed to keep going, I skipped “under” and joined back in at “God.” Finally, according to plan, I inserted a deliberate heartbeat pause after “liberty,” and “justice” so that as my voice trailed behind those in the room, with my emphasis clearly heard. Thinking about it later, It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had let myself salute the flag before moving my hand to my heart.

Like me, Dr. Rosemary Lesser comes from a military family. She then proceeded to have a military career of her own. She was one of the first women admitted to the University of Notre Dame and as an Air Force Physician. After serving in the military she was a practicing Ob/Gyn for nearly 30 years. As a representative for the Utah State Legislature, she pushed through a bill that granted women a year of postpartum medicaid coverage.

On Wednesday, I drove to Bountiful for our roleplaying game, as a kind of Halloween Potluck. I picked up candy and a cheese, cracker, and pastrami tray at the grocery store—and then I picked up Lucy. On the way up, we listened to Fairdale on Audible, complete with interruptions by Google Maps. We also celebrated Leslie’s birthday with a spinning candle on apple pie. For the game scene, our characters entered into a downtime in a fantasy edifice created by the Goddess Memoria, who is trying to influence the characters to make needed changes in their lives, despite how reticent they are to those changes.

Halloween night was fun. I enjoyed the groups of kids that came by for trick-or-treat in their costumes. Whenever they came by, they would say trick-or-treat, and I would say Happy Halloween. Some of the kids would reach in to my treasure chest and take one small candy. They loved the eyeballs for that. When they were hesitant or asked, I told them to grab a handful, and watched as they tried to fill their hand with the candy pieces spilling between their fingers when they tried to grab too much. Several said the loved the toy pirate coins and asked if they could have them, and I said, “of course.”

A Replublican-led plan to slash services in Salt Lake County means that more than 250 families in the county would have to find new childcare options by the end of the year. According to Aimee Winder Newton, “when you hear that we’re subsidizing $2 million a year, in my mind, we need to cut these—the four centers that we’re doing full-time daycare… I know sometimes it feels nice when you can try to help other people, but we’re not being equitable in how we’re helping people with this program.”

The Wednesday arrest of a woman at Salt Lake City International Airport is being condemned by Salt Lake City’s mayor and council leaders. Mayor Erin Mendenhall stated, “What I do know is nothing about this incident, like so many ICE operations, makes me feel safer as an American.” According to Shannon Hale, a Utah author who filmed the action, the arrest occurred outside of the security screening checkpoint about 4 pm.

As autumn’s chill deepens and the veil between worlds thins, Fairydale reminds us that uncertainty, loss, and transformation are the price of awakening. From Darcy’s haunted courage to the real-world struggles for justice and belonging, this season calls us to face what frightens us—not to retreat, but to remember. We are the inheritors of unfinished dreams, of ancestors who spoke truth to power, and of generations who demanded liberty and justice even when the words caught in their throats. Now it is our turn to lift our voices, steady our hands, and act with courage and compassion. Let us meet the coming winter not with fear, but with purpose—honoring memory, defending dignity, and building the world our forebears only began to imagine.