Grass on the Mind

Recently I’ve had grass on my mind … a lot. Now I know that some of you probably visited this blog because you wondered, “What kind of grass?” Is she talking about marijuana? Well, yes I am … partially.

In a few days I’ll be traveling to East Lansing, Michigan and I can assure you that kind of grass will be in abundance. I’ll be speaking at a dinner that marks the opening of the Robert C. Randall Memorial Wellness Center. Robert was my husband and for anyone in the know about medical marijuana he is pretty much the Founding Father of that movement. Sadly he died in 2001 but here he is in 1977, in some grass and in his prime.

The RCR Wellness Center provides counseling and physician recommendations for those with a medical need for marijuana. That kind of service is a far cry from 1975 when Bob and I were arrested for possession of marijuana in Washington, D.C. Bob had glaucoma and realized that marijuana was lowering the elevated eye pressures that were slowly stealing his eyesight. At the time medical marijuana was virtually unknown. Bob had no idea that there was scientific evidence corroborating what he had figured out on his own. The federal government had discovered that in 1971, while trying to prove marijuana harmful. They didn’t bother to tell anyone, of course, but they did bury the information in a report to Congress which Bob obtained after our arrest. Bob was furious and set out to “beat the rap.” The rest, as they say, is history, more than two decades of it. It took us 500-pages to re-tell the story of our lives in Marijuana Rx: The Patients’ Fight for Medicinal Pot and if you want to know more the link will take you to Amazon where you can buy the book.

I’m no longer a marijuana activist but whenever opportunities arise to remember and honor Bob’s achievements I make an effort to be there. He was a marvelous man and I miss him every day. But, honestly, I don’t miss being an activist. And even though I don’t see very much marijuana anymore I go out of my way to see other kinds of grass.

My passion these days is photography and I LOVE photographing grass. There are thousands of varieties of grass in the world and a lot of them live here in Florida. At this time of the year many are “going to seed” — a phrase we have come to regard as pejorative. But if you get close enough to these grasses you’ll see a world of color and wonder. They may be “going to seed” but they do it in style. Just look at the colors and textures of these two samples.