Dear Jane,

I went to a tea held in honor of your birthday yesterday.

I wore the same gown as I did last year, which you would appreciate. You would also probably identify with the sensation I had after last year’s tea, when I realized that I had cut the gown’s hem too short and therefore had worn in public the 1790’s equivalent of what my generation would have called high waters (this is a term that came into use in the 1850’s, apparently, but it feels biblical, so I hope you will have a sense of what I mean).

The sleeves of the gown, I already knew before I went to last year’s tea, were also too short, and I hadn’t had time to alter them.

Last year, I sat at a table and listened to people talking about regular things while all I could think about was what was happening in Gaza, a tiny portion of what you would know as the southern coast of Palestine.

This year, a man made a presentation about Naval medicine in the time of Jane Austen.The presenter made a distinction between amputations before and after the invention of anesthetics. He showed a photo of the surgical instruments used for amputations, including bone saws, which he noted, were “cold” when used prior to the introduction of anesthetics. After his own amputation without anesthetic, one naval officer required that in the future, saws ought to be warmed before use.

In Gaza today, people, including children, are undergoing amputations without anesthetic due to a blockade of most types of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies. This blockade is enforced by their colonizers to purposefully cause shortages of essential supplies. An estimated ten *children* a day are losing limbs. There are no services for these amputees, as all the hospitals have been bombed multiple times, and 1000+ healthcare workers have been killed. This does not include those healthcare professionals detained, disappeared, or injured by the occupying forces.

Healthcare workers in Gaza have reported that many times, limbs that could otherwise have been saved were amputated due to the lack of equipment, antibiotics (a wonderful discovery that changed medicine; it came about a century after your death), and specialists in the face of a collapsed healthcare system. This is what I think about while I am sipping from my teacup.This weekend, the last orthopedic surgeon in North Gaza was sniped in the head. He was a grandfather who had come out of retirement to serve his community.

As a side note, Jane, you had snipers back in your day, but guns are much better (worse?) these days. There may have been a way in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s in which an elderly doctor could have been killed by an errant bullet, but these days our equipment makes a mistake like that well nigh impossible.

Last year, I had wanted to use a keffiyeh for my turban. A keffiyeh a traditional scarf from Palestine which has become a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

You’ll know all about waiting months for a parcel to arrive – the keffiyeh I ordered last year wasn’t delivered in time for the tea. This year, I have quite a few keffiyehs to choose from. I went with the first one to arrive from Palestine, which came after many weeks of waiting.

I’ve included a map of the area I keep referring to, to refresh your memory. As you can see, there’s Palestine. Please note its shape. Our maps today look much different. You will be quite familiar with colonization – Palestine has been thoroughly colonized since you lived, at a great cost to the indigenous population.
After last year’s tea, I added a pleated hem to my gown that made it the “right” length, and extended the sleeves by several inches. In your letters, you describe doing similar updates to your clothes and accessories in order to keep up with the current styles.

It feels very crass to be talking about frivolous things like gowns and trims at this time, but I’m trying to bring joy back into my life, and your birthday tea was one of the ways I’m doing that.So much has changed since you were alive that it isn’t possible to explain in one letter. We’ve found so many ways of making life better, helping people survive for longer, but we also deny those very advancements to huge portions of the world population. We’ve also invented even more horrifying ways to kill each other.

So I sat and sipped my dark chocolate hot cocoa with friends for a few hours. I felt confident wearing a gown I made and altered. Then I came home to see more carnage – something you were spared, since your news was delivered to you in a very different way. These days, we get to see things WHILE they are happening. It is a very bitter pill. I could go on, but I feel I’ve already ruined your birthday quite enough. I’ve included here some images that will in turns, grieve and delight you. It may seem like an odd juxtaposition, to place these side by side. Just as during your lifetime, there is much contradiction these days, and sometimes putting it on the page in all its ugliness is the only way to get it out of one’s body.

Much Love from the Future,

L