There is little about my present day to day that resembles me in past decades. Those busy years when the washable wall calendar held a live or die schedule of schooling, sporting and musical events, each directing every moment. A life that revolved around the immediate. A life that didn’t lose sleep over what billionaire screwed up something. I mean, I knew that they were wheeling and dealing, with our systems of governance, because, well, haven’t they always? But back then I was too busy with the stuff you just had to do before you could lay your head down to pay them any heed. Nowadays, although it does seem prudent to pay attention to the white house criminals who flout court orders, disregard constitutional law, and run about like mad dogs biting our collective jugular, I caution you against giving them all of your waking hours. Instead find a greater joy, like when a chubby baby demands you stay in the wonderful present and don’t ferment over the rich and coiffed ladies who lifted off the planet for 11 minutes of fame. Why do they command our attention while the planet burns?

There is no question of my good fortune. That is not to say I have not known want. I have, like most Americans, had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. I made the tough decision to go it alone with three. In the heat of challenges, thankful to have those to buoy me, I stood again. But in this new governance where Homegrowns are ousted, EPA regulations are dismantled, Autism is misinterpreted, and Don’t say Gay is everywhere while Background Checks for weapons are gone, we all suffer. Try to buy a house in an area where you can get a job that pays a decent wage. Try to buy two dozen eggs for under $10.00. Try to remember when a person could get ahead of their bills. Feel pride in honest work. Those are myths now displaced by a cruel and corrupt autocracy shifting like an ominous evening fog across our horizon. Changing the core of us.

Can we exist in this kingdom of despots like the dystopia they created? Like the Germans who watched the cattle-cars roll by yet turned unfazed to tend their gardens, how might we not bury our civility and our humanity? It goes against my nature to feel so much despair that sunlight is obscured.

And so, I lift my soul up to the memory that holds much of us in hope, that of untarnished love.

Stepping out of the fray for a week always does some good. My recent trip north filled me with that very love. One does not need any more evidence that we have entered troubled times; there is little that will be remembered from this administration beyond ineptitude. One does not need to be a scholar to make such a prediction. But I am always grateful to have been educated, guided, and shown by example how the principled might chose to live. Equalled delighted that my children did too.