GOODBYE, GOODLUCK, AND GOOD RIDDANCE

 After the end of 2019, which was disastrous for us personally, from the standpoint of serious and multiple health issues, we thought, as we always try to do, that 'next year will be better'!  But that was because we were thinking only of our on personal issues.  

Actually, since the day after the presidential election in 2016, we had held to ourselves the concerns and fears of damage that a totally incapable president might do, but we also held tightly the thoughts that there are checks and balances written into the US Constitution that would protect us as a country.  Wow, were we mistaken!  

Now at the end of 2020, we find ourselves still dealing with personal health issues, living extremely quiet lives to avoid  exposure wo a world-wide pandemic, and every day seeing the current president break a Constitutional rule.  Disregarding every sort of effort to help our country (except for an ignorant proposal laced with selfish interests).  Apparently even more ignorant, if that is possible, of how real life in our country works than when he won office.  

Yes, we have to believe that things can begin to get better.  Yes, there will hopefully be accountability for the massive wrongs done to our country.  But the death toll is so unimaginable and so real, the damage to our economy is so heartbreaking, and the failure of one of the two major political parties to support their country rather than support whatever description one could apply to the president's current pattern of behavior:  this is stress beyond measure.  Sorrow beyond measure.  Disgust beyond measure.  

Let us hope we can still find hope.  

THE CRUELEST THING SO FAR

 Since the day after Election Day in November 2016, we have been dreading what someone such as the current president could do to our country.  However, we suffered from a failure of imagination when it came to the president's completely disastrous response to the pandemic.  Only just behind the president in horrific response has been his party's response to the suffering of our people.  Now, on the very eve of a pitiful, too late, too inadequate plan of assistance to desperate need of most of the American people, our tax money back to us for food and shelter, this president, this hollow creature with no ability to care, is threatening to hold the current plan up until who knows when.

If this were a movie, no one would believe it.  We shake our heads all the time, trying to figure out what to do.  We ourselves have basics, but the families, the children, the elderlies, the majority of Americans, are caught between a do-nothing Senate majority and a do-everything-bad president, and coming at the darkest time of the year, at the traditionally holiday season, there is only certain things that can be done right now.

We can help each other by sharing what we have.

We can hope that the new administration will be able to eventually hold accountable the people who are failing us.

And we can make sure our votes are made and counted and that we bring to office more people who care.

THE THRILL OF IT ALL

 This year, this year, has been a year that cannot be described in ordinary words such as 'difficult' or even 'horrific'.  As a planet, we passed 'horrific' back in the summer.  BUT there are still so many small, sometimes very small things we can find to give us joy, to give us a moment of peace.  We cannot compare the stress and inconvenience and frustration and yes, even fear, that most of us are experiencing'  with the stress of front-line workers, the desolation of loss of so many, the fear of loss of shelter and food.  These are terrible, unacceptable experiences for all our fellow humans.  

But if we can, and when we can, we can find a moment of laughter, a bit of relief from reality, in such very small things.  A dianthus plant blooming in December, tiny and fragrant:

And just today, a daughter calling and wondering if perhaps, just perhaps, we would like a gift of her wonderful home-made chocolate and peanut candy.  Not just the offer, but the priceless look of total delight on the faces of her father and brother, gave us all a few minutes of laughing and celebrating the offer and the anticipation.

There are many moments to mourn, just now, but there are also moments to rejoice, to listen to Christmas songs as if for the first time, to hope, to plan, to believe in the future.  

WHEN I'M JUST THINKING

 Like most folks, my mind wanders all over the place, pushed in one direction by something I read or see, pushed in another direction by a memory.

For instance, even though we in this part of the world have experienced mild winters before and known roses to bloom in December, this year has been unique in its own way.  Here it is in late November, and there are zinnias and Mexican tuberoses and potted periwinkle and clibrachoa all blooming in the garden, as well as pots of impatiens and pentas.  It's a  big awkward for me right now, because I have pots of pansies that I planted, ready to put out in the outside pots for the winter.  But to discard the impatiens and pentas when they are flourishing is something I cannot do right now, although I may have to simply transplant them to a space in a flower bed, so that I can settle the pansies into where they will be belong, before some arctic blast comes along (and we always have to be prepared for one).  

In the meantime spring-blooming bulbs are sending their spears up, so at least I know where they are so I can plant some perennials around them.  I plan every year to mark open spaces that don't contain bulbs so that I can slide some daylilies or whatever into the open spots, but as I have said, my mind wanders and/or events overwhelm me.  Maybe next year!

 

WHAT A STRANGE UNIVERSE

Frankly, our family now frequently discuss the fact that we feel we are living in some sort of science-fiction movie.  I say 'movie', because things and we ourselves are in motion, but so much is so strange and time has become somewhat like a played accordion must feel:  sometimes close together, sometimes far apart.

Like the rest of the world, we must deal with the pandemic on an every-day basis.  But to us there seem to be four pandemics:  the covid virus; the violence of climate changes that are producing early and multiple violent storms and in the west, terrible fires; the pain and worry of racial injustices and the terrible unhappiness that has come to the fore; and, in our country, the disaster that an inappropriate administration has wrought on our democracy and its health and economy and therefore, so many people.  

That there are unimaginable numbers of people being evicted from their homes because they have no jobs, that there are fellow citizens who have no source of food, that people are losing everything they have in violent storms or in uncontrollable fires, this is not a reality we can figure out how to deal with.  But we are trying.

As individuals who have studied history somewhat, we know that over centuries and millenia there have been many challenges for humanity.  But in this century, and in this country, and with all the presumed advances in technology and science, we cannot help but be shocked by humankind's continued inhumanity to humankind.  On the other hand, many times we have seen instances of individuals who have reached out to their fellow humans and given care, or joy or kindness or encouragement.  We figure our duty is to do the same, as best we can.

THE GREATEST POWER IN THE UNIVERSE

So there are so many powers in the known universe that we all can come up with at least one:  love, religion, nuclear energy, electricity, gravity – the list is very, very long.

But here is my theory:  the greatest power in the universe is actually Time.  Because all of the other powers I’ve named, from love to gravity, can all be changed or controlled in one way or another.  Love can fade, religion can falter, nuclear energy can be simply not employed, electricity is a mystery all in itself and must be manufactured, even gravity has been found to be repelled by anti-gravity thingies.

Now we come to time.  It simply cannot be stopped.  At least outside of sci-fi stories.  One can stop a clock, one can turn the clock’s measure of time backward or forward (which is simply a type of pretending), or one can accept the fact that time is inexorable.  When one comes to terms with that, one can only then possibly use time to our advantage, to fill our allotted hours with fun and joy and happiness and giving.  Or utterly waste time until it is too late. 

Because, like many great powers, Time really does not care about us.  It can’t.  It is too busy just being.

LUCK AND GEOGRAPHY

One of the most interesting things about philosophy is that it really is not a rarefied study by briilliant people in book-lined rooms, it instead seems to be simply observation of the human condition as we ourselves experience it.

For instance, having been in a happy and devoted relationship for many decades, we have both been frequently asked 'how we did it?'  How did we create and sustain a committed relationship for so very long?

After some thought, it occurred to me was that the simple answer is 'luck and geography'.  Just that simple.  For instance, if we had been born thousands of miles apart, we quite likely would never have met.  But luckily, we were born in the same area, and at a time when we were both without someone special in our life, an acquaintance of mine introduced me to his best friend and that was that.  Connection.  Luck.  Geography.