Truthiness

 Ahhh, good old Stephen Colbert. Truthiness, his concept, is now the Order of the Day in Trumpland America. Truthiness is said to be, “the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.”

We used to say, in the good old days of the 20^th century (remember then??), that Reagan made it ok again to be a racist.  Remember Ronald Reagan or St. Ronald of Reagan as we called him?  All his talk about welfare queens—Black women driving in their Cadillacs to go shopping with their food stamps—was intended to outrage white people about people of color.  Reagan was many things, but subtle wasn’t one of them.

And just when we thought we had finally escaped Reagan’s racist views, we brought in Donald Trump, and Truthiness has a new lease on life.  Trump has made it ok again to be a:

• ·         Liar
• ·         Racist
• ·         Nazi
• ·         Misogynist
• ·         ConMan
• ·         Conspiracist

In fact that list seems to describe his entire roster of supporters.  And, in part, it begins to describe his style of campaigning.  We know that he surpassed 20,000 lies sometime during his third year in office.  He has converted Twitter into a great LIE machine. Apparently, instead of sleeping, he watches Fox News and then begins tweeting lies he learned sometime in the middle of the night.  But as to campaigning style, we now have come to understand that Trump lies partly to disguise his own campaign strategy.

For example, when he was working so hard to tell the world about Hunter and Joe Biden’s crooked/colluding ways in the Ukraine, we now know that he was pressuring the head of Ukraine to launch a public investigation in exchange for some gifts from the US. And we know that he actively colluded with the Russians to ascend to his high position.

So, now we understand that whenever Trump launches a (patently untrue) conspiracy offensive against someone—Biden for example—it represents something Trump is already doing. His lies are intended to cover his own tracks. This is a consistent strategy, designed likely by someone like Rudy Giuliani, since Trump isn’t clever enough.

So, if Truthiness is now the new standard for conversational English in America, we should begin engaging.

For example, did you know that Vlad the Impaler Putin is actually related to Adolph Hitler??? Yeah, see Hitler didn’t actually die in that bunker in 1945. They faked it and Adolph actually escaped with his girl friend to Russia! Yeah, turns out, he cut a deal with Stalin to retire to a seaside resort on the Baltic Sea, St. Petersburg, in exchange for a very large cash donation.  And finally Adolph and his girlfriend produced a kid in 1952, Vlad was his name.

And then it also turns out that Trump’s daddy wasn’t really German. He was of German descent, but he actually was Italian, and related to Benito Mussolini, although it is unclear what the exact relationship is.

So, these newly acquired facts, help to explain Trump’s relationship with Vlad the Impaler.  Think Hitler and his relationship to Mussolini. Benito wasn’t exactly employed by Adolph, but it was the nearest equivalent. Sort of like an organized crime gang led by Hitler with Mussolini heading up the Sicilian chapter of the Italian Mafia. So, Trump has now fallen into daddy’s footsteps, and is acting as the American Mafia head to Vlad’s Global Organized Crime ring.

See, seems obvious doesn’t it, now that you know the facts.

So, there, that’s my contribution to Sunday’s Exercise in Truthiness.

TaTa!

Hurricane LIAR

 RNC: Hurricane LIAR -- Why? How?

So the RNC has finally ended. But the question remains . . . who actually had the stomach to watch it, aside from Stephen and Trevor, and John, and Samantha? But they get paid to watch drivel like that, you know, important drivel (to be fair, even Stephen admitted he could not watch the final day of the RNC).  A recent Guardian article characterized the RNC as Hurricane LIAR, such is their view of the sheer volume of lies by the Trumpies about both Trump and Biden.  The cast of characters speaking seemed no longer bothered worrying about the difference between truths and lies. They have deteriorated into a parade of Liars, thus Hurricane LIAR.

And yet, people watched, and people applauded. How in heaven’s name is that possible?

I can sort of understand how the folks making money out of all this drivel participate. I mean, Trump’s kids are making millions. Pompeio, Barr, his ever-changing cast of the White House Press spokespeople, the Eric Prince family (also making millions) are raking it in.  Pence . . . well I don’t know. Pence was a nobody lawyer until he decided that politics was to his liking. He also got himself a radio commentator slot in Indiana, so maybe that was what attracted Trump. But, no, it was more likely that Pence’s conversion from a democrat-leaning Catholic to a born-again Evangel was the attractant. Pence might help to bring in the amoral Evangel vote, which Trump might otherwise have difficulty attracting, with his personal record of total sleaze. Pence in particular had played around with the anti-abortion crowd with a campaign and an Indiana law that prevented certain kinds of abortions. His Wiki page indicates that Pence signed bills intended to restrict abortions, including one that prohibited abortions if the reason for the procedure was the fetus's race, gender, or disability. After Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), he encountered fierce resistance from moderate members of his party, the business community, and LGBT advocates. The backlash against the RFRA led Pence to amend the bill to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other criteria. So, little Pencey was a pretty sure gatherer of Evangel votes, since they only seem to care about opposing both abortion and gay rights.

But what about the people who are not Evangel?

Well, we have the KKK/Racist vote. These are people who, whether they belong to the KKK or not, are fundamentally racist. They obviously love Trump, who is also an openly racist kind of guy.  They’re never going to vote for any democrat, since the Republican Party in general has shifted to fairly open support of racism. Interesting how that Party of Lincoln idea didn’t survive.

And then we have the Neo-Nazi’s. Now they aren’t a party per se, but they have many organizational/cult identities within the United States. Wiki lists the following Neo-Nazi like organizations:

·         People associated with the Business Plot.

·         American Front: an umbrella organisation.

·         American Nazi Party: Founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959, this group was central to the foundation of the World Union of National Socialists.

·         Aryan Brotherhood: a prison gang

·         Aryan Nations: a Christian Identity organization founded by Richard Girnt Butler

·         Atomwaffen Division: a neo-Nazi paramilitary terrorist organization which is infamous for its killing of 8 people most notably the murder of Blaze Bernstein.

·         Creativity Movement: a White separatist religion

·         National Alliance: founded in 1974 by William Luther Pierce, the author of The Turner Diaries

·         National Renaissance Party: of occultist James H. Madole

·         National Socialist Movement: formed in 1974

·         National Socialist Party of America: founded in 1970 by Frank Collin

·         National States' Rights Party: founded in 1958 by J. B. Stoner

·         New Order: led by Matt Koehl with the goal of developing a religion based on Nazism

·         The Order: a revolutionary group established in 1983 by Robert Jay Mathews

·         Patriot Front: an alt-right American nationalist movement founded by Thomas Rousseau as an offshoot of Vanguard America

·         Stormfront: a white nationalist website

·         Universal Order: founded by James Mason and heavily influenced by Charles Manson.

·         Vanguard America: founded by Dillion Irizarry, part of the Nationalist Front and the alt-right.

·         Volksfront: a white power skinhead group led by Randall Krager

·         White Aryan Resistance: a highly racist organization led by Tom Metzger.

·         White Patriot Party: a group founded in 1980

See, I had no idea there were so many Nazi’s in America. It amazed me because we had fought so hard and at such a huge cost in military troop losses and money during WW II—globally, 70-85 million people died during World War II. One would imagine that any organization even vaguely associated with such a dreadful history, including the murder of millions of innocents, would find not even a toehold in America. But there you have it. We have our racists and our white supremacists, and that’s what makes for a Nazi party.  

So, Trump had a large collection of folks already predisposed to his white supremacist philosophy, if you can call anything Trump espouses a “philosophy”. We have Evangels, racists, and Neo-Nazi’s providing the core of Trump’s support.  But does that give you 62,984,828 people (Trump’s 2016 vote count)?? Wow, I would hope not. But our population in 2016 was just over 310 million people, so Trump’s vote is substantial by any measure (even though it was less by 3 million than Clinton’s). We do not know how many people self-identify as neo-Nazi’s, or as “racists”, although one survey in 2017 found that 9% of Americans, or approximately 22 million thought being a Neo-Nazi was ok.  Now that would be about 1/3 of the Trump vote in 2016. Think of that, folks.

And the amazing thing to me is that anyone in America thinks it’s ok to be a Nazi. Now, to be fair, Reagan made it ok again to be a racist, and I see no appreciable difference between being a racist and being a Nazi.  Remember, Trump said he was sure that at least some of them (Neo-Nazi’s) were very fine people. So, if Reagan made it ok to be a racist, Trump has now made it ok to be a Nazi. And that’s what the party of Lincoln has deteriorated into.

And so the Hurricane LIAR has finally finished. Perhaps we will soon see whether America itself is finished. Remember, November 3^rd determines whether we will continue as an American democracy. If Trump wins, it’s America RIP.  And never forget folks, the election is about more than Trump, however awful he is. The entire Republican Party (now the KKKNeoNazicultische) is also running. People like Mitch McConnell are running and MUST BE DEFEATED. MUST! Because Mitch has promised that no laws proposed by the Democratic Party will ever see the light of day if Trump is not re-elected. Mitch is now full-on Nazi. Heil Donald!

So VOTE people, VOTE as though your lives depended on it . . . because they do.

Miracles

 As I continue to grow older each day, I have slowly become aware, increasingly it would seem, of the miracle that is life. And I don’t mean the miracle that is represented by some really smart dude who invents a new way to splice a gene, or Einstein positing the General Theory of Relativity. What’s that you ask? Well, Einstein was a seriously clever dude, and he asserted in his theory:

·         First, the natural world allows no “privileged” frames of reference. As long as an object is moving in a straight line at a constant speed (that is, with no acceleration), the laws of physics are the same for everyone. It’s a bit like when you look out a train window and see an adjacent train appear to move — but is it moving, or are you? It can be hard to tell. Einstein recognized that if the motion is perfectly uniform, it's literally impossible to tell — and identified this as a central principle of physics.

·         Second, light travels at an unvarying speed of 186,000 miles a second. No matter how fast an observer is moving or how fast a light-emitting object is moving, a measurement of the speed of light always yields the same result.

With this formation, Einstein transformed the study of physics. 

But no, I am not really thinking of such cleverness. I’m thinking of something even more amazing. Think on this. 

You are sound asleep, in a deep sleep, and not even dreaming. And then, slowly your mind begins its daily process of awakening. First, your brain becomes dimly aware, that is, it seems to spring into action, the action we call awareness. Then you become aware of sound, perhaps your loved one, still fast asleep next to you, begins making a sound.  Then you become aware of light within your surroundings, still dim, but the darkness has begun receding.

Then your eyes open a bit and you are awake.  And because your window is open, you hear some sounds of birds outside, or maybe just the soothing sound of a slow breeze moving the tree limbs and leaves.  Then perhaps the sound of water, because your pond’s bubblers are operating, moving water so as to increase the oxygen in the pond water to help your fish, Harriet and Nick and Nora.

And then slowly, the outside light begins to enhance your awareness. And you are awake, fully.  And then your day begins.

But then what happens, is that your brain kicks into action, and you begin communicating with your loved one, about the day’s beginning. And you start planning/chatting about the day’s beginnings, and what you see for the rest of the day.  And then, for most of the rest of your day, you engage in conversation, or you read the day’s news, or you listen to the radio. What all those activities mean is that you become preoccupied with events occurring or soon to occur, and you cease being aware of the world.  And that is neither good nor bad. It simply is our normal lives.

But as we go about our “normal lives” we seem less aware of this miracle I call life. That we have “eyes” and that those eyes bring visions to us of our surroundings. And that we have “ears”, and those things allow us to hear noises, some pleasant, some not so pleasant. And that, over time, as we age, our brains continue to accumulate bits of data that we convert into an understanding of this world, and our tiny role within this world.  See, I’m not speaking about politics and President Stupidhead, or about police shooting unarmed people of color. Or even about the carrots growing within our little garden outside.  No, I speak merely about light, and color, and sounds, and our ability to discern those things. And about our ability to stand up because we have two sturdy legs, and a brain that can tell those legs to operate in such a way that we actually arise from a seated position, and our body becomes slightly elevated. And then our brain tells our body to move forward.

Now this awareness is, I submit, a miracle. I call it that because the word has several meanings that convey my understanding of what is happening:

“1. an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs the healing miracles described in the Gospels

2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment”

Either explanation suits my understanding. I have no strong belief in the presence of a supernatural being that created this thing we call life, and the universe. I do not deny that there may be such a creature, but I have seen no evidence of such a thing. Nor has anyone else. But, I submit, whether there is a super being, or not, does not diminish or enhance my awareness of this miracle I call Life.  

I think we all might benefit by becoming more aware of just how miraculous is this thing we call Life.   That we often trivialize it seems obvious, since we collectively engage in group behaviors resulting in the termination of many lives. And think of that. We cause the ending of some life and its awareness. If we would begin to understand that life is a wonder, that it is precious, partly because we do not even begin to understand how it comes about, or what it means, perhaps we would not be so casual about taking actions to end Life.

I will continue to remain aware of this wonder, and I will cherish the marvels it represents. That I can daily, see life, the sky, the sun, trees, clouds, birds, other things we call humans. All this is amazing to me. I understand that it will end for me some day in the not too distant future, because I am old by any reasonable measure.  I do not understand what that will be like, perhaps because it will not be “like” anything I now understand.

But I do know, with all my heart, that life, all our lives, are precious, and that we need to remain aware of that simple fact.  Always know that fact. And each day, smile when you consider just how wonderful this gift is, this thing we call Life. A true Miracle, by any definition.

The Theatre of the Absurd

 As I awaken each day, I wonder what that day will bring . . . rain, sunshine, heat, coolness, or, of course, total madness . . . absurdity even. Because we no longer should expect “normality”. And what is “Normality” you ask?  Well, being of (still . . . for a while) sound mind, even if a mind that is long in the tooth, each day brings to mind memories of 80 plus years of daily events and activities.  They form a pattern that for me defines “Normality”.  Yes, we went through economic depressions, several of them in fact. We encountered Wars, and pseudo-Wars. What is a “pseudo-War you might ask? Well, the Middle East killing spree meets that definition.  Vietnam and Korea are probably somewhere in between a “World War” (think I and II) and a killing spree.  And in between, we experienced what we knew as “normal days and nights”.  The economy rose and fell, we went to work each morning and returned each evening. We ate normal meals at normal times. We entertained friends and family, or were entertained by them. We attended theatre, or concerts. Occasionally, we went to exotic places for things called “vacations”. And life just went on.  Presidents came and went, as did other politicos. And some were good (think FDR, Kennedy, even Johnson) and some were awful (think Nixon, Reagan, Shrub). Mostly, though we argued about them or their policies, one came away still, thinking that, whether we agreed we them or not, fundamentally they still believed in our Democratic system of governance. They were “Americans” all. 

And then came 2016, and the election that now defines our times, and many of our people.  Whatever thoughts I have of Hillary, she too was “normal”, and “American”.  But then who should arrive on the scene, but Donald Trump.  And who is Donald Trump you might ask? Well, Donald Trump is a demonstrably unsuccessful human being. He was raised by an angry, pseudo-Nazi father who had migrated from Germany to the USA, in part because he did not wish to serve in the German Armed Forces.  He raised and partly destroyed several children, one of whom was The Donald.  The father operated in real estate, buying housing units and them leasing them to folks.  The father was a racist, so he elected not to lease to people of color. The son caught onto that life approach.  Donald went through his education stages apparently without ever becoming educated.  Then Junior also became involved in real estate. But the Donald had grander schemes in mind than Daddy.  He branched out in terms of the kind of projects in which he became involved, to include things like gambling casinos. But he seems not to have known what he was doing most of time, so Bankruptcy was the dominant characteristic of his economic ventures. Totally, he engaged in six bankruptcies. Each seems the result of over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York: Trump Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (1992), Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Castle Hotel and Casino (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009). Beyond those, he engaged in other spurious enterprises, such as “Trump University”, a fake university that provided real estate training courses.  It finally went out of business altogether. So “fakery” seems a common theme in TrumpWorld.

 

But even beyond his various dubious claims to fame, his election served to elevate something I now call our Daily Theatre of the Absurd. And what is that, you might ask?

Well, Theatre of the Absurd, refers to dramatic works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early ’60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’s assessment, in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose. The term is also loosely applied to those dramatists and the production of those works. Though no formal Absurdist movement existed as such, dramatists as diverse as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Harold Pinter, and a few others shared a pessimistic vision of humanity struggling vainly to find a purpose and to control its fate. Humankind in this view is left feeling hopeless, bewildered, and anxious.

The ideas that inform the Absurdist plays also dictate their structure. Absurdist playwrights, therefore, did away with most of the logical structures of traditional theatre. There is little dramatic action as conventionally understood; however frantically the characters perform, their busyness serves to underscore the fact that nothing happens to change their existence. In Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1952), plot is eliminated, and a timeless, circular quality emerges as two lost creatures, usually played as tramps, spend their days waiting—but without any certainty of whom they are waiting, or of whether he, or it, will ever come.

Every day, since his (seemingly Absurd) election, we have been treated to daily storms of absurdist utterances, mainly in the form of Tweet Storms. Our pseudoPresident seems to love Twitter, that communications system for people who can’t really write or think in any language.  He seems to sit up at night, after watching or even participating in the Fox Fake News programs, and then his brain seems to explode and he sends out TweetStorms of palpable drivel. And then every day, we must listen to news accounts of his twitterisms. We all must look at and attempt to interpret the language of the Theatre of the Absurd, aka, Life in America.

And so now each day begins with a question: what totally absurd utterance will emerge today from the White House, or from one of his many golf clubs, where he seems to spend most of his time? And his absurdist language (because he seems not to have learned English) becomes the language of the day, then analyzed by the increasingly absurdist pseudoanalysts on the Fox News outlets. And so it goes.

And I sit in my chair each day (oh we are no longer allowed to go anywhere because of the deadly Pandemic COVID19) and think about language, and the activities of daily living, and how I must come to terms with what Life has become.  And I am drawn to yet another phrase, originating in the world of theatre. And that phrase is “Suspension of Disbelief”, because our life has now deteriorated such that we need to employ the theatre to define Life.  And what is “Suspension of Disbelief” you might ask? Well, it refers to the temporary acceptance, as believable, of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible. In the theatre, this is usually to allow an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas. This term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 with the publication of his Biographia literaria or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions:

"In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

The state is arguably an essential element when experiencing any drama or work of fiction. We may know very well that we are watching an actor or looking at marks on paper, but we willfully accept them as real in order to fully experience what the artist is attempting to convey. And is that not a perfect description of Life in Donald Trump’s America? How else can we deal with our otherwise absurdist life than to treat it as the equivalent of a theatrical play, in which we are all engaged as an unwilling audience?

And to cap off this absurdist idea piece, I am drawn to a recent conversation we had with a German friend of long standing. We had engaged in a Zoom call, since she is in Hamburg, Germany. We have known her since our days in India during the 1960s, where she was working in NDR radio.  We were talking about life here in America, and we mentioned our baffled state of mind concerning the seeming fact that many Americans were still supporting Donald Trump, despite everything already known about him. We said, “We really cannot understand how/why Americans continue to support him”. And our German friend replied, “Well think about how Germans continued to support Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany”.  And we all stopped then, to consider her thought. And we had to leave it there, because it said everything.

And so, now we have a few short months left until we get to decide again who shall lead our country.  Think hard folks. Lives depend on that choice. If we go the wrong way, Life in America will flow even beyond the Theatre of the Absurd into another world altogether, a world we may regret forever. There is still time to recover, just not much time.  So VOTE as though your lives depend on it.

Waiting for . . . Whatever

 A friend read my posting on Endings the other day.  He liked it, but then . . . he awaited the next posting. Nineteen days later, he was still awaiting that posting. Then he asked me, “So, you’re not finished writing are you? The Endings piece was nice, but hopefully it does not mean an end to your writings?”

And, oddly perhaps, I had not thought of that piece as a conclusive end to my writing.  I suppose COVID, or even just Old Age will finally draw that writing thing to a close.  Just not right now, I hope.

But I must confess that writing anything about our world right now, is difficult.  What do we have going on?

COVIDIOCY – The COVID thing seems to hang in every room of my little mind. Every time I think I want to do something, I have to prepare myself, either to not do it at all, or to don a mask and gloves, and then to remain as far away from other humans as possible.  But, see, if a major part of the point of “doing something” is to see people, then what am I doing, disguising myself with masks and gloves so no one can actually see me, no less hear me. We go to a weekly farmers market. It used to be a source of joy, chatting with our farm friends who supply us with amazing, fresh food. They keep us alive through their hard work, and chatting with them, so as to thank them is the least we can do. Well, we try, but staying 6-8 feet away, and speaking through a mask does not a proper conversation make. We try to laugh, but how would anyone know? And then our family wants to get together, to share a meal and just chat. But everyone, including our family must be treated as a risk assembly. And that is hard, for us and for them. And if all this COVIDIOCY was going to just stop soon, I guess we could all just grin and bear it. But it isn’t, it actually may never end. When we have a vaccine, I guess we will be safe . . . won’t we??  Or maybe not. Who knows? The Shadow doesn’t even pretend to know.

Donald Trump – It has become very difficult to write anything halfway intelligent regarding our nation under Donald Trump. His stupidities know no end. He just goes on and on, seeming ever more terminally stupid than the last time he opened his mouth.  Lately, he seems to think that the flu epidemic of 1918 (he thinks it was in 1917) ended World War II, because all the soldiers got sick.  Now think of that. He actually said that. And he wasn’t joking. He simply seems to know nothing. He just reacts. A pseudo-thought pops into his head and he either says it, if he has an audience, or he tweets it (ahh, Twitter, the communications system for people who can’t communicate).  And he just keeps not leading, not preparing our nation. Instead, he keeps insulting our intelligence by saying stupid things, most of which are simply lies. And everyone knows when he is lying, but no one ever says anything any longer. I don’t know, have we now stopped counting his lies?? He has redefined “normal”, because he is abnormal . . . all the time. Yeah, that’s right. He is simply not “normal” by any reasonable definition of that term. And what is most distressing, is apparently his abnormal behavior is what keeps his supporters in line.  Yeah, they apparently hate “normal”. They love someone who hates almost everyone and everything, cuz that’s who they are also. His supporters love to hate.  They hate normality and normal people.  It’s why his rallies are filled with an excess of hateful rhetoric.  And so, when Trump speaks, or Tweets, they all stand up and applaud.  If he says something hateful or threatening, they laugh and cheer. And so, he has redefined America and Americans.  And I really do not like that redefinition.  Were I a 20 something, I would almost definitely be looking to move somewhere far away from America.  And, why?? Well, because he has so redefined America and Americans that he might well succeed in winning the next election, even if by stealth and corruption.  We know he will try to prevent opposing forces from voting by any means possible. Republicans now do so hate voting and people who vote.  His latest apparently is to try to kill the US Postal Service, first by removing its funding base, and secondly by appointing someone to head the Service whose sole mission seems to be to kill the Service. Yeah, so there’s that.

Aging in Place --  So, I am now heading towards 86, or my 47^th 39^th year of existence. I have already chatted about one our favorite TV British “comedies”, Waiting for God.  It’s all about old, cranky people who live in an elder home and sit around waiting for that final notice—you know, where you wake up and it turns out that you actually failed to awaken, mainly because you failed to continue breathing. And so your mind went blank. And then they come to cart off your now useless body, but you don’t know it, because you no longer know anything.  You know, that Waiting for God.  Yeah, that Aging in Place thing. And partly the COVIDIOCY helps to make this final life stage less than ideal, because you can’t really do anything. As noted, it’s hard even to see anyone, because everyone is wearing a mask and you can’t touch anyone.  And a side effect of the Pandemic is that it has closed off activities that could serve to amuse or enlighten you, as you “Age in Place”.  For example, Carol continues her beautiful quilting, but the Pandemic has placed certain cautions on everything, such that the local Children’s hospital can’t accept donated quilts for their sick kids.  So, now she has to be even more innovative in finding places to donate her beautiful creations.  And I used to at least pretend to create artsy things, you know pictures that I could print and then display at events called Art Walks. And those events would provide me with some positive feedback, even to the odd sale of a piece or two. But those events have ceased, mainly because large gatherings are now a No-No. One must not gather is the latest theme of America . . . well the world really.  Apparently stupid people are exempted from that dictum. They continue to gather, as stupid people will—see the motorcycle gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota.  And I imagine these folks will all arise on the morning of November 3^rd, and go to their polling places and vote for Donald Trump, cuz he’s their man. They love hating and they love stupid.

And so each day blends into the next, and life continues, until I assume it stops.  But, I was thinking the other day about all that. You know, how, when someone “passes into the next life”, there is always someone who will say, “well they are now looking down on us and smiling”. And I think, “Well no, they aren’t sitting up on a cloud looking down. They actually aren’t thinking or watching, because they no longer exist in any form.”  And then I think:

Every person on earth should consider the wonder, and the magnificent beauty that is LIFE. Each time you awaken, and your eyes open, and you see something, anything . . . the bedroom, the wall, a window, perhaps a pet cat who is sitting staring at you, hoping you will awaken . . .  you should think of the beauty of that moment. You are alive. You can see the wonder that is our world.  Just that . . . seeing our world once again, is cause for saying “thank you” to whatever natural forces cause you to exist still.  And try to spend your day such that at least several times each day, you just look, and think, “wow, how wonderful is life”. Yes, it will cease some day, but for today, it continues, and Life is a beautiful gift. Please do not squander that gift by hating other people.  Love is All.  Practice the Art of Love.  Every day, in every way, practice Loving.