You guys I just don’t know. Everything that’s happened this week has surpassed my capacity to build reasoned conceptual frameworks.
We can keep calling our elected officials and donating to those who appear to be pursuing our cause. We can keep volunteering to help people in the worst straits, and donating to organizations that do the same. We surely will take care of ourselves and those we love.
But if one sentence sums up how I feel this morning, on my usual sofa in my usual house, looking out the window at a rainy January garden, at the pale pink daphne blooming over variegated leaves, it’s, “Watch and wait.”
Watch and wait. Will the powers that be–the wealthy non-Trumpists, the institutions, the Congress, the courts, even other countries–unite and take a stand? And if they do, how will it work? Will the many layers of government comply and succeed at enacting whatever this is? Comply but fail to implement? Resist and fail (leading to what?)? Resist and succeed? I don’t know.
This chaos, for I cannot call it a system, approximates the complexity of global weather forecasting. We are looking at the difference between .78 inches of rain with 15 mph winds, and 3.35 inches and hurricane velocities.
I don’t know. I’m watching. But it’s Saturday morning, and you all have lives. Me too, for which I am grateful at this moment, so let’s imagine we speak in quiet indoor voices.
My daughter and her fiancé are in town and we spent yesterday dodging rain and wind at the coast, envisioning their wedding this September. It’s going to be beautiful, and original. Last night my daughter and I sat together on my second sofa (why it matters which sofa I cannot say except that in times like this the question that grounds me at home is which sofa), and looked at Pinterest boards of tablecloths, napkins, runners, flowers, vases, table numbers and various sparkly things. So happy.
And still metaphorical winds rattle the windows. Two opposing things are true.
I wish you all safety, warmth, the company of loved ones, something to look forward to, and, if you can find it, resolve. I plan to be here Sunday night. If nothing else, quite likely I’ll learn something. It’s the weekend. Enjoy every good moment that comes your way.
