The original headline for this post was going to be Membership Comes With A Free Hood…Er Red Hat but I decided to shift directions.
By this tomorrow I’ll have had my liver skinned and will be waiting for a call from the doc’s office to set up an appointment to review the results.
I don’t expect bad results but I never expected to live in a country where the party of Reagan had gladly become Putin’s bitch.
Never expected that the man who told Gorbachev to tear down that wall would hide his face in his hands and wonder how things go so mixed up.
The guy who helped empower the Immoral Majority and helped inform them on how to push a theocracy upon the U.S. doesn’t get off scot-free. I hold him partially accountable for some of this.
But I can’t conceive of him allowing a poorly educated, immoral and corrupt animal to take control of the government.
Though they say he was losing it while in office and that Nancy had more control/influence than we realize. So maybe what he shares in common with the felon is that both of them were incapacitated while in office.
No Retreat, Baby, No Surrender
Someone asked me how many words I have written and I laughed. I said on some subjects it had to be a million and others far less.
I told them about the postcards I have written and those I haven’t sent. I told them about the places I put down my truest thoughts. You know the ones that are so unfiltered and so honest they can scare you.
I told them about those who managed to get into the places I keep under lock and key and how they found ways to heal me but also created their own scars.
I said I still feel the fires burning and that I didn’t know if that ache would ever go away. I explained I had figured out how to master the pain and that I would keep going because there is no retreat and no surrender.
They asked what I would do if I never got the answers to some questions and I said I’d be very disappointed but I would survive.
A short while later I drove to an office to pick up medical supplies that had been promised weeks before. They told me they hadn’t gotten the answers from the insurance company and I introduced them to my inner Orrie.
I never raised my voice or cursed. I told them I had as much time as it would take to figure out a solution.
Forty minutes later they handed me my supplies, apologized for the delays and asked me if I this was the first time I had figured out how to push through obstacles.
I smiled and said I have moved heaven and earth before and would do so again if needed.
They looked at me and I bared my teeth in the same sort of fake smile my father gave when he was irritated. I didn’t think they were clever enough to have tried to be patronizing so I didn’t say anything about that.
But I did tell them the secret to getting things done was to help make sure people followed through.
As far as I could tell that was the real issue here, they made one or two attempts to connect with someone who could issue the paperwork and then gave up.
When motivated there isn’t much I give up on.
Experiences
In an earlier post I wrote about those shorts and how they accompanied me from LA to DFW in 2007. I talked about why I have held onto them and how they hold special meaning to me as does that map.
They are among things I think of as a talisman. Items that remind me of where I have been, what I have accomplished and where I plan to go.
They are proof of experiences, not all of them victories or pleasant memories. But proof nonetheless that I have a perfect record of having beaten every bad day.
Big changes have been happening and more are coming but I am very confident they will be handled.
Something about it reminded of a story of two souls and several other moments and memories. Some of this coincided with someone who asked me if I was concerned about the MAGA fools who are trying to enable the dismantling of our democracy.
I said I am certainly concerned but that watching Serena crip walk at the Superbowl reminded me of the power of art.
You don’t have to like rap or appreciate the half time show to recognize the power of art. If you have any humanity there is a poet, songwriter, musician, painter or sculptor who has created something that made you feel something.
Art is part of what defines our humanity and helps keep hope alive.
I am still angry about the arrogance of the ignorance of the red hat people.
Still angry they helped set fire to the house we all live in and that I am going to have to help save them from their stupidity. I’d let them enjoy the consequences of their actions but that would hurt my family and friends.
So we’ll let them benefit from those of us who believe in compassion, decency and democracy.
Art is going to help get us there.
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