Beyond happiness and unhappiness, beyond life, there is a higher good beyond good and bad. Beyond happiness and unhappiness, there is peace.
For me, happiness depends somewhat on my perceiving the future as positive. Inner peace is more complicated. Whenever something bad happens, I believe there are deep lessons concealed within and not visible to us right away.
I think Donald Trump and 2020 came to teach us things, and we are learning them.
This morning, just a few hours after my first vaccine, the sky was beautiful today, and I feel strong and hopeful. And safer, I suppose.
My arm is sore, I’m a little fatigued, but I have this sense that vaccines are what almost everyone is talking about—another sign of community coming back to life.
Did you get your shot? How does it feel? How far did you have to go? Is it true that the second shot often wears people out for a day?
My hope comes from a feeling that we are entering a new era, a new phase, and it got me excited and thinking about what the next few years might be like as we move slowly and painfully towards an end to this time of trouble, fear, and sorrow.
2016 taught us not to be surprised. Republicans are trying to change voting laws all over the country and Donald Trump is planning Stalinist purges against people who wish to think for themselves.
The country’s seething and divisive politics is creeping to a boil again, and I am hopeful about that also. I see now that it had to happen and that it isn’t over.
Joe Biden talks about the virus every day. Donald Trump dropped the subject when people didn’t like his daily briefings. To pay us back, he dropped the ball as well.
Today, he reigns in his castle, an embittered and angry Mad Shakespearean King, planning his next disaster, golfing, dining on the patio, and plotting his revenge and comeback, pulling his puppets on their strings, making them dance.
In one sense, it is the new normal. In another, this has all brought musty notions like patriotism and freedom to the fore, for the first time in a while.
In a true democracy, nobody gets their way all the time. We all are learning that.
Bring it on. Has any democracy ever had a clearer choice about its future? So far, we have succeeded in this fight. If we fail, then there is no one to blame but ourselves.
I welcome it, I relish it, in one way.
I never thought I’d have the opportunity in my lifetime to fight for democracy against such an evil presence and alongside almost everyone who cares about the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable
I am in such good company. I have millions of friends.
Perhaps if Donald Trump had thought about the virus differently and not tried to duck it or hide from it, as he has admitted to doing, our kids could all be in school now and we could be moving on with our normal lives. And perhaps he would have won re-election.
I remember his bragging about how much he knew about the virus (what he showed us was how ignorant he was about it) but he never spoke about it from the heart, he never seemed to care about the people getting sick and dying.
In the final months of his presidency, he never spoke about it at all. Let the old people and the mostly minority patients die, white nationalism doesn’t have a place for too much mercy.
How ironic.
Joe Biden is filled with empathy, Donald Trump has none, as is typical of sociopathic behavior. Trump can give rebirth to his life if he wishes, but mostly what he wants is power and revenge.
We’ve been there. We know how that story ends. I do not believe we will be going back.
It’s hard for me not to pity Trump, I know this frustrates some people.
He can’t wait to dig yet another huge hole to fall into, and if we know nothing else about him, it will be a big one and he will fall right into it., taking a good chunk of the once proud Republican Party with him.
The same bumbling clowns who tried to get the 2020 election overturned and couldn’t get one federal judge to help them are already working with Donald Trump to take over the Republican Party and help him run again if he so chooses.
We will be living in two dimensions, the real and the imagined. Truth, re-awakened, will be precious again.
This time, Americans will understand who he is, and who many of his followers are, and will perhaps be pleased and relieved that after all this, a functioning government exists. It will be messy for sure, but he will be taking a lot of feckless and cowardly politicians down with him.
Time is not on the side of Donald Trump or the Republican Party.
By 2024, Covid-19 will be history, the economy will be revived and renewed, and our government might be intact when the next disaster occurs. The coloring of America, the empowerment of women, will continue and deepen.
The Republican Party is all but certain they can seize control of the Senate again, but I don’t believe they will. They are too far off the center now.
They were also certain Trump would win re-election and the Democrats would lose the Georgia senate races.
Trump blew it for them, and he will do it again. Because that’s what he does.
Americans are learning right now what it means to have a working government when you need one. Like Biden or not, if life gets better, that will matter.
In the meantime, Trump will have another dozen lawsuits and investigations to contend with, in addition to the very serious ones he faces already. Yesterday, those tax returns were delivered to the Manhattan DA.
By 2024 Trump will be older, nastier, and crazier, and if the reports I’m reading are correct, he will be drowning in trouble. At his presidential rate, we can look forward to at least 22,000 more lies.
Small wonder Trump hates scientists. If he had responded to Covid-19 more quickly, they say, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved. What a campaign ad that would make.
This year taught me that many people have died because of Donald Trump; this isn’t just politics any longer; his cruelty and ignorance have become all too personal for too many people.
I hope he does run for President again in 2024, as people around him say he will do. But I wouldn’t bet on it. We all need to decide what kind of country we are and what kind of people we are.
We are facing one of the most fascinating periods in American history. The white Christian nationalists will not win their campaign to make American white again. It’s gone too far, it’s way too late. This round, they don’t get to be loved, enabled, and protected for hears.
Refugees will be coming to America again, we will get used to a President who doesn’t make an ass of himself and us every morning, and a dozen times a day.
If Trump were sane or rational, he would have retired to his castle in Florida, stayed out of the limelight, played golf, and mucked up his businesses for the 10th time. I think we would all have been happy to forget about him.
But his sickness is that he can’t do that. And he has the biggest bullseye on his back. I’ve heard of a political candidate have it. He has gotten away with murder, almost literally. It won’t end that way.
This man is 90 percent bullshit and 10 percent radical ideas. I think that’s the formula for demagogues.
He has a rat’s instincts, but we have learned that what makes for a successful rat doesn’t make for a good President.
Trump has gone very far on lies, and the Republican Party has come to believe cowardice in the name of extremism is a noble and appealing policy.
They are wrong, and will soon learn it.
Donald Trump will once again make himself a target big enough for more than half the country to go after and stop. If he gets that far, the next time will be the last time.
Honestly, you can’t win elections his way in America, as troubled as we seem. Since Trump can’t accept or contemplate loss, he doesn’t really know he lost. There is more on the way for him.
The vaccine movement now underway is bringing the country together again a new and compelling way. We are all talking about the same thing.
The FBI is very good – sometimes too good – at harassing extremist groups. The Christian White Nationalists will not get to run the country, nor will they get the chance to stun us with another capitol assault.
You’ve seen the movies. There is nothing the FBI hates more than to be caught off guard and ill-prepared. It is very unlikely to happen again.
Beyond politics, beyond good and bad, there is peace. Life is what we choose to make of it.
I feel hopeful again. I would like to never see nor hear about the ex president ever again, but yet he remains in the news (I shall limit my exposure). There’s lots of work to do, but my day to day is much less stressful than it was for four years. It feels like government is govermenting again.
I went 2 minutes from my house, had first shot in Jan and second first part of Feb. No soreness or any reaction of any kind. I was lucky, happened to be on the hospital site just as it was posted that they had lowered the age from 80 to 75. I was 77 at the time (now 78) so qualified through age alone. I was given the Pfizer vaccine.
This morning, while running an errand I saw that the line for the new notice which was posted 2 days ago stretched from the shot site to the main road into town and down the block. I believe this is for first shots for people 65 and older.
” Like Palin, Trump himself will recede over time, even if the damage he has inflicted on our political culture remains. The media has started to search for the next ambassador from Crazytown, the next ratings grab.”
From a recent Vanity Fair
I had no idea when I read your books that you carried so much hate around in your heart for President Trump. You can thank him for the vaccine you just got. He was the one who put a ban on all Chinese coming into this country last winter and was severely criticized for it. Sorry you never got to meet the “Real” Trump. In the next two years the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will be annihilated by the “Harris” administration and Biden will be gone.
Sorry to hear it, Patricia, I’m not sure you could have known about my feelings about President Trump when you read my books when he wasn’t yet President and no one imagined he would be, it never crossed my mind. Let’s talk in four years and see if we have a Bill of Rights and Constitution. Although, I guess we might not be able to communicate, which would be a shame, sort of. I’d love the meet the “real” Trump if he would invite me to Mar-a-Largo. Of course, I haven’t met the “Harris” either.
I’m sorry but we all have to be responsible for what we believe. What you say is not coherent and must therefore just be blind irrational loyalty.
There are 4 rules of coherent discourse, whether in a court of law, in a letter to the editor or around the family dining table:
1.Quality: be truthful and have evidence of what you say [you did not do this fully]
2.Quantiy: be succinct and yet complete
3.Relevant: be relevant to the topic as presented [you did not do this]
4.Manner: be clear and orderly [you did not do this]
Source: HP Grice, 1975 and 1989
Blind loyalty will take you only a short way.
People will not engage with us unless we are coherent. We all have to work at being so. Find a teacher at a nearby school or at church and ask them for training. Good luck.
Nice..
The hatred really is startling, isn’t it, Patricia? Jon has a penchant for portraying himself as some kind of spiritual guru, it’s cloyingly grotesque lol Then he turns around and vomits up this red-rotten, abject HATE so awful and tasty for the damned that Satan would put whipped cream on it and eat it with a spoon.
So glad you aren’t a hater, Addie, but the milk of human kindness and understand…I’m going to work hard on the Satan whipped cream analogy…ing. I’ve never seen one quite like it. YOu get my online “message of the month” award.P.S. Addie lets meet at Dunkin Donuts and have some milk chocolate with a lot of whipped cream and eat it on a spoon. Sounds like sex play to me, let’s invite Satan. I have this feeling it would excite you.
Addie, congratulations, you just won the online message of the month award. You get a free hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts with lots of whipped cream. The most original writing. Can you tell me for my etymology file where the term “red rotten” comes from? Does it refer to apples?
https://www.bedlamfarm.com/2021/02/26/addies-online-message-of-the-month-hate-so-awful-and-tasty-for-the-damned-that-satan-would-put-whipped-cream-on-it-and-eat-it-with-a-spoon/
My husband received his first vaccine today and I get mine this coming Tuesday. I cannot wait! I realize it is not 100 percent effective (what is?), but once we get both shots we will feel better traveling to see our daughter in Florida. We have not seen her in over a year.
The problem is the 74 million people who did vote for him and believe as Patricia apparently does. Many of the Republican politicians want those 74 million votes in 2024 and are trying hard to take up his mantle! It scares me. They also have big money behind them.
I get my second shot in 2 days and not a minute too soon.
I had a trip planned last April to see my sister, who has been very ill for over a year. Well she’s in the hospital now and will go home in 1 or 2 days, and will start receiving hospice care at home.
So I am planning a trip to see her this April and am so relieved that I will have good protection and won’t endanger her. Something I have held in my heart and mind for months now.
Yes, it feels good to have hope and to not have the 4 year knot in my stomach! Blessed silence!
Jon…
Had the first Moderna last month, and returning for the 2nd next week. Arm stiffness only, for about 36 hours; that was it. If the next shot is worse, I’ll pay the price.
News sensationalism about vaccination aftereffects was concerning because of histories with the polio (1955) and swine flu (1976) vaccines. I’m wondering whether those disclosures kept any from getting vaccinated.
Going forward, I’ll gladly continue my mask wearing, and consider both vaccines and mitigation as partners in eliminating this scourge.
Jon…
RE: “We will be living in two dimensions, the real and the imagined.”
But the real is singular; the imagined could be many. So, I look for Trump to roll out a new imagined future this weekend.
Who will he throw under the bus? Who will be the target of his revenge? Let me know, because I won’t be watching. That is the antidote.
Brought up to respect and accept truth as a precious gift in life, it pains to see what is happening in America today. There was a time when elected officials were responsible and truthful – not anymore. The sickening games played by McConnell declaring his absolute support to a Trump nomination in 2024 says it all. This man is a true specimen of Jekyll and Hyde. All the evidence was rolled out live to the whole wide world on January 6 and yet, in the name of free speech and democracy, America is held hostage by lies and misinformation. Where is the country heading when partisanship has taken over common sense, decency and rule of law?
Jon, you are right, if America fails, there is no one to blame but themselves.
Pfizer recipient, here. 1st was a piece of cake — I didn’t even feel it go in. 2nd gave me a sore arm the next morning, but I take credit for that part. (I slept on it.) Day 3 though had moments of weird. In the afternoon, it was like my mind was “fuzzy.” It took three trips for me to remember that what I went to the kitchen for was to bring a cuppa to my desk in the other room. On trip 3 I suddenly startled myself with the thought, “Is this what Alzheimer’s feels like?!” The fuzziness wore itself out in less than 2 hours, and I was back to normal tasking but the scare stuck with me for a while. It turned out that my pharmacist — a mere lass of less than 40 summers — had exactly the same reaction as did HER mother. That made me feel a lot more relaxed. Kinda
Bravo. I have been much calmer and secure since real, dedicated, patriotic people took the reins. Once again, you said it all and so well. Thank you, Jon.