Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021

 If we can have four years of peaceful days in our government like we had today, that would be a gift.  I don't know about anyone reading this but I was on edge all day, even with the military surrounding the entire District of Columbia. Part of me wants to breathe a sigh of great relief that nothing bad happened. The other part will hold my breath for a little while because evil is still skulking around us.

But what a day! Emotional, to put it mildly. I started crying around 9:15 PT and didn't stop until around 3:30 PT, after I listened to Amanda Gorman's recitation of her amazing poem "The Hill We Climb" for the third time. The lack of crowds at the inauguration gave it a sense of intimacy while at the same time a lack of pomp and circumstance. But I will take intimacy any day..... a city surrounded by the military gives one a sense of safety but in no way does it promote pomp. And given the year we have just had, pomp can just go away. We don't need pomp right now, we need safety, kindness and clarity. And expediency. 

President's Biden's speech was like President Biden: clear, down-to-earth and heartfelt. He has a ton of shit  important stuff to take care of right now, not in a week or a month, and he is getting on it right away. We can hope that some of the Republicans will cross that aisle and join with him in getting work done. Not a lot of hope there, but it only takes one or two votes to make legislation pass. 

Bottom line, I am glad the former POTUS (whose name I shall not speak) is gone to Mara-Largo-Lava-Bed or wherever he is and that we now have actual leaders in and for our country. Real people who have ideas and a plan and are not fascists-in-the-making. People who care about everyone in this country, not just white males. Whew, I could go on but I will leave it at that.

It was/is a good day for America. Let's all work to make sure that this day carries on for 4 years. And more. 

"Pretend It's a City" on Netflix

 On Netflix, this new series focuses on the comedy and conversation of Fran Lebowitz, directed by Martin Scorsese.  Lebowitz is my age, 70 years old, and is sarcastic, acerbic and very funny.  The episodes are about 30 minutes each, short and quick. Not only is it focused on her commentary about everything (especially New York), it is also a showcase of what a great city NYC is.  She wanders around town and talks about NYC fifty years ago and how it is today. There are great clips from old movies, old music recordings, bits about art and history of New York.  It's nice to watch something without a plot, something that you watch for simple enjoyment.  Check it out.

Plus, just saying, but part of it is filmed in a New York bar!  I mean a real bar, with small tables, a pool table in the back, bottles of booze above the counter..... like in the Before Days! Made me so want to go t to a bar. With small tables, a pool table in back and bottles of booze above the bar.....  maybe next year.  (Insert sad but hopeful face hear.)

The State of the Union

 There have been several opinion pieces in the past week that should be required reading.  I will give the links to them at the end of this monologue, but they are worth reading because they clarify some of the ideology of certain elected officials. Like many Democrats, and possibly some Republicans, I have wondered for the past four years who would even consider voting for Trump, not just once but more than once. I cannot understand that mentality, but then I am not a white Christian nor am I a white supremacist and I do not have a Republican ideological background. 

I am certain that all Republican voters do not condone or agree with what happened at our nation's Capitol on January 6th.  I am also certain that many elected officials do not condone or agree with what happened at our nation's Capitol on January 6th. The outcry from both sides of the political spectrum has shown that to be true. 

However, there is a large faction of the Republican party that still and will always believe in the far right values of the Trump platform. If the values of that platform were simply far right, that would be one thing. But they are much more than that. Those values hold that unless you believe their way, you are wrong and deserve to be scorned, punished and put away. Those values believe in the subjugation of anyone not of their race. i.e. white. To those people, and there are millions of them, there is only one just, righteous value system. There is no compromise, there is only good and bad as they see it.

I have said it before and will say it again:  we, meaning moderate Republicans and all of us Democrats need to be very, very vigilant in the next few years. Fascism is an insidious ideology, easily disguised as the Major Good, and there are countries where Democracy was tossed out in a matter of days and Fascists took hold and ruled the country. A smooth talker, a young, energetic politician could be the key to really destroying what we have left of a Democracy. It is not an impossibility. Thus the need, the desperate need, to watch what happens in the next two years at mid-term elections and then in 2024. The turn to the middle, the election of two new Democrats in Georgia is a good start but it is small. We all must commit to working for justice, working for the Democratic party in the next two years to push for a more balanced government.  The rise in power of white, Christian bigots has got to stop. The power of white supremacists, fueled by the current President, must be diminished. The fact that a noose was hung by the insurgents in front of the Capitol last week is a clear indication of that.

The links below are to the two NYT articles that I think are pertinent. The first one is stellar, powerful and incredibly important. It's long, but read on.  The second explains the rise of elected officials like Josh Hawley. Very pertinent as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html?searchResultPosition=1

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opinion/josh-hawley-religion-democracy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage 

Kicking 2020 to the curb

 While the new year isn't going to be happy for a while, at least it's a new chapter in this dismal world we currently live in. Maybe by summer things will be on the upswing, maybe not. Most everyone is still holding their collective breaths, waiting for the change in leadership, waiting for a protocol for Covid vaccinations, waiting for anything that will lead to a positive outcome. We wait for the current POTUS to either drop dead (I wish) or step out of the way, wait for the elections in Georgia, wait for resolution of continued benefits for unemployed, wait for so much to happen.

There is no point reliving the terror and depression of 2020. There is little point in even saying "Happy New Year" because it is still far from happy.  I keep thinking of the last lines in "The Great Gatsby:" And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Not that we are being carried to the past, but we certainly aren't swimming in the future either.  

Patience. It's all we can foster right now, patience and hope.

"Bombshell" on Amazon Prime

 Taking on the heads of Fox News would in no way be an easy task and this movie about just that scenario shows how difficult it was. Yes, the story of Megyn Kelly and the sexual harassment suits against Roger Ailes  (the chairman and chief executive of Fox News) is a somewhat fictionalized account, but we all know he was eventually kicked off of Fox News, given a huge  monetary settlement and then, well, nothing really different happened. Some women stayed on, some left, and there is no doubt harassment still continuing.

But this is a good movie. The cast is excellent, there are light-hearted moments until the nasty truth comes out. A lot is happening in this movie, it's quick and to the point. Watch it while realizing that it was probably more gut-wrenching in reality. Take note of the creepiness of Roger Ailes. Played by an incredibly slimy John Lithgow, you can feel your face cringing every time he is on the screen. This movie reinforced my admiration for Charlize Theron as an actor. She barely looks like herself but she does a spot-on portrayal of Kelly. It's decent entertainment and if you are a Prime member, it's free!  Even better.

Cheers!

Please read this column, link included.

 At the end of every day, I look at the New York Times site on my phone, just to see what craziness has happened in the past 14 hours. This evening I came across this opinion piece and it moved me to tears. Please read it. Not because you need to know how to die, but because it's about love and life and sometimes the end of our days.  Almost every line, every sentence, could be taken out of context and praised for its beauty, clarity and truth.  Just this one sentence should compel you to click on the link below:   As a connecting force, love makes a person much more resistant to obliteration.

A very good friend lost her mother a few days ago, not from Covid, but from old age, dementia, other things. But talking to Kara about her Mom's death opened that door to the discussion of dying, of our immortality.  Talking about death means talking about life at the same time. Realizing  that you are alive means acknowledging that you still have choices, you can appreciate life and you can be ready for death. Not ready for sudden death but ready to release the fear of death. We are mortal. We will die. How we live until that time is what's important.

Please read this and think about it and share it with others. (If it doesn't link when clicking on it, copy and paste into your browser or simply go to nytimes.com and find it in the Opinion section,) I found it to be profoundly moving and very important for all of us, old and young, healthy and not. Death isn't a mystery. It's a fact. But it doesn't need to be put in a box and stored in a dark corner.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-death.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

To be in Paris right now......

 Walking early this morning, the air felt like Parisian winter air: damp, cold, fresh. The skies were gray, like the winter skies of Paris. For a  moment my eyes watered at the desire to be there at that very instant.  But that could have been the cold air making them water and making my nose run.

For years Tom and I left SFO the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and went to Europe: France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Czech Republic, Sicily.  One two week trip to Manhattan, another to Montreal, another to Istanbul. Two weeks of nothing to do but walk and eat and drink local wine, revel in the fact that there wasn't much English being spoken, read books, sleep in and enjoy the cold weather.  Today would be the day we would return home, usually around December 15th or so. Is it any wonder that my body jumps at the thought of Paris weather? Jumps at the idea of getting on a plane and arriving in a foreign land?

That moment this morning opened a door in my memory bank, one that has been shut pretty tight lately. Not going anywhere, longing for a change of scenery, don't want to start thinking of all the beautiful places I would rather be. But I thought of the dinner we had in Sicily, a small trattoria that was almost empty at the early hour we walked in. The only occupied table had about 8 men, all in dark plain suits, all very Italian (or Sicilian to be precise) and all seriously talking and seriously eating. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were linked in ways Americans are not. Tom and didn't want to say the word "Brotherhood" or "Mafia" out loud but it was clear this was a business meeting of the most intense kind.

Another memory: we took a train from Vienna to Venice, a very long train ride. People on the train were coughing and it wasn't a surprise that by the time we got to Venice we were feeling terrible. Sore throats, chills, aches. The first three nights we were in Venice we were both very sick. Fevers, spirit people haunting our dreams, no appetites. The pharmacist gave us good drugs, they helped and the last two days we were able to actually enjoy the city.

So many more images popped into my head all day long:  walking across wooden planks from ferry boat to ferry boat in Istanbul, waiting for the ferry to take us down the Black Sea; driving through a blinding snow storm in southern Italy, traffic down to one lane, the front window freezing  up so the windshield wipers barely worked and my eyes burning from the snow blindness; watching old men play petanque in the Tuileries in Paris and watching little kids push small sailboats with a stick across the ponds in French parks. 

Travel will happen again. I just hope I am not too old to hop on that plane and take that trip.