I may never stop shaking my fist at the gods and bemoaning the fact Donald Trump has probably never had better days than the miserable month since the election.
It’s sickening - one can only pray it ends soon. Everything feels upside down right now.
What Trump has in mind is basically like an 18 wheeler of self-dealing and corruption barreling down the American highway, rolling over everything in its path. Smashing through any guardrails that may still exist.
Watching world leaders scurry to curry favor with him is a maddening sight.
Seemingly throwing decency to the wind to bask in his bloated-orange glow; the stink of venality, ignorance and arrogance oozing from his pores.
Billionaires titter like meek birds, pecking for the crumbs that fall from his table, the moldy carpets of Mar-a-Lago worn deep from those that lie prostrate at his feet, begging for his flatulent favor.
Biden did well to pull his son out of the road by granting him a pardon. I would have too if I were in his worn and weary shoes. Who wouldn’t if they could see the headlights of tyranny focused on their child.
Most folks can’t see what’s coming. He can. We really fucked up as a nation. The people who realize that are in deep despair.
How can you not be when it feels like we have been dropped into a dark chasm.
While much of the rest of country dances around the edge as if nothing catastrophic has happened. Many of us are still too bruised and dizzy to think about climbing out yet - but climb out we must.
To do that we must follow the folks that know the way out - the journey ahead is going to be heavily reliant on instincts and principle.
Truth matters, kindness matters, love matters. It is precisely those attributes and actions that make us most human that will save us now.
We are the answers we need.
The truth lives inside of us as well as the light. It lives in our neighbors as well, though at times that may be hard to see. Especially when we are at war with each other. The way out may be the way in, as paradoxical as that sounds.
What has been true forever is still true now.
Kindness is your birthright, so is compassion. Both have to be cultivated. Especially when we live in a world that is designed to separate you from your true nature in order to exploit you, to profit off of you. Training you to trade gratitude for gold.
We are entering a period of technological brutalism unlike anything we have seen before. It will be dark but the way through the darkness is to reach for the light.
We all have gifts - it is time to use them.
Empathy, expression and understanding will save us. We must help others to reconnect with their own humanity and the best way to do that is through the arts.
In many ways, this has always been true but never more so now when we have seemingly lost touch with our shared appreciation of the beauty and wonder of this world.
Vibrancy and multiculturalism are the best of what this world can give us. We are like a peacock that is afraid to look at its own feathers.
Not all of us of course but those who have fallen under the sway of the xenophobic ramblings of a mad man most certainly have; they have traded culture for Kid Rock.
The fearful and the angry have convinced people to turn their backs on delicate sophistication in favor of the dense. The bully has replaced the ballet and the MAGA masses tend to stomp and scream instead of leaning into to stillness and wonder.
Craft has been replaced with stupidity and sold as a virtue.
Being crass and unaware of culture, especially a foreign one, has become the coin of the realm and we are all poorer for it. Folks become hardened instead of healed because the trauma feeds the beast.
They are fed pablum and patriotic ‘tough guy’ iconography; illusion and a grift in place of the real thing. It makes the adherents malleable, an internal bifurcation that disconnects them from the heart and soul of life - from nature itself - which is a requisite for those seeking to exploit and destroy the natural world for profit.
Instead of feeling wonder for the world, they are numbed and dumbed down - and offered poison instead of peace. A dance or two may do them good. A walk in the woods with an intent beyond shooting something. It is OK to feel for nature instead of trying to conquer it.
Life is not to be feared, its to be lived - but the path of non-harming and deep appreciation begins with the self and entire industries are designed to separate us from our true selves.
There’s never been more people talking and saying less.
Anger and invective have replaced dialogue. A lack of respect for others is ultimately a lack of respect for the self. Because in a way we are always meeting ourselves, whether we like it or not, we are ALL in this together.
Many in MAGA world and beyond need to learn this lesson and learn it fast if they are to save themselves from the tyranny Trump has in store.
World leaders should already understand but we can clearly see that is far from the case - that should scare us all. Appeasement never works out; you would think the leader of France would understand that by now.
Compassion isn’t a place you arrive at later while the so-called tough guys take care of the business of the world. That is a lie as odious and offensive as MAGA itself.
A hard heart isn’t a brave heart.
How we treat children defines us as a people.
Any society even considering what Trump has planned with mass deportations is in serious jeopardy of losing touch with its own humanity.
Which is among the worst fates that can befall a nation. We don’t have to look back far in modern history to witness what happens when we stop caring about what happens to our fellow human beings.
Most especially the children. How our actions affect the lives of children is how we shape out future. When you put children in danger you threaten the very essence of our existence.
What point is there in a life or a land that fails to protect children?
If Trump carries through with his plans to deport millions and separate families we will be called on as a people to do something about it.
It will be a defining moment in American history - one in which we need to act to prevent in any way we can.
We must stand up to this totalitarianism and Christofascist dogma that allows these people to feel they can behave this way towards their fellow human being - no matter where they are from. Anything that would allow a people to be so cruel has to be eradicated from public life. We must not allow them to do it in our name.
This is the battle ahead.
We are strong enough to stand up to Trump and we will.
I wish you peace.
It really does seem hopeless when I hear Democrats giving us solutions to our problems that they have no possibility of achieving while out of power. Amy Klobachar talking about expanding the ACA this morning on MSNBC is an example. The only way I can get through this is to turn to your Substack and others like Jeff Tiedrich who felt he needed to apologize for his angry post today. We need hope and we need anger as well.
You write so beautifully of a kind of sensitivity that disappeared from mainstream American culture long ago, if it ever was a part of it, and maybe that's partly why there was fertile ground for MAGA to rise up. Thank you for shining a light on the best of what human nature is capable of, Noel.