Thank goodness for children and pets, whose unfiltered desire for love and attention allows a few moments of distraction. If we just give in to their needs, we can live in the moment, however briefly…and then we’re pulled back with the realization of why it’s so very important to fight for what’s right, to struggle for their future.

We took a bicycle ride yesterday, and tried to introduce Frankie to something new. She did fine for five minutes, and we’ll try again soon…it’s a process.

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Months ago, at the start of COVID-19, the daily barrage of bad news, the bungling in Washington and elsewhere, the deaths, the unemployment, the loss of any normalcy, all took a very real toll on my mood, at the least, if not my mental health state, in general. It seems clear by now that this has been a broadly shared, if not universal, effect of the past 10 month’s events.

The daily news right now is having the same effect. Though daily reports include reports on covid cases and death tolls, the continued political bungling and manipulation of public health matters, the lack of a relief package leaving so very many people in dire straits, the natural disasters that seem to be coming several times each week, and of course the impending further right-ward shift of the Supreme Court, and the election season’s barrage of lies…and the daily realization that this country really did elect this thing, and it’s not just a bad dream. And that it might continue.

The despondency feels familiar, and inescapable.

It’s hard not to realize that there are so very many countries, societies that are in equally horrific situations, though, each in their own way–Venezuela, Belarus, Ukraine, Djibouti, CAE, Congo, Phillipines, and on and on. And there’s nothing unique about the xenophobia and nationalistic tendencies we see in the U.S., let alone the white supremacists.

What a ridiculous and self-consuming species we are, so eager to create enemies, and to destroy in order to feed our egos. How does one ‘balance’ the creative good with the insidious evil of humanity? For many, this slips quickly into questions of religion; that’s not a path I will follow.

This morning, in this particular mood, I can only be happy for pictures of Jackson, for Frankie chewing her bone right next to me, and for seeing the star-filled sky when taking her out in the pre-dawn hours.

Music, and music-teaching, always lift my mood, so I’ll prepare for class.