https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-8-2021

If you’ve not been reading this Prof’s “Letters from an American” newsletter, it’s quite good. I find it a refreshing source of not-too-heavily slanted presentation of a day’s events.

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This morning’s video-call with Jackson…part of his morning routine involves making coffee with dad. During our call I was making coffee, so we did the obvious with our respective coffee filters–

Just wonderful to talk politics with Joe, and then get back to basics with Jackson.

What more can be said? So many brilliant minds and wonderful writers have said it all. We’ll look back on January 6, 2021 as a day of a failed Coup d’Etat in the U.S.A. Here is but one source among so very many.

Watching the news yesterday, non-stop from ~2pm through the evening, was among the most horrifying such sessions in memory. 9/11/01, the Challenger, and reaching back to the beginnings of my memories, assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and then Robert Kennedy.

So much about the day’s events stood out, not the least of which was watching thousands of white folk storming the Capitol, seemingly with little resistance–and told to go home. Is there anyone who doesn’t see the contrast with protests–PEACEFUL protests–that aren’t organized by the right, by white folk?

Call them what they are: Coup plotters:

Read this

For the life of me, I don’t understand how anyone continues to support the criminal-in-chief. What is the logic involved? And what will be the cost to our basic electoral system? I cannot help but assign all of the blame here to our weakening system of k-12 education, a system that hasn’t included, for many years now, educating students to the fundamentals of our governmental structure.

We are doomed, and continue to doom ourselves.

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On a brighter side, yesterday we enjoyed a little riding lesson…Pattie really did well, and gained a bit of comfort. More sessions, for sure, and thankful that the parking lots at school are so completely empty.

Nice video-call with Jackson this morning, though the molars coming in are giving him some grief, lack of sleep, etc. As usual, though, he perks right up at the sight of Frankie:

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If this isn’t a moment to find examples of exactly why politicians get so little respect, just remind your self of this slimeball’s ability to have his own family villified…and then become his insulter’s biggest supporter. How many faces must a politician have to make it to the U.S. Senate?

This day, not the landmark so many wish it will be, began with comfortable temps, and a beautiful fool moon on display as Frankie and I went out this morning:

On Tuesday I went to New Bern to get Pattie something she’s been wanting for some time now…

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Just heard an interview on Morning Edition with Nora McInerny, the host of Terrible, Thanks for Asking. I don’t yet know this podcast, but she’s certainly won me over. Perhaps this will be the biggest takeaway from the year past. Will listen to this today, will listen hard.

Hoping the final day of this calendar year brings something bright to your day.

The year ahead? It really is a huge question ma...

THE SHAPE OF THE SHORE, by Rana Awdish, an essay with important perspective, especially now as this virus is yet again surging at a frightening rate.

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Trying to find a way to bring positive thoughts to the fore. Thankful for much, of course; not the least of which is our health, and our ability to call on available resources to live comfortably. But also aware that each day doesn’t create the best of memories.

So I’ve brought some edible, aromatic memories to the forefront. Hoping, too, that sharing a catalyst to positive memory with others will help them.

Almost there. Just a few more days. The fool on the hill completely incapable of actions beyond his narcissistic instincts. And all other of his fools standing in line to kiss the arse he promises will be ever the king maker. Sickening.

The ups and downs of the days and nights are truly unsettling. Trying to focus, trying to stay anywhere near on-point is a very significant challenge. Perhaps no easier right now than in April.

Finding some clarity in giving myself a mini-teaching assignment, one that i’d like to offer to my students starting Jan 1 or so. Simply put, it’s just a daily communal writing period; a zoom session in which we each write for five minutes using a randomly generated idea, whether pitches, rhythms, colors, or something else...

Very cold here (20s at night, 30s daytime). Enjoyed a short ride yesterday (new overpants really work remarkably well), walks over the past few days with Pattie and Frankie. But over all, feelings of ennui which seem impossible to overcome. And watching/reading about what these people whom we’ve elected as political leaders are doing, the narcissist-scum-in-chief leading the way towards even further pain and catastrophe for so many in this country, backed by politicians who seem to stand for absolutely nothing beyond their own political survival; it’s all so much worse than disheartening.

And on top of all that, the evil that emerges in Nashville’s downtown. The depths to which mankind can stoop seem truly evermore unfathomable to me...