SATURDAY MORNING

The house is quiet. Sophie is asleep. Dear Wife is at an annual brunch. And I have taken up the keyboard.

Our Lenten Study continues at Church. We have five or so sessions to go.

One of our exercises is to produce three pages of writing per day to get the inner processes going. On any topic(s).

I admitted to the group last session that the negatives going on in the world are taking up a disproportionate amount of my writing time; that my daily three pages are not being done; that I am suffering from ‘negative constipation’.

And here I am struggling again with the beauty and goodness around us and finding thoughts and emotions battling with all the negatives which are intruding into our consciousness.

The robins are gathering building materials. The pond is entirely thawed and awaiting annual maintenance and the reintroduction of inhabitants. The lawns are greening up w/o benefit of fertilizer. Little green plants are already several inches high all over the place. The temperature today is predicted to be ca. 75 degrees. The sky is blue and the sun is brilliant. We are getting our reduced-delivery newspapers at fantastic price and enjoying them more.

And so on.

And yet the negatives are all around.

I will not repeat them; list them; or rehash.

But they are so much in our minds.

Thank the Good Lord for Family; for Church; for gentle pursuits; for home chores; for traditions which remind us of some of the reasons for why we are what we are.

After all, we little people do not have the responsibility of solving all the problems of the world.

God knows, we have enough of our own.

But it is so tough to watch all the mistakes being made and the ignorant acceptance of those mistakes by so many presumably intelligent people.

I am thinking that it must be really tough to be in a responsible position of power and to know that one cannot simply solve the problems which present themselves and go unresolved.

The lies; the misrepresentations; the ignorance; the blatant, outright falsifications; the incredible complexity and sometimes the unbelievable simplicity –

And to have lost faith in the competence; the honesty; the patriotism; the “Americanesss” of our leadership - it is hard to be proud and confident of our national leadership at this time.

We at The Study believe that the Nation is in for a very long four years, perhaps 8 years.

Again, the Nation will get what it deserves.

God help us.