The Thief of the Season

31 August 2020

On this the last day of August the sun rose at 7:02 AM.  It will set at 8:11 PM.  Tomorrow the same sun as hangs above me today will rise one minute later and then after thirteen plus hours set two minutes earlier.  Lansing Michigan is losing daylight at a rate of 3 minutes a day.  The Autumnal Equinox is but a mere 21 days away. The spinning of this orb is space is stealing the beloved light of summer at a pace I can barely stand.

Time is now just turned 8 PM. I can see golden light in the tall trees two houses away from me. The tops of those 4 stories plus giants are dusty golden.  The old neighborhood presents a scene pleasing to my senses. The temperature is 72 F with nary a bit of humidity.  A slight breeze is keeping the bugs at a distance. These conditions are just about perfect for writing.

Today was the last day of a cleaning spell that had overcome me.  The house has had its carpets shampooed. The sofa’s slipcovers have been washed, dried and returned to their places. Every box is in its place and everything loose is now in a box.  Not a stray paperclip remains out, all are either in a Ziplock bag in my desk or are attached to a magnet somewhere.  The damn cat is going totally nuts because all of her runs and hidey holes have been reconfigured. She will get over it. 

Feels good to impose order, albeit an artificial order on the things so want to wander and pile up on unsuspecting tables. I know when I go looking for that Moby Grape CD it will never be found.

Times are as times are always wont to dissolve into, conflict filled and angry.  I have been avoiding the noise-the static-the endless refusal to address the problems of our world that has been spewing out of the political juggernauts today.  Instead I picked up various things, toys, papers and other ephemera, and put them into boxes. As I worked, I found myself filled with memories.  As this day began, I was in a pleasant mindset because last night I watched a video of the Grateful Dead in Oregon called Sunshine Daydream.  The band that day was hitting on all eight cylinders and the music was transcendent. 

As I sit here, I am listening to the audio portion of the previously mentioned concert. Dark Star is wafting about me. The light has gone dusky orange, we are moving into the special time when all that was will be gone and all that will come is only promised. Such a short time between light and shadows. Such a short time between shadows and the darkness. “Dark star crashes…”

Perhaps it is time to communicate some things that I have been feeling.  I loathe and despise the President and all who serve as political appointees in his administration. QAnon is complete and total bullshit. Time has come for a reckoning for the injuries persons of color has suffered since the inception of slavery in this nation.  The Civil War did not right this situation.  The various civil rights acts did not resolve the hidden injuries of racism either. Old white people don’t want to share their pie with black and brown people.  They don’t want to share their pie with people who don’t love the same way they do either. Well, I think that has got to change.  I also think it needs to change now and not as some undefined time in a promised but distant future.

I don’t love Joe Biden as a candidate.  I don’t love the centrist portion of the Democratic Party.  I do however believe Donald J. Trump is an existential threat to our country.  I will not be quiet on this point from now until the election.  

If you disagree with me fine, block my posts up through the election.  If you come spewing MAGA nonsense at me I will unfriend you.  Our democracy means more to me that the FB friendship of people espousing unquestioning fealty to a man who cannot even articulate a simple vision for his hoped for next four years in office.  Hell, he can barely articulate a coherent sentence. Our republic has withstood many challenges but I have grave doubt it can survive this time if Trump is re-elected.  He is inept and insensitive and divisive.  

Time has come to take a side.  I will not be silent about the need to remove the vile and evil soulless wretch that is Donald Trump from the Office of President. We need to restore the norms of good government.