Dare the Night
With Your Light
2025 is upon us. Bombs are bursting in air. My dogs are spooked by the noise.
The Roberts Supreme Court wants personal protection for its corrupt justices. Our elected representatives to Congress are accepting meetings with persons not only patently unfit for public service but also avowed enemies of the purpose of the agencies and departments they are nominated to lead. Donald Trump says he uses foreign workers with training and high skills not available for hire in this country to clean his pool and tidy around interior spaces, as well as to maintain his golf clubs, cart, and course at his legal residence in Florida.
And I am smiling.
I have more confidence in the strength and goodness of We the People than evidence would suggest is sane. Here is why. I am one of We the People. And this is how I am handling my trepidation and concerns.
In propitiation of the gods large and small of the South, I have fixed and now am eating my annual midnight bowl of homemade black-eyed peas. With a side flute of champagne. Tomorrow I will appease the spirits of the North with a meal of pork loin in a bed of sauerkraut (tempered in rose wine and brown sugar and topped with poppy seeds). With a large side of baby red potatoes mashed (in their skins) with butter and sour cream—topped with crispy bacon bits, chopped green onion, and shredded fiesta blend cheese.
I have paid my property taxes and professional dues for 2025.
Tomorrow, after my morning walk, and a Good Luck Brunch with my two younger sisters, I will putter around my garden and grounds. My hands will smell of soil and herbs. I will need to change coats as the Texas sun warms the day. Full and content, I will snooze through recorded parade shows and as many live football games as Hulu will allow me to view without some fancy upcharge.
In all these actions I affirm my profound gratitude for the freedom I have to live my preferred life at a level of comfort and security that is the envy of most of the rest of this troubled world.
This is how I light my life. This is how I hold back the night.
I bet I am legion.
America the Beautiful, as long as we believe in each other, we’re going to be okay.
Me too!
Fabulous. Already put it at the top of the restack NOTES and out to everyone following me on Bluesky!
Best New Year’s Message ever. Each of us is the light and as Pink sings, “We are millions of stars” With this much light, we’ll make it past the darkness. Grandma’s mantra still works: This, too shall pass.