I only have one prayer today
Sunday Sept 27th, 2020
I’ve been dodging despair and rage left and right since RBG died. (And I assume I am not alone.) So this is my prayer right now:
I try and remember: I am still loved, I am still sober, the sun rises each morning in the East, my French Bulldog is still amazing, and mercifully, a new episode of The Great British Baking Show is now available.
Two other suggestions for TV shows that have been a balm to my weary soul and remind me that the world can be amazingly beautiful.
This HBO documentary on a beauty pageant for girls with disabilities and special needs. I fell in love.
This Netflix documentary on the world’s fastest rubric’s cube solvers and the sweet friendship between the to young men who keep beating each other’s scores:
QUESTION: What is helping you remember that people can be amazing and this world we share can be so beautiful?
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Your indulgence please as I don my elder's cap to explain why in these times "hope is a good thing . . . maybe the best of things" (Stephen King). During the Nixon years, I was a peace activist, and draft counselor. My peers and I believed America would never recover from an imperial presidency that brought us democracy's darkest days. More than one million Asians were killed, maimed and displaced during Nixon's secret war within the Vietnam War. Federal agents infiltrated peace and civil rights organizations to spy and provoke violence. Enforcement and military personnel arrested and killed activists. Construction unions were enlisted to beat up demonstrators. An official domestic enemies list was used to spur IRS investigations and ruin reputations. In 1972, 49 states supported Nixon's re-election. Just over a year later the most powerful modern president resigned in disgrace. Since those dark days, the right to marry has been enshrined; women's rights established; modern environmentalism launched; laws against ethnic, age, and gender discrimination strengthened; polio conquered -- and more. In the midst of my formative political years I had not the courage or hope to see any of that coming down the road. Yes, there will always be steps backward, battles for justice will always rage, and corrupt leaders will always emerge. Those are also always temporary (I am on my 13th president), and there is something in our DNA that is permanent. Our energy and commitment overcomes seemingly overpowering odds. And change we can only imagine eventually becomes reality. We just have to remember and persevere.
My Octopus Teacher. Very touching.