Dear President Trump,

So where’s Melania? What’s she up to? Your staff insists all is hunky-dory and everyone is just in a spin over nothing, but you’ve got to know this is at best a very odd situation. For someone as rabid about managing optics (even though you fail miserably all the time), it is beyond strange that you haven’t managed to get Melania in front of a camera with some dated material. I’d actually like to be wrong, but it sure feels like something bad has happened to her or that she really is done with you, which would not be a bad thing at all unless she is in danger if she tries to leave you.

Since I can’t make any useful headway on what is going on with Melania, I’m going to segue to climate change, another topic I can’t make any useful headway on but feel compelled to talk about today. This morning getting ready for the day I noticed that the sun splotch on my right cheek is looking darker and bigger than I remember it being. I dutifully put on sunscreen and thought about whether I should wear a sunhat but dismissed it as the high was to be only 73. From there, though, I flashed on the Star Trek Next Generation episode where Captain Picard is magically (with some sort of fantastical technology) made to experience 40 years on an over-heating planet when in “reality” only 25 minutes passes and his body never leaves the bridge of the ship. He is married on the planet and has a family. Eventually, as a very, very old man he learns that some people knew the planet was doomed and managed to send a probe out into space to someday transfer the memory of their existence to someone, who, of course, turns out to be Picard.

The show first aired in 1992 and we watched it again on DVD with our daughter in about 2005. I’ve not seen it since then, but vivid images of the drought stricken land and the people all wearing kerchiefs and sunhats have been coming upon me frequently lately. I also remember what it was like for Picard to learn that all the people and the home he came to love had vanished over 1,000 years earlier due to irreversible climate change.

I know this isn’t original, but dude, we have no Planet B.

May we get that our children’s children’s safety depends on our choices today.
May we stop with the lie that happiness only comes from having more.
May we pull our heads out and prioritize our planet’s health.
May we make peace with the reality that there are limits to what we can ask of our planet.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson