Dear President Trump,

I’m absolutely exhausted from our trip and my cold has gotten worse. I also think I set myself back by watching my first episode of “Black Mirror” before we left for the airport. Apparently it was one of the tamer episodes, but it completely zapped me emotionally. The BM show (“Fifteen Million Merits”) was about the shit that we do to each other, the shit that we buy to distract ourselves, and what a crappy deal it is that even when we are able to break out of one shitty cage we only ever end up in a slightly bigger, better lit shitty cage that we sold our souls for. The episode is from 2011 but it feels spot-on today. I don’t think I’ll be watching another one any time soon. I’ve been getting plenty of exposure to painful cultural dynamics from current events so don’t need to pile on with more wrenching TV.

I’m tempted to rail at length about Kavanaugh’s thoroughly disqualifying rant on Friday but there’s been a lot written about that and I’d rather tell you about our sweet house sitters who left us yummy brownies and clean sheets tonight. Last week they left us flowers and clean sheets. It really doesn’t get any better than this. I so appreciate their thoughtfulness and given how much less evolved I was at their age, I really marvel that these young people in their early 20’s went out of their way to ease our re-entries in these ways. It’s akin to the posts that the HP highlighted from some teenage boys in support of Dr. Ford and girls and women generally. Cameron Kaskey said: “Fellow 17 year-old boys (and all young men/men everywhere,) – We have a responsibility to create a new, better moral fabric. Rape is not okay, it will never be okay, and there are NO excuses.” And Jack Torres said: “I think I speak on behalf of all peaceful and loving Americans when I say thank You Dr. Ford for your courage. And we’re sorry you’re in this position.”

There is hope. Not everyone is hell-bent on just accumulating more crap than they need at others’ expense. Some kind souls are looking out for other souls, trying to make things better with a brownie or a post or maybe with a tired and somewhat disjointed letter to a flailing and failing leader.

May we all be safe enough to be kind.
May we all be happy to help others be happy.
May we all take on the responsibility of creating a new, better moral fabric.
May we make peace with the angst that is driving our overdrive before it’s too late.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson