Dear President Trump,

I think I’ve told you before that at the beginning of my now 466 page document holding all my letters to you there are a couple of pages of random quotes and ideas that I’ve collected for possible incorporation into some-day letters. I usually just scroll past these bits to the beginning of the letter section to start each day’s letter to you, but today I saw the phrase “Love moves the world towards love” and decided to finally share it with you. It’s not that I think you’ll take heed and cuff yourself on the head with a “I should-a had a V-8” motion and say, “hey, right, love moves the world towards love” and turn yourself around. That is just not going to happen – not in a million years (as in if there is such a thing as reincarnation, with your karma, it’s going to take at least two million years for you to take such an evolved human form and since the odds of humans making it anywhere near that long are slim to none, there’s really no hope for you).

Rather, you’ve run with “Hate moves the world towards hate,” having committed to pushing this agenda to its bitter, but lucrative for you, end. As I’ve been pointing out to you for what seems like forever now, you and yours are strategically lobbing out culture bombs, knowing they’ll be picked up by the Roberts and Gregorys among us who will gladly light the fuses and do your dirty work.

I don’t remember who said “Love moves the world towards love.” I just did a search on it and didn’t come up with anything, but honestly, I didn’t spend more than a few minutes looking, so who knows. It doesn’t really matter, though, who said it first or where it came from, it’s just as true as its opposite and it’s a balm we desperately need to keep hold of to counter so much of how we humans are with one another and with life itself. A writer from Pittsburgh, Brandon McGinley, who lives near the Tree of Life Synagogue used the analogy of rehab as a way of thinking about what it takes to heal a broken society. He pointed out that such healing requires the courage to recognize the brokenness in our midst, the rifts right in front of us (and even in us), and committing to the painstaking, long-term work of healing relationships.

May we be safe from the easy temptations of hate.
May we be happy to brighten someone’s day with a smile or kind gesture.
May we hold onto love and may we give it away freely.
May we keep our base instincts in check in the service of peace.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson