Dear President Trump,

Maybe it’s the Wednesday-ness of the morning, maybe it’s the fact that the streets are wet again after a couple of days of no rain, maybe it’s Elizabeth Warren’s lackluster New Hampshire showing, maybe it’s the four Justice Department prosecutors quitting the Roger Stone case (and one quitting all together) after your blatant interference in the sentencing recommendations, or maybe it’s none of this or maybe it’s all of it. As I’m sure you can guess, my bet is on that last one –all of it piled on has me feeling so exhausted that I want to duck out for an extended break. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic so hopefully something will provide a boost.

In the middle of writing that last ‘please, oh please universe’ sentence I looked out our front window and the three-quarter moon caught my eye (it is not currently raining, so there’s). It seemed like a wispy little cloud was playing with it, changing shape seemingly to conform to the moon’s curves, at one point looking like a coma with the moon as it’s apex. Of course the moon is about 238,855 miles away from the cloud and there’s no way they were actually interacting, but from here it was very cool to watch the coincidental dance.

Then at the end of writing that same ‘please, oh please universe’ sentence Laura happened to play a Katie Porter clip from Twitter in which Porter did her thing with Sam Adolphsen of Maine, the right-wing guy who introduced strict work requirements for people applying for food stamps. She used the six-page application form as a guide and asked him a handful of the intrusive, over-the-top questions on it, most of which he couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. She was brilliantly relentless. Maybe I need to put Katie Porter clips on constant repeat since anymore it’s so easy to lose sight of the work that some of our elected officials are doing for the greater good. And really, the four prosecutors who quit the Stone case in protest deserve kudos too. They should be held up as awesome examples of courageous integrity in action since it’s a safe bet you’ll go full throttle after the three who didn’t quit their jobs altogether.

I need to stop now and get ready for work, but hopefully I’ll have one or two more responses to the ‘please, oh please universe’ entreaty to add to the list since the heft on the other side is still way too heavy.

Ok, it’s the end of the day and there are two little things I can add on the “thank you universe” side of the equation. The first was walking into my office and having it smell heavenly from the sprig of dianthus that I found dropped on the walkway into work the other morning. It’s in a makeshift vase (a mug, really) and it’s holding up really well. The second was just now taking the dogs for their evening walk and getting to hear what sounded like a whole bunch of bats doing their echolocation thing. I think they must be bug hunting out over the reservoir across the street – I couldn’t see them, but they were (and probably still are) making quite the racket.

You know, every morning and every evening when I look at the news after a long stretch away from it, there’s always a hit of disappointment when I see there’s no headline announcing your resignation or some miraculous GOP moral awakening (it really has come to this sort of desperate wishful thinking). I don’t see that wish/dash deal ending any time soon so hopefully the universe will keep serving up these small- and medium-size positives to help take the edge off.

May we be safe to fuss sometimes.
May we be willing to look for and appreciate positives.
May we support those who are pushing relentlessly for healthier politics.
May you not start a war (I still worry you’ll kick a hive for the hell of it).

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson