Dear President Trump, I wrote to you yesterday about rainbows and today I’m going to focus on fairies. Who knows, maybe it’ll be unicorns tomorrow! So, fairies. Yesterday I lamented how messed up we humans (I said “us humans” but it should have been “we humans”) can be, but we humans can also be pretty … Continue reading Packing and parking fairies
Love and Compassion
Faith in love
Dear President Trump, About six years ago I had what I refer to as my personal poetry year. I’d never written poetry before and except for one that popped out in 2016, I’ve not written any since. I barely recognized myself or my mind during those months of 2013 when it seemed like just about … Continue reading Faith in love
Prejudice and Pride
Dear President Trump, The other day Laura texted our daughter to check in with her on the last day of their respective quarters to congratulate her on being almost finished with her first year of college and to see how she was feeling about finals. She texted back saying she’s feeling ok about how things … Continue reading Prejudice and Pride
A tiny, precious miracle
Dear President Trump, It’s sort of awkward writing to you when you are already in tomorrow, but I suppose it isn’t that different from usual since you and I are rarely in the same time zone and we never occupy the same reality. How was it meeting with the Japanese families of people who were … Continue reading A tiny, precious miracle
May we get over ourselves
Dear President Trump, It used to be that our church had two services, the first at 9 and the second at 11, with choir practice in between at 10. I thought that arrangement was pretty great; on mornings when I felt antsy and wanted to get on with the day, I could go at 9 … Continue reading May we get over ourselves
Housing for goodness’ sake
Dear President Trump, Recently I was on the periphery of a conversation that kept dipping in and out of tense territory. It never quite landed squarely in the squirmy zone, but it still had me wishing it would end much sooner than it did. The first person involved made a compassionate, yet practical, argument for … Continue reading Housing for goodness’ sake
The wonder of feeling small
Dear President Trump, I hope Melania The Missing (from public view) has had a nice Mother’s Day. Have we? Why yes, thank you for (not) asking, we have. There’s been lots of well-wishing going back and forth among friends and family, including an especially nice “I miss you both lots!” note from our daughter this … Continue reading The wonder of feeling small
What’s real and needs attention
Dear President Trump, I’m well past the years when hormones regularly amped up my emotional tenderness. And before pressing on, no, such cycling is not a sign of female weakness or irrationality. Rather, it’s a built-in course-corrector or truth serum that puts us back in touch with what’s real and needs attention. I would go … Continue reading What’s real and needs attention
And yet and still
Dear President Trump, The title of the Easter sermon this morning was “In Praise of What Isn’t.” Our pastor’s theme was how crucial it is that we not get stuck on what is and lose sight of what can be. She wasn’t saying that we should ignore what is or pretend that the bad things … Continue reading And yet and still
Getting a grip and letting go
Dear President Trump, Laura has really cut back her Twitter time since too much isn’t good for her equilibrium, but she still finds good stuff. The best bit she sent me today was a clip that a parent taped of their kid who’s maybe 15 months old. The child is sitting facing backwards in their … Continue reading Getting a grip and letting go