Dear President Trump, Yesterday morning on my way to church a large black SUV with the license plate “6666” pulled into my lane directly in front of me. I thought the plate was odd so I filed it away to try and figure out later. When I looked it up online I found a numerology … Continue reading Out of whack
Love and Compassion
Repairing rifts before they become chasms
Dear President Trump, We cancelled our subscription to the NYT yesterday. It feels kind of like the now common situations where well regarded, well loved celebrities' and politicians' past (and sometimes current) inappropriate sexual behavior comes to light and they resign, are fired, or operate under a cloud. The NYT wasn’t sexually inappropriate but they … Continue reading Repairing rifts before they become chasms
President Obama and the Dali Lama touched heads
Dear President Trump, It's been a strange day. Church was both lovely and hard. The lovely parts involved a strong sermon and a reminder of namaste, which you may recall is the belief that each of us contains a spark of the divine. The hard part was that just after talking with today's preacher about … Continue reading President Obama and the Dali Lama touched heads
Reified pillars of misogyny
Dear President Trump, Today I want to shift the focus from the ultra personal, albeit political, to what I think are the two main Judeo Christian pillars of misogyny; the dominant creation myth and the myth of Jesus's conception. Whoever came up with the idea that some all powerful God created Adam out of dust … Continue reading Reified pillars of misogyny
You are so very hard to keep wishing well
Dear President Trump, I'll get back to my rant tomorrow or the next day, but tonight I feel like talking with you about some features of your contact page and of my letters to you. You probably aren't familiar with your contact page since it would be strange for you to write to yourself, so … Continue reading You are so very hard to keep wishing well
There is mostly goodness and love in the world
Dear President Trump, How has your Sunday been? Did you get in a round of golf? Two? I think the more golf you play, the better. I'm going to take a break from my ongoing feminist rant this afternoon. I'll get back to it tomorrow but having sent you two installments yesterday, I think it's … Continue reading There is mostly goodness and love in the world
Trust
Dear President Trump, A couple of weeks ago I told you about how our pastor invited someone who is currently experiencing homelessness to join her at the front of the church a few minutes into her sermon and how he proceeded to sing "Ode to Joy." What I forgot to tell you is that the … Continue reading Trust
Take a knee
Dear President Trump, I was very happy to see Eric Reid's Op Ed in the NYT this morning explaining how thoughtful he and Colin Kaepernick were in their decision to take Mr. Kaepernick's protest during the playing of the national anthem in a more visible direction. He described how they felt kneeling during the song … Continue reading Take a knee
Left to our own devices it’s hard to be radically generous
Dear President Trump, I've been thinking about how hard it is to love your neighbor as yourself if you don't feel loved yourself and how if you don't feel loved yourself, it's likely your tendency is to see love as transactional such that you aren't willing to give love until you receive love. I'm guessing … Continue reading Left to our own devices it’s hard to be radically generous
Old, old wisdom we need to heed
Good Morning President Trump, If you were studying justice you likely would have already made the slight leap from JG's framing of it (all humans as unique and irreplaceable works of art) to Jesus's encouragement to love your neighbor as your self and to love your enemy. And maybe you'd even have made the connection … Continue reading Old, old wisdom we need to heed
Daily Trump Letters 