President* Trump, What do the following three things have to do with each other? 1) The Friday night attempt to force US Attorney of the NY Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, to resign followed by his Saturday morning firing when he refused to play along; 2) having a 62-year old woman arrested as she knelt to … Continue reading More dot connecting
Courage
Why now?
President* Trump, I’m 95% certain I’ve told you about this tree before – it’s the ancient chestnut tree a few houses North of the original 21st Buddha and I’ve walked past it at least once a week for about 10-ish years now. Because it’s sited at the end of the block its massive canopy shades … Continue reading Why now?
This time
President* Trump, I picked the first little handful of raspberries from our bushes this morning. Some went into my yogurt bowl and some were a surprise for Laura. It was a nice antidote to what was a pretty rough night filled with bad dreams, restlessness, and a trip outside with Old Lizzie. Then, on my … Continue reading This time
Good hard conversations
President* Trump, Have you seen pictures of the gorgeous BLM street mural that’s on East Pine in Capitol Hill here in Seattle? It’s in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (the CHAZ) and stretches an entire city block. The one in your almost-front yard is really striking – I like the bold yellow and the fact … Continue reading Good hard conversations
The imperative Monopoly monologue
President* Trump, I drafted almost an entire usual-length letter to you this morning, but I’m not going to send it. Maybe it’ll make it out of the gate tomorrow, but today it’s far more important to send you a link to Kimberly Latrice Jones’s brilliant, devastating monologue “How Can We Win?”, which was posted on … Continue reading The imperative Monopoly monologue
Defunding the police is a good start
President* Trump, I wish Laura or I had thought of the “President*” salutation eons ago – it is so much more appropriate than the “Dear” one, which always made me wince when I typed it. Better late than never, though – eh? So today we added another sign to our front windows today, jiggering things … Continue reading Defunding the police is a good start
The president* we needed at this time
President* Trump, Laura suggested switching out the scare quotes and swapping in an * to indicate the illegitimacy of your presidency since this is likely how you’ll be listed in the history books. It may take a bit, but the writing is on the wall that you were aided and abetted by Putin and his … Continue reading The president* we needed at this time
Raising up the gnat
“President” Trump, I want to come back to Sister Dang Nghiem and what I’ve learned from her so far. I finished her dharma talk on how to grieve last night and over and over I was astounded by her incredible equanimity and restraint. You see, throughout the entire hour and 23 minutes of her lesson, … Continue reading Raising up the gnat
Righteous eventualities
“President” Trump, It’s been just over 1.2k days of writing to you and I’m finally done with the polite “Dear President Trump” salutation – you never deserved it, but for the longest time (a seriously very long time) I couldn’t bring myself to address these letters to you in any other way. I’m over it … Continue reading Righteous eventualities
May we accept that real change is scary and hard
Dear President Trump, The overriding emotions for me today have been shame and fear, which may explain why I’ve been so irritable and sour. I don’t know about you, but often when I’ve got strong primary feelings on board, niggly secondary ones pile on and poke at me, trying to grab my attention. Well, I … Continue reading May we accept that real change is scary and hard