Dear President Trump, I've thought some more about both the “stop to think” and “Kindness is Magic” messages I wrote to you about yesterday and want to add a couple more things about them. First, I realized this morning that the encouragement to “stop to think” is probably mostly about being intentional about thinking, it’s … Continue reading “Political” isn’t a dirty word
empathy
Boorish boys and hamsters
Dear President Trump, I’m on the plane heading to Minneapolis. It’s been dandy. Someone threw up on the previous flight in a seat two rows ahead of mine and it was pretty ripe. We also had a 30-ish minute delay taking off due to high traffic volumes and there was a disconcerting grinding sound the … Continue reading Boorish boys and hamsters
Packing and parking fairies
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
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
“No one breathes”
Dear President Trump, I wasn’t going to stay for service at all yesterday. The plan was to go to choir practice at 9 and leave right afterwards because there was a choir potluck later in the afternoon and I didn’t want the whole day given over to churchy stuff. The plan was going just fine … Continue reading “No one breathes”
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
“Atmospheric discrimination”
Dear President Trump, For a few days now, I’ve been chewing on something to tell you about, trying to figure out how to frame it, what to include, what to let stay shadowy. This morning while I was getting some exercise I finally decided I was ready to tackle it (I’ll tell you what “it” … Continue reading “Atmospheric discrimination”
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
Daily Trump Letters 