Thursday, January 17, 2019

Dreaming as therapy

I am fantasizing this morning about going away for a week to Treasure Beach, Jamaica with my children and their loves, to a place where we can just be, with the sea at our front door and island vegetation kissing the wraparound front porch, where we would lounge and read and talk and laugh and eat, in between mornings at the beach, the exploration of nearby wonders of nature, and twilight dips in the pool. The house comes with a housekeeper and a chef, who will apparently arrange a bonfire on the beach and other delightful excursions. While Rome (America) burns, one can dream.

While I daydream, let me just say I applaud Nancy Pelosi for postponing the State of the Union address, for boldly exercising her power to do so. How ludicrous it would have been for Agent Orange to sit pompously in the House and pretend the state of the union is anything but catastrophic disarray.

Some people have already received eviction notices because their paychecks have been halted by the longest government shutdown in history. Medications cannot be purchased. Government workers are standing in line at food banks. The president claims to be invested in border security, yet with this ongoing shutdown, in which he is holding almost one million American workers hostage, our borders have never been more insecure. A man waltzed onto a flight with a gun in his hand luggage this week, because TSA workers are calling in sick at the job where they are being asked to work without pay. Some are forced to drive for Uber and other car share services to feed their families. Meanwhile Mitch McConnell hides out in his hideaway office (yes, that's a real thing) and refuses to call a vote in the Senate that will certainly pass with enough of a bipartisan majority to not only reopen the government, but also to override any veto the president might make. 

I have never witnessed such moral cowardice and greed as is on display in the current Republican party, as its members prop up the fascist president while lining their own pockets. I do have some excitement about some of the newly elected Democrats though, and how about 29-year-old Alexandria Osario-Cortez, the congresswoman from New York with massive social media clapback skills, whom the far right loves to hate. In the Democratic house, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Agent Orange has met his match. Thank God the Dems knew better than to put a newbie in Pelosi's place. These are serious times, and she knows what's what.

16 comments:

  1. In your daydream vision by the ocean, I think I see bougainvillea in the vase. When my family lived 25 miles south of San Francisco, California, from 1957 to 1974, my father planted bougainvillea in our backyard. He didn't plant a vegetable garden, but he did plant fruit trees, bulbs, various flowers, and ornamental bushes. He loved landscaping. He loved flowers especially.

    In all dangerous times, we need to find balance in daydreams of peaceful times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. am, i love bougainvillea. i think they are what drew me to this picture and led me to imagine myself in that place. you're right, we need to sustain ourselves however we can, and remind ourselves that better is possible and dare i say, on the way.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Sabine, looking at pictures of the place occupied many minutes this morning!

      Delete
  3. Book that paradise. Do it. What better time than now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary, I will. But maybe next year. We have a wedding in paradise to attend later this year!

      Delete
  4. I can't even risk looking at this picture too long; I never used to mind the cold but the last two years I am freezing all winter long! I'm afraid if I open the door to the thought of a tropical vacation I'll never get it shut, and it's not going to happen unless we win the lottery. (And we don't buy lottery tickets :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jenny-o, sometimes i try to dream things into being. sometimes it works! it's been cold over here, too, though I bet you have us beat.

      Delete
  5. I agree with all of what you've written -- sometimes it feels as if we're in this absurdist play or a Fellini movie. A perverse carnival -- America/Rome on the decline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth, it doesn't seem quite real, does it? I swear we've entered an alternate universe!

      Delete
  6. I like your dream. I have a similar one, and it always starts at the ocean shoreline. I am so happy that Pelosi is where she is and has the history and mettle to know how to succeed. What a time we are living in, what a time. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. robin, i think future generations will not be able to wrap their minds around what happened here, what is still happening. And so we dream.

      Delete
  7. Could not agree more -- right down to loving bougainvillea.

    Please don't forget Adam Schiff on the list of those in whom we can place hope. He's quiet rather than charismatic, but experienced and serious about ending this nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RF, yes oh yes, Adam Schiff is one of the good ones, quietly and with great moral fortitude steering us toward shore. I admire him greatly.

      Delete
  8. sounds like heaven to me. you might want to take a boat though instead of flying. and you are so right on about the state of this country. and still 1/3 of Americans seemingly support him as he turns his back on people he is forcing into bankruptcy. I read somewhere that his doesn't care about the state of these government employees because he thinks they are all democrats.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ellen, he is singularly unable to imagine what it is like to walk in anyone else's shoes. i think it rises to the level of a mental illness. he is LITERALLY incapable of caring about anyone but himself.

      Delete