This made me and my author friends laugh out loud. It’s good to find the humor in such truly awful times. My ability to find or recognize goodness, kindness, empathy, and joy is being sorely tested but I have done a pretty good job of surrounding myself with people who embody those qualities, and I am so grateful to all of them.
However, no matter how good we are at finding the positives around us, many of us are experiencing justifiable anger or even outright rage right now. When my son was younger he used to get so upset by anything he deemed unfair. I used to say that he had an overdeveloped sense of justice. He still struggles with it, but he comes by it naturally, sorry kiddo.
I still don’t know how to not get mad when I see something unjust. The funny thing is that I have a much harder time summoning the rage for myself, but it so easily manifests for those I care about.
For instance, I have a friend who was recently elected to his state legislature. He is a blue dot in a red sea, a black man surrounded by white hoods. When a colleague of his wrote a column for his local paper saying DEI stood for division, exclusion, and ineptitude and then claimed that Biden appointed a man for the FAA who was unqualified but had “a high amount of melanin in his skin” my friend took to the floor.
With quiet righteous dignity, he said, “As I look around at each one of you, I want to tell you that I hold you with the highest regard and the greatest of respect, but in reading that particular article, I found out that my melanin put me in a category where I might not be respected.”
He then quoted a bible verse: “Know those who labor among you.” Or in other words, “I see you and I know you”.
I am so proud to be this man’s friend and grateful that he trusted me enough to call me and share his story as he was on his way home from that session. I was outraged on his behalf. I added this to the list, the exponentially expanding list, of indignities and atrocities being committed by these Maggits.
Speaking of Maggit atrocities, what happened Friday in the Oval Office was despicable, reprehensible, and loathsome…there aren’t strong enough synonyms for it or them. It was like watching the WWE perform “How Can We Prove We Are Even Worse than You Thought.”
In many ways, I wish I was retiring sooner so I wouldn’t have to be in his chain of command one more day. However, I am already experiencing enough guilty relief around my upcoming retirement. In addition to the latest news of likely RIFs my coworkers are about to endure, it seems one of our agency’s field offices is on the DOGE/GSA chopping block making the RIFS even more likely.
I’m worried about my coworkers and friends. I’m also worried for myself and my family with this forced retirement but I’m so grateful I will not have to go through what they are about to and it makes me feel guilty.
I’ve been dealing with even more guilt as my mother is going through some medical issues and I’m here and she’s there. She’s scared so she sometimes lashes out. I know she doesn’t actively mean to hurt me, but it doesn’t stop it from hurting.
I canceled my last appointment with my therapist because I was worried about the expense. She’s out of network so it’s all out of pocket. My wife and I decided this past week that it would be best if I got back on my therapist’s schedule. (Yes you can laugh out loud at that.)
In that vein, I decided yesterday to do some self-care. I started a new batch of microgreens. I made bacon egg and cheese muffins to feed us breakfast this week. I worked on the hat I’m making for our kind neighbor who takes our trash can to the road when we forget. I helped my wife make our date-night dinner and then we watched HGTV. It was a much-needed down day.
The other thing I did was finally spit into the 23 and Me tube that I got for Christmas. Don’t ask me why I’ve been putting it off. There’s no specific reason. It just wasn’t a priority with all the other things happening right now.
Anyway, the reason I did it now was because I have been doing some research for one of the characters in my new project. She is a practicing witch descended from the granny witches of Appalachia. The book I bought for research, “Appalachian Witchcraft for Beginners” by Auburn Lily, talks about finding out about your own ancestors (as opposed to trying to use the Appalachian ancestors) to tap into their energy and protection.
Probably I will not be invoking the protection of my ancestors in a spell, but you never know. I’ve always been fascinated by genetics and I’m curious about what the results will say about me.
Today I will try to finish my weekend to-do list and prepare for another week of this circus. Wish me luck and please take care of yourselves and each other my friends.
Baby Gay When You're Fat and Gray - All Grown Up 