Life is a contradiction...

 

I have been trying to write for the past several  weeks and it is hard to do.  I have conflicting feelings about our country and its people right now—mostly I simply do not understand how this all came about.  Well, I do, and that is part of the problem.  I do believe in simple adage, “if someone tells you what they are going to do and what they are and especially if they repeat again and again, just believe them.

 The challenge is that more than half of those who voted (but not more than half of the population) ignored that.  Part of me wants to say, fine, then you live with higher prices and misogyny and racism and hate and incompetence and all the other things that this administration will bring but unfortunately, all this will affect everyone, including and perhaps especially those who didn’t vote or vote for him.  So like many others I am learning how to navigate this mess.  An early grade for efforts would probably be a C or C-.  This is hard.

Another reason why I am conflicted is that while the country is in a state of decline and despair, my personal life is pretty darn good.  There are many indicators of this, including the simple fact that I have lived where I live, in the same house, for more than five years.  I know that many live in the same place for years and decades but that has not been my life.  As an adult I have never lived in the same place for more than four years and even in those four-year stints, I have never lived in the same house for that long.  I have come to find out that this is a very nice concept—I should have tried it before!

This stability has been facilitated by a great, stable, long-lasting relationship with a partner who is smart and fun and adventuresome and who really is partner in my/our lives.  It hasn’t been easy—heck, I’m very certainly not easy, and there have been some bumps along the way, but this is a very good thing.  From cooking to talking to traveling to planting a garden, she is a part of all of this.  We have fun, and sometimes even laugh out loud before 7 A.M.   We plant perennial flowers, not annual flowers—that is how serious this is!    I am a lucky guy. 

That adventure part?  We went to London over Christmas—but that is a different post.