Beginning With the Familiar Departure

We all knew that the chill was more than in the air as the Obamas and the Trumps walked together toward a waiting Marine One, yet the Obamas left the White House with dignity on January 20, 2017.

Though many will disagree, I believe that now former President Trump and former first lady Melania Trump left the White House in the best way they could on January 20, 2021, walking to a waiting Marine One together, unaccompanied by the president-elect and first lady.

No precedent was set by the former President’s not attending the inauguration of his predecessor. He is the fourth in the history of this country, I believe, to decline to attend an inauguration.

I remember inauguration day in 2017. I remember an image of a person wailing in the street. I remember that many felt as though democracy sat on the brink of disaster.

I watched that inauguration as a person who had voted for neither of the two candidates presented to the people by their political parties. I voted for Johnson/Weld in 2016 for a number of reasons.

As I watched, with the freedom of an unbiased observer beholden to neither party nor their candidate, I remember thinking that the republic would endure, and the disaster that led people to bizarre displays of despair would never occur.

I was right.

The only chaos that existed prior to the pandemic and the riots of 2020 was that which was created by a malcontent media and others who gave a man more power than any man should posses. Ironically it was given to him by those who hated him the most.

The rest of us found the three years of his presidency prior to the pandemic to be relatively peaceful and even somewhat prosperous. We did not feel the weight of the federal government nor its interference in our lives, until the pandemic. The federal government functioned as it should have in my opinion allowing the states to address the issues and needs of their own people. Some governors did well, and some governors exhibited, and continue to exhibit, unprecedented overreach.

It is this kind of overreach that leaves me with concerns as new leadership takes the reigns of the federal government. As the emotions of my fellow citizens range from relief to joy to frustration to anger to grief following yet another change in leadership,

Still, another peaceful transfer of power has occurred, something for which I am always grateful whether or not I voted for the winner.

I am always proud of our nation and of our people on election day.

The days that followed in 2017, actually even the days that preceded the inauguration in 2017, showed us that though power was transferred peacefully, there was an underlying power struggle brewing that would lead our nation to new lows in order to grasp that power.

Several members of government, many of whom I believe do not truly understand the beauty and the brilliance of the American form of governance, would like to tear apart our republic and make it into something different, in my opinion an idealistic impossibility that has been attempted and failed time and again, often with disastrous consequences.

As I sit with my own emotions, I know that I must return to logic. I hope that my confidence in the endurance of the republic is warranted.

I hope that the current administration will govern wisely. I hope those who serve in this administration will truly realize the value of e pluribus unum and the beauty it can contribute to this nation when diversity of every kind, including talents, ideas, and ideologies are embraced rather than reviled. I hope that the current administration is successful in upholding freedom’s values and the American dream.

Becoming the leader of the free world is an incredible responsibility.

Ultimately, each leader of the free world is no more than mortal man, or woman, who will one day make his or her exit from the esteemed seat of government.

Perhaps it would benefit each new leader to look forward to the day of his or her departure at the beginning of the term in office. It might make the days in between better for all of us.

Launching Into the Headwinds of 2021

It was an unseasonably warm night, and it was raining – pouring actually.

It was December 31st, 2018. Despite the weather, our house was full of family, friends, food, and fun. After having flooring installed throughout much of the lower level of our home and after having had the main living areas painted, we were finally ready to host the kind of New Year’s Eve party I had long envisioned hosting. It had been a great evening, one I look back on with much fondness.

I don’t recall anything about the weather on December 31st, 2019. I just remember that my husband and I were both tired. He was still working full time, and he was dealing with his increasingly ill sister even though she was in one of the best long-term care facilities in the area. Unlike the year before, our house was not full of people, food, and activity. It was quiet. The two of us sat on the couch waiting for the ball to drop.

He and I had been in agreement about having a quiet New Year’s Eve 2019. As I sat there watching the massive Time Square crowd cheer, dance, sing, and celebrate I sent a Snapchat. I told my niece and nephew and sister that I was having a New Year’s Eve party in 2020.

If we had only known what the past year would bring, I might have hosted the biggest party I have ever hosted on that night in 2019.

Whether I ring in the new year with my Honey, with a few family members, or with several family members and friends, I have always found myself to be excited as we near midnight, the new year, a new beginning.

I also experience that bit of apprehension that most rational people experience as the new year begins. We know that the magic moments surrounding the countdown and the official start of the new year are short-lived. After the toasts and songs and hugs and kisses, we realize that the problems of the previous year linger like the empty party cups on end tables and the thin layer of confetti that has fallen across the floor after the party has ended.

As 2021 begins, I have to say I feel little or nothing. I don’t feel that anticipation that I have felt nearly every year previously. In a way, my despondence is more of a global despondence. I know that no single person, and definitely no government, can create the utopia that some seem to believe lies ahead in the new year.

I know that the battle lines in this country have been drawn, and even those of us who would like to be better have been placed on a “side” based on anything from our disapproval of leadership to our thoughts about personal risk assessment to our thoughts about personal responsibility to our thoughts about liberty, even to our decisions regarding whether or not we gather in person with our family members.

The system, from political leaders to media outlets, seems to enjoy baiting people into even deeper states of division, and many are more than willing to participate in the boorish practice of tribalism that should be well behind us.

In addition to being realistic about the future not shining nearly as brightly as promised, and to being saddened by the ever deepening divide in this country, I am frustrated by the concept that the changes that occurred in our country are potentially the “new normal.” Some people even want many of the draconian measures that have been imposed upon citizens to become the new normal.

It was a pleasant, sunny, spring day in 2018 that I remember being grateful and being happy that we could choose, to a great extent, our own destiny in America. We could choose to travel as we were that day, to relocate as we have done, to change jobs – seriously, we could even choose when and where we would get our hair cut or go to dinner.

Not only are unqualified, self-serving politicians making decisions for us, but the outrage mob and the nation’s institutions are making decisions, for young people in particular, that will leave the next generation even more confused than the one before it. Banning books like To Kill A Mockingbird!?

Attempting to “protect” people from the dirty history of this nation allows for the opportunity for that dark past to be repeated, and “protecting” people from feeling uncomfortable because they are mentally and morally challenged leads to a weak-minded and easily manipulated person.

As this year begins, I have great concerns about both the immediate and long-term future, of our nation in particular.

Personally, I will be looking forward to our first year in our new home, and in our new hometown. I hope that we have the opportunity to make friends here soon, to go out to dinner with other couples, to participate in church ministries and activities, to go see a baseball game at the minor league stadium about a mile and a half from our house.

I want to find a meaningful job. I hope that my husband finds a meaningful job if he chooses to work a bit; I also hope he enjoys his retirement fully if he chooses not to work.

I will be working on taking better care of myself as I am closer to 50 than to 40 now. I’m different, and it has become apparent that I need to do different things to be as healthy as I can be.

I will be working on investing my time and energy wisely, in things that matter. I will be working to make the most of the time that I have with my family members, regardless of their ages. Time together is a gift not to be taken for granted.

On December 31st, 2020 we had family in our new home for New Year’s Eve. We had lasagna. We watched the ball drop. We launched out into 2021 together, but with each of us having a different course charted for us to sail as we move forward.

The winds of change blew hard in 2020. I struggled to stay on my course. My primary goal for the year ahead is still to travel the course that I was created to follow to the best of my ability despite the storms that swell throughout the year.

Perhaps smoother sailing than I anticipate lies ahead. That would be great, but I will take nothing for granted now. To be unprepared leaves one open to being blown along on a course that others have set for them. Going along for that ride is not for me.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you find, or stay, your course in 2021.