I can’t be the only one. There must be others struggling to cope. A nation of this size, there must be dozens of people like me looking for a way to deal with the fact that Donald J. Trump is our President. And unlike previous Chief Executives, who start to blend in with the hand-rubbed paneling, this one is just as front and center, just as exhausting, just as infuriating as the day he strutted down that escalator. Well, I’d rather shine a light than curse the darkness, so here are some coping strategies for those in a similar predicament.
Netflix – Or any of the many other streaming services where one may find quality distraction in the form of well-written, superbly acted comedies, dramas, and animated series. Steer clear of stuff from the eighties and nineties though. Forty-Five might turn up in a cameo.
Look west – Left Coast or Right, west is where the sun sets. Today’s was especially grand. The latest storm filled the sky with enough clouds to make things interesting and provide enough filtering to bring out some of the warmer colors in the spectrum. And that was just the view to west. To east, clouds piled up against the Sierras, providing a canvas to catch the pink light of winter late in the day. Early risers are welcome to look east.
Look up – Some natural phenomena are impervious to the reckless things we do here on Earth, things like Brexit, the Ford Pinto, and investing in racing greyhounds – yes, that’s actually a thing. The night sky remains the same. Orion is once again trekking across the southern sky. The Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, are high in the west and their constant, “Will you stop touching me,” brings Jupiter back into view a couple of hours past midnight.
Go to a theatre festival – That’s what I did last week. Watching college students perform scenes, monologues, songs, and plays made for five days that were blissfully free of politics. And the posh surroundings provided by The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles didn’t hurt. The cloyingly cute, saccharine sweet duo, performing a musical number with predictable staging and voices so similar it was hard to tell who was singing when...that hurt.
Take an acting class – Maybe I’ll be teaching it. I rarely bring up politics. And you can work on a new dialect that will come in handy when you...
Leave the country – Unfortunately, by the time you arrive in...someplace Americans are still allowed to travel to, opinions may have deteriorated to the point that being able to sound like you’re from one of the former British colonies may be the only way to get served your ration of microwaved chicken with rice at the Marriott restaurant.
Go into suspended animation – I’ll confess, I know about this only from sci-fi movies and television shows, so it may not even work. Still, if all else fails, try going into a state of hibernation until things return to something more approximating normal.
| Copyright © 2019 by James Knudsen |
ok, had coffee, so got more to say. 1.love it and you, as ever. 2. when at the biltmore with drama, call me, i am close, 3. sibling "stop touching me" ALWAYS ends with !!!!!, i spent too much time in the backseat of our family De Soto with one of the other esteemed contributing editors of this rag not to know THAT, 4. and baking can be useful
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