WHAT IS THERE to say? After the initial shock wore off I just felt numb. It's weird to witness an event that is stunningly catastrophic and retrospectively inevitable. It's weird to be aware of history as it is happening. You wish you could rewrite it. Or skip ahead (past years, decades of pain) to the resolution, the peace deal, the revolutionary breakthrough.

The truth is I have felt numb at least since October of last year, when Israel started bombing Gaza. I didn't know just how hopeful I was in the days leading up to the election until my hope was crushed, and now, give or take a few panic attacks, I am back to feeling numb.

I don't have patience for the postmortems, and who knows what shape the resistance will take this time around (except I'm fairly sure we won't be seeing any Pussy Hats). I'm worried about the news outlets, myself. The only way to hold this administration accountable is if someone is keeping track of the misdeeds, which are bound to be numerous, or rather innumerable. I suggest throwing your support behind whatever local news serves your community best. As it happens, one of Chicago's best local news organizations, Block Club, is having a fundraiser right now. If you live in the area why not give them a few bucks to help them out?

Three Things That Kept Me Going This Week Despite it being a Shitshow

1. Apparently anyone is welcome to come to the weekly Wednesday senior lunch at the American Indian Center. The AIC's Food is Medicine program is sponsored by a grant from the Department of the Interior, and the menu features dishes such as herb-marinated wild salmon. If I find myself free on a Wednesday afternoon I know where I am going to eat.
2. This article about Richard Scarry by Chris Ware has so much great stuff in it, including a mini-history of the Little Golden Books, where Scarry's career took off. Ware also captures precisely what is so appealing about Scarry's word books: "there’s a top-down, citizen-as-responsible-contributor, sense-of-oneself-as-part-of-something-bigger that feels, well, civilized." He attributes this to Scarry's moving from the US to Switzerland in 1967, and, yes, that does explain a lot.
3. A couple of weeks ago we took Michaela to see Milo Imagines the World, and though it is a play written for children it is still very engaging to adults such as I. The play is mainly set in the NYC subway system, and the sets for this are genius. Definitely bring tissues to this play. I think I could have swum out of the theater in the pools of tears left behind by the audience.

That's all for this week. I caught a virus from Michaela a few days ago, and once I catch a virus from her it always seems to hit me harder. But I appreciated having an excuse to just veg out yesterday, since I was essentially useless anyway.

Here's to the sun rising tomorrow morning, and the one after that, and the one after that, and so on and on and on.

Claire