week 45/24

Friday Food – – Food for Thought

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What food goes with fascism? Autocracy?

Will eggs be cheaper? No, they won’t. Gas? That’s a big NOPE on that, too. Peace in Gaza? Hah! But those are subjects for another post.

I’ll hope to have more useful things to say about the next two years of American politics. In the meantime, join me as I look towards the comfort foods of my childhood.

Tonight, we had roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas for dinner.

I’m looking forward this week to baked sweet potatoes, macaroni & cheese, Chinese take-out, an egg bagel with cream cheese, quite possibly a knishe, and a Diet Coke. Not all at the same meal.

Potato Pancakes with applesauce & sour cream.
(c)2024

Who Are You People?

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My friend posted this on Threads. I scrolled past it because I wasn’t ready. I was still living in Schroedinger’s Democracy. I have questions about yesterday’s outcomes. Tomorrow I will go through all my emails and unsubscribe from every news organization that I feel betrayed the American values we purported to share. These include The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Politico, possibly a few of the Crooked Media podcasts among others that helped heave us into this cesspool of apathy and antisemitism.

Another thread that I want to share came from “OhNoSheTwint” who wrote, “It wasn’t ‘but her emails;’ it was ‘but they’re females.'”

I sat with my friend’s simple, heartbreaking post. I went into my daughter’s room to watch her sleep. She was also in Schroedinger’s Democracy up until the point from her very first vote just over twenty-four hours before to when her eyes opened, and I watched her groggy and yawning and innocently unknowing, and I kissed her head and I went out and brought back bagels.

On the drive, with the window down and the cool air blowing, a litany came to me.

  • Women’s Rights. It is finished.
  • Equality. It is finished.
  • Protecting women and girls from predators. It is finished.
  • Rule of law. It is finished.
  • Department of Education. It is finished.
  • Safe school. It is finished.
  • Climate Progress. It is finished.
  • Voting rights. It is finished.
  • Public safety. It is finished.
  • Separation of church and state. It is finished.
  • Freedom of religion. It is finished.
  • Freedom from religion. It is finished.
  • Freedom of the press. It is finished.
  • Freedom of Assembly. It is finished.
  • The Right to an Education. It is finished.
  • Learning history. It is finished.
  • Social security and medicare. It is finished.
  • Standing up to Jewish hate. It is finished.
  • Facts matter. It is finished.
  • America. After two hundred forty-eight years, it is finished.

It is finished.

Mental Health Monday – Election Edition

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Whatever happens (or doesn’t happen) tomorrow and in the following weeks, once you’ve cast your vote, there isn’t anything left to do. Settling into that in-between time between when the polls open and when the President-Elect is announced can be fraught with anxiety and worry. I feel it, too.

I’m going to vote first thing in the morning with my final first-time voter child, have an unhealthy breakfast (probably McDonald’s), drop my other child off at work, and then go to work myself, and then I’m going to let it go until I catch up to Rachel Maddow in the evening.

We planned our dinner around watching the returns, but my plan is to remain in a neutral frame of mind. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the outcome – I care very much, but it will be out of my hands, and I need to hope that everyone understood the assignment.

My advice to anyone who’s very anxious is to turn off the television and do something else. You will know when it’s time to come back to the news. Read a book. Drink water. Watch a rom-com or another favorite genre. I may hit up the Supernatural reruns because they soothe me. What soothes you? Use it.

And tomorrow, we’ll see what the world wants to tell us.

Peace.