Practice What You Preach

It is time for me to do that. Over twenty years ago I swore off newscasts. When the nation was shocked by the events of 9/11 my recommendation for healing was to stop watching the endless repetition of the events on each and every newscast. People could not heal when the event was being made real to them 24 hours a day 7 days a week. With the absolutely unbelievable events of last Wednesday I “fell off the wagon” and began watching the news again. It has done me no good, only made me more and more angry. I need to stop and I will do that right now. I won’t be able to process the horrific event of the attack on the Capitol of the United States until I stop seeing it. What we witnessed is such a shocking event. I guess there is not any reason we should be shocked. The man who incited the crowd to riot is the same person who rejoiced when his election rallies shouted “Lock her up.” Now he doesn’t understand why some are blaming him for this debacle. This whole spectacle is made even worse by watching the video made by his son of the party in the tent on the White House lawn immediately before the speech that incited the insurrection. Mindless projection of falsehoods and misinformation has become so prevalent that we are in danger of disregarding it. One of the president’s favorite minions is our useless governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem. She declared in a national speech that the new senators from Georgia are communists. She doesn’t even know them. The defeated would-be senators tried to tie them to communism and their accusations were proven false after that was investigated. She had posted on her Twitter account this week that “words matter.” Interesting fact that between 1995 and 2016, Noem’s family-owned Racota Valley Ranch in Hazel, South Dakota deposited over $3.7 million in government farm subsidies.  In 2012 alone, they cashed $232,707 in subsidy checks, according to the Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database. Just perhaps there are others who need to practice what they preach. It is strange that these events and the continual effort to pass the blame reminded me of a third grade class many, many years ago. Those who know me from the past probably know that I had no furniture in my music room. To me it just got in the way of how we moved, how we played instruments, how we made music. Consequently we all sat on the floor, teacher included. The lack of barriers, i.e. desks, put a great responsibility on the students as far as managing themselves. Although this arrangement was new to kindergarten students, by the time first grade was half over, the students adapted admirably and respected each other’s space. One of the benefits of teaching a multi-year subject was seeing the same students every year. They knew what to expect from me, and I from them. Discipline just wasn’t a problem usually. Most years I was able to teach the first day of class without speaking! That was a test of what the children had learned, and what I had taught them. This particular third grade class had a new student. He was very well dressed, always clean, super polite and a perfect scholar, so it seemed. Every class there was some kind of disturbance amongst the students in his vicinity. Some of them were known mischief creators and, of course, they received the blame. It wasn’t until several weeks had passed that I finally discovered it was mister perfect that was the cause of the problems. He denied it, of course, but after being caught he was at least smart enough to stop inciting misbehavior. I wonder what happened to him. Perhaps he became a politician! It wasn’t only the spectacle of people breaking down fences, doors, beating a policeman with a fire extinguisher, desecrating a sacred national space that bothered me. I know from other events of this past year, had the crowd been formed mainly of people of color they would have been mowed down by gunfire without question. Yet this mob urged on by the president, seemed to have no problem overrunning the Capitol Police who appeared to be totally unprepared. It’s over. Soon this administration will be finished, if one can call it an administration. How long will it take our nation to heal? We’ve had a touch of winter this week but nothing too bad. A little snow and temperatures above freezing most days. It being only the 9th of January I expect different weather before spring has sprung.

Sophia has developed an interest in a squirrel that uses our deck as a short cut to the neighbor’s tree. She’s quite content to spend part of her day looking for said squirrel. She’s frequently disappointed but nevertheless perseveres. I’ve felt well physically and psychologically, until Wednesday. I’ll enjoy another week off and then return for infusions next week. I’ll enjoy it because I will practice what I preach and return to “no news.” Really, no television news, because I do read the newspaper. That way I can skip the articles in which I really am not interested. At least I only have to read disturbing news once and not over and over and over again. Peace to you and to our nation. Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and good wishes. Pray for our country.