What’s It Gonna Be?

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The Supreme Court ain’t so supreme, of late.

Maybe it has always benefited from a certain undeserved mystique- its members aren’t gods, after all, just human beings tasked with important work. Justices over the years have produced many landmark decisions seemingly based on a sincere and fair treatment of testimony and applicable law, even charting new ground from time to time, especially when it comes to human rights and bodily autonomy.

Lately, though, there seems to be some backsliding. More suspicion, more doubt, more finger pointing in the direction of a hand-picked conservative majority on a mission to, oh, I don’t know, tighten things up, bring us back to a “better” place that pleases straight, white Christians everywhere.

In the midst of the Trump mess, the court seems to not want to stick its neck out and abide by the 14th Amendment provision of forbidding insurrectionists from running for office. Though he hasn’t been accused yet, many know what Trump did and who and what he really is, and how dangerous he has become.

So maybe it comes down to how closely the court adheres to the letter of the law, along with its efforts to reel in the temptation to react to certain public sentiment, and to what many are seeing with their own eyes: Trump running roughshod over, and even making a mockery of certain norms that have long served as guardrails.

Sometimes it looks like nothing can be done to make him go away.

Certain Preferences

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Daily writing prompt
If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?
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I guess it would depend on the sport. If it was football, maybe a mixture of royal blue and black– and I’d be sure to require that the actual team city/logo was visible and not a small patch that gets lost amidst all the advertising on the uniform.

If it was baseball, I’d probably go with white home uniforms and gray away ones, with a dark blue hat and red lettering.

Mascots are silly.

Heightened Awareness

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Daily writing prompt
How have your political views changed over time?
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I have started to vote in local elections more often, and my party affiliation has been established for awhile now. There was a stretch when I valued the label of Independent and voted based on whatever candidate struck me as likeable and seemingly capable. But anymore and until convinced otherwise, I am a one-party voter, and it’s not the party of Donald Trump, if he even has an affiliation. He may just be a one-person party, all in for himself.

My worldview and political sensibilities shifted for good during my years as a Lutheran pastor.

Refuge

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Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
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Some sort of loft with good lighting and comfortable seating, or a small outbuilding in the woods or at the back of a property, again comfortably appointed with a wood or gas fireplace, good lighting, a couple of comfortable chairs, maybe a decent sound system. Not too Spartan– having electricity would be nice, along with being comfortable in a variety of weather conditions.

Oh, right

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It was nice to take a day and not think about everything that’s going on. I guess Christmas Day is a day apart for a variety of reasons. It’s so steeped in tradition, so many people trying to hold onto something, that we suspend reality for a bit, try to capture some essence of Christmases past. This hasn’t worked for me since I was in 9th grade or so. But yesterday came closer than it has in a while.

We were immersed in the revelry of four children age 7 and under opening piles of gifts with their names on them. We savored time with family, drank some coffee, ate some freshly baked cinnamon rolls, had an egg and cheese and bacon breakfast sandwich, on an English muffin. The Amy Grant Christmas channel was playing on Pandora. We got a surprise visit (a surprise to me) from our daughter who flew in from Colorado. And I spent very little time contemplating the sludge and ugliness casting a pall over the nation. It was great.

But now it’s 12/26, and I suppose it won’t be long before the revelry is shattered by the next stupendously deprived or mind-numbingly dumb thing Donald Trump says or does.

Wheels

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Daily writing prompt
What is your all time favorite automobile?
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Of the cars we’ve had in our life, I’d have to say a 2004 Buick Rendezvous. It offered a nice view of the road, it was a roomy, solid 4000 pound vehicle, and I didn’t have to lower myself in to drive it.

In general, my favorite brand is Toyota. I drive a Camry now and would probably get another one, though in a perfect world, I’d probably hold out for a Tacoma extended cab.

Flow

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Daily writing prompt
How are you creative?
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Most often as I sit at the piano and doodle– try to devise a progression of chords that makes some sort of sense and is maybe even melodic. Other than that, and on rare occasions, I feel like I zero in on what I’m feeling inside as I write in my journal or in here. I could never be a fiction writer– I feel like I have a stunted imagination. Or maybe it’s just a paucity of experiences.

In any event, every once in a while, thoughts and feelings get translated to a page the way I want, almost as if the passage writes itself, words somehow materialize.

The Wrong Tree

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I happened to come across a song recently, by The Resistance. Not sure who these folks are, but they’ve come out with a song that nicely summarizes what we’ve been seeing out of the Trump administration since January 20, or really since he took office the first time.

One lyric that resonates is something like “…at least they own the libs…” Owning the libs has bothered me ever since I first heard the phrase. I know that some who claim to be progressives can come across as holier-than-thou and a bit snooty. OK, maybe a lot snooty. And needy, somehow. But to belittle and deride us all is like us doing the same to all conservatives when it’s really the MAGA diehards we’re talking about.

Anyway, I’m having trouble seeing “owning the libs” as a rallying cry, mainly because it’s such a monumental waste of time and energy. What does it say about a movement if their reason for being is simply to run hot about people who care about fairness and living conditions and clean air and water, who trust scientists and doctors and researchers, who find value in education and the arts and free expression and a functioning government?

MAGA is worried about handouts and immigrants desperate for a better life, and trans people. They prefer purity of a sort that fueled an Austrian madman 80-plus years ago. They believe Donald Trump, of all people, is some sort of messenger from God. They love their Jesus but seemingly know little about him. They dream of a designer Christianity used as a weapon, and a nation based on archaic, law-heavy scripture that pre-dated Jesus by multiple centuries. They don’t understand or appreciate the beauty of what we have in our Constitution. They don’t really want to work at forming that more perfect union.

They just want to always have something or someone to gripe about, someone to blame.

Casting Shadows

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Daily writing prompt
Who are the biggest influences in your life?
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Everyday, I’d say my wife, our kids, and the grandkids to a certain extent. Politically in a good way, probably Rachel Maddow, Pete Buttigieg; in a bad way, Donald Trump and the cast of doomsayers still propping him up.

Then there are the memories of folks no longer with us– my mom and dad, my brother. Certain comics and authors and a couple of seminary professors come to mind, along with an athlete or two.

Goings On

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Daily writing prompt
Share what you know about the year you were born.
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Off the top of my head, I know that Dwight D. Eisenhower was President, and that the Brown V Board of Education case came before the Supreme Court, a case in which the court voted unanimously to find segregation in schools to be unconstitutional.

The rest is with an assist from Wikipedia… the year 1954 started on a Friday; Jonas Salk announced the polio vaccine, and the first doses would be administered in Pittsburgh; West Germany won its first World Cup title, over Hungary; Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel; there was a coup d’etat in Guatemala; Hurricane Hazel devastated the Caribbean, U.S., and Canada; the Castle Bravo and Castle Romeo (hydrogen) nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshall Islands; the first operational subway line was opened in Toronto; The U.S. Air Force Academy was founded; Arturo Toscanini’s retirement was announced after a performance at Carnegie Hall, during which he had a memory lapse; President Eisenhower laid out what became known as the Domino Theory at a news conference in April; April 11 was denoted as the Most Boring Day in the 20th Century; Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe got married; Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4 minute mile, in England; the words “under God” are added to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance; Diane Leather was the first woman to run a sub-5 minute mile, also in England; Joseph McCarthy’s popularity declines after Special Counsel Joseph N. Welch lashed out with his now famous attack–“Have you, at long last, no decency?”

There is much more, but one last entry: food rationing ended in Great Britain, 14 years after it began early in WWII, and almost a decade after the war ended.

… seen it all before

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Daily writing prompt
Are you a good judge of character?
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I form first impressions based on what I see and hear. Sometimes the red flags are plainly visible. My time as a clergy person allowed me to hone those skills a bit, but I wouldn’t want the job of Personnel Director or work for a SVU or the FBI as an interrogator. I might be able to smell a rat or know when someone is simply full of themselves, or when a grandchild is outright lying about eating their vegetables.

When I think of a good judge of character, I’m thinking of a seasoned veteran like the ones on any good cop show (they must exist in real life), or maybe a CIA operative or a prosecutor who does their homework and persists in exposing the bad guy because they trust the evidence or have an educated hunch.

One could argue that there was a paucity of good judgment in light of the results of the 2024 Presidential election.