All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Today is Princess Sack-of-Potatoes’ birthday party here at the Compound and there will be about thirty people and I’ve been elected to grill duty. After a day of heavy rain and wind we’ve been blessed with sun mild temperatures and a light breeze so everything looks good.
So stay tuned. I’ll be back with some things to say later on.
What do White evangelicals, Hispanics and Muslims have in common? Your first instinct would be to say nothing. But according to the Left, all of them are complaining about the public schools trying to groom their kids for sexual deviancy. Apparently in Dearborn Michigan these three groups have been able to agree that the local school shouldn’t be foisting LGBTQ talking points on their children through the school library.
In the breathless narrative of a New Republic expose we read that this unlikely alliance of the Right along with groups that were formerly thought to be owned by the Left is laying siege to the local school board and demanding that deviant sexual propaganda be removed from the school library. And being a leftist rag, the author presents this as an atrocity that should rally the Left to work even harder to bully parents to submit to the deviant faith.
This was the concluding paragraph:
The developments in Dearborn are a sign that the madness is spreading to new constituencies whom Democrats have long considered allies. Predicated on “protecting our kids” from the “scourge” of sexual progressivism, the anti-democratic right is forming a powerful religious alliance against secular liberalism. Those who believe in eternal torture for heathens are joining forces to establish hell on earth for LGBTQ people, public officials, and anyone who cares about American democracy.
Apparently, the wake-up call to parents when they saw during COVID what their children were being “taught” has been heeded by many and not just traditional people on the Right. Religious people, even minorities who have traditionally clung to the Democrat party are slowly waking up to the reality of what their “ally” plans for their children. Finally.
And if the Left is shrieking that means what is happening is effective. Waking parents up has been an unexpected bright spot in all the havoc that we’ve lived through in the last few years. Even leftists have been “scared straight” by what they found in their kids’ curriculum. If the Stupid Party can wake up and latch onto this thing and legislate a real parents’ bill of rights, I think a lot of Democrat politicians will find it difficult to oppose it. We might even get a veto-proof majority to enact something significant. But let’s not get too far ahead of our skis here.
The moral of the story is that when it comes to different religious and ethnic constituencies you don’t have to be close friends to cooperate on tackling a threat from the anti-religious, anti-family progressive forces that have infiltrated the government and more specifically the schools. You can cooperate on a project and get things done. Later on, you can go back to hating on each other if that’s the only way things work between you.
Maybe that’s the model for the future. Cooperate where it makes sense and otherwise circle warily around all the other groups that are trapped with us in this gulag our elites have built for us.
Today I went to visit some very good friends. It was a pretty long trip but it was so good to spend time with people who speak my language. We talked about many things. We even talked about the political situation and I got some different points of view about the outlook for the mid-terms. Apparently not everyone is as pessimistic as I am. But the opinions on what’s wrong with the country were still very close to my viewpoint.
One thing that was brought up was the awareness by women in their thirties and forties that they’ve been tricked. They’ve traded their most precious resource, their fertility, for ten or twenty years as corporate poster children. The paradox is the women in their twenties will deny to the death that this is what is happening. It’s only after the deal has been paid for that they understand what has happened.
But at the same time, it has to be acknowledged that our society has made the one salary middle class family a virtual impossibility. And both millennial men and women have absorbed this as an unavoidable reality. I countered that Hungary has begun the process of trying to provide a way out of this trap with tax incentives for couples that allows the wife and mother to stay at home with her kids in exchange for benefits that acknowledge the advantage to Hungarian society of providing new Hungarian citizens for the state. I got some agreement that this would be highly desirable but there was also a lot of skepticism about any chance of it happening here.
And that’s true. There’s no consensus among Americans that the stay-at-home mom is a necessity. In fact, among young women, it’s exactly the opposite. They’ve been proselytized to believe that only after they’ve achieved corporate success should they even think about getting married and starting a family. The problem is no one wants to marry a thirty-five-year-old middle manager who makes more money than you and wants her husband to facilitate her remaining at the office to further her career after she has the one child, she thinks she has time (maybe) to produce. So, we’re in a Catch-22 that neatly resists any fix.
So, I shrugged my shoulders and thought I should open a matrimonial agency and entice twenty something women to marry any men who are brave enough to try and raise families on one salary. I’ll pitch it to these young women as a quixotic adventure that dooms them to poverty but provides the most enriched personal space in the known universe, the nuclear family. And it’s true. There is nothing more dynamic than a man and a woman struggling to provide a home and an upbringing for their own children. What it requires is a man to spend his twenties saving up a stake to own a house and develop a career that he can use to sustain a family.
And it can be done. I’ve seen it done. Some military men have done exactly this. And there are other career paths that can accommodate this goal. And then he has to find a girl who’s interested. But the real question is how many men of this type are left? It may be a small number.
But this is what I was doing today. And it was a stimulating discussion. It’s good to get out and about when there are smart people to talk to. I only wish there were ten thousand people like those I was talking to today. If only those kinds of numbers existed. I could see things getting done. But when it’s handfuls it seems impossible to cause change. Well, it was a good day.
What is my thesis today? Well, I’m having trouble encapsulating it in one phrase. That’s usually thought to be the result of fuzzy thinking. And fuzzy thinking is what I seem to do best. The topic is a mixture of ideas about how to most effectively invest time in the current environment. After all, if we will always be living under Big Brother’s dark shadow then we must know how to avoid his attention but still wring the most joy out of life.
It seems to me that what is most critical is raising up the young to avoid the destructive effects of the culture. They need to be helped along to find jobs and start families while negotiating all the barriers that the Left throws in their path.
Now this is an enormous challenge. Schools, and industry hamper the progress of young men trying to start careers. And all the outlets of the media and other purveyors of the “culture” poison the minds of young women against a normal life as wives and mothers. Counteracting these things is a herculean task. But it is the most worthwhile work there is to do.
Part of it might be to move to a state (or country) where the influences are less pernicious and where opportunities for work exist. But just as important is to keep your ears and eyes open and recognize when the young people are running into problems. Be ready to provide advice, and more importantly, money and other resources when they’re needed. Maybe a contact for finding a job or help with watching children might be needed. Whatever it is don’t shut your eyes to the problems that the younger generation is facing. Regardless of the financial challenges we faced in our youth it’s a much greater problem that exists today when the whole weight of the government, private industry and the culture is arrayed against young people trying to live a normal life.
But the good news is that concentrating on that aspect of life means you can de-emphasize all the other nonsense. Men in sundresses, cities being burned down, the breakdown of law and order, a demented young woman shrieking about global warming and old women demanding abortion up until the moment of birth. All of these things are symptoms of young people being corrupted by the schools and the culture. Concentrate on preventing that and giving the young a head-start in their lives and you’ll be doing the most you can do to eliminate these other sicknesses.
Plus accomplishing something concrete for real people, people you care about, is much more rewarding than fighting rhetorical battles in cyberspace. I see this in my own life. Agonizing over poll numbers and opining on the latest leftist outrage saps your energy and leaves you drained. Whereas getting involved with some family project or hearing what’s up with the young people is incredibly energizing. Even when there are problems you find yourself thinking about the problems and looking for ways to help. Helping people you like in real life is much more fun than battling psychopaths on-line.
So then what is my thesis? I guess it’s sort of, “Think globally, act locally.” Gee, that sounds kind of hackneyed. I better come up with something more clever. Well whatever I come up with, it’ll be the title when you read this.
So yesterday Camera Girl and I travelled to our favorite seaside paradise to celebrate the sun and surf with all of my descendants and their spouses in the appropriate fashion. There was swimming, boogie boarding, sand castles, crab hunting, sea shell collecting and sun bathing. Afterwards there was way too much fattening food and an enormous portion of ice cream.
All this was followed by various board games. I was unsurprised to discover how many of my descendants were very good chess players. But the game that they really got excited about was Yahtzee. Now I’ve been known to join in the game. But I was shocked by the maniacal chants of “bonus Yaht” that echoed around the vacation house as an inordinate number of these five of a kind dice throws occurred. In fact, I volunteered the opinion that the dice were loaded. These shrieking fanatics, which included Camera Girl, paid no attention to my analysis and cheered the shocking luck. But it was impossible to deny that I had a better time watching this game than I can remember watching any professional sports game in the last dozen years.
This morning we got up early and were treated to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes and sweet bread by our host. Then we took a walk on the boardwalk and saw the sights such as they are. Unfortunately, one of the destinations was a souvenir shop where Camera Girl added two more hermit crabs to her colony. Princess Sack of Potatoes finds these shell-shifting crustaceans fascinating so Camera Girl uses them as an attraction which gives her leverage over the diminutive royalty. Apparently spending time with these invertebrates is a bargaining chip for such behavioral manifestations as hand washing, vegetable ingestion and cooperation at nap time.
So, I forked over the card and even carried the paper bag containing these refugees from a seafood bar. And before we knew it the trip was over. We weren’t staying the whole week like the younger contingent. As the elder statesman my mission was to give the benediction that confirmed that the next generation had mastered the skills needed to host a family event at Old Orchard Beach (OOB). And then to get out and leave enough room for the young to enjoy the facilities so full of my descendants.
As we drove home, we reflected on all the traditions that we built up over the couple of decades that we brought our kids to this seaside town in Maine. And now the torch is passed and the grandkids are getting to do the same things. When we first moved to New England, we tried the more popular resorts on Cape Cod. But not only were they very expensive but the atmosphere was too refined. There was too much antiquing and bicycle paths and not enough bumper cars and roller coasters. So, I asked an engineer friend of mine who was about thirty years older than I was where could I bring a bunch of kids on vacation that was actually fun. He said, “OOB.” Apparently, it was the working-class destination I was looking for. What it lacked in cachet it more than made up for with a nice white sand beach and clean water. And the rest is the family dynamic of enjoying the company of your kids.
And while I was driving the considerable distance back to the Compound, I reflected that even under an Orwellian regime like the Biden gang there is still an inner life that can be cultivated with the people who really count. Sure, we don’t have much money. With the economy crashed we’re all struggling to make ends meet. But it doesn’t cost much to play Yahtzee. And even I still have hermit crab money. So even in a banana republic life goes on and summer must be celebrated. So, I’ll put off my despair over the Stasi raids and the 86 million new IRS agents for another day when I’m not as happy and contented. Bonus Yaht!
This early in the Dunwich winter (August 1st to June 30th), we can still have temperatures in the nineties. Today the grandkids and their friends were in the pool and so we vacuumed it last night. And Camera Girl’s garden is filled up with various squash varieties; zucchini, spaghetti and butternut. I took a look at it today and found a medium sized frog hiding among the squash. I guess he was working for me keeping the bugs off the vegetables.
And the last of the daylilies are blooming like crazy. In another week they’ll be gone. So, the swallowtails and the monarchs are flitting around them like their lives depended on it.
And the heat was like a wave of energy radiating from the grass and the plants. I could feel it in the skin of my face and the hair on my arms. It seared my lungs when I breathed it. It made me feel intensely alive. So, I took a bunch of photos of flowers and butterflies and a couple of the frog.
Looking over the various news items is depressing. Not because things are getting worse but simply because they are so pathetic. There is a consensus that no one wants Joe Biden running for re-election, not even Democrats. But the powers that be haven’t figured out how to force Creepy Uncle Joe into a hospice. I think they’ll probably get a veterinarian to put him to sleep. It would be cheaper.
Most of the opinion pieces today align with what I expect the publication’s readership would want to hear. Lots of cheerleading. As I said, even though things are trending in our favor right now, I find myself a little down due to just how abysmally bad the state of the world is. What can you say about the state of the world when we’re forced to choose sides between the Chi-Coms and Nancy Pelosi? How do you win that bet?
I was having a discussion with an old friend and we were sort of talking about this same thing, the pitiful state of the world. And I was making the point that we have to stop expecting a big victory that will fix all these awful things. These awful things are the baseline conditions of our times and it’s up to us to fix them in our own lives. Sure, we can hope to elect better leaders but what we have to do is find solutions in our own lives. Your kids are the only future there will be for your world view. Teaching them what you believe to be true and right is your best chance of saving them from the groomers. Giving them a good education is the best way of preparing them for making a decent living. Helping them get on their feet is the way to pay forward the help you were given by your parents.
Of course, I was preaching to the choir but I thought it was worth saying it out loud. Sometimes we can let ourselves get discouraged and then we need to put things in perspective. Regardless of what Washington or the Blue State leaders say is policy, we have access to our kids and we can do an awful lot to shape their minds and souls. And we need to make that our priority.
Saying those things out loud actually helped my mood. I walked away from the computer screen and spent some time annoying Camera Girl. I could sense that she needed valuable feedback from me on what she was making for dinner and stuff.
Next week we’re going to spend a day and a night up in Old Orchard Beach, Maine with the grandkids and their parents. This will be a kind of revival of sorts. About twenty-five years ago we started going there with our kids in the summers. There’s an old-style amusement park with rides, bad fried food and crooked carnival games. The beach is actually quite nice and compares favorably to any of the other East Coast resorts in terms of white sand and clean water. I’ll get to walk down the beach with Princess Sack of Potatoes just as I did with her mother when she was that age. And I’ll probably have to carry her when she gets too lazy to walk back. The littlest boy will fly a kite on the sand and dig a sand castle. And if I’m not careful I’ll be pummeled by him in the bumper cars at the amusement park. And all of that is the fun part of paying forward what my parents and grandparents did for me. Spending time with these people is the reason we do all this. Otherwise, we might as well give up and let the whole world go to hell.
Posted July 6th 2022
Re-Posted for Updates July 9th 2022
I was reading about the latest maniac, Robert Crimo who killed those people in the July 4th parade in Illinois. Of course, no one knew he was crazy. But back in 2019 he attempted suicide and later stated he was going to “kill everyone.” How is that not the warning sign needed to alert the authorities that they are dealing with someone insane? And if you’re this kid’s father, how do you not try and save your kid from himself. Maybe the answer is that he was taking something that made him crazy. Nowadays I guess that’s likely. Maybe his family did try. Maybe they even thought he had improved. I wonder. I know the world has become a bleak place for the young. Opportunities for marriage and success in business are sadly reduced. Add on the boredom and isolation caused by the COVID folly I can see why depression and mental illness must be rampant. But he was only 21. Had his family already given up on him?
And if they had maybe they should have at least warned the cops that he wasn’t safe for gun ownership. That seems like the bare minimum they could have done. After his suicide attempt, I imagine he was put on at least anti-depressants. Shouldn’t something like that be enough to make his family think they were dealing with a dangerous individual? And after looking at the social media videos where he basically signaled that he was going to commit a gun massacre wouldn’t his family know time was running out?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m uninformed. Maybe the country is filled with 21-year-old zombies with dead eyes and lives so empty of human contact and hope that going on a killing spree is their highest aspiration in life. If that’ so then we’re already doomed as a country. If our kids are ready to check out at 21 then maybe we should give up and let the Guatemalans and Nigerians have the place. Probably most of them aren’t ready to give up the ghost at 21.
Even though this is the hundredth time this scenario has played out this should be a wake-up call for anyone with a troubled kid to wrack your brain to find some way to connect with him and put him on another path. Of course, don’t wait until 21 or 18 or even 12. Stay involved in your kid’s life and push him in the right direction. Look for the danger signs in his behavior and the friends he associates with. Don’t let him be alone all the time. If he has no one else then you be his friend. Do things together. Join groups together to allow him to make connections to the world. Look at his social media posts. Don’t let him live his life on-line. Show him there’s a larger world filled with other people.
This stuff is horrible. We have a sick world. And the sickness goes after the young. If you have children and grandchildren pay attention. It’s dangerous for the young out there. Keep an eye on them. It could save their lives.
Updates
Chemist
This nut job threatened to kill his entire family in 2019. The cops removed dozens of knives and edged weapons from the home but did not arrest.
Then his father (one of the people he threatened to kill) signed off on an Illinois State Firearms Ownership Identification card (FOID) which is necessary to even touch a firearm in the great state of Illinois.
He posted videos of his rants about wanting to kill people and even posted the parade route.
So, to answer your question Photog: His family knew. The cops knew. Facebook knew. And nobody did anything.
Milo Mindbender
SSRI class drugs have been used on 2 generations to replace learning coping skills with happy pills. When someone stops taking their meds for whatever reason they are not emotionally or intellectually equipped to deal with the real world they just plunged into. Big pharma has a PR team that suppress any linking of the use of SSRI class pharmaceuticals and “they just snapped” shooter/driver/arsonist in an attempt to stay out of the conversation and courtroom.
“Known to Law Enforcement” is almost becoming a mantra with the shooters, and needs to be looked at seriously. Red Flag laws as they are written now are too ambiguous and open to exploitation by vindictive Ex’s, neighbors, political appointees, and generally violate any American concept of “Innocent until judged Guilty”.
This is my opinion based on the observations in the real world, and only has to fit me comfortably. Your mileage may vary.
War PIg
It would be interesting to see if he was on antidepressants. He may have gotten control of himself so that it was assumed he was okay. Then, the side effects caused him issues so he stopped taking them or did not have the money and told no one. Young people are overprescribed and when they quit or run out they can be suicidal or murderous. I do not think these drugs should be administered outside of a controlled environment, but there is not enough bed space for all the people taking them. A conundrum indeed. I put these psychosis down to overpopulation. Americans do jot take well to being crowded. That and the political left’s attempts to destabilize the nation.
June is the month of graduations. And right on schedule I attended two graduations this weekend. The first one was a very minor but poignant event. Our littlest grandchild, Princess Sack of Potatoes was finishing up her year of gym class. Camera Girl and I dutifully showed up at this august occasion and watched through the glass as our little athlete tumbled and climbed and performed the baby steps version of gymnastics on balance beams and parallel bars and rings. We applauded and made all the right noises while she and her variously gifted team mates impressed their parents and relatives. Afterwards she got a heavy iron star shaped medal spray painted with gold to wear around her neck and then we all went to our favorite local steakhouse and enjoyed some red meat. I got the ribeye.
Then today was a more important milestone my oldest grandson graduated from high school with high honors and full scholarship to the local college of his choice. As was fitting for this more serious occasion, the ceremony took a few hours, if you include the process of showing up early enough to get good seats and parking spots at the outdoor ceremony. The girl who gave the valedictory address was appropriately eloquent and choked with emotion. Although some gusts of wind threatened to blow away the pages of her speech and her graduation cap. But Camera Girl and I agreed that the speeches were well spoken and heartfelt, as the moment required. We took the requisite photos as the diploma was handed to our young scholar and I even captured the capstone shot of the class tossing their caps into the air. And afterwards we once again headed to that same steakhouse and partook of red meat. This time I just had a burger since my son-in-law was paying and I am not unaware of the costs in raising four children in today’s brutal economic situation.
And when we got home Camera Girl and I agreed that it was the perfect weekend. Of course, tomorrow is Father’s Day, that least understood holiday on the calendar. When we’re young we would make a card for our father and later on we would buy him a tie and maybe at some point later in life we would get him some artifact that might be associated with one of his pastimes or for home improvement. Now that I’ve reached grandfather status Father’s Day is sort of a stretch. My sons-in-law are the objects of this ritual and they will be forced to express gratitude for the well-meaning but mostly useless gifts.
But all fathers know that the true gift every father is looking for is represented by the ceremony I attended today. When a father has a son who makes the transition from boy to man that is the reward for years and decades of working to make him a functional member of society and hopefully puts him on the road to being able to have a family of his own. And in a similar way, when a daughter grows up and starts a family of her won it is the realization of this same process. It is the continuation of the human race. We provide them a good home and try to teach children what a family is about and hope they’ll try to copy this pattern and produce their own home in the future.
By any definition of conservatism, that is the most essential component of conservative life; to replicate the circle of life. To conserve the family. In fact, regardless of what we do in the political realm as far as constitutional freedoms and rights, if we don’t manage to reproduce our families into the next generation then we have failed utterly and our story ends there. We’ll have to step aside and let someone more adept at human relations take a whack at it.
Tomorrow I’ll get calls from my kids and maybe my grandkids (although that’s a usurpation of their fathers’ prerogatives of the day) and I’ll be pleased as can be that they remember me on the day. But the great victory is counting those grandchildren and being allowed to share a little in their lives and their accomplishments and knowing that the circle continues and some part of me lives on both genetically and in the traditions and memories that we have built.
Whenever I talk to them, I stress (probably excessively) that they have family that cares about them and will be there if they need help. I want them to know they are part of a group that they can depend on and that can depend on them too.
So Happy Father’s Day. Make some memories with those kids. It’s probably the most important work you’ll ever do as a conservative but more importantly as a man.
Last night we went over to one of my daughters’ houses for a Mother’s Day dinner cooked on the grill by one of my sons-in-law in honor of all the mothers in the family. Steak, salmon, chicken, baked potatoes, string beans, the whole enchilada. He’s military so survival skills are his forte and cooking ranks high among them. After dinner was the ice cream cake and coffee. Superb. And for once Camera Girl didn’t have to cook a thing. Probably her favorite party of the year so far.
My granddaughter is three and a half now and so she’s finally old enough to start joining in with the younger boy cousins in running amok in the back yard and the basement. I’ve never seen a little girl so happy to be shooting and being shot with nerf rockets. It proves that she’s one of the big kids now.
Seeing how great all these kids are turning out is a remarkable source of pride for me. Of course, all the credit goes to Camera Girl. For all of her myriad annoying qualities she is the quintessential mom and grandma. Her instincts and her conscious efforts are all aligned around nurturing children. Of course, she’s much more laisse faire about nurturing husbands. Well, I guess no one’s perfect.
But it struck me reading all the nonsense about the Left rallying around abortion that these people are out of their minds. They’ve bought into a death cult that emphasizes short term convenience over sharing in the most rewarding institution in human relations, a large multigenerational family. And based on what I’ve been reading the present generation doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about abortion as the baby boomers were.
The various leftist opinion writers discussing the abortion panic are none too optimistic about either preventing Roe v. Wade being struck down or using the event as a successful rallying cry for the November mid-terms. They’ve gone through several stages of opinion on the whole issue and currently they’ve ended up at frustration. It’s frustration that they can’t move the needle on the Republican advantage in polls for the mid-terms and frustration that the voters, other than a noisy but narrow segment are unexcited by the SCOTUS opinion. It has escaped their notice that Antifa rioters don’t raise families or even engage in heterosexual relationships. To paraphrase a feminist expression, Antifa women need abortion like a fish needs a bicycle.
And speaking to some folks on our side, those who were most worried about a mid-term backlash against the SCOTUS decision now see the wisdom of direct action. One fellow admitted that plowing forward with the actions that we’ve said we’ve always wanted to see accomplished is the only way anything will ever get done. Hearing that was especially satisfying for me. I’ve been saying for years that pussyfooting around these actions is tantamount to surrendering to the Left. All it has done is acclimate the succeeding generations to permanent Leftist hegemony. Fighting these policies even if the battle goes back and forth is progress. Whining about not being ready until we have overwhelming odds in our favor is a fantasy that guarantees perpetual inaction.
So today I sent out invitations for the Memorial Day Weekend family barbecue. There I will see most of the closest relatives I have assembled together at the Compound for food and drink and hordes of children and grandchildren running around in circles and jumping in a swimming pool. We’re slowly putting all of the COVID nonsense in the rearview mirror and moving our lives back where they belong, together.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Getting together with the family yesterday was a shot in the arm (no, not a vaccine) for me. Great food, Easter-chocolate-fueled kids, friendly family, boisterous activity, a few sprinkles of hail and snow, sunshine, a passel of tail-wagging dogs and no television or electronic devices at all.
The time passed so quickly and no one was bored. I’ve arranged to see the new Batman movie with the two older boys tomorrow. I opined that this new Batman will be lame because he’s being played by some emo-actor named Robert Pattinson who apparently is best known for playing some lame vampire that girls loved. The boys agreed that the Dark Knight is still the gold standard for Batman movies but feel we should give this one a try. I told them we should rent the Michael Keaton Batman from the 1980’s. Anyway, we’ll buy some greasy popcorn and watch this ridiculous movie and we’ll spend the two hours back and forth talking about everything and nothing.
One of my sons-in-law is starting a small business of his own so we swapped information on LLC’s and sole proprietorships and I told him I’d let him know what I found out from the town hall about paperwork. And then we discussed his recent foray into welding and metalworking. I have some projects that would benefit from custom hardware and I told him I’d see if he had any time to cost out some items. As if he isn’t busy enough running a small factory and large family. But it was good to have someone who’s trying to build something too, to talk to.
And Camera Girl was in her element with the kids to play with and her daughters to compare notes with on managing homes, kids and dogs. And there was talk between them about flowers and vegetables and kids’ activities coming up and a summer trip up to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and on and on and on.
It seemed like everyone there was suffering from allergies. Kids and adults. And there was sneezing and runny noses and coughing and no one was wearing any stupid masks or apologizing for sneezing germs on each other. That nonsense seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
And I had a long discussion on dinosaurs with my youngest grandson. But yesterday the new fascination was Pokémon. He inherited a book of the cards from one of his older brothers and he regaled me with detailed information about the names, powers and relative value of this album of meaningless monsters. But showing my attention to this ritual of pre-adolescent consumer culture gained me all kinds of street cred with this miniature descendant of mine.
All in all, it was a roaring success. Good feelings reigned supreme and the winter was officially laid to rest and the outdoor season was christened with the kids tracking mud into the kitchen and all over their Easter clothes. And not a single word was spoken about Biden or inflation or transgender anything. We talked about the kids’ schools and sports and the plans for the next get togethers. Life and family and friends fill up the spaces in your life if you take the time and trouble to involve yourself with life. It’s good reminder for me.