Claude Monet, “Snow in Argenteuil” (1875).Credit…Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York
By Mary Pipher in the NYT
Dr. Pipher is a clinical psychologist and writer in Lincoln, Neb., and the author, most recently, of “A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence.”
The mornings are dark, the late afternoons are dusky, and before we finish making dinner, the daylight is gone. As we approach the darkest days of the year, we’re confronted with the darkness of wars, a dysfunctional government, fentanyl deaths, mass shootings and reports of refugees crawling through the Darién Gap or floundering in small boats in the Mediterranean. And we cannot avoid the tragedy of climate change with its droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes. Indeed, the world is pummeled with misfortune.
We can count ourselves lucky if we do not live in a war zone or a place without food or drinking water, but we read the news. We see the disasters on our screens. Ukraine, Israel and Gaza are all inside us. If we are empathic and awake, we share the pain of all the world’s tragedies in our bodies and in our souls. We cannot and should not try to block out those feelings of pain. When we try, we are kept from feeling much of anything, even love and joy. We cannot deny reality, but we can control how much we take in.
I am in the last decades of life, and sometimes I feel that my country and our species are also nearing end times. The despair I feel about the world would ruin me if I did not know how to find light. Whatever is happening in the world, whatever is happening in our personal lives, we can find light.
This time of year, we must look for it. I am up for sunrise and outside for sunset. I watch the moon rise and traverse the sky. I light candles early in the evening and sit by the fire to read. And I walk outside under the blue-silver sky of the Nebraska winter. If there is snow, it sparkles, sometimes like a blanket of diamonds, other times reflecting the orange and lavender glow of a winter sunset.
We can watch the birds. Recently, it was the two flickers at my suet feeder with the yellow undersides of their wings flashing, the male so redheaded and protective, the female so hungry. Today, it may be the juncos, hopping about our driveway, looking for seeds. The birds are always nearby. Their calls are temple bells reminding me to be grateful.
For other kinds of light, we can turn to our friends and family. Nothing feels more like sunlight than walking into a room full of people who are happy to see me. I think of my son and daughter-in-law on my birthday, Zeke making homemade ravioli and Jamie baking an apple cake, their shining eyes radiating love. Or of my friends, sitting outdoors around a campfire in coats and hats, reciting poetry and singing songs.
We also have the light of young children. My own grandchildren are far away, but I spend time with 9-year-old Kadija. My husband and I are sponsoring her family; they arrived here from Afghanistan, with only the father speaking English, just a few months ago. Already, she can bring me a picture book and read “whale,” “porpoise” and “squid” in a voice that reminds me of sleigh bells. I know someday she will be a surgeon, or perhaps a poet.
In our darkest moments, art creates a shaft of light. There is light in a poetry book by Joy Harjo, in a recording by Yo-Yo Ma and in a collection of Monet’s paintings of snow.
The rituals of spiritual life will also illuminate our days. In my case, it is sun salutations, morning prayers, meditation and readings from Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and influential Zen master. Also, it’s the saying of grace and the moments when I slow down and am present. Whatever our rituals, they allow us to hold on through the darkness until the light returns.
Finally, we will always have the light of memory. When I recall my grandmother’s face as she read to me from “Black Beauty”or held my hand in church, I can calm down and feel happy. I feel the light on my skin when I remember my mother at the wheel of her Oldsmobile, her black doctor’s bag beside her. Driving home from a house call, she would tell me stories from her life on a ranch in the Great Depression and during the Dust Bowl.
Deep inside us are the memories of all the people we’ve ever loved. A favorite teacher, a first boyfriend, a best friend from high school or a kind aunt or uncle. And when I think of my people, I’m suffused with light that reminds me that I have had such fine people in my life and that they are still with me now and coming back to help me through hard times.
Every day I remind myself that all over the world most people want peace. They want a safe place for their families, and they want to be good and do good. The world is filled with helpers. It is only the great darkness of this moment that can make it hard to see them.
No matter how dark the days, we can find light in our own hearts, and we can be one another’s light. We can beam light out to everyone we meet. We can let others know we are present for them, that we will try to understand. We cannot stop all the destruction, but we can light candles for one another.
In a quiet retirement haven, a festive New Year’s Eve, Senior citizens gathered, a celebration to weave. The dance floor beckoned, whispers of cheer, A night of merriment, auld lang syne near.
No thought of the virus, a silent foe, Dancing feet moved, a rhythmic flow. Laughter echoed in the ballroom’s air, An unsuspecting crowd, without a care.
Masks abandoned, a momentary lapse, A super spreader waltz, an unfortunate mishap. The music played on, but danger loomed, As the unseen virus silently groomed.
A surprise illness, the New Year’s eve fate, Creeping among dancers, a cruel twist of state. Isolation beckoned, quarantine’s decree, A somber reminder of the year’s decree.
In the quiet halls, where once joy had rung, Now echoes of illness, a song unsung. Senior citizens, resilient and strong,
Facing the challenge, a dance gone wrong.
Yet hope persisted, as the days turned the page,
A community united, resilient in age. Through isolation and the quarantine’s plight, They danced with courage, in the face of the night.
In the end, the tale is bittersweet, A New Year’s Eve dance, a memory to greet. But lessons learned in that solemn embrace,
The importance of caution, in every dance.
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On this, the third anniversary of that day in 2021, when the then still-President of the United States, who had but just two weeks left in office, having recently been removed by the vast majority of the American people who had ousted him from the presidency at the polls… on this day, January 6, 2021, he decided to stage a coup and called upon his rabid right wing followers to come to the nation’s Capital to halt, with violence if necessary, the peaceful transfer of power.
With his fraudulent catalogue of outright lies, perjury, slander, fake video, nonexistent witnesses, soon-to-be-disbarred lawyers and not one scintilla of evidence to prove his claim that the election had been “stolen” from him, nearly 90 judges across the country, many of them Republican appointees, had ruled against him, a number of them accusing him of trying to overthrow a proven, legitimate, free and fair election and inventing a conspiracy to fool millions of people that he was somehow still the President.
Me: “Write a sonnet Shakespeare style about the COVID variant s
ChatGPT responds:
“Upon this world, a silent foe doth creep, A variant, unseen, in shadows hide, Its surge, a tempest, doth the nations sweep, And hearts with fear and sorrow now abide.
In winter’s grasp, it finds a fertile ground, A host within, it seeks to overwhelm, Through air it travels, swift and without sound, A dance of death, a dark and haunting realm.
Yet in this trial, let courage arise, For science and resolve shall be our shield, United, we shall face the stormy skies, With strength and love, our spirits shall not yield.
In shadows deep, a light shall pierce the night, For hope and unity shall guide our flight.
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Published 01/01/24 06:00 AM ET by John LeBoutillier in The Messenger
Like every new year, 2024 will be filled with surprises, especially in the political world. The U.S. presidential election — specifically, the legal, political and behavioral travails of Donald Trump — will of course dominate the news.
With that in mind, here’s what I believe we can expect in the year ahead:
The U.S. economy will continue to thrive statistically. It is by far the world’s strongest economy, despite public polls showing a large majority of Americans claiming that their “own financial situation” is better than a year ago but the nation’s economy is not. As 2023 ends, consumer confidence has risen and holiday shopping shot through the roof. Thus, expect a lag in attitudes to catch up by mid-2024: A majority of Americans will see the economy more optimistically, which will inure to President Biden’s benefit in November.
The Biden campaign has tried — but so far failed — to connect Joe Biden to an improving economy. They had the president running around for much of 2023 claiming that “Bidenomics” works. But the audience was still sour on the state of the economy. Clearly, someone high up in Biden World had the idea to pattern their 2024 reelection campaign on Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” 1984 reelection slogan, which focused on an improving economy as a result of “Reaganomics.” The analogy failed because it was drawn too early. However, if the perception of the economy continues to improve, the term “Bidenomics” will return as a key ingredient in the president’s reelection strategy.
The Republican-led House of Representatives will push the impeachment of President Biden, despite having no evidence of any crimes committed by him. This is a political move enacted at Trump’s behest to even the score and cancel out his two impeachments. Ironically, this move will help Biden in November’s general election.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will not be removed, despite looming internal GOP confrontations over government spending and aid to Israel and Ukraine. The House GOP will — yet again — punt and enact a year-long continuing budget resolution to get through the general election. The House GOP Conference will remain divided, with the Freedom Caucus increasing its cries of protest.
The GOP will lose control of the House in the November election.
As for the Senate, at least one well-known veteran senator among the group of Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Rick Scott ((R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will get swept out of office this year. West Virginia will switch to a Republican seat, as Gov. Jim Justice is a shoo-in to win the seat currently held by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D). And Arizona has a possible three-way general election coming, with a Republican and a Democrat running against incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who switched from Democrat to independent. Prediction: The Senate will end up in a 50-50 tie.
Aid to both Israel and Ukraine will be approved by mid-February.
The “Big Enchilada” — to use Watergate language — is the tenuous legal situation of Trump. The four indictments and trials loom not only over him but over the Republican nomination process, over the tainted-by-scandal U.S. Supreme Court and, most of all, over the general election.
The District of Columbia appeals court and the Supreme Court will rule that Trump is NOT immune from criminal prosecution.
The Supreme Court will avoid making a decision to bar Trump from appearing on the ballot under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. It is too controversial; the justices will find a legal off-ramp, and that issue will not be central to the election.
Where Trump will run into a life-changing situation is the federal trial currently scheduled to begin March 4 in Washington. Trump is doing all he can to delay this trial because it is highly likely he will be convicted on four felony counts. He is — or should be — deathly afraid of this case, for good reasons.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith will have much more evidence against Trump in both the January 6 and the Mar-A-Lago cases than the media or the public realize.
In the D.C. trial, a majority of the jury — perhaps 10 of the 12 — may be persons of color, not exactly Trump’s base. And Judge Tanya Chutkan is a no-nonsense former public defender with a reputation for being tough; she has sentenced several January 6 convicts to severe sentences in excess of what the prosecution sought.
Can you envision Donald Trump walking into the D.C. Federal Courthouse, sitting at the defense table for six to seven hours a day with his mouth shut — for eight or more weeks — and then being convicted by the jury and sentenced by this judge? Remember, in a criminal trial the defendant is required to attend. In his numerous civil trials, Trump has come and gone as he pleased; not so in his four upcoming criminal trials.
Maybe you can see all the way to the moment when the jury comes back with a verdict. Maybe you share the very unlikely belief that Trump can get one juror to hang the jury. The more likely scenario: a guilty verdict and a severe sentencing by Judge Chutkan.
Trump will exhaust every appeal and delay, as is his right. But eventually those appeals will reach an end. And then will come perhaps the key moment of the 2024 election — and of Trump’s life: a trial. My prediction: Trump will never walk into that trial. He either will become sick and unable to stand trial, or he will make a plea deal to avoid prison.
A plea deal would fit with Trump’s longtime modus operandi. In civil litigation he is all bluster, and then, at the last minute, he settles. He will do that in this case, too: Negotiate a deal in which he pleads guilty and withdraws from the campaign in return for a guarantee that he will not be sent to prison. Facing three other criminal trials, he may very well agree to a Universal Plea Agreement that keeps him out of prison on all cases in exchange for a guilty plea and an admission of responsibility.
At that point, Republicans will need to come up with a new presidential nominee. But before then, we will have a few months of primaries and caucuses. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) will do better than expected in Iowa — it will be within single digits — and former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) will win New Hampshire’s primary with the help of independents who are allowed to vote in party primaries.
Beyond presidential politics, Harvard will remove its controversy-engendering president, Claudine Gay — maybe even before this column is published — for repeated acts of plagiarism and for presiding over the trashing of the university’s reputation.
The Supreme Court will limit the availability of the abortion pill, Mifepristone, which will anger women again just months before the November election. This ruling, following the Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, will ensure yet another massive women’s turnout — mostly against Republicans — in the November election.
Former congressman Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) will win the Feb. 13 special congressional election to fill the New York district previously held by the recently expelled George Santos (R-N.Y.). The GOP fumbled this winnable race by taking too long to select a candidate and then picking a minor-leaguer to run against a tough, wily but beatable veteran who previously held the seat. In order to win this special election, Republicans needed to run a near-perfect race but, so far, have been less than mediocre.
And, finally, a prediction of a “black swan” event: A huge political and moral scandal will shock the U.S., encompassing both political parties. It will further taint the reputation of the intelligence community and, especially, the political class.
John LeBoutillier was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983. He is a 1976 graduate of Harvard College, a 1979 graduate of Harvard Business School, and the author of “Harvard Hates America” (Gateway Books, 1978).
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At 4:41AM on January 1st, the first alarm was received for 823 Madison; as the fire spread into 909 9th Ave, it became a three-alarm fire.
Having a sense of deja vu? That’s likely because you recall a similar fire in the same building in June 2022. A fire tore through the top floor of the apartments above Vito’s. It sent 8 people to the hospital and displaced 63 tenants.
Here is what 9th Ave looked like before either fire:
The 9th & Spring Street lot has already been cleared from the fire six months ago; no doubt some builder is already thinking of planting a 40-story monster there. (Can 9th & Madison be far behind?)
The 9th & Spring apartments before the fire. They were “vacant” at the time of the fire.
“…. in The Mort Report, Mort Rosenblum despaired: “Too many voters today are easily conned, deeply biased, impervious to fact and bereft of survival instincts. Contrary to myth, frogs leap out of heating pots. Stampeding cattle stop at a cliff edge. Lemmings don’t really commit mass suicide. We’ll find out about Americans in 2024.”
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