the center cannot hold

the news yesterday that our fkface president* will get to appoint another supreme court justice has almost done me in --- for the first time, i am sure that we have crossed our rubicon, and the country that i have known and (mostly) loved is no more --- something else is replacing it, driven by racist, nativist, christianist populism, at least for the time being --- deeply depressing, i have finally been disabused of the foolish notion that our progress is always upward --- it's feeling like 1968 again, which was not a particularly great year for me or the country --- i miss john so much at times like this --- he was always good at helping me make sense of things --- whatever, he's dead and gone, but as john lewis posted a bit ago: 

Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. #goodtrouble

it helped to spend a great couple of hours at the botanical garden this evening with friends and visitors from finland, who were entranced by what they saw --- i was, too, especially by the rather large frog that sat on the walkway wishing we would all go away 

onward and upward