I walk around a lake several times a week with friends, and today I noticed that there was a lightheartedness to our conversation that is new and delicious. We talked about all sorts of things: acrophobia, documentaries, skydiving, morning woodies, autumn, exes. And I realized that for four years, virtually every conversation I've been engaged in has been devoted, at least partly, to Trump and his vile shenanigans. I am certain I have never spoken anyone's name, not even Sweet Hubby's, as often as I have spoken Trump's, and always spoke it with outrage and disgust. Now that he is so close to gone (although no doubt he will not leave the public eye soon, if ever) (but one can hope he drowns in enough lawsuits and debt to be made a minor figure), I am one of millions who feel as though a weight, a great depressive, has been lifted, and it's all right to talk about other things and to laugh with unmitigated joy again.
SH and I are re-watching Grey's Anatomy from the beginning, currently partway through the second season. We have both noted that any time anyone has sex on that show, it's always the tearing-off-clothes-while-stumbling-breathlessly-and-frantically-toward-the-bedroom kind. I have never had that kind of sex, or I guess it's foreplay, in my life. Not once. Maybe the show chose to portray sex that way because of how awkward and slow it can be to get undressed, or maybe it's to convince us that the characters are passionate in the extreme, or maybe to justify that, even though so much of the sex they're having is unwise and ends badly, they are simply too turned on to stop themselves. But to me it's sort of annoying because it's just a Hollywood idea of sex. Also, they're all always drinking coffee, but the paper cups they drink out of are clearly empty. And whenever someone is drinking a soda through a straw, there is always that gurgling sucking noise, as though the drink is almost gone. Always. Stupid.
Lindsey Graham (and Ted Cruz and quite a few other Republicans) let us know years ago what he really thinks of Trump (xenophobic, racist, ignorant) and then did some sort of contortion and became one of his most vocal and loyal supporters. So we know what Graham thinks of Trump. I wonder what he thinks of himself.
I'm guessing we're all going to be thinking about the role of the Vice President in the coming four years more than we have during any other administration. A woman of color who is intelligent and fierce and strong and vocal. Quite a relief after the blank-eyed toady occupying that position today. Hallelujah!
To all the people who are one-issue voters (and usually that issue is abortion): There is no such thing as a one-issue vote or a one-issue candidate. If you vote someone into office because of that one issue, you're going to get everything else that he or she brings to the table, every opinion, every act, every prejudice. So you'd better be sure you're voting for the right person for the right reason. It's like marriage. If you marry someone because they're good in bed or have a lot of money, you're also going to have to put up with his miniature train obsession or her love of golf or his insistence on no pets or her crying jags. I say again: There Is No Such Thing As A One-Issue Vote!
Speaking of marriage, it took me a long time but I finally learned the one and only key to a consistently and fully happy marriage. Marry the right person for you. If you don't, not much can help you. If you do, nothing can get in your way.
Speaking of clear and simple solutions, I know the perfect, never-fail, six word diet. When I just now Googled (don't you love that Google has become a verb?) "diet books", 807,000 results immediately showed up, but really, the basics of weight loss are so straightforward. Eat less. Eat better. Move more.
And another simple solution. If you want to be a better conversationalist, listen. Ask questions. Take an interest. I used to try to fill conversations with witticisms, bon mots, and show-offy factoids in an effort sparkle and be interesting but all I was really doing was performing, and that was because I was terrified of being boring and terrified of even momentary pauses. I must have been exhausting to be around sometimes. I was always so nervous talking to someone I didn't know, and often even to someone I did know. Now I can talk to anyone because I learned to listen Life really can be so much easier than we make it.
Yes to so many of your musings! First, about that man's name. I never spoke it with anything but anger or disgust--and often with preceding words that my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap for saying. And no wonder I was always irritated. How else can one be who wakes up in the night and every morning thinking, "that F-ing trump!" Conversations are lighter these days, brows less furrowed. Hugs, xoA
ReplyDeleteI know he still has time to make more messes for Biden and Harris to clean up, and I know he will still have fervent following even when he's out of office, but still, we are finally going to have some sanity in the White House, and Hallelujah Amen to that.
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