Continued Confessions

Early to Rise . . .

Well, the remainder of that phrase is that early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. So I am not a man, nor am I particularly wealthy (except in love), but I’m hoping for some wisdom at this stage of my life. And I’m writing particularly early today—after breakfast and my morning reading of the most complex book in my current pile—because I am meeting a friend for pancakes at 10:30 (second breakfast or brunch perhaps). I didn't want my Thursday assignment hanging over my head while I enjoyed our chat. So here I am writing to my other friends on Substack. I enjoy writing, and this is a great motivator to finally put some of my thoughts on paper—well, in print anyway.

I had no particular confession to share today, but then I opened some mail from yesterday. The first thing was an appeal from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I have been getting better about immediately tossing “junk mail” but for some reason this letter remained. Perhaps it is because they sent me a lovely notepad on which I can write my to-do list for the following day. Anyway, I will send a small donation to cover that cost, but the point of this share is to tell you about some more people who are still alive and kicking. Marlo Thomas is one of them, and in researching to make sure that she was still with us, I was informed that she has been married to Phil Donahue for many years. I checked, and he is still going strong as well. They both have me by a few years, so now I am thoroughly psyched to get out here and act like a young activist to save our democracy. Did you know that Marlo was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama?

And as I’m sure many of you found out today, our Jersey girl JoJo is back here on Substack. She had taken a hiatus which she explains on her site, but it is so good to now that she is out here fighting with us much older people as well. (I somehow cannot bring myself to use the word folks, although I realize it is very popular right now.)

Finally, I feel a bit as though I am also reporting from the dark side because I have a very dear friend who is surrounded by Koolaid drinkers for whom there appears to be no hope. She explains some of the WEIRD beliefs that her relatives have adopted, and together we try to figure out if there is anything we can do to save them. We’re reaching the conclusion that it may not be possible, but we both are so excited to know that a woman president will be elected in November. Fingers crossed that we both live long enough to see current veep Kamala Harris sworn into the Presidential office come January 2025. And I personally am very excited about Tim Walz, our next veep. He has won elections against all odds and as Governor of Minnesota has enacted many of the policies that care for regular people to the max.

Politics is not a spectator sport, indeed!