Soon enough, the gloom of the unending pandemic, the divided nation, the broken economy and the looming devastation of another fire season will darken our skies over Northern California, but for now, for just a minute, I'm transfixed by the new shoots of grass sprouting all around here.
They are courtesy of several sheets of rains that swirled in from the Pacific, bringing with them the hope that we can deal with it all once again like we have always have.
There will be a spring!
Monday as I was focusing on how journalists -- and therapists and detectives and even strangers can get so much out of anyone by simply asking questions, my son brought me back to the other side of the equation: How much hangs on how you answer those questions when they come in a job interview.
We had just parked the car and were walking down the hill toward a restaurant when his phone rang and he took the call while standing in the entryway of a building near the corner.
I've never been much of a snoop, so I didn't listen to what he was saying but I could tell from his tone it was an important call.
A few minutes later, as we settled into our table on the outdoor patio of the cafe, he filled me in on the details.
"I'm nervous about how I will do," he started. He's just completed one phase in his quest to get certified as a medical assistant. This follows a stretch as an EMT answering 9-1-1 calls and transporting patients all over Northern California night after night for most of the past year.
He's seen a lot of people in situations we'd never want to be in, including many 5150s, usually younger folks who had tried or were threatening to commit suicide. After too long doing that work, he realized he hated dropping people off at the hospital when what he really wanted to do was stay behind and help them get better.
So he quit his EMT job and went back to school. Now he needed to land an "externship" -- a temporary training program in a workplace, offered to students as part of their study. That could be in a doctor's office in the very same medical complex where he had been born back in the 90s; at least that's what this phone call had indicated.
But first he had to get through the job interview, scheduled at the office for Tuesday afternoon.
We reviewed what he should wear -- a nice shirt, slacks, definitely *not* his usual dark beanie -- and how to answer some of the questions they always ask on such occasions.
"And don't forget to smile,."
"Right! Straight through my mask, Dad."
"Well, ah, maybe lower your mask for just a second to flash them your smile."
We turned to other topics as I thought to myself what a weird time this is for 20-somethings.
An entire generation has been frozen in place by the pandemic -- graduating college with no ceremony, applying for jobs when there are none, saddled by college debt, having to move back in with their parents, never able to see their friends, living isolated lives just when they ought to be at their *most* social selves, networking, getting into relationships, launching careers, and maybe most importantly of all -- being able, finally, to feel like the adults they have worked to become.
I'm sure somewhere in the back of his mind, all that same stuff was swirling like the rainstorm poised off the coast Monday evening, or maybe he was just thinking about how he would let the interviewer see him smile.
***
I wish *somebody* on the national scene would develop a sense of humor to lighten up these dark times. Too bad Al Franken got so serious when he became a Senator, he certainly had the potential to be funnier than he was in office.
But the gravitas of it all really gets to these guys, as does the constant need to always be on point and on the job.
No one ever tells a joke and heaven forbid anyone should ever actually laugh.
But no matter what, these Presidents, Senators and Representatives have been sent to Washington to make things better and now they need to do that when absolutely everything around them sucks.
Back there, they've gotten snowed on this week. If I were Speaker of the House, I'd propose that they take recess, go outside and have a snowball fight. It would probably do them a lot of good.
Then maybe they could get down to the real job of making a great big old snowman together.
***
P.S. Update: My son aced the interview and got the position.
The news:
* WHO mission to visit Wuhan Institute of Virology (NHK)
* White Christian Evangelicals Were Among Capitol Rioters -- They oppose democracy and democratic values just like Trump. (Reveal)
* An Emboldened Extremist Wing Flexes Its Power in a Leaderless G.O.P. -- As more far-right Republicans take office and exercise power, party officials are promoting unity and neutrality rather than confronting dangerous messages and disinformation. (NYT)
* Former President Donald Trump raised $76 million by citing the need to challenge his reelection loss and for Republicans to win two Senate runoffs in Georgia, but through the end of 2020 he didn't spend a penny on either. “He put all this money in the bank for his own legal fights. He never cared about Georgia’s races," a top Republican told HuffPost's S.V. Dáte. [HuffPost]
* Right-wing mobs are a real danger. Fencing at the Capitol won’t help. (WashPo)
* 'He invited us': Accused Capitol rioters blame Trump (Reuters)
* Bezos Will Step Down as Amazon CEO (Amazon)
* Rocket Startup Astra Space Poised to Go Public at $2.1 Billion Valuation -- The Northern California company—one of the few space startups with flight-proven technology—intends to be the first maker of small rockets to go public in the U.S., using a blank-check company, or SPAC.(WSJ)
* The House impeachment managers accuse Donald Trump of summoning a mob to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, whipping the crowd "into a frenzy" and then aiming them "like a loaded cannon" at the U.S. Capitol, pinning the blame for the deadly violence that ensued directly on the former president. (NPR)
* The Real Rosa Parks Story Is Better Than the Fairy Tale -- The way we talk about her covers up uncomfortable truths about American racism. (NYT)
* A gloomy Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil says more winter (AP)
* Rochester, New York, police released body camera footage that shows a 9-year-old girl being handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by officers responding to a family disturbance call. "You're acting like a child," one officer tells the girl. "I am a child," she responds between sobs. “This is not something that any of us should want to justify, can justify, and it’s something we have to change,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said. [HuffPost]
* Exclusive: Wikipedia launches new global rules to combat site abuses (Reuters)
* Confederate names are coming down, but San Francisco is now taking on … Abe Lincoln? (WashPo)
* Michael Lewis, the author of “The Big Short” and “Moneyball,” takes on a fraught subject in his next book: how to prevent a viral outbreak even worse than Covid-19. (NYT Book Review)
* Biden Faces Pressure to Make Amends on Family Separation -- Restitution, mental health services and legal permanent residency are among the demands for compensation to families harmed by the Trump-era border policy. (NYT)
* In case you missed it, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia who has routinely repeated conspiracy theories, wrote a Facebook post in which she falsely suggested that a secretive entity had caused the devastating, deadly Camp Fire using lasers from space in order to make way for the high-speed rail. [Media Matters for America]
* Fauci says there’s no definitive answer for when life returns to ‘normal' (WashPo)
* Judge throws out Trump rule limiting what science EPA can use (WashPo)
* Depressed Groundhog Sees Shadow Of Rodent He Once Was (The Onion)
***
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
He was made of snow but the children know
How he came to life one day.
That old top hat they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to dance around.
Was alive as he could be,
And the children say he could laugh and play
Just the same as you and me.
Knew the sun was hot that day,
So he said, "Let's run
And we'll have some fun
Now before I melt away."
Had to hurry on his way,
But he waved goodbye saying,
"Don't you cry,
I'll be back again some day."
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