Sunday, January 05, 2025

Intermission


 I suspect I’m not the only one who feels a bit lost during this odd lame duck transition before the would-be dictator takes over the White House. I’ve wanted to feel joyful at what is indeed a joyful time of year, but always in the back of my mind there is this sense of foreboding about what comes next.

Accordingly, this newsletter has been a bit light on new political content as I prepare myself for the inauguration and what follows.

So while we’re on auto-pilot more or less, I’ve been posting some of my experiments with painting and photography from the past. There were a ton of transitions in my career (which has now entered its 60th year) and my sometimes chaotic personal life, and I’ve been open that I often went through periods of depression.

At such times, while writing helped me deal with the negative feelings, as did visits to therapists and the medications they prescribed, turning to the visual arts also brought some relief. I would photograph my surroundings, or paint what I saw around me. I absolutely adored color schemes, shapes and angles.

I have no particular skill as a painter or photographer, though one little-known fact about my journalism career is that I published photos in Rolling Stone before my first articles there.

***

Joe Biden’s final days in office may well mark the end of many of the traditions related to the peaceful transfer of power that we didn’t even recognize as significant until now, when they are threatened by a despot. It’s a time of grace and dignity, honoring the nation’s heroes, pardoning those who have earned our forgiveness, and preparing to leave power to a new team of people entrusted to lead the nation.

These feel like things we may not miss until they’re gone. In that regard, Biden’s Medal of Freedom ceremony Saturday was a lovely reminder of how things are supposed to work.

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