Everybody understands that holidays can be emotional times, for better or worse. They can be especially loaded for those who have suffered a loss recently or are feeling lonely without a solution at hand.
They also can be times of joy.
American folklore makes a big deal of the importance of family at holidays, but we all know that family can be a mixed bag. Family histories at holidays include stressful conversations, anxiety swings and fierce political disagreements.
This last fear — of political fights — is so deep that these days there is a constant stream of nervous jokes and advice columns in the media surrounding family holiday get-togethers on ways to try and minimize rifts.
Why do we fear disagreeing so much? Maybe what we fear the most is losing each other, whatever our flaws and differences, forever.
Meanwhile, as other, wiser people before me have noted, we are all part of the larger human family, cousins if you will.
And yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is unknowable. So all there really is, is today, and if you are able make today matter in some small way that brings a larger meaning and a glimmer of hopefulness either for you or for someone else, be sure to do it.
One other thing. We never really lose one another, not completely, even after death.
Because we still appear in each other’s dreams.
HEADLINES:
Big changes to the agency charged with securing elections lead to midterm worries (AP)
Geneva talks with Ukraine ‘most productive and meaningful’ so far, Rubio says (BBC)
Israel says Hezbollah chief of staff killed in first strike on Beirut in months (CNN)
Are millennials frozen out of the housing market? The reality may be more interesting. (WP)
Marjorie Taylor Greene Came So Close to Getting the Joke (Atlantic)
Trump Shows His Power, and Greene Reveals His Weakness (NYT)
Anything Goes America (Economist)
Charlotte activists met the immigration crackdown with ‘bless your heart’ resistance (Guardian)
High school senior, a U.S. citizen, detained by ICE in Oregon (OregonLive)
The Federalist Society Is Torn Between Its Legal Philosophy and Trump’s Demands (NYT)
Newsom, DeSantis join forces to blast ‘idiotic’ push to allow oil drilling off coasts of California, Florida (Fortune)
The Justice Department Hits a New Low with the Epstein Files (New Yorker)
What happens when your immune system hijacks your brain (AP)
These people experienced near death. Here’s how it changed their lives. (WP)
Mind-reading devices can now predict preconscious thoughts: is it time to worry? (Nature)
How Google is disrupting itself to beat OpenAI (BusinessInsider)
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