Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

 

On Saturday, I watched the film "Before Sunset," one of my favorites. The first time I saw it was in the summer of 2004, soon after its release, when my new girlfriend and I went to watch it at the Opera Plaza Theatre on a Monday afternoon.

We had just declared our love for each other the night before, about half a year after meeting in a group therapy session. It was the first serious relationship after my divorce, and I felt that I loved her with all of my being.

We kept our own places but saw each other every day and night for the next year and a half. We took trips to Mexico, Hawaii and New York, where she shopped the second-hand shops on the lower east side for shoes and vintage clothes, and we ate the incomparable lunches at Katz's.

She was a few years younger than me but she didn't want to have kids. Her approach to my three young ones at home was matter-of-fact -- she always talked with them as if they were adults. She was never condescending.

When my youngest, then six, got into a funk because she couldn't read, my girlfriend researched the issue, bought a gaggle of the appropriate books and told her, "You're going to read these."

She did.

All the time we were together, I could tell that sooner or later I was going to lose her, not to another man but to her ambition to work with people who really needed her help.

Eventually,she did just that, on the other side of the country in New Orleans.

"Before Sunset" is such a romantic story, where a couple meet after a ten-year hiatus and discover they still love each other. It's Hollywood, so the ending is happy.

But my love story ended sadly. That was a long time ago now, and since then everything has changed. She  probably doesn't even remember that summer afternoon at the movies

But I do, and for me the film brings back my hopefulness in that moment, a hopefulness that proved to be fleeting. Despite many disappointments, I still believed in romantic love at that time.

In reality, good things rarely last, and there is almost never a happy ending. There is no forever and ever, amen.

Just whatever memories we retain and the relentless passage of time. 

***

Unlike lovers, the news never goes away, though there are times that I wish it would.

* The president is likely to nominate a successor this coming week to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, but Senate Republicans are weighing whether they have the votes to confirm his choice before the Nov. 3 election. (NYT)

* Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Sunday that she opposes taking up a Supreme Court nomination prior to Election Day, becoming the second GOP senator this weekend to voice opposition to Senate movement on the matter before the 2020 election. "For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed," the Alaska Republican said in a statement. (CNN)

*  If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP’s Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.Kelly has maintained a consistent polling lead over Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018. (AP)

* Vigils for Justice Ginsburg Held Across the Country -- Mourners gathered around courthouses across the nation on Saturday to remember the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (NYT)

* Gulf Coast mayors say hurricane season has changed for the worse. Many blame climate shifts. (WashPo)

* Nursing Homes Oust Unwanted Patients With Claims of Psychosis -- They are finding what families say are pretexts to send patients to hospitals for psychiatric care — and then refusing to let them return.(NYT)

* Fires Scorch a Way of Life That Still Grows From the Trees -- Oregon’s fate has always been intertwined with the forests that blanket the state. Now millions of trees are charred, and those who live from them face a future full of uncertainty. (NYT)

* How California Became Ground Zero for Climate Disasters -- The engineering and land management that enabled the state’s tremendous growth have left it more vulnerable to climate shocks — and those shocks are getting worse. (NYT)

* Trump Supporters Disrupt Early Voting in Virginia -- A group waving Trump flags and chanting “four more years” created a commotion at a polling location in Fairfax, Va. A county official said some voters and staff members felt intimidated (NYT)

* A new ABC News/Washington Post poll from Minnesota finds Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with a 57% to 41% lead over President Donald Trump among likely voters. (CNN)

***

For all our exes:

If I should stay, I would only be in your way
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you every step of the way

And I will always love you
I will always love you
You, my darling you, hm

Bittersweet memories
That is all I'm taking with me
So, goodbye
Please, don't cry
We both know I'm not what you, you need

And I will always love you
I will always love you, you

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of
And I wish to you joy and happiness
But above all this, I wish you…love

--Dolly Parton

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Synergistic Times

As the news cycle keeps mutating in 2020, I've found myself thinking back to some research I did many years ago on a completely different subject.

Please bear with me; this is going to seem abstract and only vaguely relevant.

In the 1970s and 1980s, I devoted much of my journalism to exploring the role pesticides play in our global agricultural systems. That work resulted in two books, "Circle of Poison" and "The Bhopal Syndrome," as well as numerous articles and two documentaries.

Most news stories by others in that era focused on one agrochemical at a time. For example, when laboratory studies indicated that DDT might be carcinogenic, the U.S. government restricted its use. That was a big story at the time.

So it went, pesticide by pesticide until a very long list had been banned, restricted, or heavily regulated in this country.

Although their use was curtailed here, these hazardous chemicals continued to be sent as "foreign aid" to poor countries around the world. There, they were responsible for poisoning farmworkers, damaging the environment, and contaminating the food crops sent back to this country for consumption by Americans. Thus, the "circle" of poison.

At some point, during a long telephone conversation with a source who was an epidemiologist, it occurred to both of us that no human being's exposure is ever restricted to a single pesticide; rather we are all subjected to what is essentially a chemical cocktail, whereby small amounts of many chemicals enter our systems simultaneously.

So, I began researching the nascent field of synergistic or interactive effects of various agrochemicals and other petrochemical products.

The existing research was sparse but suggestive. When scientists mixed two or more chemicals together and fed them to lab animals, various results were discovered. In some cases, the tests suggested, serious diseases such as cancer or central nervous damage was observed.

In other cases, a counter-intuitive result appeared: Combining certain chemicals seemed to help organisms eliminate some of the toxins, thereby reducing their overall chemical load.

The science was extremely obscure; I could find no major articles in any of the leading journals, and it remained well under the radar of most regulatory agencies.

From the point-of-view of regulators at the EPA, FDA, OSHA, FAO, WHO, UNEP and elsewhere, it was difficult enough to marshal the evidence to get any one individual pesticide banned, let alone condemning the entire system of man-made chemical inputs altogether.

The historical context was that at the conclusion of World War Two, the U.S. government (and the governments of other "advanced" countries) engaged in a massive effort to transform the chemicals developed as military weapons in the first half of the 20th century into "miracle drugs" that could vastly expand food production in the second half.

At first, this effort appeared to be an unmitigated success, as the productivity of traditional farming methods increased to the point that far fewer farmers could grow the food necessary to feed more and more people.

Visionaries predicted a world where hunger would soon be eliminated once and for all.

That did not come to pass. Within the first decade after the war, indications of problems with the new miracle drugs appeared in the form of insect resistance to pesticides. It started to become necessary to apply heavier and heavier doses of the chemicals to kill off the pests.

Eventually, it became clear, the chemicals would stop working all together. Nature would prevail.

As the huge agrochemical companies like Monsanto, which made fortunes off of pesticides, continued to devise new chemical combinations to overcome insect resistance, the issue of synergistic/interactive effects became even more relevant.

Ultimately, the research proved too inconclusive for me to present it in a popular media format, and I moved on to different topics, different scandals, different ways to use my journalistic skills. I just let the topic go.

And I never did tell that story. Or maybe I just did.

My point is a simple one: The crises we are trying to cope with -- the pandemic, the economy, the wildfires, the political upheaval, and now the impending culture war over women's rights -- are all interacting synergistically. For that reason, they resist any simple analysis.

Meanwhile, let's get back to the relatively simple, modular list of the latest news headlines:

* Wildfires Grow in Southern California and Oregon -- Videos show the continued spread of fires near Los Angeles and in parts of Oregon (NYT)

* Ginsburg’s death sets off political battle over her replacement, Supreme Court’s future (WashPo)

* Shortly before the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in an interview that if she was presented with a vacancy on the court, she would not vote to confirm a nominee before the election. (Alaska Public Radio)

* Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Saturday weighed in on the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, saying that she believes waiting until after the election is the right decision. "Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election," the Maine senator said in a Saturday statement. "In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd," said Collins. (CNN)

* ‘We Are Now Seeing a Second Wave,’ Johnson Says -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spoke about efforts to combat the latest wave of coronavirus cases in Europe. (Reuters)

* Long lines and hand sanitizer on the first day of early voting for general election (WashPo)

* China Sends Warning to Taiwan and U.S. With Big Show of Air Power -- Beijing sent 18 aircraft into the Taiwan Strait as a senior American diplomat held meetings on the island. (NYT)

* Dwindling ranks and declining public trust plague police agencies amid summer of protests (WashPo)

* ‘This Does Not Look Good for Children’: Fires Pose Risk to Young Lungs -- The wildfires blazing in the West could hinder developing lungs, worsen asthma and even lead to the condition in those who don’t have it but are genetically disposed to it. (NYT)

* The San Francisco District Attorney’s office has begun reviewing potential wrongful conviction cases and will soon be deciding whether to vacate the convictions of people who it determines were wrongfully convicted, the office announced on Thursday. (Mission Local)

*EBay is shifting more business to UPS and away from Postal Service because of mail delays (WashPo)

* Biden’s polling lead nears magic number in states needed to win Electoral College (Politico)

* Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him -- A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Joe Biden leading President Trump by wide margins in Maine and Arizona, and effectively tied in North Carolina. Susan Collins trailed her Democratic rival in Maine’s Senate race. (NYT)

* Biden is favored to win the election -- We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible. Biden 77%, Trump 22%. (538)

***

I feel like I should apologize for the arcane nature of today's essay, but that's the way my mind works. Tomorrow, promise, I'll write instead about romantic love.

Do what they say, say what you mean, and baby

One thing leads to another

You told me something wrong, I know I listen too long but then

One thing leads to another

--The Fixx

-30-  We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible.

Nowhere to Hide

The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tragic loss for all of us who believe in equal rights. She led an amazing life and was directly responsible for making this world a better place for all women, including my daughters and granddaughters. 

Her death unleashes a dangerous political battle over the almost unthinkable scenario that a lame-duck Republican Senate majority could approve her replacement before ceding control to the Democrats. If that should occur, the landmark ruling Roe v. Wade, giving women control of their bodies may be at serious risk.

In order to assess tall of his, we'll need a press that does its job wisely and calmly.

Yesterday I railed against the national television networks, especially CNN, for blatant displays of bias in the coverage of the upcoming election.

This isn't something I do lightly; my hope is to somehow get through to the executives at Fox, msnbc and CNN and urge them to clean up their act.

When you have an anchor deliver a piece of news and then make a statement by rolling his eyes like a valley girl, you have left the world of journalism in your rear-view mirror. In the process, you have lost the respect of people like me, because we don't need that kind of condescending attitude from your employees.

No one would dispute that a main theme of this year's election is the outrageous rhetoric of the incumbent president as he seeks re-election.  Everybody sees it but not everybody responds to it in the same way.

Often, it seems like the liberal commentators lump the supporters of the president into one group -- the white supremacist, racist militia-types who move in the shadows of our society. But there is another way to understand Trump supporters. They include millions of people who feel alienated and left behind by the pace of social and technological change that has swept our society.

Of course, they see that Trump is a hopeless jerk who does things they would never do themselves, like sexually abuse women and cheat contractors. But voting for him, in their eyes, is not endorsing that behavior. Instead, they support him for political reasons in spite of his behavior.

Now more than ever it is a time for journalists to adhere to our highest standards and ethics and to fulfill our essential responsibility under the First Amendment, which is to inform our fellow citizens, free from bias. The looming Supreme Court crisis represents a huge challenge in this regard.

After all, the news is bad enough, so let's dispense with the adolescent eye-rolling and smirking.

* Following Ginsburg's death, McConnell says Trump's nominee will get a vote on the Senate floor (CNN)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed a guidance it issued last month about who should be tested. The agency updated its recommendation to call for testing anyone — including people without symptoms — who has been in close contact with someone diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (WashPo)

* Judge issues temporary injunction against USPS changes amid concerns about mail slowdowns (WashPo)

* Trump’s ‘terrific’ health-care plan is so secret his own health advisers don’t know it exists (WashPo)

*  One America News Network is ostensibly a news network, with 24-hour coverage and a multimillion-dollar budget. As the election approaches, it is effectively a media arm of the Trump campaign. Binge-watching shows how it mixes baseless conspiracies with legitimate news to warp viewers' realities. [HuffPost]

* A former model has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1997, adding to the list of more than two dozen women who have publicly accused the president of sexual misconduct or rape.  [HuffPost]

* The United States Postal Service drafted an ambitious proposal in April to send a pack of five face masks to every residential address in the U.S. before top White House officials killed the idea. “There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” an official told The Washington Post. [HuffPost]

* The former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos joined an anti-Donald Trump group being led by former White House officials. Josh Venable, who worked for DeVos from 2017 to 2018, joined the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform as an adviser. [HuffPost]

* Trump on Thursday ramped up his most forceful campaign message: That the coming election is illegitimate unless he wins. (HuffPost)

* TRUMP'S 'PATRIOTIC' EDUCATION PLAN SOUNDS A LOT LIKE FASCISM, SAYS TWITTER (Twitter)

* Trump slams Biden for using a teleprompter while using one himself at Wisconsin rally (MailOnline)

* Democrats are slightly favored to win the U.S. Senate (538)

***

When the blue skies returned to the Bay Area on Thursday, it was the first time after four weeks of day-in-day-out "spare the air" warnings. The virus may have been keeping us inside, but the unnatural heatwave and unrelenting smoke from fires oppressed us even more, leaving us nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.

It's not love, I'm a running from
It's the heartbreak I know will come
'Cause I know you're no good for me, but you've become a part of me
Ev'rywhere I go, your face I see, ev'ry step I take, you take with me yeah
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
I know you're not good for me, but free of you I'll never be, no
Each night as I sleep, into my heart you creep
I wake up feelin' sorry I met you, hoping soon that I'll forget you
When I look in the mirror to comb my hair 
I see your face just a smiling there
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide

-- Martha and the Vandellas

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How Not to Read the News

Just because I can finally see better doesn't mean I like everything I see.

That's because it's increasingly difficult to find unbiased sources of relevant information in this severely polarized media environment. I consume most content online because television news increasingly seems like a parody of itself.

Rather than Walter Cronkite's ideal of unbiased news feeds, the Fox and msnbc TV broadcasts are too blatantly ideological to be of any use to me. What I am seeking are the latest facts, not pre-determined opinions.

Until recently, CNN seemed to be the best option for TV news, but the antics of certain of their anchors are so off-putting that I have to switch the channel off whenever they come on.

If I were their journalism professor, these men would get failing grades. They seem to think they can present the latest Trump outrage and then use their facial expressions to bond with an audience that (to them) has no option but to agree with them.

Memo to team: I'm no fan of Trump but seeing your behavior almost makes me sympathetic to him. Have you forgotten that you are supposed to be at least pretending to be journalists? People don't care about your opinions; they rely on you and your producers to dig out the facts and verify them best you can.

And that means whether those facts conform to your ideological slant or not.

But I have no illusion they will listen to a 54-year veteran of the journalism profession who holds to traditional values. CNN management is clearly encouraging this unfortunate behavior, since even some of the more experienced anchors have been getting in on the act.

Most of the time, thankfully, the network's journalists play it straight. 

Meanwhile, one journalist who is standing above the rest this election cycle is Chris Wallace of Fox News. He is still going out and doing his own reporting, not just reading the prompter and making duck faces.

This is painful for me. I dislike critiquing my industry colleagues in such harsh terms but for me their behavior has gone too far over the top. Please get back to the basics of presenting the news! 

With or without the presenters, the news rolls on. My advice is to ignore the bias of those bringing you the headlines if you can; focus on the content. Much of it is tragic.

* Six months, and a grim milestone: 26th straight week of record-level unemployment claims (WashPo)

* Michiganders urged to stay indoors as officials race to stop the spread of a dangerous mosquito-borne disease (CNN)

* Trump Scorns His Own Scientists Over Virus Data -- A public scolding of the C.D.C. chief was only the latest but perhaps the starkest instance when the president has rejected not just the policy advice of his public health officials but the facts and information that they provided. (NYT)

* Coronavirus Is the ‘No. 1 Global Security Threat,’ Head of U.N. Says -- United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called the coronavirus pandemic the world’s top security threat, and called for greater cooperation in controlling outbreaks and developing an affordable vaccine. (Reuters)

* Multiple women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleged that a doctor unnecessarily removed their reproductive organs, corroborating earlier reports of sterilizations without consent on migrant women from a detention facility in Georgia. (HuffPost)

* FBI director affirms Russia’s aim to ‘denigrate’ Biden ahead of election (WashPo) 

* F.B.I. Director Warns of Russian Interference and White Supremacist Violence -- The testimony contradicted efforts by President Trump and other officials to downplay the threats. (NYT)

* During an appearance on MSNBC, Trump’s former longtime fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen told host Joy Reid that he predicts Trump, if he loses, will claim the Nov. 3 election was rigged and use Attorney General William Barr to invalidate ballots that he will say are “fake” in order to stay in office. “He doesn’t care about the Constitution of the United States.” (MSNBC)

* WHO warns of 'very serious situation' in Europe, with 'alarming rates' of virus transmission (CNN)

* U.S. Pushes Large Arms Sale to Taiwan, Including Jet Missiles That Can Hit China (NYT)

* Human footprints dating back 120,000 years found in Saudi Arabia (AFP)

* Biden is favored to win the election -- We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible. Biden 76%, Trump 24%. (538)

* Former Pence aide says she will vote for Biden because of Trump’s ‘flat out disregard for human life’ during pandemic (WashPo)

* Pandemic isolation has killed thousands of Alzheimer’s patients while families watch from afar (WashPo)

***

So tell me the truth
Even if it hurts me, even if it's ugly
My heart is open
Tell me the truth
Without the self-protection
Love can mend what's broken
In me and you
Tell me the truth
Even if it hurts me, even if it's ugly
My heart is open
Tell me the truth
Without the self-protection
Love can mend what's broken
In me and you

-- Steffany Gretzinger

-30-

Bring On Greek

Yesterday, I conjured imaginary newsroom discussions between veteran journalists trying to cope with the turbulent 2020 news cycle. It's not like the news isn't always changing in the best of times -- that is why it's called the new(s). But this is the year the pace of change may have finally overwhelmed our ability to cope with it.

You know how you can tell that wishes don't come true? When for 46 years since you first heard of the hole in the ozone you have wished climate change would not prove to be real.

That's a lot of years coming and going for one wish. 

But the wish didn't come true. Climate change is here.

As I soak myself in the daily news much as others enjoy warm baths (I presume), it occurs to me I could easily focus only on the stories and reports of climate change to the exclusion of everything else.

Today's list is mostly like that with a few political and entertainment items thrown in like nutmeg in your eggnog.

* The direct costs of the fires in California could exceed $20 billion this year, according to Tom Corringham, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. That's not counting health care bills, costs of disrupted business, lost tax revenue, decreased property values and what Corringham described as “reverse tourism” — people fleeing smoke or not visiting certain areas because of it. (NYT)

* How Climate Migration Will Reshape America -- Millions will be displaced in the coming decades by fires, hurricanes, extreme heat and rising seas. Where will they go? (NYT)

* Thick, hazardous smoke from wildfires continues to smother West Coast -- While rain began to fall in Oregon, officials warned that air quality will be poor throughout much of the week. (WashPo) 

* The smoke from the  wildfires devastating California and other parts of the western United States have started reaching Northern Europe, scientists said Wednesday. (CNN)

* Tons of space debris is threatening to destroy the ISS and make low-Earth orbit 'too perilous for humans' (MailOnline) Just like on earth, we've made a mess of space. (DW)

* There’s only one name left on the National Hurricane Center’s alphabetical list of storm names and that, improbably, is Wilfred. After him, it'll be time, for names based on the Greek alphabet. And with a good two months left in the formal hurricane season, it’s likely that Tropical Storm Alpha will make an appearance sooner than later. (Miami Herald) 

* A ‘Crossroads’ for Humanity: Earth’s Biodiversity Is Still Collapsing -- Countries have made insufficient progress on international goals designed to halt a catastrophic slide, a new report found. (NYT)

* Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson dismiss scientists’ determination that climate change is a key culprit in West Coast wildfires. (NYT) Of course, they both flunked science in 8th grade. (DW)

* An undecided voter confronted Trump over his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act during a town hall event on Tuesday, asking how the White House planned to protect those with preexisting conditions while actively fighting to undermine protections already in place. Ellesia Blaque, an assistant professor, pressed Trump during a tense moment, detailing her experience with a lifelong disease that costs her thousands of dollars annually in insurance co-payments. [HuffPost]

* Barr Told Prosecutors to Consider Sedition Charges for Protest Violence  -- Attorney General William P. Barr was also said to have asked prosecutors to explore whether to bring charges against the mayor of Seattle for allowing a police-free protest zone. (NYT) 

* Journalist Bob Woodward, whose new book "Rage" about Trump has sparked outcry in the last week, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his interviews with Trump left him doubting whether the president can distinguish between what’s real and what is just in his own head. [HuffPost]

* Senator Kamala Harris met with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime political ally, and other emergency service workers to tour damage left by the still-burning Creek Fire: “When we’re talking about the climate crisis, we are talking about a public health crisis.”  (NYT) 

* Trump health appointee taking medical leave after calling on president’s supporters to prepare for insurrection (WashPo) 

* Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the roots music festival in Golden Gate Park, would have been celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Now it’s doing so online and supporting local artists through its pandemic relief fund. [KQED]

* The Big Ten will kick off its football season the weekend of Oct. 24 after the league's presidents and chancellors unanimously voted to resume competition, citing daily testing capabilities and a stronger confidence in the latest medical information, the conference announced Wednesday morning.Each team will attempt to play eight games in eight weeks, leaving no wiggle room during the coronavirus pandemic before the Big Ten championship game on Dec. 19. That date will also feature an extra cross-division game for each school, with seeded teams in each division squaring off. (ESPN)

* For the first time in 65 years, a California man can see clearly without eyeglasses. "Eisenhower was still in his first term as President the last time I could see this well," he says. (DW)

***

My interest and belief in peer learning received a boost this week, courtesy of my two oldest grandsons. Our 13-year-old is helping a classmate in science and the boy's mom says he is really making a difference.

Our 12-year-old is coaching his 9-year-old sister and her friends in soccer. No better way to learn the sport himself than to teach it!

For the first time in a long time, our skies cleared along the California northern coast Wednesday. The skies were blue and cloudless, reminding us what the pre-dystopian world looks like. Despite the ignorance of the climate deniers, do we still have a chance to avoid destruction by fire?

An early rainy season would help in this regard, but I've heard no predictions of that so far. But even if the smoke lifts for only a while, it's allowing people to resume gathering in safe numbers, masked, at distance under clear skies.

That in itself is a blessing.

***

Hearts are worn in these dark ages
You're not alone in this story's pages
The light has fallen amongst the living and the dying
And I'll try to hold it in, yeah, I'll try to hold it in

The world's on fire, it's more than I can handle
Tap into the water, try to bring my share
Try to bring more, more than I can handle
Bring it to the table, bring what I am able

I watch the heavens but I find no calling
Something I can do to change what's coming
Stay close to me while the sky is falling
I don't wanna be left alone, don't wanna be alone

-- Sarah McLachlan

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