We are that country. Throwing money down a swampy river until it sinks: investing first in the health of the poor disease stricken unvaccinated hungry (for decades now), then cutting them off in mid-meal mid-medication dose mid treatment, throwing the rest away, just to show how... what, mighty we are? Mighty stupid. We are that country.
Ed says over breakfast that we did help pull China out of poverty and to an extent, India as well. But I'm not talking about a grandiose vision of a good life for all. I'm talking about hungry children and the growth of pathogens. We are the country of people who can sleep well at night, pulling the plug on food and medicine (and let the remains flow down a swampy river) for children. That's us. Not reshaping, reimagining, reinventing better paths, perhaps less expensive, perhaps more targeted, but instead, dumping it all, wasting it (because there is no one anymore to distribute expiring medications, no refrigeration to keep fresh and viable that which is there), just because. (Why exactly? I do not know. But we are that country.)
Well, I for one did not sleep much last night. Ed asks -- is it the news? Is it that I have a lot on my plate right now? I can't tell. Since I've been back from France, I have felt like I am rooted to a seat in a movie theater, watching one horror flick after the next. I suppose sleep is going to be elusive for a long time.
It's cold but not that cold. The wind has died down, but I need to investigate the damage it did to farmette trees last night. Ed said he heard a crash, but I find everything is still standing. That's a good thing!
Breakfast, lovely, in love, pleasant, until we go on to That Topic.
And soon after, a Zoom call with my law school friends. We've been through a lot together, but honestly this month ranks high on the unimaginable becoming imaginable and indeed a reality.
I'm ticking off events of the day here on Ocean -- haircut next... I ask my old reliable hair cut person -- do you think that in the half hour I've been here, my hair has turned even more gray? It looks like that to me!
Lunch after, a quick French lesson, and then I pick up the kids.
Today is one of those days where she has to be at a violin lesson toward evening and he has to go home with parents, but I linger for just a few minutes at the drop off point, just to catch up with the mom, because, well, it's been so chaotic that the small details of daily life have fallen off the radar just a little.
And now I am home. We were to have a snow storm tomorrow, but it's projected course has shifted to the north of us, which is a very good thing because I am to be out on the road again and I dont need slick highways to move me along. I get ready for an early departure, I scramble some eggs, make salads and exhale. With Ed, on the couch.
It's been some week.
with love...
