Trump had won, even the popular vote. The Republicans had retaken the Senate and most likely would retain the House. A Catholic Supreme Court had its grip on America’s secular life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jimmy Carter made it to a hundred for that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer the husky and I set out at 6:05 in the morning. Dry. Stars shined. No clouds. We rounded a corner and I heard the screams of a homeless man a block away. He sounded exactly like the cartoon Tasmanian devil on the loose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We kept moving toward the park. Elmer did his thing. I thought in short sentences as I walked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despair must be defeated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I must rally and then advance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAdvance always\u201d said General Grant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oregon fared well in the election.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the novel Ecotopia finally going to come true?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Portland elected an outsider as Mayor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He won on a bold plan to end homelessness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe I can become part of that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is my writing irrelevant?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It feels like it at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I live in a Blue state. I have means and a great dog.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My family didn’t fracture because of MAGA.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many did. They’ll never get back together.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Elmer took his Ted Cruz and picked up his pace. I bounded along with him. Light was coming on. Jack O Lanterns sagged from recent rain. People drove downtown to work in offices. Freight trains lumbered in the distance. Ducks swam in the creek. I saw three vehicles serving as domiciles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would I do today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would not read the recap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would take Elmer to the dog park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would visit my Dad in assisted living and discuss the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would rake leaves in the back yard and fend off Elmer’s attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would read a Henry Miller work of nonfiction and marvel at his straightforward and profane prose that would make me laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would work on my Mom’s book about her extraordinary life as a young Christian missionary in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would console friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump had won, even the popular vote. The Republicans had retaken the Senate and most likely would retain the House. A Catholic Supreme Court had its grip on America’s secular life. Jimmy Carter made it to a hundred for that? Elmer the husky and I set out at 6:05 in the morning. Dry. Stars shined. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9200,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197\/revisions\/9200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}