Swamp grass has nothing to do with Christmas Eve, and Christmas Eve has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, or with why we all can’t just get along. Or why we all can’t be billionaires. Not that we could get along if we were. What’s the key to getting along? Growing up may be it. If we all would just grow up it would make a difference for the true good of all concerned. And if we all treated ourselves and each other as we would if we were grown up that would be about the same. If we just pretended to be grown up and did a good job of it, that would do. But we can’t even do that. We aren’t that much grown up. We can’t even fake it. And when I take that into the silence with me, all I get is, “That’s the way it is, Jim. You will have to be grow up about it.”
Russia destroying the people of Ukraine. White Supremacists hating everyone who isn’t like them. Wealthy people hating poor people. The list is long of things I will have to be grown up about. And everybody wants to go to heaven–without considering how different everybody is going to have to be to be in heaven. There are only grown ups in heaven. We should begin practicing here, now. No?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
Someone recently called this era “Kafkaesque.” It is beyond rational understanding to me.
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I was struck by this comment by Charlie Sykes:
“You are not alone if your reaction to what’s happening feels something like airsickness, a nausea-inducing conflict between what we know and what we see. The effect is both vertiginous and crazy-making. This isn’t “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. It’s a desperate effort to hang onto reality.1
I wrote about this last year in the Atlantic:
“We’ve been led to believe that things work in a certain way, that there are mores and norms.
We thought our world was right side up, but it now feels as if it’s been turned upside down.
Words don’t mean what we think they do. Outrage is followed not by accountability, but by adulation. Standards shift, flicker, vanish. Nothing is stable.
More than a century ago, Émile Durkheim, the father of modern sociology, described what he called “anomie,” a condition of instability “resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals.” Anomie could result from a conflict of belief systems, leading to a breakdown of social ties and a “shared moral order.”
Call it anomie or call it airsickness—we find ourselves in a land of confusion. Trump pays off a porn star and yet is hailed as a champion of Christian values. He mocks prisoners of war and calls dead soldiers “suckers,” and his MAGA base is thrilled by his patriotism….
To hear conservative Christians argue that personal character doesn’t matter, or to witness self-described constitutional conservatives defend a relentless attack on the rule of law, is disorienting. To see advocates of law and order embrace rioters who attacked the Capitol and beat police officers is baffling. To watch the party of Ronald Reagan embracing isolationism and following Trump in truckling to the Butcher of Ukraine, Putin, is bewildering. Mind-bending, also, is that, despite Trump’s fire hose of lies, 71 percent of Republicans describe him as “honest and trustworthy.” Recent polls suggest that Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the swing states that will decide the November election.”
Maybe that’s why following the news these days feels like swallowing crazy pills.”
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Given that all you say is so, is how things are, how do we make it from here, now to “the land of gentle breezes where peaceful waters flow” (Anne Murray–Snowbird)
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I am with you in that corner! With no idea of how things might be different “If only.” If only what? How far back–how long ago–would we have to start changing things to make for a different outcome here, now? It seems to me that this current level of craziness had to be with us from the start. And, I think, probably, that Neanderthal was not this crazy. I think it started with Cro-Magnon. Killing everyone not like they were. What an idea that was. Changed everything. “Like that” (snaps fingers). And here we are. Sigh.
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