Archive | Country Matters

Mother Courage

I’m interested in social and traditional media learning fast to ignore Trump’s narcissistic injuries. The engagement with his reality TV trash talk–the reasoning, quipping, pearls-clenching among ourselves–must stop. It makes us feel clever while it allows him to lead the story in addition to our country. I know from dating malignant narcissists–and this karmically may be why I did so–that the only way to curtail their destruction is to cut off their air time; it’s literally oxygen to them. So we must highlight facts and figures, not a madman’s fabulations. We must lead with Streep’s message of courage and clarity, not Trump’s toady tweet. (No link to the latter for obvious reasons.) The story we want to be able to tell our grandchildren is one of resistance. Of transcendence. Of love. It is not one of GIFs.

Just a Little Communication

This morning I read an article about a new French law restricting the times in which work emails can be sent by employers. A communication ban is very classic Mercury retrograde—even more classic than yesterday’s Brooklyn train crash, which, thank goddess, resulted in nothing worse than broken limbs but which held up an evening’s worth of LIRR commuters. But the more I contemplate such a law, the more genius I find it. Imagine if there were a cap on the amount of time people could spend on social media or online, period. More books would be read, more eyes would be met, more gardens would be tended, more in-person sex would be had. Revolutions would be brewed–ones we need to survive as a society, frankly. What say ye, Sirenaders? Unplug, unplug, unplug. (I’ll still be here when you come back.)

Money, Honey

I was so sure that because Mercury retrograde was taking place mostly in my sun sign of old-soul Capricorn, I’d sidestep the normal MR shuffle-kerfuffle. Then a gig I’ve had for 16 years came to an abrupt end and much-needed checks from another employer got über-delayed and, well, you get the picture. Lean times. Cappies love cash more than almost anybody so it only makes sense that this retrograde would stop the green from flowing. But just when I was thinking, well, isn’t this the worst kind of Saturnine lesson, a beautiful money candle showed up in the mail from a bruja in my home state of Massholia—witch central, don’t you know—and right after I lit it I received a lead to end all leads. Did you sense my troubles? I texted my witchy pal and she texted back, I just thought this candle lived with you. That’s Mercury retrograde in Capricorn in a nutshell: You don’t get what you want but you do get what you need. Let’s see what shows up in tomorrow’s mail. At that, let’s see what happens now that lady Venus is entering Pisces–it’ll either swallow up our new oligarchy with big juicy love or we’ll all get too sensitive to move. (Probably both.)

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy