Peter Seth's Blog

“Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, e-lim-in-nate the negative, latch on to the a-firmative – Don’t mess with Mister In-Between.” -- Johnny Mercer

I’m going to blog about Good Things this week. With all that’s going on – and all that is awaiting us in the future -- we have celebrate and hang onto what’s good in our micro-lives today.

FATHER’S DAY

I had a terrific Father’s Day. Just about the most fun I have these days is playing with my grandson Calder. He’s four-and-a-half and as smart and charming as anyone has the right to be. I would have loved any grandson, but Calder is objectively loveable. As the TG says, “A key light follows Calder wherever he goes.” And it’s not just his perfectly handsome face: it’s who he is. No media, no screens, no devices: just books, music, and real life. He’s being raised “Amish,” but it’s working. His vocabulary and range of knowledge are remarkable – “I think she’s a paleontologist.” … “Is that Bob Dylan?”

Some of my best moments of the day were spent floating on pool noodles with my son and Calder: three generations of Robinson men, hanging weightlessly in the water. It all ended with a concert at our local park – Woody & the Longboards, in a tribute to the “California sound.” A family picnic scene, right out of Mayberry RFD.

But even though it was Father’s Day, I did my share of work. I did the cooking (my choice), whipping up one of my “crepe-taculars” (a “gag” nickname that stuck). And even if it’s a holiday in your honor, a father still has to clean up the dog poop in the backyard before anyone comes over. It’s “constants” like that that make life worth living.

PRE-PUBLICATION ACTIVITY

I’m heavily into work for the publication of WHEN I GOT OUT on September 17th. There is so much to do. It’s been five years since WHAT IT WAS LIKE was published. I was hoping to have WHEN I GOT OUT published five years to the day after the first one, but that didn’t work out. (Conflict with Labor Day and 9/11, etc.) But it’s almost five years to the day. Almost perfect is close enough.

Happy Memorial Day! Our government has been taken over by a gang of traitorous, larcenous gangsters. Nothing else really matters.

And yet, life goes on in America.

I drove my convertible in my local Memorial Day parade for our local Democratic party.  It was a real small-town Mayberry parade with brass bands, scout troops, and civic organizations of all types, not to mention a flyover from a World War II bomber.  Our club was #52 in a parade with 76 entries.  We got lots of waves, cheers, and encouragement from the parade watchers.  But where are the torches and pitchforks?  Where are the angry crowds surrounding the White House, demanding the impeachment and/or resignation of this master crook/liar?

I should be perfectly happy. I have another novel being published in the fall and another grandson being born in May. In the next few weeks, we’re seeing some wonderful music: Emmanuel Ax playing a Mozart piano concerto, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen … Gustavo Dudamel conducting Mahler’s Eighth “Symphony of a Thousand” … Raul Malo of the Mavericks in a solo show. And we’re seeing Samuel Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS in what I hope will be a great performance by Diane Wiest.

I sent the copyedited manuscript of WHEN I GOT OUT back to my publisher after two-plus hard-working weeks, going over the edits from my meticulous copyeditor and trying to “perfect” my changes: all of it making the book better.

And it’s been a good year for the roses.

But all my happiness is compromised these days because it’s hard to think about anything but TRUMP. (And the whole rotten GOP. Did you see Mitch McConnell already gloating about how he’ll be “the Grim Reaper” in the Senate, destroying any progressive legislation that comes out of a Democratic House? Disgusting. Take more Russian money, Mitch.)

It’s hard to do anything when our democracy is being attacked – from within. It’s almost too depressing to think about, and yet we must fight. Political junkie that I am, I’ve been checking out the field of Democratic candidates. None of them is perfect:

Joe Biden seems too old and out-of-touch. (His performance on “The View” was troubling.) He is everything wrong for today’s Democratic party: he’s old, white, and a product of the current, corporate-friendly establishment. Joe Biden isn’t going to rock the boat, and most of the party wants to rock the boat – hard. There is nothing new about Joe Biden, and the country needs something new. .) But he’s the safe choice for the nation, if not the party. The American people know and trust him. He can beat Trump.

I love Bernie Sanders. He’s right on the issues. For many years, I listened to Thom Hartmann’s radio show when he would have Bernie on every Friday for “Brunch With Bernie,” where callers could ask him anything. And he always gave honest answers. He is the true independent in the field. I love Bernie Sanders but America isn’t going to elect as president a democratic socialist from Brooklyn – and I AM a democratic socialist from Brooklyn. Trump and the GOP will rip Bernie apart with slander, lies, mischaracterizations, and anti-Semitism. But he should stay in the race: already he has done historic work, pulling the Democratic party back to the Left.

What a tragedy! I’m an American, but Paris belongs to everybody. It’s arguably the cultural center of the world, and Notre Dame is its heart.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Paris six times in my life, never for more than a week at a time. But I feel I know the city a little bit and am comfortable there with my guidebooks and lousy high school French.

Like everyone, I’m both appalled and fascinated by the college admissions scandal. Already 50 people have been indicted, and that number is sure to grow. They’ve just begun to investigate the criminality, fraudulence, and bribery in the world of college admissions. Rick Singer isn’t the only scam artist in this field. There are certain to be other pockets of corruption in college sports departments throughout the country waiting to be burst wide open by aggressive journalists, prosecutors, and maybe even a few administrators with courage.

The situation is ripe for corruption. Supply-and-demand creates pressure, and if parents for whom money is no object are willing to do anything to get their kids into the “right college”….

As it is, college in the USA – at least, at elite private colleges – is a rich person’s game. Today, the colleges I went to – Columbia and Sarah Lawrence – cost, respectively $68,405 and $66,990 a year for tuition, room, and board. Who can afford four years of that?? (And think how much money you have to make before taxes, to be able to afford those tuition bills.) And that’s before buying a computer, text books, and plane flights. Or you have to take out so many loans that you are in debt forever.

(Funny, when the TG and I went to Sarah Lawrence, it was in neck-and-neck competition with Bennington for the dubious honor of being the most expensive college in the US. I guess times have changed. For the record, the most expensive college in the country is currently Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, at $69,717 a year. Columbia is #2 and Sarah Lawrence is #4.)

My parents were the opposite of rich, and I had some very good scholarships. But for parents who can afford these tuitions, what’s another quarter- or half-million from your 401(k) to secure your child’s future? Someone spent $1.2 million for a spot at Yale. I wonder what his return-on-investment would have been.

Acceptance rates at the top schools are extremely low: 5.1% for Stanford, 6% for Harvard, 6.3% for Yale, 7% for Columbia, etc., etc. Any edge you can get – however you can get it – is up for consideration … if you have no scruples, morality, sense of fairness, common sense, or real love and respect for your child.

COLLEGE SNOBBERY

I admit it: I’m a college snob. I’m proud I went to good colleges (Columbia and Sarah Lawrence, with a semester at a school in Dublin.) Today, when I meet someone who went to Harvard or Yale, I reflexively think, “This must be a smart person.” And I’m not the only one who feels that way.

I remember how impressed everyone was that Barack Obama, an inexperienced, first-term senator, had been Editor of the Harvard Law Review, as if that was incontrovertible proof of his brilliance. And Bill Clinton’s Rhodes Scholarship gave an unknown governor from Arkansas some instant intellectual and international credibility.

And it’s not just Democrats. Trump always brags about how he graduated from the Wharton School of Business, even though he first went to Fordham, a good but lesser school. And we all know how Jared Kushner’s father bought his way into Harvard for a $2 million “donation.”

But even before that, Dwight Eisenhower cooled his heels as President of Columbia University for a few years after World War II, to grow a little intellectual Ivy over his raw Texas mesquite, before he ran for President of the United States.

The status and connections that flow from going to a top college are undeniable. As it is, the 1% at the top of our economy controls the country. For them to monopolize all the slots in all the top schools only works to further their stranglehold on society. We need to even the playing field; not watch it tilt further in favor of the already privileged. Just the other week, I had lunch with a fellow writer who went to a top school who got a famous college friend to blurb his book. And that’s not to mention having a reading/signing at his local alumni club. Among the main benefits of going to a “good school” are the people you meet there and their continuing support and help throughout your life. It can mean your first job, your first big break. I am Prime Example #1. The TG and I are “college sweethearts.” Who knows what would have happened to me had we not met, had I not transferred to Sarah Lawrence went it “went co-ed?” It was the best move I ever made. And indeed today, many of my closest friends are the friends we made in college.

A good college education is an experience that lasts a lifetime. That’s why these rich parents were so willing to cheat: for their vision of what was just the right school for their precious children.

Music lubricrates almost everything. Good music will help me get through these less-than-good times. And music that isn’t so good? Well, that can be OK, too.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to lately, to try to drown out “current events.”

YUJA WANG

We finally got to see Yuja Wang, the sensationally talented young Chinese pianist, in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and were not disappointed. We saw her play the world premiere of a piano concerto by John Adams of “Nixon In China,” “Doctor Atomic,” etc. fame called MUST THE DEVIL HAVE ALL THE GOOD TUNES? It’s Adams’ third piano concerto: he doesn’t like conventional titles.

It was quite a night at the Disney Hall. At the lecture before the concert, the estimable John Adams showed up and proved to be an engaging interviewee. He disclosed many things: that the source of the title for his new work is Dorothy Day, the great Catholic radical … his love for Bill Evans, the immortal jazz pianist … his first concerts (pop: the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and classical: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops playing highlights for “Oklahoma”) … his belief that “there’s too much Mahler” in concert halls … how he works (using software that was made for television, but finishing with paper and pencil) … how pianists don’t use human page-turners anymore: they have iPads with foot pedals … and how he resents but understands that his works are often programmed with a Beethoven or a Stravinsky or a Mahler symphony, in comparisons that he can never win.

Our night, he was paired against Mahler’s Symphony No.1 – the “Titan” Symphony – conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and, believe me, Adams lost.

I spent a great day at one of my favorite places -- the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens -- in nearby San Marino. I just couldn't resist their "Bonsai-a-thon!!"  

Here's some of what I saw at the Bonsai show and in the Huntington's Desert Garden, the world's largest --

To keep evil spirits away

And then there's the fabulous Library 

Despite the “National Emergency,” I’m going to post a blog this week. As I watch the horror-show unfolding in Washington, our shared national nightmare, and want to cover my eyes, all I could do is resolve to get ready for 2020 and send $50 worth of support to my congressman Adam Schiff, who is going to have to be a hero in all this mess.

… Meanwhile in my micro-life …

I confess: I’m a creature of habit. I’ve been happily married to the same beyond-wonderful woman for forty-seven years. I’ve lived in the same pleasant, comfortable house for the past thirty years. I’ve known my best friend since 1960. I’m still close with high school friends from half a century ago. Maybe some people would say that I’m in a rut, but I just think that I know myself. If I like something, I like it permanently.

It’s the same in my artistic taste. I experience new things, but I always come back to my old favorites.

VAN MORRISON

The TG and I saw VAN MORRISON at the Wiltern Theatre here in LA for the fortieth(?) time. At one time, I had an accurate count of our shows, but that information is long gone. Since our first show at Carnegie Hall in 1972 when we were still in college, there have been concerts at the Beacon Theatre, Avery Fisher Hall, the Felt Forum, Pier 84, the Academy of Music, the Universal Amphitheatre, the Shrine Auditorium, and the Wiltern – from sublime to indifferent.

This one was closer to the sublime despite the fact that I’m not crazy about the setlists of Van’s recent tours. He’s settled into a semi-predictable mixture of blues-jump tunes-jazz-standards-one or two “deep cuts” from his massive catalog, at least one of his early classics (“Gloria” and/or “Brown Eyed Girl)–and one long, inventive “workshop.” I understand that he’s trying to please several constituencies (old fans, new fans, casual fans) as well as satisfying himself. He tries to touch every base and embrace all genres in the manner of Ray Charles, one of his heroes. It’s not the show I want him to do, but I’ll settle for what he did sing.

Here is the setlist from the Wiltern show on February 5th:

A Foggy Day
Symphony Sid
Ain’t Gonna Moan
Days Like This
Have I Told You Lately?
Baby Please Don’t Go medley
Tear Your Playhouse Down
Little Village
Beautiful Vision with his daughter Shana
Why Must I Always Explain
Magic Time
Moondance
Crazy Love
Did Ye Get Healed
Who Can I Turn To
Cleaning Windows
In the Afternoon
Brown Eyed Girl
Ballerina

Except for “Crazy Love,” “Ballerina,” and perhaps “Moondance,” there’s not a song on this list that’s in my Top 50 Van Morrison songs. And he did “Crazy Love” is a less-than-satisfying up-tempo version. But I guess it’s not realistic to expect Van, a 73 year-old man, to turn himself inside out emotionally onstage, the way he did in his youth. (Only Springsteen does that.)

The main thing is he sang very well and seemed to enjoy himself. The band was tight, our seats were great (best ever?), and it was our anniversary present to each other. In all, a fantabulous night.

“In the Afternoon/Don’t You Get Me High/Ancient Highway/Raincheck” – from our show at the Wiltern – 2/5/19 – the one “workshop” song we got, Van doing what only he does and having fun – the climax of the main show, the last song before the encores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZT9DiRcNZ0

“Ballerina” – the very end of the 2/5/19 show – a true highlight: a slice of “Astral Weeks”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVHZpgkHC0

Van in the old days – “CYPRUS AVENUE” – with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsHijcP39UQ

MOVIES I CAN’T TURN OFF

Seeing Van again got me thinking about the things – movies, music, literature, visual art, etc. – that I like to experience repeatedly. There are certain movies that when they come on the screen, no matter how many times I’ve seen them, I have to stop and watch.

THE GODFATHER, I AND II (of course) … THE THIRD MAN … MOONSTRUCK … THE PHILADELPHIA STORY … LAWRENCE OF

ARABIA … FARGO … THE BIG LEBOWSKI … THE BIG SLEEP … DOUBLE INDEMNITY … GOODFELLAS… STRANGERS ON A

TRAIN… MY DARLING CLEMENTINE… HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY … RED RIVER … NINOTCHKA … THE USUAL

SUSPECTS … PULP FICTION … several movies by William Wyler – THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE HEIRESS, THE

LETTER, DODSWORTH … and, yes, CITIZEN KANE

And then there are movies that I will watch obsessively over a short period of time. I’m currently seeing as many showings of PADDINGTON 2 and THE DEATH OF STALIN as I can. If it’s a movie that I really value, I’ll watch it over and over again, trying to learn its secrets. My family ridiculed me for obsessively watching Mike Leigh’s magnificent SECRETS AND LIES over and over again.

Come to think of it, I’ve always watched/listened to things over and over again. When I was a kid, I might have watched “Mighty Joe Young” or “King Kong” or “Captain Blood” on MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE on Channel 9 fourteen times in a single week!

UNCLE VANYA

But as an adult, there’s nothing I’ve watched as often, as obsessively, as the 1963 film of the 1962 Chichester Theatre Festival production of UNCLE VANYA with Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Joan Plowright, Rosemary Harris, Max Adrian, Sybil Thorndike, etc. Stuart Burge directed the film of Olivier’s famous production. ("The admitted master achievement in British twentieth-century theatre … .for authority and finish - above all for centrality of purpose - this has no competitor"—Sunday Times … “One of the greatest productions of an era... the most satisfying and integrated...”-- London Observer … “This company and this production will be remembered for a long time...that leaves you awed, grateful and humble in the face of such perfection.”-- Punch

I’ve watched this UNCLE VANYA countless times. I keep the DVD in my laptop and when we travel, I use it -- on planes and in strange beds -- as comfort viewing/Seconol. But I watch it all the time at home, too, for entertainment purposes and as an instruction manual.

It’s hard for me to express the reverence with which I hold Chekhov. He is one of my gods, and with Shakespeare and Beckett, part of the trinity upon which theatre rests. He writes about the drama of every life. As he says, “Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s the day-to-day living that wears you out.” His characters are real and unique, foolish and tragic, and he exposes them like no other dramatist.

How Chekhov does what he does – laying out people’s characters in a few, significant, perfect strokes – never fails to mesmerize me, no matter how many times I watch his plays. How does he do what he does? What is the secret to creating that Perfect Human Truth onstage? I guess the secret is “genius.”

This VANYA is in black-and-white, and it is breathtakingly simple: tragic and beautiful against Sean Kenny’s all-wooden set. All four leads are simply magnificent. Olivier, notoriously stingy with praise for other actors, called Michael Redgrave’s performance as Vanya, “the best performance I’ve ever seen in anything.” He might be right: Redgrave is just heartbreaking. And he is matched by Joan Plowright’s Sonya. For the filming of the play, Rosemary Harris replaced Joan Greenwood who played Yelena onstage (which might explain Harris’ extremely low, throaty voice, in imitation of Greenwood’s famous sexy purr.) But Harris holds her own with her immortal co-stars..

I watch it over and over, and Chekhov’s magic works on me every time. There is no monologue like Sonya’s at the end of the play:

SONYA. What can we do? We must live our lives. [A pause] Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept, that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. Ah, then dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life; we shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender smile—and—we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. [SONYA kneels down before her uncle and lays her head on his hands. She speaks in a weary voice] We shall rest. [TELEGIN plays softly on the guitar] We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see all evil and all our pain sink away in the great compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. [She wipes away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what happiness was, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. [She embraces him] We shall rest. [The WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden; TELEGIN plays softly; MME. VOITSKAYA writes something on the margin of her pamphlet; MARINA knits her stocking] We shall rest.
The curtain slowly falls.

Breaks my heart every single time.

How does he do it?

A scene from the Chichester UNCLE VANYA with Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvEz94mQPWQ

Another scene with Olivier and Rosemary Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOUa6g793dA&t=3s 

Another scene with Joan Plowright, Max Adrian, and Redgrave blazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6UcwYHp3UI

This is the height of human art. The writing, the acting, everything.

The only problem now is that my DVD is damaged, and I’m getting “SKIPPING OVER DAMAGED AREA” messages. Time for a new disc?

My four-year-old grandson Calder and I like many of the same things: parks, playgrounds, apples, gardening, music, walking our dog Chloe, roughhousing (which we call “Konging”), fart humor, and perhaps most of all, reading.

I spend a lot of time with Calder next to me or in my lap with a book. Lately, we’ve been busy with books by DK, the British publisher formerly known as Dorling Kindersley. I’ve loved and used their high-quality series of Eyewitness Travel Guides for many years, but DK also publishes dozens of large format, copiously illustrated general reference books – perfect for browsing and learning with a four-year-old.

I ran into a great sale on DK books around Christmastime at Costco and bought a few. Now our stockpile comprises:

PICTUREPEDIA

ANIMAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA

CHILDREN’S ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA

HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 1,000 OBJECTS

HISTORY (with the Smithsonian)*

KNOWLEDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA (with the Smithsonian)*

DOG

CAT

THE BIG BOOK OF AIRPLANES

(*DK publishes books with the imprimatur of many well-respected organizations.)

Calder and I leaf through these books all the time. We play “I-Spy” and talk about what’s on the page. He loves animals and birds. He loves arctic scenes and scenes from ancient Egypt.

He is also very interested in armor and weapons: guns and knives, etc. What he calls “traditional weapons.” His parents have kept him away from anything that depicts weapons or violence of any kind. He’s never seen a movie or a TV show. He doesn’t know what a light sabre is. He’s as media-pure as they can keep him. So guns and weapons are forbidden fruit to him. And fortuntately/unfortunately, there are a lot of guns and weapons made and used throughout human history to see. When we go through any book on human history, there is a lot I have to skip over and censor. (I’m glad he’s still so young that I don’t have to explain Donald Trump to him.)

The graphics in the DK books – on glossy white paper, in a generous 10”x12” format – are spectacular. I had no idea how many different animals there were. So many obscure, strange Scrabble-word species and subspecies.

I thought I knew something about this world. I was a kid who read the World Book for fun for hours and hours. But from going through these DK books, I realize how little I know. There are vast tracts of history and science of which I am basically ignorant. I’ve done a lot of reading and information-accumulating my entire life, but the world is far more complex and varied than I could ever grasp.

So it’s fun for me also to leaf through these books with Calder and find out about things that are new to me, too: star birth … the merchant empire of Benin … passarines … bronze age China … star death … robotics.

These books show what a fantastic world we live in. There is so much wonder, so much beauty – I want Calder to love the world. Even though it seems like there is so much horror occurring all around us daily, when you see things through the eyes of a bright child, you appreciate how magnificent our world is. We are lucky to be alive to experience even a fragment of the miracle of this existence of ours.

I can’t think of a better gift for any kid than a big pile of DK books.

POP-UP BOOKS

We also spend time with my collection of pop-up books. A pop-up or movable book is any book with pop-ups, transformations, tunnels, flaps, pull-tabs, pull-downs, etc. that give a three-dimnensional effect. These books are Calder’s “movies.”

Paper engineering is an ancient art. Origami, the traditional Japanese practice of paper folding, has been around since the 6th century. In any era, it is marvelous to see something unusual created from a simple piece of paper.

Today, there are many, many wonderful pop-up books available. Calder loves to choose which book to play with: national parks or New York or California or M.C. Escher or Graceland. He loves tabs that he can pull and the magical movements of a complex construction when a page opens.

I highly recommend the work of the brilliant Robert Sabuda (THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, PETER PAN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) and his collaborations with Matthew Rhinehart (SHARKS, MEGA-BEASTS, GODS AND HEROES, CASTLE.) The ingenuity and artistry of the makers of these marvels is apparent every time Calder and I open one. The last page of the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS book unfolds to a tree that actually lights up.

I do have to hide from him the pop-up books with images that might disturb him: THE POP-UP BOOK OF PHOBIAS … THE POP-UP BOOK OF NIGHTMARES … ALFRED HITCHCOCK and two volumes of CELEBRITY MELTDOWNS.

For that matter, I have to keep him away from other books that interest him: my big Gary Larsen (THE FAR SIDE), Don Martin (“MAD’s Maddest Cartoonist”), and Charles Addams volumes. Lots of that stuff is completely unexplainable to a four-year-old.

ART BOOKS

Calder loves my art books, especially any book with fold-outs. He just loves to fold out. We’ve been looking at large fold-outs of Wild Things in my Maurice Sendak books and wide expanses of Monet waterlilies. I can’t wait to teach him how to find the ‘NINA’s in the drawings of Al Hirschfeld.

I also have a few big books from Disney movies from when my kids were young – THE LION KING and POCAHONTAS – and he loves to look at those. Especially POCAHONTAS which has bad guys and guns. It’s the only exposure to Disney products that he’s had … and his parents don’t really approve.

Come to think of it, I also have to keep him from seeing some Hieronymous Bosch images. Too disturbing and unexplainable … for me.

I cherish the time I spend reading with Calder. Unfortunately I don’t get to read him to sleep. That’s the TG’s privilege. Bedtime reading is a whole other category. I can’t wait to read him CHARLOTTE’S WEB or STUART LITTLE someday or whatever he wants. Maybe that will be my chance to read some J.K. Rowling.

What can you say? These are dark days for America. I have “everything” and I’m still nervous and unhappy too much of the time.

On Facebook, I read about distant high school acquaintances and classmates who are at the end of their tether. People are living under extreme stress. We all know the appalling facts: 78% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck … a third of all Americans don’t have $5,000 saved for their retirement … there are increasing rates of suicide and addiction … a crumbling infrastructure … public school teachers have to work three jobs to make ends meet … thirty million have no health insurance and millions more are under-insured. It’s a cliché but the American dream is becoming a nightmare for far too many in “the richest country in the world.” And yes, we’re still the richest country in the world, only the riches are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few.

Horatio Alger is living in his parents’ basement, smoking pot, watching porn, and becoming embittered. I recently came across the term “IC” – involuntarily celibate. That used to be the condition of most normally horny teenage boys, but for it to become an entire class of young adult men is most troubling. But on gig economy salaries, how can people build families?

800,000 federal workers are about to miss a second paycheck. If this stalemate goes on much longer – and there are no signs of movement on either side – the economy may fall into recession. Just what we need: more self-inflicted pain.

And all this suffering is being caused intentionally. I’m sure that Trump figures that the Democrats, caring about the welfare of the government work force, will crack first. The GOP doesn’t care about human suffering; in fact, it’s often a bonus for them.

So what’s the solution? Let the Democrats keep fighting and investigating. Let Mueller’s report be released. Let the rest of the investigations in the Southern District of New York, etc., continue. I believe that justice will have its day.

I am by nature an optimistic person. The USA I grew up in, from Ike to Kennedy, was always going to get better. The horizon glowed with promise and potential. I’m living proof that Americans can and should advance, living better lives than their parents.

But starting with Reagan, it’s gotten more difficult for the average person to rise. I know that if I were starting out now, with what my parents earned and where I lived, I would be behind the eight ball. I’d have thousands of dollars of debt. The world-class education I received—even with my large basketball scholarship (that’s a joke)—would be beyond my means today. And I’d have to seriously think about a career in “financial services.”

I don’t like living in Trump’s America, but here I am. Here we are.

Until the change comes – whether it’s from impeachment or the election of 2020 -- we must resist and hope.

And there are good signs: a record 102 women in the new Congress, including 35 new members. It is the most racially diverse ever, with the first Native American congresswoman, the first Muslim congresswoman, and the first Green Beret. Ten new members are scientists.

We have the majority. Eventually, we’ll succeed.

Here are some good words of advice:

“Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.” -- Samuel Johnson

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life … that is why I succeed.” -- Michael Jordan

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” -- Victor Hugo

“This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.” – Ralph Walso Emerson

“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” -- Anne Frank

“In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.” -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Where there is no hope, it is incumbent on us to invent it.” -- Albert Camus

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” -- Emily Dickinson

“… to hope till Hope creates / From its own wreck the thing it contemplates” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.” -- Hafiz of Persia

“Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.” -- E.B. White

And a wise warning –

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.” -- Francis Bacon

And for real hope, some holy music --

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – Leonard Bernstein conducts an orchestra of international musicians celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall – Christmas Day, 1989 – “Ode to Joy” starts around 1:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IInG5nY_wrU

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti – from May 7, 2015 – the “Ode to Joy” starts at around 55:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjHhS5MtvA

An “Ode to Joy” flashmob – somewhere in Spain -- heaven on earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo

John Coltrane – “A Love Supreme” – the full album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll3CMgiUPuU