It’s been a minute. I’ve been in my burrow, working hard at getting the current book ready to send to my agent. This past week I passed what is a personal but vital milestone: one of my most astute readers offered her feedback, and pronounced that It Does Not Suck. We appear to have reached the home stretch!
I also came across a quote in my reading that felt especially profound, given recent events:
That, to me, is the quintessential experience of living in the United States: constantly worrying whether or not the country is about to fall apart.
– Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Sometimes United States
Which is not to suggest that current events are not frightening and concerning. They are.
We do, however, need to pull back on the rhetoric. Even setting aside the events of July 13, it is better for your health and mine to step back from anger.
My strategy for doing this is as follows: when considering the words and deeds of certain politicians who infuriate me (and let’s face it, there are quite a few), I do not wish harm upon them. Rather, I wish that they should go off to a golf course and play an eternal 18 holes. Or, if they’re not golf people, they can stroll along a secluded beach, or they can watch football games forever, or whatever it takes to keep them occupied and out of the public sphere.
May they enjoy unending holes in one. May they discover truth and beauty among the sands, or win their fantasy bowl. I don’t care, frankly, any more than they care what happens to me and mine.
These wishes will likely never come true at the rate we’re going, but it is far, far better than wishing – or, goodness forbid, enacting – violence upon others. When we desire harm to others, we do violence to ourselves.
Until next time, peaches. Take care, and practice kindness, or you’ll never get better at it.
Elizabeth Cobbe 
Leave a comment