Solstice 2021


Solstice, 2021

Washington, Pacific NW





Dear Ones:



—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
  

  Welcome, Friends, to my 30th Annual rueful ruminations on the occasion of the Winter Solstice.  You may harken back to High School, and your last known exposure to Dickens in actual print, as told by that helpful feller, Mr. Cliff Notes. (No, watching a Hallmark version of “A Christmas Carol” doesn’t count.) The year 2021 may inspire future Dickenses to write ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, except that George Orwell has already written this version, with a post-script and commentary by Margaret Atwood.  We started this year well enough, looking forward to a peaceful transition of power, a proud American tradition, even as we died like flies, or more aptly, like lemmings, of a plague we know how to control, but just won’t.  More than 800,000 of us have died thus far, perhaps half of that number preventable.  Then, only 6 days into the shiny new year, we witnessed the storming of the Bastille, by minions of a fascist, antidemocratic conspiracy, which hoped to topple the world’s oldest democracy from within.  As I have said here before, no country or group of countries on earth could prevail over us from without.  If America dies, it will be from a self-inflicted wound.  We were grazed by our own bullet.



—“It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
   

    Even the victims of the mob attack, after cowering in the House chamber and escaping out the back door, have closed ranks around the conspirators, made lame excuses, laid false blame elsewhere, and generally ignored and hidden the plain facts, in an effort to regain power. This violation of their solemn oath to “defend the Constitution, against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” has no apparent cost, neither criminally nor politically, and has happened without hesitation, as they protect tribe over country, and power over the rule of law.  Despite many subsequent faults, I must commend Mike Pence, for doing the right thing when it mattered.  Also, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger, my two new favorite ‘Pubs', deserve hearty praise.  I propose that Joe Biden give each of them a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I love awkward moments.



—“It was the Epoch of Belief, it was the Epoch of incredulity…”
    

    Here, Dickens and I diverge, or perhaps converge, as blind belief has led to incredulity. A US Senator announces that mouthwash will prevent COVID. Thanks, Ron Johnson, for this Nobel-worthy discovery.  Except neither his hogwash nor anybody’s mouthwash do any good. Religious hucksters proclaim to their flocks against vaccines, masks, and social distancing, the top three weapons we have against the plague. (Really?? And you call us ’Sheeple’??)  They flog ivermectin, vitamins, hydroxychloroquin, prayer, herd immunity, and God’s personal protection, secured by cash donations…And their flocks are dying at thrice the rate of the rest of us.  That does not make me glad.  The real problem is that many innocents exposed by the credulous anti-vaxxers also die, so these ‘personal choices’ have lethal consequences for others.   ‘Do unto others’ takes on a new meaning, I guess.  But send us 10% of your income, or all of your income, and be saved. Operators are standing by.   Nobody has any sense of irony anymore…Nobody has any sense of common purpose or public duty anymore either.  Prosperity Gospel means Devil take the hindmost.  Run, Forrest, Run!  Devil gon’ getcha!
 

—“It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness…” 
    

      It is indeed dark here in this season, at least here in the frozen North.  That is why god invented Snowbirds. And Arizona.  It is an excellent time for taking stock, doing small, neglected projects, and counting the days until the return of the sun.  With that return may come common sense and purpose, and enough daylight to actually get something accomplished. We do have our little routine here, with an hour of 40hz light and sound, to ward off Alzheimer’s disease, while doing email and whatever, (this works in Alzheimer’s-prone mice, so we call it ‘Mouse Disco’.) Then come the actual chores of the day, followed by a survey of the news in the afternoon, with legal commentary from a variety of folks, including former Federal Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.  I am really appreciating my law degree these days, as I can follow and anticipate the commentary better with it, than without.  Darkness is definitely present, in so many ways.
 


—“It was the Spring of Hope, it was the Winter of Despair…”
    

    I am doing my level best to cling to the spring of hope, and ride out the winter of despair.  I cheer myself with the latest adventures of ‘Florida Man’, and Karen, and I avoid tabloid press and celeb ”news” almost as much as I do COVID. I do follow the real news, and await the slow grind of the DOJ and justice for all.  WTF is up with all this shooting??  Everybody is mad as hell, and they ain’t gonna take it no more…I sure don't cross anybody in traffic these days, mindful of armed road-ragers among us. Well, anyway, with the arrival of Spring, I look forward to the release of Trump-branded Soap-on-a-Rope, Trump-designed rubber prison slides, and a Trump line of personal lubricants. I suspect he will have more chance to read mattress tags, than ever he had to read the Constitution.
 

   
    In my little tribe, no major disasters have occurred.  Two kids have had and survived COVID,  pre-vaccine release, and now all are vaccinated.  Mom is nearly 92, and doing reasonably well, living in her own apartment, with lots of help.  My sibs are likewise well and good, all things considered.  Michele (44) has sold her Yoga Studio in Columbus, and is enjoying part time work, and more family time.  Husband Eric has bought a Cessna, and is flying them about.  Lily (14) is a high school freshman, and is taking flying lessons(!) while older brother Jack (16) is driving and looking at colleges.  Nathanael is employed in San Diego, doing personal training, and doing his drawing in his spare time.  Mickey the boxer keeps him company.  Hannah (35) is in Phoenix, in her last year at Mayo Med School, interviewing (Zooming) at Emergency Medicine Residencies.  We will discover where she lands in early March, on ‘Match Day’, when the Match Computer will decide matters.  She has a  little rescue cattle dog she loves, and who loves her back.  Everett (33), our award-winning poet and author, continues his work in DC for a VA contractor, editing grant applications and the like.  Catherine is becoming a ‘Master Knitter’, requiring exacting precision, following directions (never her strong suit) and submitting samples for criticism, and then re-working them.  This requires, apparently, a lot of cursing.  You wouldn’t believe the strings of sailor-worthy expletives she belts out. Think Barbara Streisand not getting a table at Regine’s. Think Ethel Merman at the end of Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Does our sailor Hannah proud, she does.

      As for me, I have spent much of the year in boat husbandry.  The plan was to go to SE Alaska last May, but various unsolved and unanticipated problems prevented that, so that plan is deferred to this coming spring. I/We have done tons of upgrades, and tons more to go.  None critical, just home improvement stuff. I have recently had second thoughts on the name of the boat.  'Tortuga' is sweet, and descriptive as to speed, but another name has occurred to me:  'Pole Dancer'-- Because, she works for you as long as you keep throwing hundred dollar bills at her. It would be better still, if I had some Polish ancestry, but I cannot claim that honor.  I must also note, I have officially retired, as of December 7, 2021, a day that will live in infamy.  I am keeping my licenses for now, in case the stock market goes to hell, but I have no plans to work, and I love, love, love getting up each day and doing what I want to do.  In celebration of the day, I had a glass of $2,000.00 wine.  It started out as $10.00 wine, but after I dumped the fresh glass onto my MacBook Air keyboard, it was $2000.00 wine.  A little bitter, at that price point.  I will miss my work mates, and the fount of bizarre stories that work always provided.  So, indeed, might you, as my life becomes old and dull, and this letter just another Xmas letter-bore. I do have some collected sayings for anyone of the not politically correct persuasion, available as “Shit My Doc Says” on bobchristopher.blogspot.com .   I deny in advance, any and all of these quotes attributed to me by wily scribes.  Fake news, nothing but fake news. 

    Also on the work front, on my last shift, it was relatively “Q” , and I therefore had time to talk to patients.  I had to give new cancer diagnoses to two patients, one who suspected as much, and one who did not.  I had the 30 minutes each to sit down, prep them up a bit with the coming bad news, tell them, and then answer questions.  One was hard of hearing, so that was excruciating, repeating everything in a holler. "I THINK THIS MAY BE CANCER!!"  But it was worth the effort, and worth the time I was fortunate to have with him and his wife. The other was a very intelligent émigrée, who had escaped from the Communists just after the war as a child, and became an Ivy League nursing researcher.  She knew the news would be bad, and we talked a long time about controlling one’s ending, about dignity, about pain and anticipation, and about the opportunity many never get, to seek closure, to say farewell, to say I love you.  What a privilege, on my last working night, to talk with such an accomplished and intelligent person on such a deep and personal topic.  Yes, I will miss all that and more.  It has been a good run for me.

      I pause, as every year, to note the passing of some luminaries, and some blots on the landscape of our lives.  First, a sad farewell to the 800,000 lost so far from COVID.  There is a long list this year, but I will spare you.  So many entertainers, so little time.  Farewell to Cicely Tyson, Hal Holbrook, Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman, BJ Thomas, Yaphet Kotto, Helen McCrory (NOT Narcissa!), Jackie Mason, Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and Dusty Hill, of ZZ Top.  Politicians Bob Dole, Max Cleland, Colin Powell, Ruth Ann Minner , and Walter Mondale are history.  Public scoundrels Phil Specter, Bernie Madoff, Rush Limbaugh, Larry Flynt and Televangelist Marcus Lamb have made their escape, and good riddance to all of them.  Sportin’ Lifers included Tommy Lasorda, Hank Aaron, Al Unser, and Lee Elder, first Black golfer to play in the Masters.
    

    And so, Friends, Neighbors, and Countrymen, whether we agree or not, the earth continues to orbit on its slanted axis, and the light returns to our hemisphere in the spring.  No matter, whatever else transpires in our little tempest, the Universe don’t care, the Universe don’t give a shit.  Only we do. Or at least we should.  Let us draw together against the madness, hew to the truth over purposeful, evil fiction and alternative facts, reassure our youngsters that all is not lost, reaffirm the better angels of our nature, and forge into our future with purpose and stout hearts.  I wish you all peace, prosperity, health, security in insecure times, and most of all, courage to see, and to do what is right.  You WILL know it when you see it, but it may be hard.  Hard times require hard choices, but I trust you all to remain in the light.



—“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

   

                

                            Bye, Best, and
                               

                                 Better times ahead,

                                        B