“At table” is a reference to dinner tables across the nation. It’s just one of those Dickens phrases I like.

At the end of this ghastly and horrifying year, I am trying to figure out ways to feel positive. I never did receive that hypnosis I sought! But one of my ways to achieve any solace, frankly, is writing this blog. I may only have seven readers, but it’s kind of like my therapy. When I was a full-time teacher, I always wanted to write but just never had the time or energy. Now, it seems like I can’t stop. Truly, I have to restrain myself from writing every day. If anyone cares to pitch in, please write me a comment at the bottom and let me know if you feel anything about any of this.

But to the topic, “At Table”: I just had a conversation with one of my dearest friends now living in North Carolina. Whenever we speak, I am left with many ponderables.

Ponderable 1:

Her mother believes that transgenders are ruining the country and that they are mentally ill. My friend, and her liberal progressive sister, feel that their mother is off her nut, at this point. This is just one of the topics that is splitting their family apart. My friend’s mother is a lovely person with whom I have previously shared several nice hours while I was visiting. Yet unfortunately, she succumbs to the MAGA world “news” quite often. My friend’s sister, meanwhile, is concerned that she may not be able to trust her kids’ grandma to babysit anymore, for fear she will spew MAGA-based thought farts into their ears.

Ponderable 2:

Another friend of mine’s mother used to defend the current president to no end, and often just randomly out of nowhere. At the dinner table:

Friend’s Mother: I think it’s just terrible how people are disrespectful to the president of our country these day!!

Me: Don’t you think he is disrespectful towards almost everyone? I save my respect for people who are respectful.

Everyone in the room: ( Chaos erupts; screams and shrieks are abounding.)

These scenarios are happening all of over this country, as I understand it. There are those who have a brain, and then there are the brainless zombies who simply eat other people’s brains.

That’s why I think there are so many zombie movies and shows. We ( my ilk- those who can still think) are being infiltrated and we are running scared. My own brother, in his MAGA enthusiasm, speaks to no one in our family anymore. He is the last one on the left in this photo:

Ponderable 3:

My friend was discussing “Are we our brother’s keeper” in her high school English class, probably as a tangential to a book or a story, and she brought up that people who are not white or born in this country are being treated terribly by the government , and she said it is a horrible thing to not have compassion or concern for others, even if they don’t look like you.

Well, she received a devastating, scathing email from a parent of one of her students telling her that it was terrible for her to say such things in class. So, she should NOT be speaking on behalf of compassion for fellow humans?? We used to try to teach this in class regularly, without question. Now–verboten. (German language invoked intentionally)

And so on the occasion of this ending to 2025, I will state my hopes and wishes:

1. I hope the misled of this country either wake up, become educated, or stop voting.
2. I hope the current president gets absorbed into the muck and fires of whatever Hell might exist.
3. I hope families can be healed, and that people suddenly just awaken, as if from an interminably long nightmare.
4. I hope we can resume the business of educating children properly, and the influence of online culture subsides into a mere blip.
5. I hope we do not end up in Civil War, though I will have my unwanted but needed firearms loaded.
6. I hope the planet can heal one day from apocalyptic ignorance.