LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR WHEN YOU'RE VOTING

Teacher hugs a child at Briarwood Elementary School after a

tornado destroyed the school

{NY Daily News}

Here is the situation: The Russian government infiltrated our political system and installed a corrupt businessman as president, by manipulating social media, broadcasting lies and propaganda, secreting bad actors into our system, and generally wreaking havoc with our democratic process. American co-conspirators remain in place in our government, though 19 have been indicted and 5 have pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy and subsequent attack on the American people. We need to clean house in order to restore our freedom to choose our own leaders. Our freedoms are permanently limited, if we do not do this. Once the conspirators gain control of the government and populate the House, Senate and presidency, getting them out may never be possible.

I read in The Washington Post this morning, however, that some leaders of the Democrat Party are underestimating their constituents. People like Senator Sherrod Brown, who is "running for reelection in a state Trump won," thinks that his constituents are more interested in "jobs and health care." He, and others like him are afraid that, if they talk too much about the Russian conspiracy and attack, Americans will tire of it and they will lose votes.

The idea is that they think that Americans only care about themselves and their own "kitchen table" topics, i.e., the things they worry about and talk about over their kitchen tables. Even though it would be extremely dangerous to leave these Russian co-conspirators in place to destroy our entire way of life, these leaders of the Democratic Party are focusing their energies on more pedestrian topics.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your mind and with

all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your

neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment

greater than these."

Mark 12:30-31

Our country is not built on pure selfishness. Yes, there ARE some narcissists who only care about themselves and their personal fortunes, but those people do not define our national personality. We are, historically, a Christian nation based on enlightened Christian values. [This does not mean everyone has to be a Christian to be an American. Christian values help, support and nurture everyone. Even organizations that are specifically Christian typically help all people, regardless of faith.] The most important commandment, according to Christ, is to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

When I vote, I vote in a way that I believe will benefit everyone. I have the confidence that most Americans also do this. Even those with whom I disagree about method have good intentions. Many of my friends voted for Donald Trump with good intentions. I trust that. I disagree about him, obviously. He is terrible for our country, but I think that, were it not for malicious propaganda and manipulation of "news" outlets, such as Fox News and The Heritage Foundation, those friends might have voted differently.

What we need is MORE information about the criminal acts of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators. This information needs to reach more people, and it needs to be clear. 19 indictments. What does that mean? 5 people have pleaded guilty, and there are more to come, who will either be proven guilty or will admit to it without having to go through the trial process. The legal ramifications for these individuals needs to be advertised. What these people did needs to be detailed publicly.

We are not a selfish people, and we do not need to be coddled with topics that are more personal or more fun. The state of our government is in our hands because our votes determine who serves us in Washington. We need more information in order to make informed choices, not less.

Silver Rose Parnell

PATTERNS OF NATURE INFORM THE MIND

"Mystic River"

Copyright Silver Rose Parnell

Abstract patterns give the impression of river.

I woke this morning wondering what fresh hell would assault me when I checked into the news, as I am wont to do these days. I admit I HAVE been worried about our country since Donald Trump took the throne.

First up was the propaganda show put on by Trump's propaganda machine, carefully scripted and dripping with inappropriate superlatives in a concert of hyperbole known as the "Press Briefing." Sean Spicer read from his daily tribute to The Dear Leader, extolling his virtues, where even Trump's incredible faux pas and failures are couched in self-congratulatory terms.

If I wrote about every occasion upon which Trump threatened our national safety, reputation or security, I would spend my entire day writing political blogs, and that isn't my role in life. Nor is it even my genre, as a writer. As a religious woman, matters of state do not typically take any space in my mind, except where I feel that religious freedoms may be at stake, and this is where I feel Donald Trump may do us the most harm, which is why I write about him on occasion.

As is customary with these so-called "press briefings," Spicer has very little definitive information in answer to any of the questions asked by the press. He dances around all the topics like an aged ballerina. It is obvious from his verbal Swan Lake that he has not been given permission to convey any information that is not contained in the highly scripted Ode to the Toad.

This is the pattern of the joke known as "The Press Briefing": Spicer reads the Ode, the contents of which convey the uneven input of the Greek Chorus that has combed through it, overseen by Trump, who has thrown clunky, brash superlatives into the mix, like flat notes inserted into an overwhelmingly loud and brassy piece of performance art. The entire tone of the opus is false, where all of Trump's failures and missteps are characterized as grand successes, such as the recent debacle in Yemen in which lives were lost. Trump, through the mouth of Spicer, insists that it was a "success" (because everything he does is a success in his own eyes and anyone who disagrees is invited to leave or is summarily fired.)

The Press tries to get detail from Spicer, who has OBVIOUSLY been put under some kind of gag order by Trump. Trump issues the "truth of the day" and that's it. That's all you get. Even when the topic of RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS was batted around,  Spicer was obviously trying not to say anything that would get him in trouble on either side.

In this morning's briefing we learned, in general terms that Trump is in favor of religious people being able to adhere to their religion without interference from the government, but Spicer couldn't commit to what that meant exactly. He can only deal with general theory because his boss hasn't prepared any specifics or his boss doesn't want anyone to be prepared for the specifics when he writes one of his flood of executive orders that he's been printing up like playbills for the show that is Trump.

Because Trump behaves so inappropriately and has become a laughing stock with the majority of Americans and the rest of the world, Spicer's announcement this morning about religious freedoms is painful to hear. If the press secretary of a man with gravitas were saying the same things, it would be of great benefit to those of us who are pro-life and do not wish to be forced to participate in any activity that even whispers the name of abortion. None of us wants federal money going to Planned Parenthood. We do not want little family businesses bankrupted because their religious sentiments prevent them from baking cakes for weddings of same sex couples. People voted for Trump SOLELY because they hoped he would reverse Roe v. Wade by a well placed Supreme Court placement or two or three.

If Trump was a serious diplomat, a skilled and elegant leader, aware of the nuances of politics and people, his support of religious freedom would have some weight. He would be able to change the flow of culture that is careening close to the edge of outright public persecution of Christians, but since he is such an incredible boob, it is harmful to the cause to be affiliated with him. Everything he does is wacky, uninformed, boorish, impolite and just plain primitive.

Sometime in the future, when Trump is out of office, everything he does will be reversed, just as he is now trying to reverse everything that Obama did, and our country is going to have to figure out how to prevent someone like this from grabbing power ever again. We are going to have to rebuild our democracy, after he and Steve Bannon are through tearing it down.

When Trump was first elected, I worried a lot about how his behavior would affect America's relationships with our allies and our enemies alike, but I now realize that our allies have leaders who are more intelligent, skilled, nuanced and educated than Trump. Foreign leaders in the developed world see him for who he is, and they also see us for who WE are. They know that Trump lost the popular vote by close to 3 million people. They have seen the videos of mass marches and demonstrations against him in cities all over the U.S. They know that "America" is not behind Trump, but these leaders also see diplomatic affairs through the lens of history, where patterns of behavior are crucial to the apprehension of future events.

Trump is not the first fatally flawed egomaniac to take control of a country, suppress freedom of speech and produce masses of propaganda to disguise what is really going on. Autocrats throughout history have picked out a vulnerable population to blame for everything that is wrong in the country. With the Nazis, it was the Jews. With Trump it is the "illegals." It is typical for this type of leader to move their family into the seat of power, giving the closest jobs to those to whom they are related. Trump is not the first man to fire anyone who dares refuse to do something illegal to satisfy the monarch. Nor is he the first to make wild, impossible promises like Trump's promise to improve services and create more jobs while cutting costs at the same time. Hitler's promises of wealth and plenty upon the removal of the Jews was a similar promise. PATTERNS. Patterns (history) count.

Autocrats like Trump commonly use force, bullying, intimidation and personal humiliation as primary tools to accomplish his real purpose. Look to his Leninist, white supremacist sidekick, Steve Bannon, for clues to Trump's real agenda. Trump is out to dismantle our brand of democracy and create something else. He just hasn't told us about it. You can read about it, though, in the Breitbart editorials.

World leaders see Trump for who he is, which is why the Australian Prime Minister didn't mention Trump's boorish rudeness during their telephone call. When asked about it by the press, he only said, with a slight smile playing on his lips, that the deal between America and Australia (with regard to some refugees who have been stuck on some islands outside Australia for a few years) is still in place. Later, he expressed regret that there was a leak of his telephone conversation with the president.

Leaders of foreign countries can see the patterns of Trump's behavior, patterns to which he seems to be enslaved. In every interaction, no matter who it is, Trump first flatters his target and then he flatters himself a while, at which point, he makes a grab for whatever he wants or makes the self-aggrandizing point he wants to make. If Trump doesn't get what he wants out of the interaction, he goes on the attack and in his most hostile, boorish manner, starts calling his adversary unsavory names and insulting them. Everyone knows this about him. Nervous laughter ensues. No one is going to give a hint that they disagree with him.

He certainly did this with the women he pursued and assaulted. First, he flatters the woman, then he flatters himself, then he makes a grab for what he wants. If rebuffed, he calls her ugly or whatever other vile insult comes into his mind. He did this to at least one of the dozen or so women who came forward to confirm that his bragging about sexual assaults was true. He has no shame, this man. His support of the cause of religious freedom is about as helpful as that of the KKK.

We take our cues of behavior from the patterns of what other people do and say, wear and consume. Our bodies are conformed of patterns of cells. Bees produce wax homes for their queens and their honey using hexagonal patterns that are beautifully laid out. This is a natural gift given by God. Patterns of behavior inform our consciousness and help us decide what is safe, what is good, what is bad.

Criticizing Donald Trump, based on his patterns of behavior, isn't safe. Nervous laughter.

After watching the Press Briefing reality show, I took a look at some film of Trump's meeting today with Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. He stroked them for a short time with a handful of whatever flattery he had in his head at the moment. Then he immediately switched to flattering himself. He talked about his great win of the presidency (which he can't seem to get over and continues to crow about), then made insulting comments about his telephone call with the Australian Prime Minister (which has nothing to do with the Harley Davidson people who were sitting in front of him and which prompted nervous laughter.)

Trump is the original solipsist, except that you may not exist in his consciousness even if you ARE sitting right in front of him. His mind is captured by the latest irritation he experienced and/or the current lie he is trying to promote. I guess he thinks that if he says it enough times to enough people in enough venues it will magically become true.

This is not the man who is going to reinstall God at the head of the government of America. People who think they ARE God never do that. If anything, he will hurt our cause. I am sorry, my dear friends who voted for him, but you will be greatly disappointed when the Trump show is over and the final reviews are in. Abortion will not be abolished because of anything that Trump does. Although a great number of Americans do not believe in abortion, there are far more people who want it to be legal, and that is going to be the overriding consideration of even the most obtuse political hack who isn't saddled with Donald Trump's crippling emotional need for approval.

As far as whether or not our reputation will be lost with leaders of foreign countries,  I suspect that the people who REALLY run the world, the guys who never lose their jobs, the CIA and other intelligence people on the ground, those whose job relies upon anonymity -  THOSE people are far smarter than all of us and are not about to let this child-man throw the world into chaos, if possible. These people have relationships with counterparts in other countries. They are on the job, doing their best to protect us on the ground. I hope they are successful because Trump has threatened to invade Mexico with Troops, break an agreement to house refugees currently housed in Australia, pull the U.S. out of Nato, take military actions against Iran, etc. etc. etc.

The only people who may be moved to action against him would be leaders in countries that are completely disconnected from us. Notice that Trump hasn't said anything about North Korea? If he insults their Dear Leader, who knows what would happen? They don't have the sophistication of the rest of the world, having removed themselves from it. Their leader may not be able to put aside a loss to his honor because of some slight by The Donald. He likely does not have the savvy of the Prime Minister of Australia who clearly knows what he's dealing with.

While hobbling home from my first walk with the dog this morning and thinking about all these things, I happened to notice the beautiful job that is being done on an apartment complex in my neighborhood. The patterns of the work conjure up, in the most abstract manner, the surrounding landscape, and the history of place. I had to stop for a while and just admire the design. The architect had won a very prestigious architectural award for its design many years ago. I hadn't appreciated it before, when someone else had destroyed the design by slapping a few ill-conceived paint colors over the original masterpiece.

The painting isn't finished, but I can already feel the vision of the architect. The pattern of his work clearly evokes the New Mexican vibe. The very top part of the building incorporates the colors of the stormy summer clouds that we love so much in this part of the world. The colors actually made my brain feel good....and I really needed to feel good today.

Please pray for our misguided and childish President, as well as everyone else who has to work with him. Please pray that the Lord illumines Trump and gives him inner guidance that will encourage him to cease this turbulent, disturbing method of doing business.

Please pray for our beautiful world and its stunning symmetry of pattern. Pray that we all experience the teaching that is inherent in our appreciation of the beautiful patterns of the world and let it calm and soothe us, giving us peace within ourselves and in our relationships with everyone else in the world.

Lord save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

WHAT I AM WATCHING NOW (SPOILER ALERT!)

Florence  Foster Jenkins

(nee Narcissa Florence Foster)

1868-1944

I don't require what you might traditionally call "entertainment" these days, as I find certain types of WORK to be my happiest compulsions; things like genealogy research which leads so naturally into historical research, and the making of hats for the homeless...or the occasional cold mail delivery lady. Writing is terrible work, and I just hate it, but I can't seem to get away from it as it also entertains me, in a grim fashion.

Having been given a television during the last year...and quite a large one (to accommodate my failing vision), I DO watch several programs, but I can't seem to generate much interest in anything more than the news channels, and I watch them all, even Faux News Channel, which seems to give credibility to some incredible things and which gives me anxiety, so that channel gets short shrift from me. Everything else, though, as long as people aren't arguing loudly over one another, I will "watch." Actually, the television might as well be one huge radio because I can't bear to just SIT there and watch it. I must be doing something else besides.

Crochet, painting and house cleaning are good accompaniments, except when doing dishes. I have to keep turning off the water to catch the drift of what's being discussed, now and then.

It goes without saying that there are certain PBS programs that are sacrosanct, and I watch them as if I am in a movie theatre; enrapt in the story line and watching every movement in the actors' faces, as if I am one of those human lie detectors I've heard about, the ones who watch the micro movements beneath the skin of a person's face and can tell when they're lying. When Downton Abbey finished its final season, I felt as if a best friend had died. There was so much about that series that I appreciated!

The beauty of the surroundings, the stately movement of time that became less stately over the long haul and more herky jerky over the landscape of what I consider to be a bad bit of historical geography. Anything later than 1925 is on shaky ground with me. Everything became so coarse after that time, while at the same moment congratulating itself that everything was becoming modern.

The grand dowager, Lady Grantham, if you haven't guessed, was my favorite character, and she took something of me with her when she disppeared from my weekly ritual of Downton Abbey worship. She represented the old guard which, to me, seemed very beautiful and lovely in many of its habits.

Recently, however, I was given a discount coupon from my internet carrier so that I could watch a pay-on-demand movie for free. I could have watched one in "high definition" and used up the whole $6.00 THAT way, but instead I decided to watch two movies in "standard def" so that I could have a double feature on an especially painful evening when I didn't have the energy to crochet or write. I got the first movie for free and then paid only $5.00 for the second one, which means each one cost $2.50 (in my mind, anyway.)

As luck would have it, I had snacks in the house, which is a rare thing. I typically eschew anything that isn't real food; that is to say, bread, eggs, fruits, veggies, meat, beans, nuts, seeds, filtered water. This year, when a friend called me from the grocery store and asked me what I wanted, I asked for "goodies" to share with any of the other old lady neighbors who may drop by. It's usually just my friend Ruby, but you never know. Anyway, I had PIE. It wasn't a very good pie, as it turned out, because it had NONFAT MILK in it, which makes me dreadfully sick, but I didn't know about the nonfat milk until it was too late. Anyway, I got to have my movie night with pumpkin pie that would not blow up inside me until a few hours later.

The movie blew up immediately, however. Forever the anglophile, I chose BRIDGET JONES'S BABY as the first feature. Never mind that the starring actress is actually an American. She did a fair job of ACTING as a Brit in the first film, so I thought she'd be good in this sequel.

Mind you, I am not one of those people that hate sequels. I will give them a chance, especially since I always have trouble remembering the FIRST film of the series, so I don't usually catch the little bumbles. If I happen to be sharp enough to catch a flub in the sequel, I yell to no one in particular, "continuity!" as if I was still in the movie business, watching to make sure that a 1960's timepiece didn't show up in a scene that was supposedly from the 1940's! The dog reacts in amusement whenever I talk to myself like this. He thinks his little human has gone mad...or something.

So, Bridget Jones's Baby immediately slapped me in the face with the most vulgar language and innuendo I could possibly imagine, even to the not-so-vague references to the size of a man's genitals, while all her girlfriends kept telling her, in the most chipper way, that she needed to have sex. This is where I learned that, while the first movie ended on a happy note that led us all to believe that Bridget was, finally, ending up with the equally adorable Mr. Darcy, it had not actually worked out with them, and they'd called it quits after 10 years together.

In this second movie Bridget is the head of a similar department in which she had suffered while juggling her boss and Mr. Darcy in that first movie. She has a vulgar sidekick who is the on-screen interviewer for their news program. Said chipper sidekick  pulls Bridget away for a girls weekend at a spa, supposedly, but has actually booked them into a yurt at some muddy rock festival where extremely short blue jean cutoffs are the costume of choice, despite the grim and continual rain.

Now, mind you, Bridget is, by this time, 43 years old, we are told, and the bloom is definitely off that rose. She's lost that bungling sweetness we loved about her in the first film. The camera keeps zooming in on her tight and trim upper thighs where they meet her bum, perhaps to keep us from looking at her face that wears a pained and rigid expression through most of the film. Or perhaps the cameraman got distracted.

I would suspect botox, except that an entire field of terrified wrinkles moves across her cheek bones whenever she mistakenly makes an expression. You could see those micro-expressions from outer space. I'm not being mean. Wrinkles are lovely when one is SMILING, but I can't tell you what to call that expression that happens on her.

It goes from bad to worse. In an extremely awkward set of scenes, she has sex with a man at the rock festival and then sex with her ex, Mr. Darcy, and ends up preggers, having to string along the both of them until they can figure out who is the father. (She won't submit to an amniocentesis test, with that long needle, and I don't blame her a bit.)

The movie slams from one nauseating scene to another, something like a distressed boat on the high seas during a deep sea fishing trip that's gone bad, with the audience mourning dear little Bridget who has obviously died before the movie began, and everyone is vomiting from sea sicknesses and sorrow.

Actress Emma Thompson puts in a highly credible performance as Bridget's gynecologist and is wryly funny despite the lukewarm jokes they make her say. She's a trooper, that one, and it was a relief to see her every time she popped up.  In fact, she may have saved our lives.

The ONLY laugh I got out of the whole movie was when dear Mr. Darcy was trying to carry this balloon of a pregnant woman through the streets of London whilst in labor. His facial expressions were priceless. The second man meets up with them halfway to the hospital, at which point carrying Bridget becomes a two-man job. We could have used a few more good men to carry this film.

Eventually, while giving birth, Bridget realizes she's still in love with Darcy and holds his hand with both of hers, leaving the other guy to just deal with it on the periphery. It was a clunky, heavy scene, with closeups of the hands involved. 1940's, anyone?

So, finally, I have arrived at my POINT.  Our modern world continues to express surprise that women want love, devotion, and family ties, NOT free-wheeling sexual encounters in yurts at rock concerts. We don't want to wait until we're 43 to have babies and get married. Careers, while wonderful and captivating, simply do not replace what we really want. We are biologically programmed for partnership, love and family. God created us for one another, and we keep pretending that it isn't necessary or that we can put it off until our FORTIES, or, indeed, forever...just fornicating our lives away until we're too old to do otherwise.

The developed world keeps fighting biology. Our prime baby making years are between the ages of 15 and 25, which makes sense, given that we are born with every egg we shall ever have. The older we grow, the older the eggs, and the more chance for birth defects or infertility. Believe me, I have heard all the reasons why couples shouldn't marry young or have children young, but the proof is in the pudding. What we are doing now does not work and is just plain sad.

The bleak and sodden love story that is BRIDGET JONES'S BABY is, in my mind, a cautionary tale, at best. Mostly, it is a bad movie because it is inauthentic. It tries to push concepts that do not work in real life. There are no happy feelings at the end of this movie.

Modern ideas about sex, love, marriage, children and abortion are all engineered and fueled by our hyper-capitalistic society, the corporate obsession with money. In short, it all boils down to GREED, but those of us suffering under the consequences of this soul-killing way of looking at the most important aspects of life are not even the people that BENEFIT from the modern philosophies about family, sex, etc. CORPORATIONS are the beneficiaries of this sort of cultural expression. If the corporations can keep us slaving away underneath them, (making slave wages), then the corporations and the CEOs at the top of the heap can benefit. Oblivious to the way that we are being used, movies like BRIDGET JONES'S BABY act like the Nazi propaganda films, trying to get us all heated about our "right" to kill our children or to put off conceiving for so long that children don't enter into the picture or there are damn few of them.  Bridget Jones is a success!  She is the boss at the news studio, churning out entertainment news, making the guy at the top of the heap very wealthy...and she can STILL have a baby, even though her eggs are geriatric. See, people? We can have it all.

Frances Foster Jenkins is also a movie about love, based upon a true story about a socialite who adored classic music and wanted to sing, sing, sing, but she had a tin ear and the vocal chords of a drunken raptor. I loved that movie, and I don't want to ruin it for you because it gives the payoff that Bridget Jones's Baby never could. I hope you see both movies and you can make your own comparisons.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose