Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers.

The rapid succession of a toddler-drunk-on-power messes is overwhelming.

I’m exhausted by the sheer number of (what seem to me) reprehensible acts.

My country is sickening me.

federal agents shooting at (and killing) civilians
actions against immigrants, federal workers, the environment, reproductive rights
invading a sovereign nation and abducting its leader
pardoning people who committed reprehensible acts
terrorizing Brown-skinned people
terrorizing transfolk
Black Lives Matter, but don’t

All of these things.

Hate is spreading.

And hope is faint.

These are gut-punch times.

✧✧✧

Then we all have our personal shit shows.

My heart is breaking as I watch a loved one disappear.

Alzheimer’s is slowly (and quickly) taking her cogency and her memories and unraveling her.

(Fuck.)

✧✧✧

I’m looking for comfort.

Always.
And, in all ways.

The following four quotes might comfort.

(After each quote I present will be my thinking about it)

✧✧✧

Voltaire’s lifeboat voluntary band

Comptez que le monde est un grand naufrage, et que la devise des hommes est, sauve qui peut.

Life is a shipwreck.
Save yourself if you can.
Do not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

✧✧✧

Honestly?
Singing in lifeboats feels too upbeat today.

✧✧✧

Last Tuesday. I’m sitting in an Adirondack chair, my feet resting on a well-weathered log here in Sisters, Oregon. It’s my family’s annual week-long vacation at the same beautiful house we’ve rented for the past four summers. My favorite spot. Just above the little creek. Most of my worries are 153 miles away. ✧✧✧ This Tuesday. I’m sitting in my

Five More Wisdom Biscuits

June 11, 2026

1. I know garbage “You should put the garbage bins back where they were before you remodelled,” I tell the managers of the Grant High School construction project when they host a neighborhood forum. “Funny thing, that,” the lady in charge says, “It’s a bit counterintuitive.” She explains something city planners learned about beaches. “If there is a garbage

Light-Lifting

June 11, 2026

✧✧✧ Introduction ✧✧✧ A long-form follow up to May’s 14/40 Five Wisdom Biscuits about smiling. ✧✧✧ Outline ✧✧✧ A Story Deep Shit About Smiles The Joke My New Workout Plan ✧✧✧ A Story ✧✧✧ I exercise religiously—by which I mean I’m very compassionate and affirming. Today, I didn’t challenge myself to attempt an eight-rep back squat 5–8