Intro:
I’m still pretty damn furious, and if what is coming out on the news is accurate…. If investigation confirms that some lawmakers not only verbally incited, but actually gave “recon” tours during lockdown, if they pointed out offices, if they had anything to do with the removal of office “Panic Buttons,” if they had anything to do with the threats on the lives of fellow lawmakers and their families – well, I’ll be beyond angry/mad/furious/seeing red. Personally, I think they should receive a fair trial and a life sentence to Guantanamo! Not that I have strong thoughts about it.
I rather like what my Auntie Marie told me several years ago, “I forgive, and I forget, but I remember always!”
That oath I first took in 1965 meant something to me, I volunteered. I knew what it meant. My country means a whole lot to me. Part of me doesn’t understand how people like Ted Cruz & Co. can act like they do—other than greed and selfishness.
Last week I said I didn’t have a clue how we move on. This week, I have that clue. I remembered a book I read maybe 30 years or so ago, Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton Samenow, PhD. I had a person I my life who was very difficult to be around, highly manipulative, but not, at least when I knew him, a criminal. A friend recommended the book. One of the best I could have read. It has since been updated, and I’ve long given my copy away to someone I thought could use it, and we all know how my memory, what there of it, is.
My memory is Dr. Samenow and some cohorts worked with some pretty nasty criminals within the prison system, to see if it was possible to get them back on the straight and narrow. And they succeeded, with an extremely low rate of recidivism amongst the men (I think they were all men). As I recall, the first thing the prisoners had to do before they would be accepted for enrollment in the program, was to admit responsibility for what they had done. They couldn’t play victim; they couldn’t lay blame anywhere but at their own feet. They had to admit they were wrong and be willing to accept their punishment.
Again, memory says that those who went through the process got out early and, I imagine, had support on the outside, but their rate of recidivism was something like 1% if that. But you know me and numbers. Not to mention me and memory!
I think that’s where the healing must start. Those involved must accept their responsibility, must admit the lies they spread caused great and grievous harm, they must accept the will of the people, and either resign or be expelled. They not only put lives in danger, they caused serious injury to many, both physical and psychological, and the deaths (so far) of six people. They played. Now they must pay.
Another book that has helped me through the years since reading is The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. This is a short essay/memoir about his time as a prisoner in various concentration camps in Nazi Germany. It takes up the first half of the book, which ends with the question, What would you do (in regards to forgiveness)? The second half of the book are short essays/answers to that question by various people from religious leaders around the globe to people on the street. The only people who can truly forgive a person are the ones hurt by that person. I can’t forgive George for beating the stuffing out of you, only you can, providing you want to and live to do it.
So, until Cruz & Co. (and all those who support them) stop the lying and truly apologize and ask for forgiveness, admit their guilt if you will, there can be no healing. Until Jim Jordan and all his buddies go on Fox News, etc., state that there was no fraud, the election was not stolen, but honestly won by Joe Biden, until they all own their culpability, I cannot forgive them. I cannot forgive them for killing Officer Sicknick or the others. Only the deceased can forgive that one. Their families can forgive for their loss. Once Cruz and Co are serious about their apologies, that is the time those of us who have been hurt can forgive. Not before. That is when the country can pull together and begin to put all this behind us.
The Washington Post put together a timeline of incidents, it’s 14:27 minutes long and worth the watch. Or at least, the read. 41 minutes of fear: A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege. Guantanamo may be too good for the seditionists.
Healing will begin with admission of personal responsibility and then forgiveness. Remember, forgiveness is primarily for the person forgiving, not the one begging for it. Consider your forgiveness accordingly.
Auntie Lenora! Enough of the rant!!
Yes, yes it is. Time to change the subject!
Remember my New Year’s Resolution to write each day A Word A Day (AWAD) popped into my inbox? Well, so far, I’m doing it. Sometimes I have to wait till the end of the day to get it, but I’m doing it. Some words are pretty, well, hard to place, but I’m a doin’ it. Whatcha gonna do with vardy, or meech, or juberous? Yeah, I understand.
Well, this is embarrassing. I believe I told you about my new kitchen toy, my sous vide? The more I cook with it, the more I like it. I’m actually cooking real meals and sitting down at the table to eat now, instead of dumping everything into a bowl, nuking it, and eating while doing something else. So, the other morning, I decided to try cooking soft boiled eggs. My brother says they’re the best ever! (And he’d never lie to me). I took my eggs out early to bring them up to room temperature. An hour before I usually eat, I brought the water up to temperature. Forty-five minutes before breakfast time, I put my eggs in to cook, set the timer on my phone, and came in to work. Timer went off, I nuked the beans I wanted with the eggs, and realized the eggs weren’t ready. They weren’t even a wee bit cooked. I’d set the timer on my phone, not the timer on the sous vide. sigh. As Annie used to sing, Tomorrow, there’s always tomorrow! 😉
Wednesday is the tomorrow I’m waiting for. It will be a breath of fresh air and sanity blowing through our country.
Books:
I read a couple of fun books. One, A Cat’s Guide to Bonding with Dragons by Chris Behrsin, is a Teen/YA book, and a lot of fun. Poor Ben, a happy, spoiled, and well-fed cat in the south of Wales ends up between one bite and the next that never came, serving an evil mage in another plane. Ben is not happy, until he meets and bonds with his dragon.
Murder on the Old Bog Road: The Galway Homicides Book #1 by David Pearson is a delightful murder mystery. The description of how the body became a body is short, and not particularly gruesome beyond the obvious, there are no gun fights, no car chases, not too much bad language and what is there, it fits the story, and a bare bit of sex, but not in your face. You could give it to your grandma. Really loved visiting the Irish countryside, not horribly far from where Ryan’s Daughter was filmed so many years ago.
Still reading The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty, very enjoyable, and The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris.
Outro:
So much has happened since the New Year. Frankly, old Auntie will be glad when things simmer down.
Covid19 is out of control. You all know the drill. Don’t be selfish. Don’t get sick. Don’t give sickness to someone else. Mask. Socially Distant. An irritation now, a life later.
It’s cold out, and some of you are really, REALLY cold, so here’s a photo from last summer, a time of sunshine and warmth, of a Great Egret across from my home.
Auntie Lenora and Sammy Brave Dog