Dear President Biden,
This morning, on the return leg of my walk, I crossed one of the light arterials in the neighborhood and on the far side of the street saw what looked like a stick covered with crushed peppermint candy heading north. Seriously. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was a six-inch long, fatty-worm that had traveled through a layer of teeny-tiny pink and white tree flower debris and was scootching along at, what I think was, a very good worm pace. It was seriously one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. I took a picture of it but unfortunately didn’t think to get a video so other people could see it actually moving.
I’m not sure if my next move was a good idea as far as the worm was concerned, but there was already quite a bit of car traffic on the street so I decided to save it from being crushed. I found a slip of paper in the adjacent yard – a 2020 receipt for ski gear that had been folded into a tiny paper airplane, of all things – and tried to coax the worm onto it both so it didn’t have to deal with me actually touching it and so that I didn’t have to deal with actually touching it (you can guess which of those issues was of greater concern to me….). Anyway, it started to slither onto the paper but then it seemed to sense a trap and inched back, at which point I took a deep breath and picked it up. Of course it wriggled and of course I had a tiny panic and unceremoniously plopped it onto the nature strip grass rather than doing the careful, gentle placing I’d willed myself to do.
It seemed unfazed, but really, how the hell do I know if it was ok or if it was traumatized for life? Plus, in the process of moving it and it doing its wriggling thing, it lost most of its pretty coat of tiny flower petals so it might be upset with me for that too. Plus, it might have become quite a lot more appealing to the neighborhood crows sans the pretty pink coat it was sporting before I messed with it.
Why is everything so loaded?
Two mornings ago I stopped to take a picture of a particularly beautiful iris. In taking a step to the right to get a better angle, I accidentally stepped on a snail and crushed it. Poor thing – it wasn’t doing anything at all except doing its snail-thing there on the sidewalk and although I wasn’t intending it harm, I ended up killing it. Maybe that’s why I felt so compelled to “save” the worm this morning. I usually pay good attention and am careful about where I step, but obviously, when I’m distracted or zeroed in on something that grabs most all of my attention, I can easily do harm. And yes, I know it was a snail and it could well have been crow fodder later in the day, but still, I feel bad.
Hold on for a lurchy segue….
So what is it that has so grabbed your attention and that of the other Democrats that you are letting MitchMcConnell and DJT run the table? They’re doing real harm on your watch. Seriously, what’s with all this idiotic blather about bipartisanship when it’s clear to the rocks in my yard that Mitch McC is on a mission to burn it all down and is just using you as kindling? I don’t get it. If you’re waiting for them to cross some line in the sand that hasn’t already been crossed, whatever that line is way too far.
I still think you’re likely a sweet, decent person, and I’m not ready to conclude that you’re in on whatever the game is and benefiting from it somehow, but dang it – you and the D Team need to step up and get control of this thing, and fast, because it’s looking damn scary from here.
May we all be safe (including the worms and snails).
May we all be willing to commit to doing no harm.
May we all be strong enough to do what is right.
May you accept that the GOP is currently incapable of honorable action.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 