Dear President Biden, I don’t know yet whether there’s something substantive linking the two stories that have formed a mash-up in my brain or if it’s just my propensity to see connections between random-ish things. I’m hoping that by writing about them, I’ll figure out why my brain is so insistently juxtaposing them. The two …
Jumping to and from conclusions
Dear President Biden, I forgot to mention it before, but Wednesday we had a lovely five minutes or so in the middle of the day during which the clouds spit enough to splatter the windows and make the air smell like summer rain. I’m sure there was no measurable precipitation but after the very long …
Re-membering
Dear President Biden, A friend of mine texted yesterday morning to let me know that he’d been thinking of Joe Manchin in response to my “Joe McConnell” flub rather than about you. While I do think it’s reasonable to harbor concerns about why you, too, keeping pressing for the completely unrealistic unicorn of bipartisanship, it …
The brilliance of “Tired” by Langston Hughes
Dear President Biden, I didn’t think the Chauvin verdict would come so quickly and rather than pivot now, I’m going to go with what I drafted this morning before work. But please know, I am relieved and grateful for Chauvin’s conviction on all three counts. At the same time, please know, I grieve for young …
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“THIS IS ART.” A redux of sorts…
Dear President Biden, When I showed Laura the picture of the gallows with the “THIS IS ART” sign, she noticed that there was another square nailed up on the opposite side. Although it’s impossible to tell from the WP picture that’s been circulating whether that other square conveys another message, I did see that I …
A missive about keeping our lids on
Dear President Biden, Most weekday mornings my routine involves getting up with the dogs to feed them and let them out in the yard to do their things before heading out for a solo walk, usually in the dark. When I get home I typically turn on the electric teakettle and then sit down for …
Equity is critically important, and it’s very, very messy
Dear President Biden, Was it really a coincidence that you wore your very cute blue dog socks to the meeting with the 10 Republican Senators about the COVID relief bill? That’s apparently what your staff told the WP. I kind of think, though, that you were doing a little low-key Madeline Albright move there. You …
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Unpacking “ordinary voters”
Dear President Biden, Happy February! We made it out of January! This shouldn’t be any big shakes but after the attempted self-coup earlier in the month I think a lot of us were worried there’d be significant fallout surrounding your inauguration. I know we’re still crashing around in the middle of a very dark forest …
The Biden Letters 