Most school mornings, as Stephie is off meditating long before I get up, Asher comes in to help me make the bed. This morning he said, “Making a bed is kind of like putting a broken heart back together. You have to get both sides even.” So we tug back and forth, smooth out the wrinkles, puff up the pillows and put the heart back together.
I don’t watch that much TV but especially now, getting lost in a series feels necessary. I can’t bring violence or much pain into our bedroom before going to sleep - but I like to bring in feelings. Currently we are working our way through the first season of “This Is Us.” It is formulaic like many series - several plot lines going on at once, a section where there is no dialogue that a single song carries the soundtrack, and always….always...a cliffhanger that doesn’t let you turn it off before the next episode loads up. Still...there was one single episode called, “Memphis” that moved us to tears last night. Good tears. Tears stirred by beautiful dialogue, great acting , and mostly really big hearted characters who were able to offer the most heartfelt goodbye to each other after just saying hello. It zoomed into a deep intimacy between a black father and son at the moment they had finally found the love that had been denied their whole lives. The father’s last words were, ““the two best things in my life were the person in the beginning and the person at the end,” and that’s not too bad at all.” I think the pillows were dry by the time Asher and I made the bed this morning.
It has been such a desperate and confusing week in the news. The idea of civility, common ground, or even understanding that the enemies are fellow American’s attacking congress has been hard to process. There is a powerful episode of “The Daily” podcast this morning that allows freshman Republican congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan to patiently lay out his most heartfelt beliefs while still walking the tightrope of political reality. You think the podcast will end at its normal 20 minute time out, but it keeps patiently going deeper. Finally Meijer opins on his fellow congressmen who supported the election having been stolen. He says, “I don’t know if they could sit and meditate because I don’t know what kind of thoughts would come in (to their heads). The(se are) people who are always in motion….” Meijer takes a long pause before saying, “ I hope we can take the steps necessary to earn the trust of the voting public. Without that what do you have?”
Asher just appeared from a school zoom and said this is what he learned: “Dad. Imagine you are stuck in a metal box that is super hard to get out of. How do you get out?” When I gave up he said, “You stop imagining.”
Comments