It is snowing.  There is purity in a cover of snow.  That’s how I’d prefer life.  In my imagined world, in paradise all would be love, peace and harmony.

In this world there is friction and response.   That is all that you can expect.  And sometimes there’s violence, immediate, extreme, murderous.  Survival and nothing else matters.  There are times when the cavalry does not show up.  I am sure that a last thought of George Armstrong Custer must have been, “help!”

If one is lucky one “dodges the bullet,” somehow survives the nightmare, awakens after a long, dark night.  What remains is life-long recovery, one day at a time.  Fortune must be given her due.  If circumstances had broken, somewhat differently, then…

I am in a somber mood this morning.  The almost empty room here at Starbucks matches my mood.  The odds are long that Ukraine will survive the encirclement of the Russian army.  The clock is running out.  America, and NATO will do nothing directly to tip the scales in this genocidal war.  America’s military, after defeat of two unnecessary wars, is sclerotic, a refuge for too many bureaucrats, ill suited to the demands of the high risk, interconnected world, practiced at not showing up.

My mourning begins for Ukraine.  Many have died, and many more are going to die.  Of course there’s always that chance that something will tip the scales in the other direction.

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This tune is breath taking in beauty.  It is a wistful longing for what “might have been.”  One awakens, realizing that one is not the man one used to be.  The memory is a shadow that hangs over me.  Loss is palpable.  Life and love is no “easy game to play.”

Yesterday

by Diana Ross and The Supremes

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be.
There’s a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go?
I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong.
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she had to go?
I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong.
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm mm mm mm mm mm mm.

Lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Off the Supremes 1966 album I Hear a Symphony