I awakened this morning to a lawyer-dream.  Dreams come to consciousness as the mind ascends from deep sleep to the boundary of a waking state.  Awareness traces the dreams/nightmares that represent our hopes and fears.  This is the first lawyer-dream that I remember having.  In the dream I visualized the face of my attorney, and heard my voice saying his name.  I remember little else, –except the emotional texture of the dream.  When  you need a lawyer, odds are you are in trouble, and you need a gunfighter.  Thus I awakened with a sense of foreboding, that I faced a gunfight.  Those moments of waking were laced with terror.  That’s why the dream was a nightmare.

A nightmare is how I could characterize our state of affairs as a nation.  By hook and crook, by machinations of Fox News, social media, Russian contribution to the verbal-campaign-mayhem–we have a man in the White House that looks and sounds more and more like a sociopath.  He was elected by a process that had as many anomalies, unanswerable questions as a threadbare sweater with moth-eaten holes, and pieces of yarn dangling…..  I knew that there are bat-shit crazy tyrants in the world.  There always have been.  Until lately our country has been an exception, a hope and refuge for those entrapped in such awful societies.

A few months ago when the confrontation with North Korea blew up over their nuclear weapons and rocket program–it became clear to me that our president was the equal of Kim Jong Un, in the crazy department.  It was as if on twitter and in the more traditional media there was a contest to determine which could out crazy-talk the other.  Threatening nuclear war is crazy talk, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it talk.

So here we are.  I have two things to offer as a thread-of-hope, something to hold on to.

The first is a video of the great Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac performing his song Trouble.  Yeah, I know the lyric has to do with love, a male-female relationship.  More to the point, every relationship, including the political ones, have a component of passion, of desire.  One must sync up with the other party, in order to “do business.”  A rough congruence of purpose is necessary to achieve effective communication and a common purpose.  Buckingham’s song is a beneficent counterpoint to the waking nightmare that we are in.  I can soak this one up, over and over.

Trouble

I really should be saying goodnight
I really shouldn’t stay anymore
It’s been so long since I held you
I’ve forgotten what love is for

I should run on the double
I think I’m in trouble
I think I’m in trouble

So come to me darling and hold me
Let your honey keep you warm
It’s been so long since I held you
I’ve forgotten what love is for

I should run on the double
I think I’m in trouble
I think I’m in trouble

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The second thread of hope is the speech given by former President Barack Obama just a few hours ago.  The former president was at the University of Illinois to receive the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government. The speech is worth listening to in its entirety.

For President Obama’s speech click here.

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BONUS

When there is yet more “goodness” to share, why hold back?  Here is a photo captured this morning of the muffins displayed in the edible case at Starbucks.  It is hard to imagine a more pleasant experience than an ample, delicately balanced muffin, with seeds and pieces of fruit contributing to deliciousness……..