Looking Away

 

Pillar of salt or block of stone? Medusa or Lot’s wife?

Hard to say, but my mind tells me something bad will happen if I read or listen to the news. I saw one headline Wednesday morning and that was enough for me.

          Now my day is a careful dance of steering my thoughts away from anything topical. It reminds me of a messy childhood when I taught myself to shut down any contemplation of unpleasantness since I learned all it did was upset me.

          And I resent this. I’ve been dodging my Washington Post app, I no longer read CNN or the AP news, and I deeply miss my National Public Radio morning panel.

 

          I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ve kept Barbara Cox Richardson’s October 25 entry in her Letters from an American, in which she quotes from the pamphlet by the US government for WWII GIs explaining fascism:

 

“They would pit religious, racial, and economic groups against one another to break down national unity.

“They would deny any need for international cooperation.”

 

And my personal favorite:

“Children, kitchen, and the church,’ was the Nazi slogan for women.”

 

Silver lining – this is a perfect time to spend my days in the fictional town of Calvin and start writing book 5 in my Cate MacLeod mystery series.