On the way to pick up my guitars, which were being 'set up' by a guitar tech who miraculously lives within walking distance of me in Harlem, I passed a vacant apartment building, a remnant of the last phase of urban blight that marked the city (especially uptown and in the Bronx) from the 1960s through the 1990s. Having lived in New York City for more than two hundreds years, it's hard to remember a time when I felt like the city was sliding backwards as much as it is now. When we most need a mayor with the ability to reimagine life in the city, our current mayor is fixated on mandating garbage cans with lids (but only for small apartment buildings and houses) and selling anti-rat 'merch.' (The same can be said of our governor.) When are city residents going to have some representation in our local, state, and national government? Here's one possibility I read about (and support), although I'm skeptical of the ability of a third party to garner enough power to make significant change.
Maybe there's still hope, I thought, as I spent a few seconds enraptured by the dawn redwood trees growing out front.
At home in the garden I found that our hardy begonias had started to bloom, which is a sign that fall is around the corner.
The garden is very lush this year, but it's been too hot recently to enjoy it for more than a few minutes at a time.
But those few minutes are valuable. Even when I know the temperatures will be unbearable, there's something beautiful about seeing the translucent leaves in the early-morning light.
The annuals we planted in the trough don't care about global warming, although like me they are shocked to realize that we could solve the entire problem by (as a society) driving a little bit less and eating a bit less meat. But those kinds of actions are too much for us (as a society) to consider, and so instead we're spending gazillions on 'solutions' like blocking out the sun and covering the ocean with tin foil or whatever.
At least Biden isn't running, although it's dismaying to see the media come to a consensus that Kamala's M4A position in 2020 was 'too extreme,' as if all of the same problems with healthcare that existed four years ago have been solved. I can't think of a single problem from 2020 that isn't worse now, but feel free to convince me otherwise in the comments!
But let's hope she wins, so we can keep praying for things to get better.
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