To Inky and Kevin –

Thanks for your thoughtful input and for taking the time to share your thoughts. I’m pretty much in agreement with everything both of you say, and I am rationing my “news & news-related social media ” time more & more carefully, and working hard on cutting myself some slack for being limited in my involvement (due to my health) compared to what I would have done. I realized that frustration is also part of the big ball of anger, but that’s not his fault, that one’s on me to control and ultimately  let go of.

If you read my last reply to Anita, I think you can see I’ve begun to wend my bass-ackwards way towards a bit of an understanding/strategy that hopefully will make my life a little more liveable and maybe bring down my blood pressure a bit.

It’s actually a gross oversimplification of a small life lesson about compassion my mom taught me when I was very small. I believe it only happened once, but it stuck with me from that day forward. We were shopping in a somewhat pricey department store, and the middle-aged shop clerk who waited on us was very rude and abrupt. After we checked out & walked away, I asked my mother (who was always exceedingly polite in public) why that woman was so mean? Without missing a beat, Mom said, “oh you never know what can be bothering people. Maybe her girdle is too tight, or her shoes hurt.” So from this point on I will do my level best to remember that the man in the White House is probably actually tremendously unhappy.  And try not to enjoy it too much…..