The official motto for the year, 2020

Anyone who has been alive and conscious for the past six months, and who has a scrap of empathy and integrity still attached to their soul will have no problem relating to this. And just for the record, here's the origin for the phrase: ‘going to hell in a handbasket’. "It can be found in the practice of capturing the heads of guillotine victims in a basket, with the presumption being that these criminals would be going straight to hell for their crimes. Although the phrase is thought to have originated sometime during the 18th century, the first printed example is found in Winslow Ayer’s book on the American Civil War, The Great North-Western Conspiracy."

The world is convulsing, with COVID-19 and (to put it politely) global civil unrest both hitting human civilization at its weakest point at and the same time: our susceptibility to fear. Fear of the other, always a constant in human culture, and a recurrent theme in my novels, has crippled us to even see a common good, much less to selflessly work towards it, individually and collectively. And we have "leaders" who play on that fear to solely stay in power, to the point they are shoving the "democratic" nations they ostensibly lead (or gleefully oppose) ever closer to the edge of the abyss without any thought what might happen if we plunge into that darkness, as if somehow they would be immune from the horrific consequences. I never thought in my lifetime I'd see countries like the US teeter towards totalitarianism, with its president the cheerleader in chief, and his political party rallying behind him like a bunch of cartoon minions (without the funny nonsense-speak). The blatant hate and the over-the-top hypocrisy spewed forth by members of the "Party of Lincoln" on a daily, sometimes minute-by-minute basis is beyond shocking, beyond appalling. It is, in a word, nauseating. I fear if the social experiment called the United States dies in the coming months, it will be at the hands of those who clutch the flag to their chests the tightest--the very same people who would put others in prison for burning that flag, who would deprive others of a profession simply for kneeling in protest during the national anthem are the same people who are systematically destroying what they claim they hold so dear.

I hope this autumn there will come a reckoning, and we will see the beginning of the end of the collective nightmare many of us have been living through for the past three and a half years, with a return to the rule of law and long-established social norms (which I hope will be made into law so they cannot be so easily tossed aside by the next tin-pot dictator in waiting). I refuse to contemplate the alternative outcome as it is just too ghastly, but I'm not so naïve as to assume it cannot possibly happen, that surely no one would vote for four more years of this. Don't be fooled. We're already half way there; it wouldn't take much (a few "cooked" state elections, or for those who aren't happy with the choices to sit this election out, pouting like spoilt brats, just like they did in 2016) to perpetuate this hell. But assuming the best outcome comes to pass, the damage done, by politicians out only for themselves and to keep themselves in power over the previous three and a half years, and the social injustice "baked" into our culture centuries ago won't disappear in January, 2021. It will take decades to recover, politically, socially, economically and environmentally. Possibly this country will never recover. Likely it will never go back it the way it was. Maybe out of this pyre we can rise anew, where the blatantly false narrative of what the US represented, the "Shining city on the hill," becomes the reality for all of its people, not just a select, privileged few.

For me all writing projects are on hold for the foreseeable future. A minor sacrifice in the greater scheme of things. Like many I initially looked upon the stay-at-home mandate as chance to start on a new novel, or to read more, lots more. That was true for the first few weeks of the quarantine, but then I found my concentration wandering after a few pages. I couldn't even muster up the urge to add to my blog. I now spend most of my days outside in my garden, and my nights watching reruns of familiar old TV series', finding a certain amount of comfort in them, like I'm spending time with old friends, reminiscing about old times, rather than facing the very grim fact that the world is fire and that we are about to be consumed.

On that cheery note, stay safe and healthy--and no matter what, wash your hands!