Are you better off than you were four years ago?

[Attilatheblond]

22. Better now. Vaxed to the max, can go out in relative safety. My turncoat Senator is leaving. Inflation slowed massively.

I no longer require 'smelling salts' weekly to deal with sticker shock at prices of basics at the grocery store. My meds are a LOT less and the local yahoos sporting Confederate battle flags on their 'blowing coal' pickup trucks have dwindled down to rare sightings.

My daughter got a better job in an industry that is taking back ground lost from the Trump fiasco years. And it is safe for her to enjoy some outside interests again. She has met some great people who share her values and she takes joy in helping with worthwhile projects with the public again, being vaxed to the max herself.

The Biden Admin stimulus checks helped climb out of some financial stress, as small as that stress was for a retiree with a paid off mortgage. I KNOW it really helped a lot of younger people with families and see them smiling, participating in events and letting their kids 'play ball!' again. (If you can, check local Little League and Pop Warner schedules, then take in a game, it will do your soul a lot of good to see kids playing and parents investing time in their activities.)

Kids are in classrooms and on playgrounds rather than inside, trying to do their growing in the dim glow of computer screens. Kids are being kids again. This is a major improvement!

My older acquaintances are a bit calmer. Their faces are not frozen in expressions of fear and defeat. Hell, we are all feeling safe enough to have meetings to do a lot of political organizing and actions! That REALLY shows we are doing better. Geezers are back at it, registering voters, carrying legislative petitions, holding strategy meetings and knocking on doors, engaging in GOTV efforts. Some are even running for local elections, so energized they are now! The local MAGA clowns in office around here are an endangered sub-species. Some are under indictment, and many are running scared from voters. It's looking better around the local environment.

Now, if I can just keep the old vehicle running until I stop, my life stays pretty comfy, if simple, now. I am grateful for the changes. Gratitude manifests in a better state of mind/body. I see it in everyone I encounter, save the few who persist in being miserable due to their conditioned hate of 'the other', be the other DEMs in general or people of different tones or traditions.

On the other hand, I fret a lot about the idiots who might still manage to throw it all away just to place their golden calf upon a throne. And I have become sadly cynical about the battle raging in our judiciary. The medicine for such cycinism is to engage in the aforementioned political activity. Do what you can. It will make things even better.