What Passes for Normal

My cat, Chocolate, seems to say “Oh, relax, humans, everything is fine.”  It must be nice to be a cat.

The DNC and RNC have been on TV for the past couple of weeks.  It’s mostly all virtual, due to the COVID pandemic.  The DNC nominated Biden and the RNC Trump, of course.  We tried to avoid watching most of it, but we saw parts, including speeches by Michelle and Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  Their blistering attacks on Trump seemed to be beyond answer, but he found a way around that.  He just shrugged it all off–claiming that COVID, the loss of jobs, his lack of leadership and character–was just so much negativity. 

His message to his sycophants?  Everything is great, ignore reality, and believe me.  For many, I fear that will be enough.  He literally can’t seem to lose the support of his base.  Speaking of his base, did you see that scary, screaming lady they put on the second day?  I Googled “RNC scary, screaming lady” and found out she’s Don Jr.’s girlfriend.  Yikes! I bet he never forgets to put down the toilet seat.

Meanwhile, people keep dying, we continue on lockdown until a vaccine can be produced, and our cities continue to erupt in violence.  I fear that four more years of this will complete the transformation of our country into a third-world, tin-pot country ruled by a super-rich class, with the rest of us left scrabbling for whatever crumbs we can salvage.

Which is why I prefer to ignore current events, as much as possible.  Instead I’ve been rereading some of Agatha Christie’s novels, including The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Murder at the Vicarage.  The nice thing about murder mysteries is that by the end of the story the villain is caught, the innocent are cleared of suspicion, and the world returns to normal.  Normal, what a nice idea.

I am trying my hand at writing a mystery novel.  I’m about halfway through.  It’s kind of fun, like putting together a puzzle.  If only I could keep my mind on that and not be distracted by the news.