Taking A Moment

Some days you just need to take a moment for yourself. Today was one of those days for me, and I did precisely that this afternoon when things cleared up at work.

I’ve discussed my loved of cheesy holiday romance movies before—today I watched Eight Gifts, a-Hanukkah themed movie, while I put together our new tinsel Christmas tree together. I’m not particularly handy, so this was a major accomplishment for me, and I’m still feeling quite proud.

One of the benefits of being half of a mixed-marriage is getting to decorate our house for both holidays, which means that one of our menorahs lives in the middle of a forest of Christmas trees.

This year’s “big” Christmas tree is a tinsel tree—a new purchase this year that Bob and I decided on over breakfast several weeks ago, because honestly, we have our doubts about how Tofu the demon cat is going to handle a tree full of temptingly dangling balls.

The tree is now covered in non-breakable ornaments, and Tofu hasn’t pulled it over yet. I feel pretty sure that’s coming, but we’re enjoying it for the moment. It’s small-ish and it lacks the lovely pine scent I associate with the season, but it will be perfect for us this year. The 60’s have found us!

I’d love to see and hear about your decorations and holidays plans in the comments!

Bu the holidays aren’t always all fun and games. This year, I suspect, may be particularly difficult for people as differences over politics and real concerns about the country’s future surface among family members. It is hard to understand how people we love can be blinded by Trump’s lies. And it’s difficult to feel good about celebrating when so many people’s lives are torn by war and in crisis. I know many of you, like me, will be going through this as the first holiday without a loved one, and I feel my Mom’s absence acutely as we approach her first birthday since we lost her and our first holiday season without her present.

All of that to say, I hope you’ll indulge yourself if you need to—for whatever reason. Hopefully you’ll do that in more productive ways than my resort to holiday romance (although in my defense, I’m looking forward to watching the classics as soon as our youngest gets home from college: Elf, Miracle, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, Rudolph—it will be a great week). Please take a little time for yourself if you need it and don’t be apologetic. We could all use a little grace to prepare for the year that is coming.

It’s likely that by this time tomorrow, a jury will have held Rudy Giuliani accountable for the horrible damage he did to the lives of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss when he lied about them in a reckless and racist fashion, comparing their public service as poll workers to drug dealing. And of course, what he said was a lie. A verdict against Giuliani will be a small measure of justice for these two women.

Even if the financial judgment against Giuliani is large, it will not be entirely adequate to restore their sense of safety in a world that turned against them with no warning. Giuliani and Trumpworld’s malicious attack on them has to be understood in context. In the deep south, for as long as I’ve done election work, the persistent myth of voter fraud committed by Black people and Democrats has been used to justify voter suppression and beyond that, a sneering sense of condescension and assumption of illegality around the activity of Black voters. The myth of fraud is used to scare people off of voting, to intimidate them in the exercise of their rights, all while painting them as the ones who are in the wrong.

Ultimately, two women in Georgia who, were powerless to fight back against high-powered political figures in the moment when they were attacked have been able to regain at least some of their power. They’re helping all of us to regain our balance. Persistence pays off. As Alexander Vindman says of his adopted country, “here, right matters.” The simple, but I’m sure agonizingly difficult act of standing up for themselves and of standing up for what’s right shows us all the path forward.

So, rest up and take good care of yourself these last couple of weeks of the year. We’ve got work to do. Thank you for being a part of Civil Discourse. I appreciate each and every one of you whose paid subscriptions help me devote the time and resources it takes to do this work and all of you who are here to read, stay informed, and help others in our communities understand what we’re facing in the coming year. Here’s to our continued commitment to the Republic!

We’re in this together,

Joyce