Joe Biden Exited the Presidential Race: So What? Now What?

Ah Jeez. I wrote this elaborate post the other day about the two candidates before you. 

Y'all.

Here we are. The last 48 hours. Here we are. 

Sunday (the day before yesterday) afternoon feels like one of those days where you will always remember where you were when you heard the "news". 

And so it happened that Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. There is a LOT to unpack about everything that's happened. I know that no one needs my analysis. I have nothing new to say apart from what everyone and their mamas already said. Yet, I feel a gnawing to just say something here; perhaps because I made this whole case for Joe Biden just two posts ago. I think the main reason why it always feels so odd to be quiet in monumental times like this is akin to what Toni Morrison once said:

This is precisely the time when artists go to work

There is no time for despair

No place for self-pity

No need for silence

No room for fear

We speak

We write

We do language

This is how civilizations heal

How To Spend Three Days in London AKA A Three Days (72 Hours) in London Itinerary

There was a time bloggers just posted about trips and vacations. I tried that a couple of times and it was almost physically painful. That said, I want to try that for this vacation I'm currently on (Current me popping in parenthesis through this. Note to say this was THREE whole months ago haha but I'll leave the tenses as they are, as usual, for better flow. Something else you should know about this trip is that it's three countries/cities but London is the first stop. The others to come). So I'm writing in real time. If I get bored of having to transcribe the events of the day every evening, then that's where this stops. There also won't be that many pictures. Sorry. (That sounded curt but I really do mean the apology; sorry for not adding as many photos. Getting the pictures from that long ago is a lot of work).  I still feel a type of way about my photos just being out there in the ether. Plus, organizing pictures is a whole other chaos.

Anyway, we arrived in London from America at about 10AM local time. The six hours and change flight was pretty uneventful. Praise God. From the airport, we headed down to our hotel—about an hour's drive. Our hotel was smack dab in Trafalgar Square. I was particularly exhausted (from literally working till the very minute we left) so I just jumped into bed and slept. I woke up, took a shower, and we headed to our hotel's rooftop for complimentary drinks. Yay, for a nice view of London.

There Are Two Candidates Before You

It feels really weird to be quiet about an election with so much stakes for our lives and for our country. There is a cloud of noise out there so I'm going to put this as simply as possible. So here goes. There are two candidates — whatever hangups you have about there being only two choices, you have to get over. Sorry. So, yes, there are two candidates. 

Friday Reflections

 1.) Does Shonda Rhimes know the lines to her most famous TV shows and movies.

2.) Mariska Hargitay on being TV's ICON and helping survivors of sexual violence.

3.) How this couple is managing the wife's HIV diagnosis. Medical Science is pretty amazing. The advancements in medical science are taken for granted because to think just mere decades ago HIV was a death sentence and now it can basically be cured (because it can be undetectable) is actually miraculous to me. Thank God for the gift of science.

On Finding Happiness: Worry, Mindset, and Stuff

There is a verse in the Bible—and I know I’ve lost you from that but walk with me, okay?—that implores us to consider the lilies and how they grow. They don’t labor or spin. They just are. And then in an interesting metaphor, that passage goes on to say even Solomon in all his splendor—and boy did that dude have a LOT of splendor—was not nearly as splendor-filled as lilies. 

You can see where I’m going, right?

Ha.

There is a lot of pain in this world. There is a LOT of it. You know it, I know it. You have it, I have it. Part of what makes us alive, part of what makes us living, breathing things is that we inevitably have some pain. That we have some challenges. What sets us apart from each other—well, apart from generational wealth, participants in varying systems of just and unjust governments, and luck—is the mindset with which we approach these problems. If this is getting to the part where it sounds like a cliché, just walk with me, please. I once heard the famous therapist, Lori Gottlieb, say something so profound. And then when I read her book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone—and everyone should read this PHENOMENAL BOOK—I read the expanded version. In essence, the point her therapist through her made was everyone is going to have to feel pain. Life happens. You lose your job. You get a divorce. You hate your job. You hate your spouse. You can’t have kids. You can’t find a spouse. You run out of money. And these are the ones that are technically fixable, never mind the life-shattering, life-altering pains. There are then little pains on top of the main, heavy pains. So that will happen. But you actually don’t have to suffer. While you cannot really choose the pain, you can most definitely choose the suffering. 

Some Books I've Been Reading

I did tell you we’ll make up for the lack of a Book of the Month last month, didn’t I? I’m here to fulfill that not a promise. 

Here are some books that I’ve read this year that are noteworthy for different reasons; maybe they’ll motivate you to read or reread anything from this list

Why We Must Get Involved in Local Elections

All politics is local. You’ve probably heard that so much that it’s lost its meaning. And in today’s world, with all the insanity that exists within our politics, it almost tempting to think that no longer applies. It’s almost tempting to block it all out. But it’s never been more important to understand how the national frenzies making headlines can have implications for state and local governments. It’s never been more important to hold space for the politics happening around us as much as those making national headlines. How do local policy decisions affect citizens? Although the obsession and overwhelming consumption the soap opera-like nature of our presidential elections obscures and consumes everything else, much of the decisions about our health, schools, neighborhoods are determined by local elections.