I wrote a note to my son's health teacher this year. He's a junior, and they talk about gender and sexuality this year, and I had to give permission for him to have the class. Of course I gave it, and I also wrote to the teacher to thank her for doing the work she does, and telling her I hope she doesn't get any pushback, and letting her know that our family completely supports her and stands behind her and the curriculum.
Great column and, Yep, heck of a Friday. I’ve never been so ashamed of our country. That set-up spanking of Zelensky was off the charts. Kind of like inviting a woman who has been raped to dinner and seating her next to her rapist and forcing her to listen to other guests wax-on about how hard said rapist’s life has been since she accused him and how she really was the villain not him. Even if we manage to pull our country out of this mess, the damage we’ve let Trump do to our alliances will not be fixed for more years than I’ll be around. The little I could do was contact the Ukrainian embassy in DC and apologize to them and assure them that this American stands with them. And then I contacted the Republican who represents my district in the House and ask him to take a stand against this embarrassing President. I doubt he will.
This analogy to an SA victim neing subjected to that is so on point. My wife, who suffered at the hands of narcissistic parents for 5 decades (guess who they voted for) said that watching them talk over and berate Zelenskyy was giving her PTSD. I could not watch the clip. Ugh.
Can so relate to the kid stuff. Spent a lot of time, and put a lot of miles on the van driving my daughter and her friends to softball, basketball, dance. She and I are in Paris right now having a great time together, and she just mentioned to me yesterday about how she misses those days, and that her friends still talk about it also, 20+ years later. It’s worth it.
And we’re seeing Rilo Kiley in NYC where she lives, in September.
Great piece! I keep re-upping to coach my 13 year old's teams because I know one day, I will long for never ending busy nights and weekends. I may be nearing sundown anyway as he moves into playing for school teams. He already "retired" from little league baseball after last season. Like that, my days as a little league baseball parent/coach were done and over, forever. Drove by the fields last night and saw the spring season had begun.....got a little dusty in my car, somehow.
"This is an experience roughly analogous to instructing a toddler to disarm a bomb." Hahaha! I feel your pain dude. My Ma can't open an email without someone sitting next to her.
Heard this Nirvana cover of a Devo song recently. Familiar? Good shit!
Will, I hope you will see the light on WaPo. I understand there's a lot of great journalists still working there but I couldn't take it anymore.
Out of curiosity I surveyed a bunch of front pages today to see whether they reported the news in Active ("Angry Trump berates Z..." Boston Globe) or Passive ("Fury Boils Over in Oval...") voice. Without fail* their editorial position could be gleaned by this exercise, with reliable papers choosing Active voice; bootlickers choosing passive. That second quote was from WaPo. Sad. Interesting exercise though.
*(NYT was active:"T and V Scold Z..." I can't tell with them anymore)
It’s telling that you had a breakdown on Thursday before that happened on Friday. I was really struggling yesterday with the news and life - thanks for the pep talk in today’s newsletter.
The problem is, friend, is that we will never be able to unforget the horribleness of these times- even amidst the wonderfulness of children and grandchildren - that is sad and depressing. But, changing a pronoun from a Red Clay Strays song, “He keeps on loving me…the way I am. And I keep on wondering why.”
As the dad of a former little leaguer, I lived this countless times. Fortunately, most of my son’s little league playing occurred during the Biden years, so the United States government wasn’t unraveling while he was checking the Velcro straps on his batting gloves for the fifth time during an at bat. When you’re in the moment wondering, “when will all this end!?” the gospel song “It’ll All Be Over” by The Supreme Jubilees can be a bit of a balm.
I am not tied down by preteens at this point in life, nor the vast intersection of all of life’s on-ramps/off-ramps, jug handles and traffic circles (I’m from Jersey and that’s what they are all called), but I have lived through that chaos and even though I’m reading this a week after everyone…I can promise you as a wise man once said, and you began to quote…”someday we’ll look back at this and it will all seem funny…”
I wrote a note to my son's health teacher this year. He's a junior, and they talk about gender and sexuality this year, and I had to give permission for him to have the class. Of course I gave it, and I also wrote to the teacher to thank her for doing the work she does, and telling her I hope she doesn't get any pushback, and letting her know that our family completely supports her and stands behind her and the curriculum.
This is great. Thank you for sharing this.
Great column and, Yep, heck of a Friday. I’ve never been so ashamed of our country. That set-up spanking of Zelensky was off the charts. Kind of like inviting a woman who has been raped to dinner and seating her next to her rapist and forcing her to listen to other guests wax-on about how hard said rapist’s life has been since she accused him and how she really was the villain not him. Even if we manage to pull our country out of this mess, the damage we’ve let Trump do to our alliances will not be fixed for more years than I’ll be around. The little I could do was contact the Ukrainian embassy in DC and apologize to them and assure them that this American stands with them. And then I contacted the Republican who represents my district in the House and ask him to take a stand against this embarrassing President. I doubt he will.
This analogy to an SA victim neing subjected to that is so on point. My wife, who suffered at the hands of narcissistic parents for 5 decades (guess who they voted for) said that watching them talk over and berate Zelenskyy was giving her PTSD. I could not watch the clip. Ugh.
Could not agree more.
Can so relate to the kid stuff. Spent a lot of time, and put a lot of miles on the van driving my daughter and her friends to softball, basketball, dance. She and I are in Paris right now having a great time together, and she just mentioned to me yesterday about how she misses those days, and that her friends still talk about it also, 20+ years later. It’s worth it.
And we’re seeing Rilo Kiley in NYC where she lives, in September.
Great piece! I keep re-upping to coach my 13 year old's teams because I know one day, I will long for never ending busy nights and weekends. I may be nearing sundown anyway as he moves into playing for school teams. He already "retired" from little league baseball after last season. Like that, my days as a little league baseball parent/coach were done and over, forever. Drove by the fields last night and saw the spring season had begun.....got a little dusty in my car, somehow.
"This is an experience roughly analogous to instructing a toddler to disarm a bomb." Hahaha! I feel your pain dude. My Ma can't open an email without someone sitting next to her.
Heard this Nirvana cover of a Devo song recently. Familiar? Good shit!
https://youtu.be/rUrHTYyr8TQ?si=S9cMws5qGWNAcUX5
As I've commented elsewhere: Yesterday was my birthday and, thanks to the idiocy in the Oval Office, it's the first time I've spent my birthday ANGRY.
Will, I hope you will see the light on WaPo. I understand there's a lot of great journalists still working there but I couldn't take it anymore.
Out of curiosity I surveyed a bunch of front pages today to see whether they reported the news in Active ("Angry Trump berates Z..." Boston Globe) or Passive ("Fury Boils Over in Oval...") voice. Without fail* their editorial position could be gleaned by this exercise, with reliable papers choosing Active voice; bootlickers choosing passive. That second quote was from WaPo. Sad. Interesting exercise though.
*(NYT was active:"T and V Scold Z..." I can't tell with them anymore)
It’s telling that you had a breakdown on Thursday before that happened on Friday. I was really struggling yesterday with the news and life - thanks for the pep talk in today’s newsletter.
I hope this helped. Writing it always helps me.
Do you want to find alligator cowboy boots they just put on sale?
That's a phair question.
The problem is, friend, is that we will never be able to unforget the horribleness of these times- even amidst the wonderfulness of children and grandchildren - that is sad and depressing. But, changing a pronoun from a Red Clay Strays song, “He keeps on loving me…the way I am. And I keep on wondering why.”
I do not disagree.
As the dad of a former little leaguer, I lived this countless times. Fortunately, most of my son’s little league playing occurred during the Biden years, so the United States government wasn’t unraveling while he was checking the Velcro straps on his batting gloves for the fifth time during an at bat. When you’re in the moment wondering, “when will all this end!?” the gospel song “It’ll All Be Over” by The Supreme Jubilees can be a bit of a balm.
I find myself to try to keep them insulated--if not isolated--from it the best I can.
>>> A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
I still remember how much I enjoyed the copyright page.
This is not to diminish the rest of the book. It's just that I'd never before seen a copyright page with anything other than the dry legalese.
Yeah, Dan gets to that in the piece!
Ah. Should have checked first. Thanks.
Great piece, and now I want to go listen to Polyester Bride for the 70 millionth time.
Never a bad idea.
You shouldn't write for the failing Washington Post.
I think you should write for whatever paper you want to.
I am not tied down by preteens at this point in life, nor the vast intersection of all of life’s on-ramps/off-ramps, jug handles and traffic circles (I’m from Jersey and that’s what they are all called), but I have lived through that chaos and even though I’m reading this a week after everyone…I can promise you as a wise man once said, and you began to quote…”someday we’ll look back at this and it will all seem funny…”
I'm embarrassed to be an American. Could be a parody song to that piece of crap Tru&% uses...
Keep up the good work, Will.