And now, a brief pause in our programming.

On reflection, it seems as if, in the past few weeks, I have turned off my Washington awareness in favor of household issues. That is true. It is far easier to focus on immediate problems than to look at Washington and try to forecast what the next few years will bring. It's not very useful, but it IS easier on the psyche.

So now, while a lot of personal balls are still in the air on this side of the country, the big ball has dropped in Washington. Donald Trump is the president. There was no last-minute reprieve; it was not a collective bad dream; there is no easy way out. We simply need to endure the embarrassment (and worse) of having an ill-prepared, inarticulate, narcissistic, misogynistic blowhard as our representative on the global stage for the next four years. Hard as it is to digest, this is the bitter pill we have to swallow. Gulp.

What is to be done in a situation where the country has apparently run amok? When Congress appears to be lining up behind this creature and his billionaire boys' club (otherwise known as a cabinet), actually supporting (or at least feigning support) for his off-the-cuff policies. He has so little respect for the American voter that his promises and policies change at his whim, rather than in response to factual information,  He picks and chooses what he wants to believe, and dismisses as 'fake' whatever does not fit his particular reality-of-the-day. What can be done?

The running advice has been to speak up and make the voices of reason be heard; to provide financial support to those organizations that are bound to be most affected by Trump cuts and his conservative Congressional cohorts. Social media calls upon us to be the change we want to see in our world--to be the kinder, gentler people we want to see in the news. What this all brings to mind is something I learned years ago as a child in a Franciscan school and sang at my high school graduation: the blessing of St. Francis...

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon.  

Where there is doubt, faith--

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness,light,

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, 

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Words to live by, particularly now. Sing it with me.