A troubling beginning

 

This is my first post for this new year of 2021. Things had been pretty quiet. On Monday I had a cystoscopy that was, thank Gd, negative. Throughout Tuesday we watched the election returns from the two senate races in Georgia. I had been fairly skeptical about the chances for the two Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, so the results were something of a surprise to me.

But then came Wednesday. Nothing I could possibly write would even begin to capture the fear and pain of January 6, 2021, a date which will likely remain burned in our brains as surely as November 22, 1963 (the assassination of President John F. Kennedy) and September 11, 2001. Those of us who were alive will forever remember where we were and how we heard the news of those events. In 1963 I was a student in the sixth grade at Grandview Elementary School in the suburbs of St. Louis. Our teacher came in and tearfully told us the news. And in 2001 I was in my office at Pfizer when my assistant came in and shared the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center building.

We were, needless to say, glued to the television once we heard the news yesterday. At 4:27 pm, Dina, who knows us so well, texted to us:

 

I assume you guys are glued to the TV and reading time should be cancelled today. 

Barry responded:

 

Even an attempted coup can’t stop reading time!

So, we did have reading time, taking turns reading a few chapters of Julia’s current favorite book, Ariel, The Shimmering Star Necklace, and watching the ongoing developments.

In the wee hours of the night, the election of our next president and vice president was completed, and the inauguration is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20^th. That is at least two more weeks to be extremely nervous. 

Meanwhile, stay healthy!

Love,                                                           

Rebecca