IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

     When I was a little girl, oh so many, many, years ago, I would wonder what went on in the world, in the middle of the night, as I lay asleep in my bed. Did anything important happen? Was the world going to be there when I woke up? Would the world have changed drastically while I was asleep? And most important, when would I be allowed to stay up to those magical middle of the night hours?
     Well, imagination and thoughts of the unknown are often better than the reality of those thoughts. Take it from me. What happens in the middle of the night is this: one lies in bed, staring into the dark, wishing one could fall back asleep. The thoughts begin to churn, the worries come back, the non answerable and insolvable problems circle the brain and sleep? A lost hope. Not to forget the nasty looks and thoughts directed at your partner as he sleeps away, totally ignorant of your miserable situation.
    Then a strange thing happens. One gets so used to becoming a night owl, that the thought process actually begins to become a blessing in those middle of the night hours. The other night I actually was able to fall back asleep  and when I woke up at 5:30 I panicked. So late!!! My timed meds? My readers' expectations, especially those also awake in the middle of the night. And my early morning appointment! Yikes!!!
     Funny, what one can get used to. Of course, come the evening and I am truly out of commission. Sleep time. TV time, if one can find anything to watch. Book time, always a good time for that, but after two pages and after 8:30, sleep time arrives. But truly, it is not so bad, as the early morning hours are quiet. No emails that require answers. No calls to make. No phones or texts. No place to rush to. Just a quiet time to think, to ponder the woes of the world and how we get rid of the "most dangerous man in the world", as Mary Trump puts it. 
     The election cannot come soon enough for me as we hopefully repudiate this man and his hateful followers, his evil thinking corps of suckups! But then I worry if he will be able to sabotage the process and what damage will he do between Election Day and Inauguration Day? Will RBG stay healthy and whole, please G-d!! We need to wrap that woman in padding, bubble wrap, and carry her around for sanity's sake. Truly.
     And in  the middle of the night what is the topic of the times? Quelle shock! Trump is a racist. Trump is a raging anti Semite. Really?! Like was that so difficult to figure out? Did he not spout and espouse enough of these remarks to make it clear to even the densest of his bases, and to the most self deluded of them? And yet, apparently not, as even now, they deny the evidence and point to his Jewish son-in-law and his grandchildren. Well, Trump loves no one and nobody other than himself. Just ask his two children he ignores- Tiffany and Barron. Just ask the others and they will have to acknowledge that they work FOR him, not with him, on sufferance of performance and loyalty. Loyalty to him - Him, not the country, not its people, but certainly to the bottom line of Trump Enterprises. If not, well, there is that bus and its wheels.
     Worse than it all is the divisiveness he inspires among those who should be united in opposition, those who are his targets and throwing each other under the bus is not a good way to go. Why is it that suddenly Black  athletes, talk show hosts and public figures are shouting and ranting anti Semitic canards, the same old filth, praising that horrific bigot, Farrakhan? Jews have been supportive of the civil rights movement since time began, as they never were granted these rights until recently, in the history of the world, and they have been taken away at the drop of a hat. Canadians just read a manifesto telling the country to expel its Jewish inhabitants. And then what? What? Why must the world persist in these hateful divides? It produces no good, only much harm unto death and worse.
     Then the despair of the middle of the night hits and something must be done to check it, to combat it, to try to persuade oneself and the audience that there is yet hope, we are not done yet. In Jewish folklore, there are the tales of the town of Chelm, known for its inhabitants who think, shall we say, differently, foolishly, but manage to fool themselves into thinking they are the "wise" men of Chelm and are happy in their foolishness and ignorance. I think some of us might have read one too many of these stories, succumbed to the bliss  of self deception and willful ignorance. 
      But in the middle of the night, the dark and quiet night, the night can be deceptively soft and soothing, or turn the other way, and produce frightening visions and thoughts, an imagination run wild. Then the middle of the night opens itself up unto the harsher light of day, the sharp edges of the world exposed and reality sets in. The phone rings. The sleeping partner stirs. The  emails from early rising children and friends begin and life goes on.
     However, be it the middle of the night or middle of the day with the sun shining directly overhead, our needs are the same, meshing with the universal commonality. It is to be well, to avoid plagues of the times, and to stay, and remain safe. The human condition does not necessarily always provide that reassurance, mostly due to our own errors, large and small. With work, with determination and resolve, we can better that same human condition. First step-get him out and throw his moral weaklings out right along with him, never to return to our government again. Never to harm us again. And as for him, the minute he is out, serve him with his well earned and deserved criminal warrants and measure him for an orange jumpsuit. Ahhh, that image will soothe me during the next few middle of the nights.
     Let us all vote and let us all look towards a better future where we WILL be safe and well. Let us VOTE and make that happen.