Conservatives often refer to liberals like me as "haters" because we hate Donald Trump and the current iteration of the Republican Party. They're right. Partly. I do feel hate for all of them, or more accurately, for what they represent and for what they're doing to America. I don't hate them. I hate what they're doing. It's like a parent correcting a child by saying, "Johnny, you did a bad thing!", rather than, "Johnny, you're bad!" "Donald, you're doing a very bad thing!"
Rather than drown in the river of hate and selfishness that's currently flowing from the sewers in Washington and the White House, I'm getting out, drying off, then mixing metaphors by flipping the coin. Here are what I love (and some that I once loved but don't experience anymore).
1. My wife, kids, spouses, grandkids, extended family everywhere, their pets, everything.
2. Watching the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear late Autumn night between late November and mid-December, then waiting as the few spongy clouds in the western sky absorb the orange and red glow of the sun and the lights of the buildings in San Francisco emerge in the darkening sky.
3. Graeter's Ice Cream, chilled Chardonnay, Skyline Chili, Duck Noodle Soup, Scallops, Wor Won Ton, A Double-Double at In n' Out, Vietnamese bun, burritos, sushi, hot buttered popcorn. Zachary's pizza, Lucky's pepper bacon..and oh so many more, (even broccoli)
4, Friends from the past now in the present, new friends I've met through Facebook.
5. The opportunity to be of service to others, Meals on Wheels, tutoring middle school kids,, distributing food to those who are less fortunate, using my photographic skills constructively.
6. Finding beauty in the natural world, in people, in the smallness of nature, unusual juxtapositions, in the way light transforms and enhances everything, then being able to hunt it down and capture it in a photograph.
7. Playing a mistake-free song on my guitar.
8. Traveling to other countries, or rather, not so much the "traveling" part, but the "being there" part, learning and participating in unfamiliar customs and behaviors.
9. Hot showers.
10. Hiking in forests, mountains, along beaches, anywhere in nature.
11. Being appreciated.
12. Hitting a green in regulation.
13. Stepping off the highest chairlift at Heavenly Valley, then taking it all in.
14. Watching my friends and family succeed at things they love.
15. Sleeping eight hours.
16. Living in an ethnically, socially, and politically diverse state. Well, that last part may be a stretch, but some of my friends have sworn that they've either seen, or in some cases, met a real Republican. I have my doubts.
17. Having good health.
18. Justice, Equality, and Fairness.
19. Rain, lightning, thunder, snow falling past gas streetlights at night.
I would love it if Trump and the Republicans could climb out of the sewer, reject their (not my) hateful policies, grow backbones, then ask forgiveness. I could forgive, leaving me with nothing to hate at all.
Unfinished post...many more things to love