Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Our air is slightly worse here. Still moderate, but the light is funny and we are so familiar with that tinge now that it is disturbing. The headlines in the paper tell us the fires up north are worsening, and the dread is upon us. I was telling my four year old grandson the other day a story loosely based on the Princess Bride, about the Dred Pirate Robert, and he is enchanted by pirates, giants, and all things related. But this fire threat is the Dred Fire Coming. Last night my throat was so dry I had to get up to drink water, and this morning I realized my husband had left our bedroom window open and a bathroom window nearby and probably the air had just enough smoke or particles in it I was struggling with a bit of a cough. I won't make the mistake of fresh air tonight. For people my age, the withdrawal in Afganistan conjures up images from the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. Guilt, shame, remorse collide. My husband and I marched against the invasion of Afganistan, and our Rep Barbara Lee was the sole voice against it, but still history has repeated itself. It's sad, and coupled with the depressing news about Covid, hard to cope with. Sometimes it seems that the apocolypse is here.