Four miles out of town by Ellin Snow

We are all looking for ways to “move forward toward hope.” I don’t have Ellin’s father’s face in my memory bank, but she reminds me that we all have memories and tools we can use to help us choose our attitude to whatever it is we are, and will be, called upon to deal with.

White House staffers to receive Covid-19 vaccine ahead of general public—CNN

Bill Gates Says Trump’s ‘America First’ Wrong Approach, U.S. Vaccines Benefited From Foreign Help—Newsweek

‘A dark, empty place:’ Public officials face personal threats as tensions flare—WaPo

December 13, 2020

Four miles out of town
by Ellin Snow, Lynnwood, Washington

The writing prompt reads: “Four miles out of town, the highway…” and I finish that sentence: ” …splits in several directions! ”

I am thinking of this sentence as a metaphor. In other words, the times we are currently going through, including the worsening pandemic, the economic struggles, and the ridiculous election fraud claims, can be looked at in more than one way! Our attitude and perspective can be as varied as the highway possibilities four miles out of our town.

I have certainly felt myself sinking into a pit of doubt and fear that sometimes lasts for a whole day or more. I have managed during such periods, to avoid watching the TV news programs that fuel such feelings. I work very consciously to pay attention to even the smallest bits of positive reports. This is a part of my lifelong optimism, but it is no longer easy to maintain that attitude. I surely wish that my father, who taught me by his example how to focus on the positives, were present during these most difficult times. He has been gone now for eighteen years, and yet I can still sense how he might have viewed the times we are in.

Each day that I find myself “…four miles out of town”—in other words in a place where I can choose my attitude toward what is occurring—I will think of my Dad’s handsome visage and his smile that tells me to move forward toward hope, and I think that road will take me where I need to go!