Responses to “How you doing?”: Roger Delmar

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing the responses to my “How your doing?” post that I’ve received (and I hope there are more to come). Thank you to those who have written. I hope it is of some help to read each other’s words. I know it helps me. And maybe together we’ll stumble our way to some answers.

Roger Delmar, Port Townsend, Washington

Well, I wish I had some answers to your questions, but frankly, I have very little hope and no solutions.

Yes, Covid is still with us, and since very few are still willing to mask and treat Covid as an ongoing risk, it looks like it’s going to stick around. We mask, avoid crowds, and don’t go out much; and for us as pretty solid introverts, it’s not horribly painful, just a constant background concern. 

As far as what’s going on with climate change and the other existential risks to humanity, I have very little hope for the near term future. Political will is lacking. Politicians, for the most part, have sold out to the corporate donors who keep them in office. The Republican Party has gone down the rabbit hole of authoritarianism and so few of the Dems seem able to look at things square in the eye and speak and act in accordance with the perils that threaten our survival. I fear for my children and grandchildren. 

We humans face some very hard times and it’s really hard to look at things without falling into utter despair. The earth will pull through, but humanity?

One big source of peace in these hard times comes through our children and grandchildren. We are spending as much time as we can with them and feel exceptionally blessed to still be a connected family. 

And we live in the PNW, which has thus far escaped the horrible heat of much of the rest of the country. We got ourselves designated as an official Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary a few years ago and now thoroughly enjoy many bird species, some of which are year-round residents and others who nest and raise their young here before moving on. We have two resident raccoons. We can’t tell them apart so they are named “Rosy.” She/he sometimes comes up on our deck and sits at the window wanting a handout. We also have many deer, a four point buck who we call “Kevin,” and at least two other bucks plus the doe and their young. Also we have the daily antics of the squirrels and chipmunks to entertain us and occasionally we see bobcats and a possum as they pass through. 

So that’s about it, Ruth. We will be watching the hearings later today. So very difficult to accept that even when it’s so abundantly clear that Donald Trump was and is a clear and present danger to the survival of our democracy, that he and his cronies have successfully seeded the big lie. Millions still love and support him. This Fall’s election will probably dictate our future.