The Fog

It wasn’t merely the surprise of receiving unanticipated gifts of mundane kindness this week,that reinforced my belief system.

Rather it was the casual manner in which they entered my world without any invitation

To begin this saga, let me explain.

My week began with a broken tooth, hardly welcome despite age, sex or political affiliation, and

Yes, the volatile political hearings also began with both sides firmly entrenched in vocal and loud opinions.

I chose to isolate which is my favored method of retreat and work on the endless project of reformatting a manuscript originally written on an electric typewriter

As I began this endeavor, I instantly remembered the young boy who once delivered newspapers and lived with me for 23 years before flying off to seek his fortune.

One dismal winter afternoon after returning home from my office, tired and grumpy, I discovered the small portable typewriter I owned had been replaced by an electric IBM machine,

The treasured gift from a teenaged son, ignited my dormant enthusiasm for the cherished story and was, I now believe, his way of saying adieu before his wings grew strong enough for flight.

However, this week, decades later, another unrelated young man, whose technical abilities have recently enhanced mine, spent hours retrieving the now obsolete document from the cloud,

Now I can proceed again with another updated version of the tale.

As the week continued, so did the newscasts with rants, raves and fury emerging from both sides of the aisle.

Still the kindness of strangers continued to infiltrate my world.

Earlier in my choice to defeat escalating inflation (and unaware of any potential dental problems,) I ordered frozen food for delivery.

Of course, the package arrived as I was en route for a medical solution.

Obviously, there was little choice about which took priority.

Returning home several hours later, I discovered the unwieldy box had not only been opened and disposed of, but the frozen food was safely intact in the fridge.

Another act of unsolicited kindness that immediately erased the blatant hostility contantly emerging from the internet and TV,

Finally as the anger and recriminations still simmered from both sides of all those in power and control of the destiny of our beloved land, an overworked Dental magician made time in his crowded schedule to repair a broken tooth for a new patient,

And who can deny, America is still alive and well despite the fog of fear.