Trying to Stay Sane in 2018

It's a new year, but it's filled with the same crap as last year.

The US president is now engaged in a "mine is bigger than yours" competition with the equally deranged president of North Korea. The stakes? A nuclear war in which there will be  no winners. 

Like so many others, I simply cannot take it any more. It isn't just his lack of compassion or his lack of knowledge. It isn't just his dismissive attitude toward the hurricane-ravaged territory of Puerto Rico (I'm sure those rolls of paper towels he tossed into a crowd were a great help in cleaning up the island). It isn't his continuing insults and name-calling, or his continued authoritarian view of American democracy. It isn't just his unbridled greed or his lining his pockets with millions of taxpayer dollars during his weekly trips to his golf resorts. It isn't just his attacks on wilderness and wildlife. It isn't just his nonstop lies or his demand to always be the biggest or best at everything. According to him, the crowd at his inauguration was the biggest every (it paled in comparison to the crowd at Obama's inaugurations). According to him, his popularity is at an all-time high (in reality, it's at an all-time low). It's all of these things, and more. 

So, to try and maintain my sanity, I am making a few changes in 2018. I now listen to classical music on the radio. There is a smooth jazz station in town, but its incessant, amateur-ish commercials have driven me away. 

I am making a concerted effort to avoid getting angry or upset about little things. I have cut back on watching the news, and I mute the sound whenever the orange buffoon is talking. As always, I exercise every day. I turn my phone and iPad off early in the evening and I avoid using my computer in the evening. I limit my time on Facebook. I spend a lot of time reading on my Kindle and watching informative documentaries on NetFlix. Currently I'm watching the Ken Burns series about the Roosevelts. I look forward to several exciting trips this year, and to enjoying the photographs that will result.

None of these things, of course, will eliminate the very real threat to our country by this deranged, greedy bully. But just maybe they will help me get through the rest of his tenure as bully-in-chief.