December 1, 2021: Normals, New and Otherwise -

Favorite headline of the week:  Jill Biden’s White House Christmas LooksVery … Normal.

Also newsworthy, to the writer of this article: Dr. Biden wears some of her fetching (American-made!) frocks on more than one occasion.  Which is normal for most of us, but not normal for recent First Ladies, who burned through outfits at a great clip,  but closer to normal than the fashion stylings of the unusually thrifty (possibly even frumpy) Rosalind Carter.

Maybe it’s only the ellipsis in that headline that I … like.

You know what else is normal? My bank no longer has huge plywood panels (tagged) over every window. The people inside can see daylight again. And we went downtown to see a play last night, and are going to spend a day doing downtown things today – art museum, lunch, shopping – because we do that now and then.  The trees downtown are wrapped in white lights at night, which is normal for the season, and lovely.  

Also, four hummingbirds were working our giant mahonia this morning, a normal (wonderful) winter sight. My best photographic effort shows an indistinct blur.  (Not the large indistinct blob in front of the brighter area, but the tiny, angel-shaped blob just northeast of that larger blob.)

Hummingbirds don’t like to pose. I get that. Like a hummingbird, I too look better in motion, flashing my glorious red neck. (Okay, mine is the result of a murderous-lingerie attack. But still.)

And Omicron is already in the US. Sorry, but I believe that new variants are the new normal.

Not normal, but good: unemployment is the lowest it has been since 1969, and family food insecurity is down 24%, thanks to the American Rescue Plan. WOOHOO.

Return to normal: the supply chain is way, way better, the ports are unclogging, and bigwig retail CEO’s have thanked the Biden administration for its efforts towards that end. Happy Consumer Christmas, America!

Incredibly normal: the left values a diversity of opinion, and people on the left, Progressives and Democrats. disagree with each other. We are not currently in newsworthy disarray, we are doing our usual thing, of which disagreement is a FEATURE. (Granted, we may be crushed by a wall of monolithic authoritarianism, but there is no viable alternative to being who we are. As in life.)

So for instance, since the 2016 election, my own new normal involves sending Thanksgiving thank-you cards to people in public life who I think could use an attaboy, and this year’s recipients include Kate Brown – the most unpopular governor in the nation!- and Nancy Pelosi. I think Kate Brown saved lots of Oregonian lives. I think Nancy Pelosi is a powerhouse.

And if you are here, then you are almost undoubtedly a leftie, so I EXPECT you to disagree with me on one or many points. Sure, unemployment is down but it’s not down AS FAR for black and brown people. Sure, the American Rescue Plan helped with food insecurity, but it should have helped MORE. Why am I not writing about Roe? A thank-you to Kate Brown?!?! And here’s what Nancy Pelosi is doing wrong….

I know! You have a bone to pick with me, and you are not even Republican! See?!?!  My point exactly!

So I’ll just circle back here, and say that while I had vast antipathy for Melania, (surprise!) I retained a sliver of fellow-feeling for her manifest hatred of that First Lady role. I would be a terrible First Lady (HYPOTHETICALLY). I would bitterly resent every harsh word and mocking tweet about my Christmas decorations.

And mine would be lousy Christmas decorations! Not apocalyptic, but lousy in their own unique way, because I do not have Christmas décor flair, nor am I going to get it. This is not humility. I’m Less-is-More, when it comes to Christmassing things up. I went to one of those fundraiser Christmas-tree fairs once and thought Yeek, ick, why, where is the exit?

And even if my White House Christmas was perfect, because I hired somebody to do a bang-up job, I would hate being judged on my decorating, on my choice to wear my frocks the exactly right number of times. I’d hate being damned with faint praise, like “… normal.” I would not be the equable Dr. Biden. I would be a bad sport. You could tell me how fortunate I was, and I would snarl at you.

On the other hand, I could get into having 41 trees in the house. I like the smell of an evergreen. That smell might almost make up for it all, one month out of the year.