The Old Woman is sitting in her kitchen, thinking. She wants to get up and make some fried rice, but first she wants to think. She’s not sure what good thinking will do, but she doesn’t know how else to proceed at this point. She’s old, she’s tired, she’s not in the best of health. And she needs to save the world. That’s a tall order for an old, tired, sickly woman without a cape!
The Old Woman sighs. That doesn’t really help either, but it just happens. Maybe it releases pressure so she won’t blow her top. Maybe she should blow her top! She sighs again. She does not know why, when it’s so damned obvious that the current US president, all his cabinet and most of his Republican Senators are not only corrupt, but they are also inept and have lost their minds as well as their souls, there are people who still believe. Believe that they are fixing decades of wrongs, when what they are doing is creating wrongs that could last for decades. Why is this not obvious to every single person?
But this is not what the Old Woman wants to do. She does not want to go on and on uselessly bemoaning what should not be. She wants to think of something that will make a difference. She’s started an Indivisible group in her town that is growing, despite some growing pains. She attended the No Kings March along with millions of her countrypeople, and that all feels good. “But it is not enough”! thinks the Old Woman. But what is the big important thing that will change the course? And soon! She stops and takes a few bites of her rice, and thinks some more.
“What needs to happen”, says the Old Woman to herself, “is for the bottom to fall out. For those in power, but maybe for all of us as well. The foundation of sand needs to crumble and the Institution on top of it needs to sink and fall apart. Does it all need to fall apart, or just the corrupt ones inhabiting it at the moment?” The Old Woman remembers reading something recently about how really we are all at fault. We’ve been too intent on winning, on presenting prizes for voting for us, have been rooting for our side, and have generally lost our sense of social responsibility.
The Old Woman needs to think about this for a bit. Have we? Lost out sense of social responsibility? All of us? “This will take some thought”, thinks the Old Woman, a bit reduntantly. So this corrupt institution that we call our government, under its current depraved leadership, may just sink of its own accord. “Not that we couldn’t help”, thinks the Old Woman, “and we should”. But at the same time we need to take a hard look at ourselves. Where are we with our own hatred, our own need for our side to win? Can we all find a way to come together to create something new, once this old way has crumbled and died? Or not? Or what?
A lot of this is equal parts wait and see, and push at the right times and in the right places. “Well, we’re doing this, so let’s carry on”, thinks the Old Woman, as she finishes her bowl of fried rice.