Maggie's Farm

Barrister, my friend ... Hold fast to your ideals of democracy as it was and should be. Bad things have been happening to our country with dreary regularity lately, and it's easy to become depressed. Downs and I had a visit from one of our dear friends today, and he told us about the present state of one of our great American families, with whom we're acquainted. The wife of this one family member, a dauntless and charming woman, is now incredibly handicapped, along the lines that Christopher Reeve was -- confined to a wheelchair, with only the ability to move one shoulder. But she has an undamaged and courageous mind and soul, and with the help of her husband and numerous caregivers, she continues to function. And, amazingly, to be happy she is alive.

I think about her courage, and theirs, when things seem to close in on me, now that we're fighting back from Downs' broken shoulder. And I figure that if she can tough it out with such grace, so can we.

"Never, never, never, never, never give up," in Winston Churchill's immortal words. If the Brits survived months of the London blitz and fought with us to win the Second World War, we can survive this annoying little pest who now occupies the White House, and rectify his mistakes, one after another, when he leaves.

Marianne