Current troubles are plentiful. The weather alone has consumed a bunch of attention, both from people trying to escape it as well as those trying to maneuver its effects. My thoughts are with those in the former category, though I am not inclined to heroism on a grand scale. I know people who are. They go out into the rain and snow on purpose to look for and retrieve complete strangers. I bet there is an extra cushy place in heaven for them. But then again maybe they have enough mettle to last into the next few centuries and would be disappointed by complete respite. I suppose God could create a tiny bit of danger to keep them sharp.

Civil unrest has been rumbling of late. People are finding new ways to hurt one another, or perhaps just revamping old ones. 

The thing I try to hold front and center is the memory of past disasters that actually melted into a new way of life. My mother lost everything in a flood, and she moved in with me. My baby was hospitalized for severe failure to thrive and had a hundred appointments before his first birthday. But if I ask at the Christmas table who wants Benjamin to be part of our family every hand bolts to the sky. The last time we had him committed for uncontrollable anger it unleashed new reserves of social services. Fifteen years ago I was flattened by three kids in diapers, especially as I was using cloth ones. The bathroom smelled pretty bad. I cannot actually think of a silver lining for that one except that it is over.