Trump Whisperer

Divine laughter, Easters past, and a Bad Bunny in the White House.

Let me whisper in these ears. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

It’s Easter, and I miss my mother.

My mother was the most interesting combination of enchanting and not-enchanting-at-all. It’s nice to remember the beautiful days I spent with her. There were many.

She was such an excellent Easter Bunny, as was Ellen, our godmother. They made Easter magical.

She helped us dye eggs, which we left in baskets overnight for the Bunny—like stockings for Christmas. When we awoke, they were filled with Easter candy, and the eggs were hidden in the yard for us to find.

She insisted on solid chocolate bunnies for our baskets, not hollow. She didn’t want to cheap us on our chocolate.

Our Easters were not religious. I once asked her, as an adult, if she bought the whole Easter story, specifically, the resurrection.

She paused and said,

“Well. I suppose it was an allegory for what they experienced.”

Not only was she magical, she was a critical thinker.

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I feel the divine in two places: the veil between life and death, which doesn’t happen often; and when I am laughing, particularly with another human.

Even death can’t kill laughter. A good friend lost her husband at the start of the pandemic. She was telling me a day or two later how dreadful it was at the hospital, the restrictions on seeing him before he died, then his death. And within 24 hours another friend of hers called, distraught, because her dog died.

It just came out of my mouth without thinking:

“Oh no. You cannot bring a dead dog into this story. No.”

Then she and I laughed for five minutes straight. What is that if not divine?

If I have a religion now, it’s laughter.

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It should be noted that even Putin took his foot off the gas this Easter Sunday, declaring a cease-fire for the day—although he may not have stuck to it. It’s a nice thought to refrain from killing on a holy day, but I do wish religious people would pay attention to the other 363 or so days of the year.

Over here in the West, the headlines on Easter announce the White House is changing its policy with a major overhaul at the State Department by Executive Order. Applicants to the Foreign Service will no longer be forced to take a test to qualify; instead, they’ll be asked if their views align with our president’s.

Oh. And we are pulling out of Africa.

And shutting down bureaus on democracy and human rights. Because who needs those?

I’m sorry to have to bring it up, but I seem to recall his mentioning “shithole countries” once in reference to African nations. Looks like he can’t be bothered with this continent and his views have not changed.

This is insanity. We cannot pretend otherwise. It brings to mind a little verse from the book of John:

“Jesus wept.”