Surviving The Fall, 43

I just heard the last bit of a short interview on the radio with an individual who is apparently one of the most hated individuals by Vladimir Putin. He was just expressing how Putin isn't a legitimate political leader, but a criminal who runs Russia like a Mafia boss and is only doing it to amass as much money for himself and his cronies as possible. This makes sense. It is also depressing news, given the huge arsenal of nuclear weapons that he has at his command. The world is a scary and frightening place. Or is it? This morning the sun rose. I got up after a good eight hours of sleep (doesn't always happen). I have bread baking in the oven. I have just had my first sip of coffee made from beans grown in the fertile soil of San Luis, near Monteverde, Costa Rica. The coffee is a gift from the owners of the bed and breakfast where I stay when I visit Monteverde and the owners of the coffee farm are part of their extended network of family and friends. I will be submitting the forms and documents this morning to my housing providers for the annual rent review, which means that for another year I will be paying low and affordable rent for my apartment that has sheltered me these last sixteen years. Which means that I can actually go to Costa Rica every year. This coming March will be my sixth visit, always in Monteverde with the legendary cloud forest and incredible wildlife. Yesterday I hung out with a young couple from Colombia as we are doing language exchange, and this helps my Spanish as it helps their English. Today, I will start a new drawing, go for a long walk and later have coffee with a Mexican friend for more language exchange. Tomorrow I can enjoy my quiet day. Sunday I will be in church in the morning and later enjoying a beautiful solitary hike. I am sixty-two with good health and feeling actually better than in my forties. Putin is like a Mafia boss extorting Russia and threatening the world with nuclear annihilation and there is nothing I can do about it. The sun will set tonight. Tomorrow it will rise again and we are promised beautiful weather. There are two pigeons nesting above my window and this feels somehow like a good omen. Even though we have nightmares like Putin and el presidente Dump, the Great Deplorable squatting in the Oval Office, it is still a beautiful day. Even though the early Edition on CBC Radio has been playing all week this smarmy tribute to dads in celebration of the upcoming Father's Day, and even though this triggers me for the abusive relationship that I had with my own father, none of this wretched toxic masculinity is going to stop the sun from rising, setting then rising again, nor is it going to stop the world from turning, and I will still be making bread and drinking lovely coffee and enjoying the friendships of people from other countries as well as here in Vancouver, and I will continue to pay small rent as I age into a new life. Yes, there are problems in the world, and there are some really awful people with power to harm millions, if not billions, but that is not going to be my focus, and I refuse to believe that they are ever going to get away with it. Living in fear never solves anything. Neither does getting angry. But our anger can be used in redemptive ways as it fuels us to work for the greater good and for justice. But we still have to work carefully. We have to work together. The bread will be ready in six minutes. I am enjoying my coffee. I have had to close my window and turn on the fan to block out the construction noise nearby. The toxic masculinity that is destroying our planet is also rebuilding our city and making it into something unaffordable to the poor. I am one of the lucky ones. I am grateful. And because others cannot access what I have been given, I am angry, and I will continue to fight.