Now that I’m 55+ and have lost several friends my own age to cancer and addiction, I am not picky. I like all my old friends. If I’m in touch with them at all at this point in my life, it means there was/is a real connection there.
In making new friends, I gravitate to people who both listen and talk. And obviously, no MAGA. That’s a deal-breaker.
“Disagree” is not the right word (far too mild), but I feel I might be preaching to the choir here on WordPress. (As a longtime church choir member, I love that expression.)
Perhaps I’ll see what a (free) AI image generator can do with my intense feelings.
National, statewide and local elections are all important. I always vote. I have a couple of friends who are very involved in town affairs. Sometimes I reach out to them before local elections. They advise me on who to vote for, when I’m unfamiliar with the candidates. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you have friends who share your values, you can ask them how to vote.
On the federal level in the United States, it’s all on the line in November. For those who missed the exceedingly well-researched TIME magazine cover story on how far Trump would go in a second term, here it is.
I hope voter turnout in November is huge and that people don’t waste their votes on third party candidates (or that creepy Kennedy who hates vaccines). Yes, Joe Biden is very old, but he’s the only candidate with a realistic chance of preventing an “imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”
On September 17, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was 81 years old and in terrible pain from gout and kidney stones. After hashing it out for more than two weeks (seven hours per day), he finally convinced thirty-nine convention delegates to sign the Constitution of the United States, with just three delegates refusing. (It would still need to be ratified by the states.)
At the end of the day, they all went out to dinner at the City Tavern in Philly. Delegate McHenry (Maryland) wrote a diary entry describing a conversation between Franklin and Elizabeth Willing Powel who said, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Benjamin Franklin responded:
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
Source
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I feel productive when I finish a nonfiction book. Not a memoir mind you, but a real nonfiction book about history or ideas. I’m a fan of novels, so reading nonfiction feels a bit like school—a completed assignment.
Recently, I finished The Persuaders—a NYT bestseller by the American journalist Anand Giridharadas. It’s been on my list for a long time due to recommendations from friends who are more serious activists than me. I wouldn’t say I loved it, but it gave me some things to think about.
In 2022, I read a nonfiction book by the American journalist Mark Leibovich, who now writes for The Atlantic. Leibo is actually an old friend of mine from my post-college party years so I tend to read his stuff. I think he’s hysterical. I enjoyed every single word of his bestseller Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission. Highly recommend. It was an amazing poolside read. Even better with wine.
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I like talking about the zeitgeist—current events and popular culture (especially movies and TV). I also love talking about books with my book group and music with my choir peeps. I enjoy hearing about people’s travels (to a point). I’m not a big sports fan, but if a Boston team is in the playoffs, I like to know what’s happening with that. Go Celtics ☘️! (and Bruins, I guess)
And as anyone who follows my blog knows, I despise Trump with a deep, burning, crimson hatred I’ve never felt for any other public figure in my lifetime, so I’m always up for any conversation which involves trashing him.
Am I the only one with a sign like this on display in my kitchen for the past 8 years?
How on earth is a disgraced, twice-impeached, 4X-indicted, racist, gun culture-supporting, coup d’état-attempting grifter and rapist the GOP’s choice for President of the United States in the next election?
And worst of all, he’s directly responsible for this.
Ways to help from home:
My strategy depends on the particular shade of negativity I’m experiencing.
Since 2016, I’ve been mad – a lot. Anger can be channeled into productivity, but sometimes it needs to be unleashed. I find swearing to be one of the best ways to deal with anger. Sometimes (usually after watching the news), I let rip a loud string of F-bombs and then I can move on. Thank goodness my husband and I are 100% in agreement on politics. I don’t know how anyone is surviving in a politically “mixed marriage” at this point.
Do you remember when Trump visited Scotland in 2016? The coverage of their reaction was the absolute best. Does any other brand of English-speakers curse more creatively than the Scots? I don’t fucking think so.
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Dear Centenarian Mary,
Congratulations! We made it to the big ten-oh. I hope 2065 is treating us well and that we haven’t run out of money. Seriously, we’ve lived 8 years longer than our financial planner modeled. (I hope I didn’t fuck us by retiring at 58.)
In case you’ve forgotten, 2024 was quite a year. If the United States is now a dictatorship under Baron Trump, it’s not due to lack of effort on our part. We worked hard to try to stop his wretched orange father from overturning democracy.
Hopefully things took a turn for the better in 2025—the year we turned 60. Hopefully. Fingers crossed that we get to go out on a high note.
Love,
Middle-aged Mary
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My biggest challenge in the next nine months is our national challenge: to try to make sure Donald Trump does not get re-elected President of the United States. If overturning Roe v Wade and staging a coup d’état was not enough to convince you that a second Trump term would be truly disastrous for both the United States and the world, then please get up to speed.
Free gift article from The Atlantic: The Danger Ahead
This is not a time to be shy about your political views or to sit on the sidelines and see what happens. It’s a Code Red, people. The simple act of handwriting postcards to likely voters in key districts has proven highly effective in the last two election cycles.
Over the next nine months I’ll be volunteering with Vote Foward and my local Indivisible group, along with a bunch of folks from my church.
Yes, Joe Biden is too old to be President. But the likely alternative, a second Trump term, would “instantly plunge the country into a constitutional crisis more terrible than anything seen since the Civil War.”
I don’t want to wake up on Wednesday, November 6th regretting that I didn’t do more.
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If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
According to my son the subtitle of this blog—GenX Mom Keeps Calm & Carries On—is not accurate. According to him, I am not calm or “chill.” He says his father’s the calm one.
I started this blog shortly after I turned 50, in the fall of 2015. The name seemed about right at the time. I wrote six posts about regular mom/life stuff in 2015-16. Then all hell broke loose. The pussy-grabbing star of “Celebrity Apprentice” won the presidential election over a highly-qualified former Secretary of State and US Senator, even though she got 2,864,974 more votes than he did. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in the popular vote by more than the population of the City of Chicago, which has 2.66 million people. I’ve been to Chicago. It’s huge. It’s a huge city. Hillary Clinton beat Trump by more than a Chicago. Think about it.
Clearly I was traumatized by the election of Donald J. Trump and all that followed, including learning that I had Trump supporters among my nearest and dearest.
Blogging suddenly seemed pointless. I didn’t even think about blogging regularly again until Trump was safely out of DC and Biden was sworn in.
That whole time period after the 2020 election, when the networks took forever to declare Biden the winner and Trump kept saying the election was rigged and would not concede, was SO F***ED UP. Those crazy images of “Stop the Steal” rallies in Arizona and endless, needless recounts in Georgia with Trump caught on tape telling officials to “find him 11,780 more votes” like a mafia boss. WTF. We are the United States of America. This doesn’t happen here.
And then…and THEN…two weeks before Biden’s inauguration a fucking RIOT inside the United States Capitol while Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win—a perfunctory, procedural, ceremonial event that never caused a stir before in my entire life. And now we’ve got Senators hiding under benches and Vice Presidents being whisked away by the secret service?!?
OK, so clearly I’m not calm anymore. I may never have been. It’s sad that I’ve been like this for so much of my son’s life. He was just 15 when Trump won, and now he’s a senior in college.
I probably won’t change the name of my blog (because I’m not sure how to do it and I’d probably end up deleting the whole thing by accident), but I’ll try to find a more accurate title for my imaginary forthcoming biography. Suggestions welcomed.
Here are a few more pictures of my one and only trip to Chicago. I went with high school friends not long after we reunited for our 20th reunion. We were 40. We liked it!
![A logo for "50 Happens," [a site dedicated to Gen X women with children and grandchildren] [who embrace life's challenges with humor and resilience], [featuring a modern and uplifting design] [that embodies strength and positivity] [with an elegant and playful style] [and a harmonious blend of colors like pink, fuchsia, purple, and blue].](https://50happens.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img-5uorrxvwartomopcpuhjfjd0.png?w=300)
