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May 18, 2026
Good morning! If you have found it difficult to look at or read the barrage of insanity that flows constantly from this administration, you are not alone. We truly have a madman in the White House, aided and abetted by the GOP. What can we do?

  • We can act.
  • We can hope.
  • We can take a break from politics for our own mental health.
  • We can focus on the people and activities who bring joy into our lives.

I have been pursuing these last three actions over the last month, sparked by a trip to Dominica, where we witnessed a 6-foot long leatherback turtle lay her tennis-ball-sized eggs into a two-foot-deep hole she dug herself on a beach she has been returning to every ten days since March, and every two years since 2020. Watching the shear power of nature and instinct, combined with conversationists who then take the eggs and rebury them in an area of the beach that is not prone to erosion, in an island-nation that respects and is proud of its heritage and inheritance of natural wonders refreshed my spirit in ways I hadn’t felt for a long time. It was worth getting up at 3:00A.M. to witness this marvel. There is wonder and joy and beauty in the world and sometimes we owe it to ourselves to look away from the ugliness that is shrouding our country. But we don’t have to leave the country to find that joy. Look around and if you see any one of these gifts— family, friends, passions, hobbies, professional meaning, new pursuits—you have everything you need.

I will get back to posting action alerts. For now, I hope you, too, can take a break to recharge and refresh.
Betty

And now the music:
According to the late Orrin Howard, distinguished music scholar who served as the Director of Publications and Archives for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Claude Debussy’s “L’isle joyeuse is thought to have been inspired by a Watteau painting (The Embarcation for Cythera.)The piece bursts with a sensuality, rhythmic excitement, and buoyant propulsiveness that illuminates its homage to the spirit of Venus and her court. Beginning with a flute-type cadenza combining chromatics and whole tones, the music is hypnotic as it swirls, cascades, and erupts in some of the most extroverted orchestral pianism to have come from the pen of Debussy.” The orchestral version was arranged by Bernardino Molinari. Here is Debussy’s original composition for the piano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xNfmsN_8hQ&list=RD9xNfmsN_8hQ&start_radio=1