A Hard Look in the Mirror
- Mike Dickey
- Aug 19, 2025
- 3 min read
My Church and my Country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit
That’s going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful
Who follow ‘em down
I love my Church and Country and they could use some mercy now
Every living thing could use a little mercy now
Only the hand of grace can end the race
Towards another mushroom cloud
People in power, well
They’ll do anything to keep their crown
I love life, and life itself could use some mercy now
Yea, we all could use a little mercy now
I know we don’t deserve it
But we need it anyhow
We hang in the balance
Dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground
Every single one of us could use some mercy now
-Mary Gauthier
Enjoying the view here in the new condo.
Not a bad space if you're going to work from home.
Of course, "work" has gotten off to a slow start. With my trial continued there's suddenly space to take care of things that have gone neglected for months. Work related writing projects. A trip to the gym. Calling an old classmate whose cancer has returned.
But here I sit staring out the window, feet up on my desk, still not dressed. I'm just so tired these days, and find myself viewing my disdain for work through a self-critical lens. There are too many bills to pay to even consider tapping the brakes right now. I need a better attitude.
And things are definitely slowing down on the work front. The phone no longer rings off the hook with new cases. This new expectation of clients that I'll return a call or respond to a text immediately is something I'm simply not willing to do. Heck, when I started practicing law we wrote letters, and mid-morning and late afternoon actual paper mail would arrive with letters and court filings and the like. A law firm I knew in Atlanta boasted back then that they were committed to returning a client's phone call "within 24 hours". That wouldn't cut it in 2025, but I'm rapidly slipping back into that standard, and getting a fair amount of grousing from clients as a result.
I've started reading The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, which tells the story of our slip into secession and civil war in the middle of the 19th century in a way that's mesmerizing, following characters you've likely never heard of but at the time featured prominently in the events leading to Fort Sumter. This morning with my coffee I read a few pages about how paranoid and delusional the south became after John Brown's raid, including the tidbit that schoolteachers in South Carolina recruited from northern states were forced to take an exam to prove they believed in the enslavement and racial inferiority of Blacks.
That nugget took me to this morning's news that Oklahoma will force teachers recruited from California and New York to pass an exam on topics like the biological difference between the sexes, and the gospel truth that Trump actually won the 2020 election.
Everything old is new again. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Meanwhile, a lunatic who's gotten the President's ear pressured the State Department to send back legless Palestinian children who came here for medical treatment for injuries suffered from weapons made right here in the Good Old U.S. of A.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/18/gaza-medical-visas-children-laura-loomer-marco-rubio
The country's lost its mind again. I don't recognize the country looking back at me in the mirror, and don't see things getting better in my lifetime.
So instead I'll ponder on what to fix P for supper, and maybe end the day with a nice soak with P in our new jacuzzi tub in a decadent hill of bubbles. One has to live one's life, after all, and sitting in a stew of unhappiness over things I can't control isn't going to make things any better.
Comments