A recent wrong turn on our way home from visiting my mother ended up with Barry and me in the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I have my peace mask in my hand because we were outdoors and no other visitor was nearby. 

I’m a pacifist and a germaphobe. The last two years have shocked and scared me. Normally, I turn to writing to deal with life’s troubles, but the virus and division in our country and our move across the state have made writing difficult. As a matter of fact, the discord in our country has shattered my belief system.

Sitting next to the Lincoln statue, I was reminded of Lincoln’s “House Divided” Speech. I fervently believe he was correct. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” What can we do to mend the rift?

I’m about to embark on a new course. Instead of writing just fiction, I plan to begin writing essays. Hopefully, I’ll free my pen. 

Thank you for visiting My News. I’d love to hear how you plan to move forward in the new normal. How can we glue our pieces back together into something more beautiful than we had before COVID? 

In the book my agent is shopping for me, my character, Riley says,  “We can’t go back to the way our lives were before the disasters, but scars can be beautiful.” In my book I use a Japanese kintsugi bowl as a symbol of how scars can be beautiful. Let’s hope we can do something to make our scars artistic and appealing. We must believe in and continue our American Dream.