The sun rose as usual this Monday morning, with a gentle coral hue that turned briefly pinker and then resolved into the yellowish cast of regular sunshine. Not a regular Monday morning, though, I remembered as soon as I woke. I couldn’t help it: my brain was like an alarm clock, signalling that the inauguration would soon be underway in Washington D.C. I’d already decided that, like Michelle Obama, I would not attend, though of course I had no invitation to do so in person, only the voracious maw of television inviting me in. 

It wasn’t that hard, actually, to resist the watching. I find it deeply unpleasant to see or hear the new president; I won’t bother rehearsing the reasons. But not thinking about it at all, well, that was harder. But I had my coffee, did my morning reading, ate breakfast, began to tackle today’s tasks.

High on the list was the need to dust. I’m very happy in my Tsawwassen apartment but honestly, I’ve never lived in a place (besides the Chaco of Paraguay in the season of wind) that gets dusty as quickly as this one, dust particles rising from the open rail cars of coal coming to the nearby port, I’ve been told, and of course when it’s beautifully sunny like today, the dust layers are even more obvious. So I did that, and I vacuumed too, and also, I attended a Livestream event with Rebecca Solnit and some guests, deliberately scheduled for this day. It scarcely referenced what was happening (besides the comment that the empty Washington Mall seemed a metaphor), but offered analysis and ideas about moving forward. She and her guests talked about resistance with tenderness, choosing a world of abundance rather than scarcity, spending time with art and music. One said, “Despair is a room we move through,” and another, in the words of the spiritual, “Ain’t gonna let nobody steal my joy.” All this and more. It was encouraging. (It can be viewed on YouTube as “The Way We Get Through This is Together.”)

While listening, I was working on a jigsaw puzzle. Puzzling is when I listen to podcasts or the like. One favourite is the CBC podcast “Front Burner,” a daily short (less than half an hour) conversation with an expert about some issue in the news. A podcast I’ve recently discovered is “What Matters Most” with host John Martens. There are more than 50 episodes to select from, including fascinating matters such as “Reading gender in Revelation” and “Leonard Cohen and the Apostle Paul.” When I walk, my podcast of choice is “This American Life,” stories that fill up about an hour, the perfect length for a walk. 

It’s still January, so perhaps I can mention that while I don’t generally make resolutions, I did determine to read Melville’s Moby-Dick this year, and I’m doing it, two chapters a day, and quite enjoying it. Other books I’ve read recently and warmly recommend are Orbital by Samantha Harvey, Clara Reads Proust by Stephane Carlier, and Clear by Carlys Davies. And I’m through Part V of Jon Fosse’s 7-part Septology, which might not be to everyone’s taste, but which I find strangely mesmerizing and compelling.

And since it’s still January, I wish you all a very happy New Year.

How did YOU spend this (historically significant) Monday?