Thank you for sharing your dread and anxiety, John. It is something we all feel these days, though most of us prefer the comfort of denial.

When a ghastly, unprecedented heat dome hit the Northwest (where I live, in Salem, OR) a few years ago, the temperature soared to an unimaginable 114 degrees F in my own backyard--and I was horribly depressed.

An irritating earworm in my head constantly repeated an old Motown refrain, which took on a grimly ironic new significance:

"Like a heat wave--burning in my heart

I can't keep from crying; it's tearing me apart,"

But then I walked out on my north-facing, shaded veranda, where--despite the still-torrid heat--I spotted a beautiful hummingbird, gratefully sipping from my hanging fuchsia plants. It was a rare moment of grace, reminding my that though, like me, the hummingbird is doomed, it fully inhabited the present moment in pure joy and ecstasy, at having discovered a source of lifegiving nectar.

May we all take a lesson from that hummingbird: even though we all may be under a death sentence because of the greed, ignorance, and denial of the corporate power-elite and their political pawns, let us cherish the present moment with joy, resilience, and determination.