It's not too late

What is there to say about this week?

• A terrible candidate has elevated a perhaps as terrible or worse candidate for the highest office in the land.
• A candidate from the past  has upended the Indiana Democratic party - ostensibly to save it.
• Horrific behavior by some in an organization sworn to protect has caused unspeakable violence apparently from (or in support of) the oppressed.
• And unrest outside our borders continues to spread an insidious flume of poison air throughout the globe.

It's enough to make you want to cower in your closed-up house, hoping against hope that none of this awfulness will seep in through the cracks of your foundation or the tiny cracks that have escaped your attempts to isolate yourself.

We may well have screwed our own pooch but I'm not ready to concede.

I think we can still elect a great candidate (and yes, I mean Hillary.) If Evan can help John, I'm all for it but goddammit, Evan, you'd better help John.

I weep for a nation that believes violence can stop violence.  I hope that this is the bottom from which we start to crawl up. And I pray (yes, it's come to that) that my global sisters and brothers will stop their various exercises in madness.

But mostly, I look to this face -- and all of the other fresh, sweet, young faces out there -- who may actually have it in them to fix the mess we've created.

The first is Ali at three months; the first picture I shared in what was to become this blog. Look at that innocence. That curiosity. That huge head and tiny body. We all started out just like that. It's in us to fix this mess.

The second is Ali at two or three. At that point, she had a habit of interrupting conversations with,  "Guy, guys, guys!" to insert her own opinion. She did that once, standing up in her chair at a dinner party, telling four, loudly debating adults, that we should quiet down and listen to each other.

The third is from Paris where she's just taking a moment and hadn't realized I had my phone out.

The fourth is at Pride 2015. She was thrilled to be among a throng of people so happy to be accepted the air was thick with joy.

I work with a ton of great young people who have that same kind of energy and love and tolerance that Alison's generation also has. I'm hoping right now that we can find the shreds of those traits within our selfish, cynical, awful selves.

Guys, guys, guys: it's in us to make a positive difference. We've got this! We just have to want it more than we want to crawl inside our safe houses and wait for this wave of horrific actions to pass. I don't know what to do any more than you do other than to not be silent when the occasion arises. I'm going to work for candidates I believe in; not just vote for them. I'll look for opportunities to make my corner of the world a better place.

If we all do even some of that, maybe we can return to times where we're sharing more moments that make us all do this: