So. Politics. It’s hard to discuss with any kind of nuance or politeness these days, so I try not to talk about it at all. Especially since I’m always caught in the middle, between the flaming liberals and the rabid conservatives, both trying to pull me off balance. I find Trump and his followers deeply embarrassing, and since the Capitol riot I find them a little scary, but since I live among extreme conservatives I know that most of them aren’t violent like that. Some of them, including both of my state’s senators, are also freaked out by Trump’s insurrection. That gives me some comfort.

Here in the U.S., we joke a lot about “Florida Man” stories. All the craziest, dumbest crime stories seem to come out of Florida, to the point that all you have to say is “Florida man” and people know what comes next. Of course, Florida isn’t actually the craziest state in the U.S., it’s just the most free with its information. While other states might make their corruption or craziness hard to find, Florida just puts it all out there for everyone to see. (Really, they have really extreme laws about government disclosure.) Well, sometimes I think to the rest of the world the entire U.S. is basically “Florida Man.” Every nation has its dark side, but where most nations seem to downplay their crazy the U.S. just puts it all out there for everyone to see. I honestly don’t know whether that’s good or bad.

Either way, I’ve decided I need to keep up on the news more. I’ve been avoiding the new for the last four years because I just couldn’t handle the vicious politics, but being blindsided by an attempted coup felt even worse. So I’ve committed to reading at least a few headlines every morning so I can be emotionally prepared if anything else crazy happens.

Aside from that, though, the last four years have made me more sure than ever that most people need to spend more time off the internet doing hobbies and chatting with friends and neighbors about normal, non-political stuff. People who only talk politics once in a while tend to be less radical and more genuinely helpful about making the world a better place. I love the internet, but I try to have a purpose whenever I use it. Scrolling endlessly, hate reading, flame wars, and social media crusades have become the vices of our time and I don’t want to indulge in that kind of destruction. I haven’t joined a flame war or social media crusade in a couple of years now, I’ve mostly kicked the hate reading habit, and now I’m working the scrolling habit.

To help with that, I have a whole lot of sock yarn and a brand new paperwhite Kindle I got for the holidays. Though I love actual books, I already own several hundred so I switched to mostly e-books to save space. Reading on my phone works well, and in fact is the only easy way to read the old gothic novels I get through Project Gutenberg, but there’s always the temptation to click away and check Facebook or Reddit. This reader only does books, so no temptation. Plus, the matte display is easy on my eyes the way real paper is. Right now I’m still reading M.E. Braddon’s Aurora Floyd on my phone and starting Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle on the reader. Best of both worlds.

As for the sock yarn, I finished my first ever pair of socks this week. My kids got me some cheap basic sock yarn for the holidays and in return I’m knitting them each a pair of socks. Partly, I’m the nicest most generous mom ever and partly I’d rather practice on my kids’ socks than my own. They won’t care about all the minor mistakes. And there were a lot of minor mistakes. Double pointed needles, tiny stitches, lots of new shaping to learn, I was bound to screw it up. But they look like socks and work like socks and they fit my kid’s feet pretty well. She loves them and I’m pretty pleased with myself. The socks were a bright spot in a tense and gloomy week. I hope your week, too, has bright spots amid the January gloom.