Carta a uma centenária em 25 de Janeiro de 2026

Dear J.,

I hope you are doing well, or at least as best as can be considering our common political nightmare. More than a foot of snow has fallen outside and I have spent two days at home with a roaring fire and a flock of birds outside eating from the feeders. Now, just like almost six years ago, as we entered the pandemic, I look at the birds and feel that they are safer and have more freedom than we do. I am so saddened and sickened every time I read the news.

In your last email, you asked if I had gone to any of the demonstrations and I have not. I have been volunteering with the Master Gardeners, and donating food to food banks. I have also started to exclude Trump voters from my life. I continue to listen to Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, as I find them the most comforting as we push through these most disturbing times. You have also lived through many dire times before and they somehow ended in one way or another, but always at great cost to many involved, either through suffering or through loss of life.

This shameful time will also reach an end, although I struggle to see a way in which I will be able to trust and feel compassion for the folks that have voted to support this level of violence. Somewhere in my mind I think that people like me and you are owed some sort of contrition from the GOP voters, but it is useless. No amount of contrition will right this wrong and I cannot find in me any kindness to extend to these voters. In fact, I actually feel epicaricacy when I hear that people that I know voted for this President have lost their jobs or have suffered any ill event.

Since yesterday, when I heard the details of the death of Alex Pretti, I have been contemplating that the Universe or God, or whatever it is that unites everything in this world, has a peculiar sense of humor. White people are being hunted down much like minorities have been for centuries; although this is not new. Less than two centuries ago, many people did not have rights, so it was an illusion that we thought that condition had been overcome.

However, this reality not only feels like an experiment, but it is also a way for Americans to look at themselves in the mirror. So many times, the U.S. has supported this type of action in other countries, and even in the U.S., a century ago, Mexicans were hunted down by the Texas Rangers, and then there are the Blacks and how much they have had to endure. We finally have gone through all the minorities and so now it is the turn of the whites to be the victims.

For the last 10 weeks, I have been reading the Odyssey, and before that I read the Iliad. The amount of violence in these two foundational books of our civilization feels disturbingly like the present, even though I wish we were much further removed from that way of being. However, I am happy that I have found some nice people in the online classes. The next book that I may take a class on is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but I have not enrolled yet.

A few days ago, I found some inspiration to start going through my many stacks of papers and things that I need to donate. I have not made much progress, but I am happy to have started. The reason that I had been procrastinating was because, in Houston, as soon as I had my house organized and comfortable, I ended up having to move, so I have been afraid that that may happen again with this house.

How has this storm worked out for you? I hope you haven’t spent too much time watching the news. I am so sorry that I am not in very good spirits today. The narcissus and daffodils have started to sprout and soon we will have flowers. I also planted more than 100 tulips, so I look forward to being able to show you photos of their blooms. By the way, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens (a local museum) is celebrating 50 years today and they planted 650 thousand tulips this year. It should be amazing to visit in 5-6 weeks, so get ready to be bombarded with photos of tulips.

I love you dearly and send my best to S.,

Rita