The past three months have been a whirlwind, due to the shock-and-awe policies set forth (but not always implemented) by the new administration. Whether real or theoretical, the effects of those policies have already started to trickle down our system: positions have been cut, people fired, funds frozen, entire agencies and departments have been shut down or severely maimed in this ongoing process. There are way too many opinions flying around in our increasingly polarized media, and I do not intend to add my two cents to the pile; not yet, at least. It all feels like the grand overture from a futurist performance, full of ear-splitting noises and bound to break the willpower of even the most patient and well-meaning audience. What’s the first act going to bring? Time will tell. For now, the best we can do is take a closer look to those around us: our family members, our friends, our coworkers, the people we interact with in the course of our busy lives, and try to be more understanding, more patient, more kind to each other.    

I was at the Cleveland Museum of Art a month or so ago, and I saw this painting made by John Rogers Cox (1915-1990) in 1942, shortly after the US entered WWII. I am fortunate to have frequent conversations with two of the museum’s curators, who are trying to improve their Italian, and on that particular occasion one of them pointed out a detail in this famous landscape, something I had never noticed before. The line of telephone poles stretching to the horizon is untethered; due to the lack of cables, those lines serve no purpose; all communications have broken down. This purposeful omission makes the entire scene much more desolate, and those huge gray clouds feel even more threatening. One can almost feel the stillness in the air surrounding the waves of golden wheat, as yet undisturbed by the approaching storm that will soon ravage them. It is hard not to feel a similar sense of dread when we read about the armed conflicts and uprisings waging in so many countries; the hatred grows stronger, in spite of the seemingly endless communication opportunities our interconnected world allows. While that massive network still stands, because of a lack of mutual understanding, our voices are unable to break through the clouds.