November 12, 2016: What's New

So...years have passed since I have written. I am still here in Kuwait; two children have graduated and have gone off to college in the US; one child is at home and in elementary school; and I am still teaching at the university.
I realize now how the US is a different place for my children and how the morphing of their two worlds has informed their opinions on the US to be more objective and less emotion based. I have to say that I have hung on to a nostalgic view that makes the current turn in the US from one of an ethical and loving country, to one being steered by a bigot, extremely hard to reconcile.
I don't know what to think...but it is not the country of an Andy Griffithish flavor anymore. And if I am honest with myself, I need to acknowledge that it was never the good memories I remember for many people even at that time.
And so, I am here with my life in the Middle East and a heart in a US that may soon cease to exist as a space that my heart would recognize. And I have to admit that I have finally settled into a peaceful acceptance and appreciation of my life here. It took a long while.
But I am grateful.