It’s hard to blog about the things I love and the ideas that make me happy when there’s so much strange and horrible news in the wider world right now. How do you talk about time travel and dragons and Christmas, when it feels like you ought to be making statements about violence and gun control and civil rights regardless of gender or religion and the absolute awful that is the megaphone of idiocy wearing a bad hairdo whose name doesn’t need any more repetition?

Condemning what is crazy, complicit, and criminal from the safety of my desk chair does no one any good. So instead, I ask, as a holiday present to me, would you all do one or more of these things:

• Make sure that you and the ones you love are registered to vote (assuming they’re eligible. Otherwise, make plans to take the little ones along when you vote, because civic engagement is exciting!)
• Give someone a year’s newspaper subscription.
• Donate to NPR, PBS, or one of their local affiliates.
• Dig out your library card and go use it. Replace or apply for a new one if you’ve moved or lost yours.
• Take someone you care about to a museum.

In the meantime, give yourself permission to turn off the news from time to time, and listen to the caroling dragons practicing their scales.

“Reach for the Stars!” holiday dragon by Heidi Buck (http://www.hbdragon.com/main/dragons/6)