I’m grateful I got to go hiking today 

And I was happy to hear that Taylor Swift is engaged

I listened to the New Heights podcast with her in it

Folding laundry and hearing her talk was splendid

Celebrities are people too 

Maybe they just got really into what they do 

They’re on top of the world

Life is just a tour

I think about the legless man who wheels himself from the nursing home to the 7-11

He may never get to New Zealand

He doesn’t have a fan base 

But every afternoon on my bike ride home I see his face

He still has feelings

Nursing homes here just have 1 or 2 star ratings 

The residents say they’re hell in the making

Can celebrity money make things any better?

If I were uber wealthy would I buy suburban mansions and fancy watches

Employ stylists to remove all my blotches?

I pondered all this silliness

This afternoon my mother-in-law asked if I’d heard about what happened in Minneapolis

Another dagger, another tragedy

Too grievous to believe

I wonder if light was flooding in as it happened?

What were those precious kids praying about?

As their heartbeats flattened

Lord, don’t You see?

And I feel guilty for having enjoyed my day 

This world is a collage 

It’s polar opposites 

Enormous loss and outrageous gifts 

Beauty and then sabotage 

The sunset now is pink 

But I know there’s parents who only see black 

And people who feel they need just one more drink 

A lot of people wish they could just turn the clock back 

Gravity pulls at all of us

Just a little slower, maybe, for celebrities 

And a bit faster for those with aching knees 

I still believe we were all meant to live

Lord, I like watching the colors 

Won’t You come and make everything bright

Make it all alright

Because it’s not socialism or the right or the left or this president or the next 

We could never buy our way out of this 

I can’t put my finger on it 

It’s Ecclesiastes 

Lord, don’t You see?