"People’s reactions to opera the first time they see it are very dramatic. People love it or they hate it. If they love it they will always love it. If they don’t, they may learn to appreciate it but it will never become part of their soul."

Ransom and I watched Pretty Woman a couple weeks ago. It was the first time I rewatched it since it came out. Most of it was familiar but the scene that I remembered most clearly is the scene at the San Francisco opera when Richard Gere delivers the line above. I've always loved the thought and I agree with it.

My first opera was Macbeth. Though I was at times bored I did in fact love a lot of it. Whatever I was feeling I knew I was in the presence of something very special. By the time I heard La Traviata a few years later I was hooked -- just as Julia Roberts's character was when she saw Traviata. It remains my favorite opera I think -- just one glorious tune after another. And of course Violetta dies at the end. What's not to love?

I haven't written for several months because, quite frankly, even my cynicism doesn't rise to the level of what's needed these days. What can I possibly say about the heart-breaking, sickening tragedy taking place in Washington -- to say nothing of Syria, Africa, the Great Barrier Reef and much of the rest of the world? As a species we have taken a dramatic turn towards oblivion and I find it hard to be make smart-ass comments about our fall.

But many of my followers -- ok, one of my followers -- asked me to write again. So I'll try.

Do we have a future? Will we muddle through? Is this conservative attack on America just another swing of the pendulum? Will sanity return to America?

Deep down -- very deep down -- I think things will get better. But they will get a lot worse before they get better and that's going to make everything much harder four, eight and twelve years from now. If the Idiot-in-Chief serves his full four-year term, xenophobia, homophobia, racism and ignorance will all have a stronger foothold on the American psyche. Not caring about facts leads to terrible decisions; not caring about the planet leads to the death of the planet; not caring about people's rights leads to deep-seated resentment of power; not caring about our relations with the rest of the world leads to mistrust, anti-Americanism, isolationism and, perhaps, a state with many of the characteristics of North Korea.

Not a great time to be a cynic -- being right holds no real reward. And, from where I sit, an impossible time to be an optimist.