Luther Burbank Home

As is often the case with historic homes, Luther Burbank's home is now right across a busy street from civic buildings, an office building and the main fire station. I'm sure it was out in the country when Luther moved into it 1884. HIs widow Elizabeth made renovations to it after Burbank's death in 1926. The home and carriage house are now a city park which is open to the public. I decided I needed a wander through the acre of beautiful gardens as an antidote to the continuing madhouse which has become our government....

When Stephen Colbert coined the word 'truthiness' I wonder if he could have predicted that 'alternative facts' and the even more cringeworthy 'truth isn't truth' would even become a serious part of the nation's vocabulary. The current Oval Office's occupant's fast and loose use of truth, not to mention an almost overt desire to redefine it to mean the opposite of what any rational person would expect is head spinning. Trying to disentangle everything is almost enough to make me question my own sanity. This I know to be true. Donald Trump is so caught up in his own deceit that I don't think he even knows (or cares) what the truth IS. It leaves the rest of us scrambling to know how to deal with it....

The problem is that in his total disregard for the truth...the coverups, the distortions, the 'walking back' and redefining and the lies, the reality has become so convoluted and entangled that, the situation has become unprecedented. Morally and ethically grievous wrongs have unequivocally been committed, but legally, there is just no precedent for dealing with somebody who says 'truth isn't truth'. You can get away with murder if you have no regard for anyone but yourself...

It would seem, however, that this attitude is contagious...spread and aggravated by social media and instant news.