Thank you, Garrett, for returning me to my better nature over and over again this last year. And also for not judging me for defaulting to cranky and just a wee bit aggressive. You model so lovingly how to widen the tent stakes and invite people in while still maintaining your own center. I hope you get more and more chances to spread the good news in the new year, and I'll be here to cheer you on.
Thank YOU for being here, and for not judging me for defaulting to saccharine and just a wee bit too optimistic! The cranky and the hopeful need each other!
Yesterday, a writer I follow on Bluesky posted one of the president's "truths" (ugh) in which he mentions that he's had... three recent cognitive exams?? I mean, the only reason DT was writing about them was to note that he had aced them, but it almost seemed like he thought they were MENSA tests, and the results proved that he was a genius. Now, as a caregiver for my 93-year-old father, I know something about these MoCA tests—my dad gets them once a year, he just had his latest one a few days ago, and it involved stuff like drawing a clock and remembering a brief series of words (which Trump once famously described as "person, woman, man, camera, TV"). My dad did very well, thank you. But he knows it's not an IQ test!! It's to measure cognitive decline! Is thinking that the MoCA is a test of your intelligence itself a sign of that decline? I feel like this could be THE story of 2026.
Thanks, Garrett, for creating this wonderful space and for writing such uplifting essays, which are a necessary read for a cranky pessimist such as myself.
Love my community of cranky pessimists with fathers who could beat Trump in a test that definitely is not an intelligence test but don't tell him. that.
Thank you, Garrett, for returning me to my better nature over and over again this last year. And also for not judging me for defaulting to cranky and just a wee bit aggressive. You model so lovingly how to widen the tent stakes and invite people in while still maintaining your own center. I hope you get more and more chances to spread the good news in the new year, and I'll be here to cheer you on.
Thank YOU for being here, and for not judging me for defaulting to saccharine and just a wee bit too optimistic! The cranky and the hopeful need each other!
Yesterday, a writer I follow on Bluesky posted one of the president's "truths" (ugh) in which he mentions that he's had... three recent cognitive exams?? I mean, the only reason DT was writing about them was to note that he had aced them, but it almost seemed like he thought they were MENSA tests, and the results proved that he was a genius. Now, as a caregiver for my 93-year-old father, I know something about these MoCA tests—my dad gets them once a year, he just had his latest one a few days ago, and it involved stuff like drawing a clock and remembering a brief series of words (which Trump once famously described as "person, woman, man, camera, TV"). My dad did very well, thank you. But he knows it's not an IQ test!! It's to measure cognitive decline! Is thinking that the MoCA is a test of your intelligence itself a sign of that decline? I feel like this could be THE story of 2026.
Thanks, Garrett, for creating this wonderful space and for writing such uplifting essays, which are a necessary read for a cranky pessimist such as myself.
Love my community of cranky pessimists with fathers who could beat Trump in a test that definitely is not an intelligence test but don't tell him. that.
What an uplifting essy! Thank you for this. It helps.
Thanks Gail!