Reflections Of A Backseat Thinker

Mind Blowing. Profound. Unexpected. Beautiful. Difficult. Vast. Exhausting. Invigorating.  These are only a few of the words that stick out to me when I think about my recent trip out West.  I left my home in Florida on September 26th. Picked up my friend Allie in Georgia and off we went, visiting various other friends and relatives the rest of the way.  In total, we went well over 6000 miles. The trip lasted 23 days. We visited 11 main parks/cities.  It was a trip of a lifetime and here’s what we did!  Hot Springs National Park We stopped at HSNP because it was on the way, honestly. One of my biggest bucket list goals is to visit all 62 National Parks in the US. I have a “Passport” book to collect the stamp from each park as I visit and everything! We didn’t have time to go to the famous bathhouses there, but that was okay with us. It was $20 and we knew that the trip would be expensive, and there was plenty of free stuff to do.  The town of Hot Springs is quaint and cute with lots of

 Quarantine has been full of surprises. One of which has been a newfound love of writing poetry. I had always considered myself a songwriter - not a poet- but lately I’ve been able to do some writing of both. There’s something freeing about the spoken word and making combinations of words that can evoke emotions, paint pictures, and have drive and rhythm. Never in a million years would I have ever thought of writing poetry myself. I go through phases where reading it bores me and phases that I can’t get enough. When I am in the mood, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Maya Angelou are my go-to’s.  Lately writing poetry has been a way of both shining a light on the darkness of life and also revealing and illuminating the beauty and joy of it as well.  Much of my poetry borders on the darker side, but I assure you, I’m okay. I find inspiration and creativity in struggle. Those who know me well know that I don’t shy away from a little drama :). I also find a lot of inspiration and metaphor in

 If you would like to listen to this post, please see the audio version at  https://soundcloud.com/mary-blazier/reflections-on-term-limits-and?ref=clipboard “And 52 days from now we’re going to win Nevada, and we’re going to win four more years in the White House. And then after that we’ll negotiate, right? ‘Cause we’re probably, based on the way we’ve been treated, we’re probably entitled to another four years after that.” - Donald Trump     I haven’t truly studied American law, politics, or the US government since high school. But I do consider myself educated and well informed. And that paragraph, spoken on September 12 th , 2020 in Douglas County Nevada, scares me.   It scares me as an American who was taught and raised to believe that two term limits decrease power, prevent dictatorships, and secure a fair and democratic system.   Reading that sent me into a spiral of thoughts of “that’s it, it’s happening. America’s democracy is over. It’s gonna