INTO THE VALLEY and KATE MCKINNON AS Rx

   Time and energy is spent, being angry, worrying about being angry, getting active or worrying about getting active. We'll get to that, but first a deep breath and a quick road trip to clear the head.

 To Californians who have suffered 5 years of drought, green is a precious color and soothing. Please indulge these few frames from scenic Highway 46, the Green Valley Road. 

    In the early days it was a dirt mountain trail. Paved in the 1930s, it was a connecter from the Pacific Coast east to Paso Robles. The modern highway was built in 1970.

   The connection with Highway 1, aka Pacific Coast Highway, is 1 mile southeast of Cambria and about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, visible from the crest over the Santa Lucia Mountains coastal range. 

     We drive the highway all the time and never tire of its beauty, even more spectacular in the green season.

    As along Highway 1 and the 101 there are patches of the old roads and stage coach trails still visible.

   It is hard to be angry when absorbing the beauty, or when breathing deeply. 

    Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese monk, wrote Living Buddha Living Christ and tells of an easy deep breathing exercise that anyone can do. Sit quietly, still your mind and breathe in, thinking only about your breath and then exhale while smiling. Repeat the action a few times. You will find yourself relaxed, feeling better and less angry. If you wish to go deeper, begin with the deep breath and smiling exhale, then breath in again thinking only about the moment of your breath and then exhale thinking about how lovely the moment is. It is an ancient and healthy technique. It can't hurt you, but anger can!

    It is like an epidemic and in conversation everywhere. I've been surprised at how angry so many of us are, present company included. We understand why and in that is a modicum of strength. So many millions of American livid about the political reality and the man who is the toxic pathology of it. It is an historic revulsion and as in medical diagnosis it is a symptom of something ill in the body. In this case the body politic is reacting and warning us. 

    Unprecedented in our lives. The closest thing we may recall, those of us of certain age, were the mass movements of the civil rights era and the struggle to end the Vietnam war. For younger Americans there was the brief flicker of the Occupy movement. 

    It has been a while since so many have been so politically active-writing letters, e-mails, making calls, going to huddles, talking about direct actions and marching. It is a season of caring and politics and we should take care to remain focused.

COMIC RELIEF IS GOOD AND WE HAVE A QUEEN

     Bravo to Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live. As the American political horror show has progressed, McKinnon has made us laugh with cunning craft, skill and a rapier comedic genius.

      The 33 year old Columbia grad did a "spot-on" Hillary Clinton. But since the debacle she has done masterful take downs of Kellyanne Conway, destined to be hall of fame bits. 

      Just this last week she did another lethal job on Conway, turning her into a Fatal Attraction parody of Glen Close as a crazed stalker going after CNN's Jake Tapper. She also played the Attorney General Jefferson Sessions and just to show she can inflict bipartisan comedy, McKinnon did a number embodying Elizabeth Warren's zeal all in one show. She is an extraordinary talent and that talent is helping millions of Americans laugh and that is especially good.  

  See you down the trail.