I didn’t think that hard-won rights for women in the United States would be taken away, but I should have known better.
I didn’t think that greedy and dishonest men would take control of major parts of our government, but I should have known better.
I didn’t think I would ever be writing this post when I started blogging in 2013, but I should have known better.
I didn’t think the Daily Bitch would give me the title for today’s post, but I should have known better.
I’ve encouraged people in my Coping and Healing groups, who want to feel better, to keep a journal of “what helps” and “what doesn’t help.” In my Coping and Healing journal, #1 on my list of “what doesn’t help” is “telling myself I should have known better.” I should tell you that I created that journal before 2016, the year that a toxic narcissist became one of the most powerful people in the world. I didn’t think that was possible and I should have known better. I should have known better, also, what chaos and destruction would ensue.
I should have known better that on days that I’m feeling despair that I would have very few images to share.
I should have known better that my wonderful son’s father, Leon, would have his own day. Also, I should have known better that Summersgiving doesn’t mean giving to a vitally important organization, but I feel better on this day starting a recurring contribution to Planned Parenthood. If you want to join me, click here.
I should have known better when I wrote this song about the Supreme Court back in 2018 how many times I would have the occasion to share it.
My son Aaron thinks that’s the best song I’ve written, which I didn’t know but maybe he knows better.
I should have known better that sharing my thoughts and feelings with you would help me feel a little better (as it always does), so many thanks for being here, now.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 
I don’t know what will keep me going right now. It feels like I need to find a place I can crawl into and pull up over my head and just wait until the world realizes how bad this is. But the (mostly) white men who decree so much are never in my lifetime, going to realize how bad this is.
They should know better, Dawn, but I don’t know if they ever will.
If the past few years have shown us anything it’s that we can’t underestimate how stupid and dishonest some people will be. But I’ve also seen you and others get mad and stand up to those people which tells me we also can’t underestimate how good and decent many people can still be.
I’m so glad I know you, my good and decent friend.
Thank you for writing your inspirational and very personal piece of golden prose. I’m just starting my day, it’s early morning on the West Coast and I am carrying your thoughts with me on my morning walk. I’m deeply moved.
Thanks for letting me know! 💕
I feel sad when I read that you’re feeling despair, even though I have some difficult emotions, too.
As far as whether or not you should have known better goes, in my opinion you do usually know better, and when you don’t you quickly know better very soon after. And the worst that could be said is that sometimes you just know as much better as can be known.
There is an episode on Frasier where his witty female boss says to him, “isn’t it a shame when good sentences go wrong?” Or something like that. And I heard her words as I wrote that, but I wrote it anyway because sometimes it’s okay to know better and just do the best you can.
I’m so glad we know each other, Maureen, and I hope you know that. 💕
Many of us are in shock right now, or disbelief, but things like this bring people together and sometimes there’s an opportunity to renew and refresh our connections and beliefs.
Thanks for the reminder, which I know and sometimes forget, that everything offers an opportunity to make things better. 💕
I can’t stop asking myself, what is the matter with this country?
You’re not alone, my friend.
Thank you for sharing your better thoughts with all of us, Ann.
My life is better for knowing you, Mark.
What keeps me going is knowing that so much of the craziness in the world is the last gasp of unbalanced patriarchal power struggling to maintain a grip just before it crashes and burns. A bit like the sixties and new civil rights laws.
That makes me feel better, too.
Oh! And I should have known you’d come up with a great song.
Both of your comments helped me feel better!