But Wait, There's More

disenthralling shake

and a double rainbow song

but wait, please, there’s more

Abraham Lincoln speaks straight to us from the pages of his 1862 Second Inaugural Address: “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present.  The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion.  As our case is new, some must think anew, and act anew.  We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”  Hit and hold refresh. 

Bright-hued symbol of good luck, a rainbow heralds bluer skies.  Kacey Musgraves opens her 2022(!) Glastonbury showstopper: “It’s a scary time to be an American.  If you’re feeling down in any way, this song’s for you.”  She gets it—we got it.  “It’s hard to breathe when all you know is / the struggle of stayin’ above the risin’ water line.”  Sidle into her audience.  “There’s always been a Rainbow / hangin’ over your head.”  Close, umbrellas. 

quitters stand tall

motorcyclists, truth seekers

ace tennis players

Honest Abes—Ben Folds and Michael Feinberg

“I know I did the right thing.”  Artistic advisor for the Kennedy Center National Symphony Orchestra, Ben Folds quit a job he loved due to the Center’s recent takeover in “an extreme abuse of power.”  This vulgarian-run heist violates freedom of speech—it is bipartisanship that fortifies the Center’s arts advocacy.  “The Center is a living monument, a voice for the people.”  Folds, lacking trust in his thug-ruled workplace, leaves heartbroken.  But he’ll wait because “things struggle and then come back and that’s what we’re hoping.”

“Goodbye to All That” veteran agent Michael Feinberg writes in his stirring July 3rd resignation letter from the FBI, his friendship with someone on the current bureau chief’s “enemies list” resulting in his demotion and an order to take a polygraph test.  “Subject matter expertise and operational competence are readily sacrificed for ideological purity and the ceaseless politicization of the workforce.”  This “apolitical civil servant” sobbed as he emptied his office, sickened by the Bureau’s toxic climate, steeped in love for his country.  “Fidelity, bravery, and integrity forever.” 

Inspirations—Knights of Columbus and Julie K. Brown

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski motorcycled fifty-five miles with a group of “Knights on Bikes” to the US government’s concentration camp in the Florida Everglades.  The bikers prayed at the entrance for the thousands trapped in a torrid swamp with mosquitos and alligators and without due process.  Cage-like units of cramped bunk beds and a few exposed communal toilets—little access to nutrition or sleep and no hospital nearby for nonstop emergencies.  Wenski insists that “the vast majority of those here without permanent status are honest, hardworking people who simply want a future of hope.”  He wants in.          

Journalist Jennifer Rubin salutes Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown: “We honor Brown for her perseverance and unwavering moral compass.  She has forced politicians, judges, lawyers, and the public to choose: stand with survivors, or help the pedophiles who abused them to avoid accountability.  Thanks to her, we can still deny cover to the rich, powerful men who assume they can escape accountability for heinous conduct.  May we all learn from her example.”  Broadcast the voices of victims too-long-silenced.  Share their reality—monsters raped children.  Prosecute all sex slave traffickers.  Punish every, in any way, enabler.                  

Returners—Billie Jean King and Venus Williams

Overhead smashing—dropshot dashing Billie Jean King counts all four majors among her twelve Grand Slam titles.  She’s competing for another title in 2026, a bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State L.A., having traded her studies for tennis in 1964.  “I hate not finishing.”  King relishes her online classes, especially historiography, as she learns how researchers explore and interpret the past.  Gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights champion, early Title IX proponent testifying before Congress, she points out frequent errors to her teachers: “It drives me crazy.”  Study herstory.  Check out the Billie Jean King Foundation.  Eighty-one years of pluck.

In 2007 Venus Williams won the the long fight for women’s equal pay at the French Open and at Wimbledon, and she raised the Wimbledon championship trophy that same year.  There’s more.  “She played some ball tonight.  She was moving really well, which I wasn’t expecting.  Her serves were just on fire,” admired Peyton Stearns after her July 22nd (2025!) loss in the DC Open to Williams.  Whoa, look at that signature waving pirouette to the crazed crowd—her first tour-level singles win in two injury-and-illness plagued years.  The pirouetter returns later this month to the scene of her first major finals match in 1997—the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.  A young plucker.

but wait—there’s happiness

Poet Katrina Vandenberg paints a picture of greenhouse good luck charms in “I Meet My Grandmother in Italy.”  Once her red-lipsticked far-from grandmother wore yellow roses in her Hepburn-like hair.  On this, the Saturday before she dies, she announces: “I’ll take for my granddaughter all / the plants you have with yellow flowers.”  Roses, verbena, and gladiola fill their Pontiac’s interior.  Why such bounty?   Take them / all; you need to have a happy life.”  

Short story maestro turned poet, Raymond Chandler catches “Happiness” in dawn’s lingering moonlight.  Coffee near his window.  Thud—plop.  Newspapers land on front stoops.  Plop—thud.  Two silent boys, one with a canvas bag looped over his shoulder, toss the rubber-banded papers toward still-dark homes.  They’d walk arm-in-arm if they could, you know?  Pure happiness floods you “unexpectedly.  And goes beyond, really / any early morning talk about it.” 

but wait—there’s music  

Loren Allred flies us sky-high “Over the Rainbow.”  Bluebird wings flutter as our “troubles melt like lemon drops.”  Her voice pierces waiting hearts like rainbow pastels.  Softly-playing musicians make their wishes upon a star as you make yours.  “And the dreams that you dare to dream / really do come true.”

“What used to be extreme is now a bore.”  Accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, Ben Folds leads two trios of singers in a rousing Kennedy Center performance: “But Wait, There’s More.”  It’s bad right now, so we “pray that there’s a bottom somewhere in sight.”  And, like opening rosebuds and smiling paperboys, we “hold tight.”  Yes, good will find its way, and the chorusing singers proclaim their belief in humankind.  Such convincing rounds of “I do.”  Do I believe in us?  I do.             

Playing piano with the Symphony’s backing, Folds sings “I know that I am “The Luckiest.”  Why?  He turned every mistake into a marker lighting his way home.  “What if I’d been born fifty years before you / in a house on a street where you lived?”  What if you passed me on your bike?  Ah, instead—perfect timing.  Here we are.  Who’s the luckiest?  Folds repeats, “I am.”  Am I lucky?  I am.       

dispiriting time

someday clouds far behind us

Abraham Lincoln