Continuing my romance with the mountains, talk about purple mountains majesty, this is our view from the rooftop smoking porch of the Great Smoky Mountains: Glynn Wilson

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The sky is clearing over the Great Smoky Mountains here Saturday morning, making way for a brilliant sunrise, and the dark clouds shrouding American democracy are beginning to blow aside to offer a glimmer of light at the end of the tumultuous tunnel of 2020.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Friday, clearing the way for millions of highly vulnerable people to begin receiving the vaccine within days, according to the New York Times and other news outlets. The authorization marks “a historic turning point in a pandemic that has taken more than 290,000 lives in the United States.”

Then, with a dismissive flip of the wrist and an upturned middle finger, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Texas lawsuit that asked the court to throw out the election results in four battleground states that President Trump lost in November, “ending any prospect that a brazen attempt to use the courts to reverse his defeat at the polls would succeed.”

The court, in a brief unsigned order, refused to even consider or hear the Texas case, saying the state lacked standing to sue.

“The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, the Democrat from Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a profound statement about the ruling late Friday afternoon.

“Tonight’s Supreme Court decision should put an end to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election that he lost,” Hoyer said. “The results are clear, there was no widespread fraud, and Joe Biden is the next President of the United States.

“The 126 House Republicans who signed on in support of this case should be ashamed of themselves for putting their own political interests before the interests of our nation, the Constitution, and our democratic principles,” he continued. “Our nation is facing a grave public health crisis and an economic crisis, both of which are growing worse by the day. It is past time for Donald Trump and Republicans to accept reality, acknowledge that he lost, and focus on uniting our nation and addressing the deep challenges we face.”

I must say the Kenyon coffee tastes particularly fine here this morning in this bed and breakfast for writers, as we prepare for a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Sunday. I’m no sentimentalist, and Christmas has never been my favorite holiday. But I must say I’m looking forward to doing some things over the next few weeks that simply feel normal, like admiring Christmas lights, drinking spiked eggnog, and listening to live music again.

With a little help from a friend, I managed to sneak into a little bistro briefly and catch a couple of sets of live jazz this past week, the first live music I’ve heard in nine months.

A Fleeting Glimpse of Life Before and After COVID and Trump

It’s been one hell of a crazy, scary year, and I’ve often found myself on the run from the novel coronavirus as well as political forces that would love nothing more than to have me killed as an “enemy of the (white, conservative Christian) people.”

I can see clearly now that we might actually make it through this year with prospects for a bright future in 2021. It’s not over yet. Thousands of people are still getting sick and dying of COVID-19, and will be for a few more months. Many others are suffering horribly from the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.

At least we can see now that Trump is on the way out, Biden is on the way in, and we have a chance to get our government back on track with a party that is far from perfect, but at least will take hold of the tiller and guide the ship of state into calmer waters.

If there is a theme song we should all be singing about now, let it be a Beatles song, “With A Little Help From My Friends.”

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, get high with a little help from my friends
Oh, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends

Thank you my friends. I vow to be a nicer person from now on. If there is anything I can do to help my friends, altruism is the order of the day. We must get away from feeding the selfish gene. Only widespread altruism can save us now. I’m all in. You?