Cupcakes and Common Ground

Sometimes, you just have to drop everything and make a batch of cupcakes.

Yesterday was grim as far as national news. It was one of those days that makes you want to grab your loved ones into a bear hug and not let go for at least twelve hours. It was a day that makes you question and yell, cry and wonder, and turn off the TV because you can only take so much sad, twisted reality before you need to escape into something else. In my case, I escaped into chocolate cake, pink frosting and sprinkles.

Recently, Pasadena Star News editor Frank Giradot gave me a lovely holiday shout-out. He included me in a group of political bloggers he thought were making a difference in our region -- and he included me precisely because Glimpses of South Pasadena is not a political blog. I don't think I've ever been more flattered because in our age of name-calling, finger-pointing, fear-mongering and tut-tutting there is a hell of a lot of political nonsense getting in the way of any real understanding.

I remember when those across the aisle were people you wanted to challenge, engage and convince -- not destroy. I wonder what is going to happen if we keep ratcheting up the gears of hate and hyperbole. There will certainly be more malfunctioning cogs -- like the lunatic who shot all those people in a grocery store in Arizona yesterday. Who knows, with enough rhetoric and vitriol, we might shut down this complex machine of ours altogether.

Instead of retreating into our corners, turning on whichever cable news station parrots our beliefs and logging onto Facebook or Twitter to spew self-righteous clichés in all caps, I believe we need to figure out how the two sides of our country can manage to live together in peace without tearing each other to shreds. I don't have any answers, but maybe a conversation over a cupcake is a good start.