I have always been something of a pessimist; I always expected the worst. Of course, some of the time I was pleasantly surprised, and things were not so bad as I had expected.
More recently, I have given up that strategy of protecting myself, and decided to be an optimist instead. But I insulated myself from the outcomes, by saying to myself: it isn't my problem, anyway.
This does not always work. Political things, especially, depend on a lot of factors, none of which I can influence in a significant way, except in one way: I have a platform on the Web, and I can explain my own thinking about the facts, and try to persuade my readers to think of things my way.
Let's talk about Helen, briefly.
She was a musician, and, in her younger days, a very physical person: a ballet dancer, a tennis player, a long-distance runner (which does not emerge in any of the stories, I realize), and at various times, a carpenter. She was also an actress in a TV series, and she had sung in opera (which is a kind of musical play of the Baroque era, which continues to the present day).
Then, she has total amnesia, but gradually re-acquires her personality, and begins to take an interest in her surroundings, and, presumably, the politics that is going on around her.
At one time, she was head of a (private) corporation, half of which was not-for-profit, and the other half pulled together all her artistic efforts: the recording company, LMN; her TV activity with Galaxy Studios, her investments in BNS, which was a book and music store chain, and the Instrument Factory, which didn't have a name. Helen was well known as head of this corporation, and in many of the stories she was described as a very rich woman, which was a ploy, just so that Helen had the freedom to travel anywhere she wanted.
After her amnesia, of course, she doesn't really understand the extent of her financial power. Actually, she does not have too much power; she is always nervous about spending too much, because she believes that all the money is going out, and very little is going in. (This is actually the case; revenue is a trickle, from Galaxy and BNS, and money keeps going out, to Cindy, and Norma and Cecily---friends from her college days; a little foundation that provides financial help for poor children who need surgery, and the farm in Kansas, which is run by her step-brother Bo and his wife. But she does not realize how much the dividends from her investments bring in; in fact, she does not know that she has major investments in Wall Street, thanks to Juliana, to whom Janet had entrusted her savings during Helen's college days. So, though her investments are not very extensive, they manage to keep the little corporation from going into the red.
Here is a little fake interview between Helen and a friendly (and clearly liberal) newspaper or magazine.
Magazine: Well, Miss Nordstrom, here we are in 2020! The Iowa Caucuses are over, and the results mostly available; the Impeachment of president Trump was concluded, but the Senate acquitted him; the Stock Market is doing well, for the moment; the fires in Australia are gradually being fought successfully, and we're told that American firefighters were over there, returning the favor of the Australians who helped fight the California fires of last year. Of course, the coronavirus is big news, and the Chinese governent is finally pulling out all the stops, but it looks as though they're more concerned with the bad PR than the problems with the epidemic itself! What do you think?
Helen: Wow, so many things! I haven't thought very much about even half of these things!
Magazine: I know for a fact that you're very concerned about the environment, and climate change, and those sorts of things!
Helen: That's true. I don't know what to say . . . We try, at home, to be as thoughtful as we can about, you know, environmental things; for example, we try not to use any sort of single-use plastic, and many of our friends try just as hard. But, you know, I wonder whether each person, doing their little bit in their little corner, is enough to make a difference anymore. But I fail to see how the government could jump in and do something dramatic!
One thing I'm hoping for, is that the government would support more environment-friendly, you know, power generation; like windmills, and those sorts of things . . .
Magazine: Clean energy?
Helen: Yes. That's the most important single thing. I don't know very much about science, and . . . those sorts of things, but I get the distinct impression that clean energy is important, and really, easy to do.
Magazine: I think you'd get a lot of agreement there.
Helen: And then, I read somewhere, that cars account for a huge proportion of air pollution, and, well, the Greenhouse Effect. I don't know the details, but from what I have read, the Carbon Dioxide forms, like, a shell around the earth, that lets heat in, but does not let it radiate out. This is bad. This is what causes the warming climate around the earth.
Magazine: So what do you suggest? People must stop using cars, or use different sorts of cars, or what? There are various possibilities, but I'd like to hear what you think!
Helen (looking a little taken aback): Well, again, I'm not at all an expert, but . . . one thing we could do, is to use public transportation, right? Instead of taking the car to go anywhere, we could take the bus, or the train, or . . . almost any public transport! Not planes, though; I think that, er, Greta Thurnberg . . .
Magazine: Thunberg. Greta Thunberg.
Helen: Yes. Greta, anyway; she said that planes are pretty bad. She strikes me as someone who would know those sorts of things! It's so terrible; I used to take planes everywhere . . . I still do, when I have an engagement anywhere outside of Philadelphia! I even used to own a plane, I discovered recently. At that time, time was what I was up against, and to fly was the most . . .
Magazine: . . . Efficient?
Helen: Well, time-efficient, for certain!
