I hope this blog post finds you well!

I encountered a new health adventure a few months ago which is taking up a fair amount of my time and mental/emotional bandwidth these days.

Perhaps I will share some details in a future blog post.

My sense is that most of us already have plenty of important stuff — family challenges, political engagement, personal growth, climate catastrophes, etc. — to focus on without me adding any more drama to the mix.

So today I am focusing on a new song release AND on my recent re-discovery of how tasty a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be.

Last month I found a jar of Teddy’s brand peanut butter and a jar of blueberry jam made by Stonewall Kitchen (probably a holiday gift?) on our pantry shelves.

I spread both of them on my favorite multi-grain organic sliced bread from Trader Joe’s.

And voila!

I had a delicious meal.

Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during the past few weeks has reminded me of the times in my life when I was working jobs which allowed me (just barely) to pay my rent, buy my groceries, and keep my bicycle in running order.

After I dropped out of college, I found employment as a receptionist (who also did tasks like fold-and-stuff invoices into envelopes when I wasn’t answering the phone), as a shipping clerk and as a janitor.

I was fortunate to have medical and dental insurance as part of those employment situations.

A few years later I worked as a part-time office manager at a surprisingly preppy alternative health center (one of my acupuncturist bosses had a degree from Dartmouth and the other a degree from Yale).

My responsibilities there included answering the phone, making appointments, setting up treatment rooms, and washing/drying/folding a lot of towels.

Ironically, I don’t think I had any health insurance as a part of that job…

And blessedly I did not need it.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I am aware that good, affordable health insurance is a rare commodity these days.

And I know there are a LOT of people on planet earth right now who are struggling to pay the rent/mortgage, to buy groceries, to afford their monthly MBTA pass, to fill up their fuel tank, to hold onto their (increasingly minimal) health insurance, to buy new shoes for their children, to pay for medications, etc. etc. etc.

And they are probably eating more and more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in order to stretch their grocery budget as far as possible.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Last week I read an article in our town’s newsletter about a local food pantry which is open 364 days each year.

The only day they are closed is Christmas.

The woman who runs it shared how last year she had prepared Christmas dinner for her family and then at the last minute decided to drive over to the pantry just in case someone hadn’t understood that they were closed.

She wrote she thought she’d be away from her home for fifteen minutes — and instead found thirteen families waiting in the parking lot and hoping for something edible to put on their table.

So she stayed and gave out food until each family had a bag to take home with them.

Wow.

The enormous and often overwhelming economic challenges facing a lot of our fellow human beings is what inspired “Are You Feeling The Squeeze?”

I wrote it a few years ago, when many jobs were being outsourced to other countries.

Now we can also worry about our jobs being replaced by AI.

A friend told me recently — with a mix of ruefulness and “what-can-you-do-about-it?” acceptance — that she was pretty sure she had spent the past few months training some sort of AI program to be able to do her job.

She has wisely started searching for new — and less replaceable — employment.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I don’t earn a lot of money doing gigs at retirement communities, leading Music Together classes, and releasing music to be streamed on Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.

But I have always been blessed to have a roof over my head.

And it will be difficult for AI to replace live performances and live music classes (although companies have begun offering “concerts” by ABBA and other beloved musicians using digital avatars created by the Industrial Light and Magic company, which George Lucas founded and eventually sold to Disney).

Blech.

I remain very grateful that I saved a chunk of money when I was working a full-time job for 16 years (helping to run a beloved non-profit in Harvard Square).

And I am also grateful that I will start collecting Social Security — if it still exists — next year.

That thought brings me to my final subject…

If you are a citizen of the USA, I hope you are registered to vote in our fast-approaching mid-term elections.

These next few weeks are likely to become wilder and wilder as some of the people who are currently in power attempt to hold onto it by any means possible.

Let’s keep blogging, and reading, and writing poetry, and taking photos, and making art, and making music, and writing postcards, and holding up signs, and joining phone banks, and making strategic financial donations, and breathing in, and breathing out.

Last week I skimmed an article about recent political history in Hungary and in Serbia.

If I understood the gist of it correctly, both countries managed to rid themselves of dictatorial leadership as a result — among other things — of public demonstrations. national strikes and significant voter turnout.

Now I am very curious to see what unfolds in the days and weeks ahead!

One more deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to the skillful and generous photographers at Pixabay.

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for his graphic design work.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his creative piano playing and for his wizard-like production skills.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts!

PS: If you are inspired to listen to my music on your favorite streaming platform, here is a link for “Are You Feeling The Squeeze?“

PPS: Any “likes” — as well as adding one of my songs to one of your personal playlists — are extremely helpful to bolster my modest musical life here on planet earth.