January 6 has come and gone. No storming the Capitol with the more than tacit consent of the president. No killing of law enforcement officials. No threats to the lives of senators and congressmen. No conspiracy theories or accusations of stolen votes. Without mobs or disruption, without protests about the legitimacy of his right to the presidency, Congress certified that Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election and will take office in 12 more days.

We have retrieved the family recipes from the virtual or actual files; we have successfully navigated the aisles in the grocery store; and we have put clean sheets on the spare beds for soon-to-arrive children and grandparents. Yes, we are just about ready for Thanksgiving. And while we may have trouble giving thanks for a lot of the craziness going on in our country and the larger world, and how that may affect the planet and the most vulnerable among us, we are still thankful for family and love, beauty and humor, health and good memories.

We think this message bears repeating.

The time is past for avoiding difficult conversations with friends and family. No longer should we heed the many words of advice about how to get through a Sunday dinner without having a disagreement over reproductive rights or gun control, immigrants or taxes, climate change or racism.

The working definition of “literacy” is the ability to read and write. We decided to do a short experiment. Just for an hour or two, we imagined that we couldn’t read. Initially, we were not prepared for how reading is a part of almost every minute of our lives. What would be the big deal, we thought, to not read for a couple of hours?

Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman was suspended two weeks ago as chair of the department of psychiatry at Columbia University, asked to resign as the executive director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and fired as psychiatrist-in-chief at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The aisles in the supermarkets and CVS are full of seemingly endless brands of tampons and sanitary napkins. Our televisions blare ads with “tests” comparing the absorbency of the different products. For most of us, the biggest challenge has always been deciding which menstrual product to choose.

This week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Some of us listened to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech; maybe we did an act of community service in his honor; or perhaps we did some shopping at the ubiquitous online sales dedicated to his name.

Once again, our eyes are glued to the tv and newspapers, as we absorb the details of yet another tragic killing in a school. And, once again, we shake our heads, convinced, perhaps this time more than ever, that the deaths could have been prevented.

Before November’s Election Day, we wrote about the importance of voting in local elections. We stressed the important role that local officials such as mayors, school board members, sheriffs, and state representatives have in making decisions that affect everything from the curricula taught to our children to the way our criminal justice system works.

At the risk of being redundant, this week we are revisiting the subject of food insecurity on college campuses. As you know, we co-hosted a screening of the documentary, “Hungry to Learn,” at The Cabot in Beverly last Wednesday, followed by a discussion with Ann Ciaraldi, associate dean of student affairs at UMass Lowell, and Kathleen O’Neill, director of Single Stop at Bunker Hill Community College. Both women provide support at their colleges for students confronting food insecurity. The conversation expanded our knowledge and understanding of the problem and how we might take action to solve it.

The US Government is sending money each month to families with children as part of its new American Rescue Plan.

As we look forward to giving thanks this week, albeit in altered venues with fewer people around our tables, we think about those in our land of plenty who are homeless, hungry, jobless, and without adequate health care. Administrators of nonprofit agencies advise that the best donations are financial rather than of goods, so that they may be used where most needed…

With less than a week until Election Day, our message this week is simple. Be a pest. Remind everyone you know to vote for candidates who support positions they believe in. For us, this means voting for local, state, and national candidates who are committed to access for all to quality education, health care, food, and housing; to sensible gun control laws and humane immigration laws; to reproductive rights for women; and to protecting and restoring the environment…

Two years ago, a group of students from RAW Art Works , a wonderful program for underserved youth in Lynn, created an installation entitled “Seat at the Table.” It honored Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the US Congress and the first Black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States. Chisholm famously said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

There are fewer than 60 days until the November 3 presidential election. We who reside in Massachusetts don’t live in a battleground state but we can still support the work of getting out the vote, particularly in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.