Imagine you have a chronic disease that can be easily managed by a medication you cannot afford. If you don’t take the medicine every day, you risk going blind, having your legs amputated, or dying. But you just don’t have the money, so you ration your doses, hoping that some medication is better than none. You are playing a game of roulette you didn’t choose.

What is nostalgia? Is it memory filtered through at least a couple of pairs of rose-colored glasses? Is it what we wish our past had been or just the best of what it was?

We all know far too well that the contributions and roles of Black, brown, and AAPI people, women, and those in the LGBTQ community are underrepresented in history classes throughout the country - not just in the South, though the problem may be most egregious in some states there.

Many of us came of age in our kitchens with The Silver Palate and Moosewood Cookbook as our guides and gas stoves as our workstations of choice. Now along comes news that our gas stoves are bad for our health.

In a conversation over the holidays, one of my sons reflected on a job he had scooping ice cream at a chichi organic ice cream store in Berlin. He remarked that he didn’t think it was fair that he was expected to get there a few minutes early in order to don his work apron and wash his hands, but he wasn’t allowed to clock in – and, thus, get paid – until after those tasks were completed. That didn’t sound right to him. His passive/aggressive response was to get there as close to clock-in time as possible – or even a little late – and then grab the apron as he clocked in.

We admit it. It takes a lot to shock us these days. Five days to elect a Speaker of the House? Crazy, but just another day in the new reality. Shirtsleeve weather in December? Getting to be routine. Veterinary tranquilizer mixed with fentanyl the new street drug? Alarming, but far from shocking.

Everyone loves a good imposter story. Think of The Great Imposter, the 1961 film starring Tony Curtis and loosely based on a biography of Ferdinand Waldo Demara by Robert Crichton. Demara, a high school dropout, successfully impersonated – at least for a time – a Trappist monk, a prison warden, a Royal Canadian Navy doctor hailed as a “miracle doctor,” a New England teacher, and then the FBI agent assigned to track him down. How can we help but admire the chutzpah and talents of this guy?!

A dear friend is moving her husband to a memory care residence because he can no longer function at home with only her loving care and part-time help. Another dear friend just lost her husband after negotiating his treatment through an acute care hospital, then a rehab, and finally a hospice facility..

We’ve talked a lot about the need for systemic, macro solutions to the problem of poverty in our country and the homelessness, food insecurity, education and health inequities that come with it. Until the causes are dealt with, the problems will continue.

So here’s the thing about antisemitism in America. It’s always been here. When some of us were growing up in the 50s and 60s, there were neighborhoods where Jews couldn’t buy homes or join certain country clubs. Colleges and universities had quotas on the number of Jewish students who could be admitted. It was not unusual for Jewish children to be accused by their Christian friends of killing Christ. Or for a Christian boy to tell his girlfriend he couldn’t take her home to meet his family because she was Jewish.

An ad pops up between my turns on Words with Friends. It is a quiz about food insecurity. I search for the icon which will let me skip the ad and get back to my game.

The polls closed last night but it will be days before the final tallies are in. We know there are already some disappointments as well as a few encouraging results, but we need time to dissect and analyze the outcomes.

Leading Ladies refrains from endorsing particular candidates, but we do clearly support certain causes and positions. Indeed, our mission expresses our commitment to equal access for all to education, health care (including a woman’s right to choose), housing, food, jobs, and political representation, regardless of one’s ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual identity. We are also committed to common sense gun laws, humane immigration policies, and the sustainability of our planet.

“It seems preposterous that we would omit, as players, those who have the most energy, the most long-term interests, and potentially the best ideas, to change what is happening in the world, and the people within,” said Dr. Andre Morgan, Director of Opportunity, Access and Equity for Beverly Public Schools at our Students as Changemakers event last week at The Cabot. “In a time when students are seeking careers with impact, and employers are seeking graduates with core skills of problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork, it is important to consider how schools and communities, can equip every student with the changemaking skills, to tackle complex social issues, and future challenges that are not yet imagined,” he emphasized.

Turning a key for the first time to open the door of a house that is all yours — not a rental, not your parents’, not a pad shared with roommates — well, that feels pretty special.