To a Tea

I yearn for the days of yesteryear – in this sense, much like political conservatives (but for different reasons, as you’ll read) – when the term “tea party” still meant either a social gathering at which tea and light refreshments are served or its analogue that young children re-create when playing, and not some disillusioned band of malcontents who are trying to mainstream uncivil engagement and hateful speech under the guise of populism. How I wish we could trade these partygoers' tri-cornered hats for thinking caps, and their bouts of paranoia for periods of rationality.

Here today, Olivia and her friend Lizzie participated in a tea party that featured graham crackers with peanut butter, not posters with drawn-in Hitler mustaches. I’ll raise my cup of tea to that.