The ladies of "Love is Blind" are breaking up over politics, and Bernie bets on empathy over fascism

Also: grandparents lead the resistance, and more things warming my heart in the roundup.

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I have a glorious sight to report.

I was recently in a smallish red town within a red state—a retirement community with its fair share of MAGA flags and signifiers. It was the first time I’ve been outside my blue bubble for the most part since January, and I was definitely having some feelings about it (anger, frustration, how could you do this to us?? kinds of feelings).

But. The second day I was there we were running some errands and lo and behold, a sizable group of protesters—mostly retirement age— had lined up on the main drag.

Dozens of folks were grouped near a traffic light, and they had brought out their lawn chairs and their homemade signs protesting DOGE and defending USAID and free speech. This was a Saturday afternoon, when they knew traffic would be high.

They were out there facing their neighbors and raising their voices in a small place where they knew they probably wouldn’t be anonymous, and probably unpopular with a lot of people. They mostly wore smiles and they got quite a few beeps even from what I imagine was a mixed crowd at best. It’s hard not to smile back at a kindly looking grandma carrying a sign with bubble letters.

This warmed my heart on several levels. This warmed my heart on the “good people are trying everywhere” level. It warmed my heart on the “our elders are fighting for us” level.

But mostly it warmed my heart on the “what are you willing to risk to push back and be brave” level.

I live in a place where I can protest and be mostly anonymous and mostly supported. These were people in a small town willing to speak out and be recognized and face the consequences.

Here are 5 other things that warmed my heart lately, from Bernie (not typically a real warm an fuzzy guy) doing listening and empathy sessions with thousands of people, to young people risking their jobs for free speech, to the ladies of Love is Blind letting men know that being actively disinterested in basic human rights is…not chill.

Sara Carton leaves dude at altar citing “different values.” Image via Netflix.

And speaking of things that are keeping me going, I wrote about girlfriends and how the women in our lives keep us going, icymi:

Girlfriends are the real life partners. Let's hear it for girlfriends.

“We were told that marriage would be the most important and long-lasting relationship in our lives: the “real” relationship that we would graduate to from our girlhood pals. But I find that the women in my life are the ones that have been around the longest, and been the most reliable. Statistics bear this out. Female friendships generally outlast and outperform male romantic partners.”

Now for the links: