In Chicago, we had an especially warm Fall. Days so warm that a fraternity took their tables out to the quad in too-short shorts and played pong. A part of me wishes I was still under the delusion that climate change was just that, a change from cold to hot. A part of me enjoyed it. I didn’t curse the CTA while waiting for the 55, even when it came 18 minutes late. I took my meetings outside, perfectly quiet because the birds already fled South to the Gulf by mid-November. I’m not sure they’ll have to travel South if it’s the cold they’re worried about. I know, like many, this is nothing less than a catastrophe. I envy the dinosaurs who at least had no idea of their fate. We have been taught skepticism and some of us paid attention to our history, so we know delusion is a bind, a trap. I will spare you the details because at least for me when I close my eyes and it’s pitch black, I can see everything too clearly. Thankfully we can ask Meta AI to write a caption and deepfake Kamala into smoking backwoods all while our vapes give us a lightshow. Let’s not look too closely at it all, the minerals in the batteries and such. A quick laugh in this season of bittersweets.