A sign on a pub, seared in my early childhood awareness in the 1960s, resurfaced in memory, on International Women's Day: "No Dogs or Women" it declared. The right to enter a pub is a small symbol, part of an issue that's anything but trivial.
People, so many people these days, seem on the verge of losing it. If we're lucky, a dog - or two - will come to the rescue.
The world listened to America's inauguration speeches and wondered, silently, will the words about unity mean anything? Will American exceptionalism continue? And then Amanda Gorman blazed onto the stage.
Leonard Cohen was right! "There's a crack a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."