I’m listening to Christmas music. I know, it’s April, but I lost all of my iTunes music last November in a crazy action meant to keep my old computer working just a little bit longer. I missed hearing all those happy songs of peace on earth and I really need that right now. In the ensuing months since last autumn, I have learned a great deal about iTunes, computers, googling answers and relying on the kindness of strangers.

Isn’t that how life works? We make mistakes. We do something stupid. We keep making more stupid mistakes and then finally admit our errant ways, hoping someone can dig us out of the hole. We need to do this today more than ever before in my lifetime. We’ve dug quite a hole here.

For example, one mistake (believing media was solid), led to another mistake (if media is corrupt, conspiracy theories must be true), to another mistake (believing an outsider would improve this country), which leads to our current mistake – hiding – because we’re so embarrassed we were taken in by Facebook and Russians, we’re hoping it will all magically get better…. but 8,000 iTunes songs are gone. Vanished. No denying it.

I know, it’s hard. You feel stupid. How could you have sent all those songs to the trash just because you believed they were carefully backed up on your external hard drive? “Warning: This action cannot be undone.” Click. Drag. It all seemed to make sense at the time.

Ok, time to peek open one eye and admit to the mistake. There is no shame in that. In fact, it requires a great deal of courage.

Next, do some research. What exactly do you agree with in this administration? What do you oppose? How would you like your representatives to move forward from here? What do you think will really make the gridlock stop? And then google how to get your iTunes from your external hard drive to your new computer. Smart strangers know some good stuff.

When you have some answers, take some actions. And before you know it, Christmas songs, Rachmaninoff, Justin Timberlake, and Reba McIntyre will be humming away in your happy ears.