Here are five things worth paying attention to this week. These are designed to expose you to a perspective you may not normally come across in your daily lives. 1. “Wait and see.” Leann notes how often these three words occur in notes from friends or replies she sends. Wait and see what will be the outcome of the virus, schools, election, sheltering, travel plans, health of family and friends, the list of survivals and losses. “Wait and see.” Much of life has been on hold for six months, and now we move into the fall and its annual health challenges. A low level of reactive depression. The former First Lady admitted these low feelings a couple weeks ago giving all of us permission to name our malaise. We are all “waiting to see again.” 2. The lost summer. The end of a summer that wasn’t. Overheard, a child complaining to her mother, “But Mom, summer can’t be over. We didn’t do any of the things we planned.” Yesterday was spring, tomorrow is fall, how did we misplace summer? The flight of time minus many of its usual markers evaporated as mist. We need to review these precious days and savor the renewed friendships, deepened relationships, reconnected attachments and wonderful worship times online with our church. 3. Democratic National Convention. Where half of the nation is seeking to rediscover, redirect, redefine its moral and social self is the stuff of important conversations and the exchange of emails. Most exchanges begin with Michelle Obama. Her address will be studied by students of rhetoric, those seeking the art of public speaking and those who want to see someone truly making her point incandescent – whatever one’s political persuasion, seeing compassion for the oppressed embodied, feeling the power of someone pouring out her truth on a national platform, hearing unsheltered truth from her soul. 4. “The end of denial” by Ibram X. Kendi. This excellent article in the September issue of The Atlantic by the author of How to be an Antiracist argues that the current administration has done more than any other for Black America, as indeed the president claims, by exposing our systemic violence, ending our endemic denial, revealing the racist system of our state and forcing us to confront our prejudices. The president has held up a mirror to our evil and we can no longer turn a sightless eye. May Kendi be heard. 5. The Mennonite. August 2020, the last “regular” edition of our denominational magazine arrived, and we gave it a close reading. Eight eloquent people gave testimony and evidence on “Why I am an Anabaptist.” In our diverse context where we see people around us discovering Anabaptist thought and life, we love to find what draws people to the Peace Churches and to the discovery of a fresh attachment to the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount. We say goodbye to The Mennonite with gratitude, as we look eagerly to the merger with Mennonite World Review as they create Anabaptist World, which will double the possibilities for future witness. David and Leann Augsburger are two semiretired people who co-lead a home-based church (Peace Mennonite Church, Claremont, California) and volunteer to welcome, care and connect people in the San Gabriel valley.