We are coming to the end of the high blooming season for bird of paradise flowers.  This plant likes cooler weather, and while we aren't having now and we won't have really hot weather, the winter coolness is slipping away.  Earlier this week the temperature was in the low 60s midday, and tomorrow and for the next several days we will have temperatures in the low 70s.  So today was a good day to slip out and take a picture (another picture) of my favorite flower and the namesake of the valley where we live.  Paradise Valley is a good name for this part of National City.

The trunk of a taller bird of paradise plant that produces a blue flower is definitely dull compared to other plants in the area.  Even Palm trees are much more attractive than this plant.  I'm not sure of the name, so I won't make an attempt to identify it.

I like to think of the predicament of the President of the United States in terms of what it seemed to be and what it eventually turned out to be.  There are still a few people who are hanging onto a hope that the colorful bird of paradise flower is a good representation of the man who lives in the White House.  If I were less political in my thinking I would feel sorry for him, and perhaps I could respond to his declaration this morning at the Coast Guard Academy commencement that he is being treated worse than any other president of U.S. history.  He hasn't read American history or he would find reasons to be glad he is not Richard Nixon or... or... or...  There have been presidents whose terms have been served through far worse times than these which we are experiencing now.

Anyway, we are now saddled with a president who is seen by most of the people I know as someone who is not normal, someone whose personal identity is more important to him than the welfare of the country he represents.  We will get through this tough time, and we must be able to talk with each other without expecting those on "the other side" to change their basic political beliefs.  Democrats and Republicans must communicate with each other, however unpleasant the idea of cooperation and compromise may seem to the partisans of both sides.  One of the best things about being Americans is that we tend to value each other as individuals first.  We think of others as Americans first, as fellow country persons, as people for whom we wish the greatest welfare regardless of their party or their religion or any of the other human "conditions" we consider in our thinking about each other.  The man who is now the president has another way of seeing himself and another way of seeing other people.  He seems unable to change.  We must keep reminding ourselves that we can get through these tough times.