Please Pass the Salt and Pepper of Loss

: Jamie Stiehm on Jun 17, 2026

I swam in the beautiful bay water three times that day. Salt on skin does wonders. Six of us had a sundown dinner on the roof, with a homemade almond cake a la creme and fruit for dessert, a ferry and lighthouse in the distance.

Everyone around the table at the house party was a true-blue friend. Some I'd known forever, so it seemed.

Our host created a spell, a consoling space of light in these times. My spirits suddenly took flight once we left Washington and crossed the silver Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Eastern Shore land, with corn growing on all sides, held a promise that things would stay safe, sane and the same.

Savoring time together, the camaraderie of old friends, we enjoyed the dinner perhaps more than we would have before COVID-19, Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office, and the "loneliness epidemic."

"Company coming" is not something you hear much.

As I looked around at my friends, it hit me hard. They had chosen work in public service or honorable professions, to improve the lives of others or represent the United States well.

And Trump had caused misery in all-out assaults on their institutions.

The Justice Department lawyer had a wonderful career. He won most of his cases for the United States, not for settling the president's personal scores. He said federal judges used to trust the DOJ attorneys in a "presumption of regularity." No more; too many are out the door for prosecuting the Jan. 6 mob rioters. The place is hollowed out.

The ocean science and environmental experts spent years writing a book or passing laws in their fields. The Environmental Protection Agency is now headed by a former Republican congressman, Lee Zeldin, who's "dismantling" the government's duty to protect clean air and water.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is undergoing similar surgery and stands to lose its monitoring capacities on oceans, weather and climate change -- for no good reason.

Another friend trained and traveled overseas to assist developing nations and communities with improvement and infrastructure projects. Most drastically, Trump and his dastardly crony Elon Musk closed the U.S. Agency for International Development on his first day in office ("fed to a wood chipper").

That caused disbelief and angst across the world, followed by thousands (or millions) of deaths that could be prevented with our foreign aid. It doesn't cost much to be a good will ambassador with "soft" power.

Now we are in Trump's clutches as a hard superpower, starting a war on Iran, kidnapping the president of Venezuela and threatening the tiny isle of Cuba -- along with the large island of Greenland.

Did I mention one had a part-time job as a John F. Kennedy Center usher? Now closed, with no programming for the opera or symphony, the building is an empty, dark shell. Thanks to a president who cares little for the arts.

The beast is out of the cage.

My field of journalism has also come under attack, the press corps intimidated by Trump and networks surrendering to his lawsuits. My first job was at CBS News-London when it was something special and the foreign desk covered the world.

My father, a pediatric immunologist, keeps telling me that vaccines are one of the great advances in medicine. So why Health Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s crusade against them? The medical research and scientific establishment will take years to recover, Dr. Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert, told me.

I really don't know. Nor do I know why Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth does anything he does with such pomp and a pompadour to preen and please the boss.

We stayed up late to watch the "Donald J. Trump" lettering removed from the Kennedy Center wall. A judge gave us a bit of vindication. A rainbow came out in the early morning hours.

For sure, we were happy to see New Yorkers dance in the streets and subways when the Knicks won the NBA championship.

Still, a slight ineffable sadness stayed among us.

Above all, a study says, the salve, solace and secret to a good life, even in hard times, is friendships and relationships.

You don't need a Harvard study for that.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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