You know what your holiday season has been missing? How about a little fusion?
As you might know, scientists created energy through nuclear fusion without a resulting mushroom cloud last week. As Uncle Joe might say, it's a pretty big fancyword deal.
What this really means is we're about two maybe three generations away from that Mr. Fusion powered car in Back to the Future. I couldn't be much more jealous of my great great grandchildren.
Let me tell you why fusion is right for this time of year.
It's the holidays for many faiths. A time to bring all people together in a time of peace. It is not a time to divide, to split by dogma. In celebrating our individual faiths, we unite as a nation of beliefs. A nation of different beliefs.
It's the merging of these different traditions that creates our power.
Nuclear fusion is what powers the sun. It is the merging of two smaller atoms into a larger one that creates so much energy. To do this you need a whole lot of heat and a whole lot of pressure. Of course it's harder to push two things into one than it is to split one thing.
We've relied on nuclear fission for decades to produce energy. Fission is the splitting of one large atom. Requires a lot less heat or pressure. It's effective, but leaves waste that lasts forever and can result in radioactive clouds.
Fusion on the other hand produces more energy with little radioactive fallout and no long term toxic waste. The waste of hydrogen fusion is helium. The downside of helium is more balloons.
I believe it is better to combine to make things better than it is to divide ourselves to glory. I think that's the basis of most of the stories we tell ourselves in the holiday season.
How appropriate that we affirm all the different ways we make family and celebrate loving commitments for all people in this country with the signing of the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act. Uncle Joe said it was a blow against hate and he was right.
The return of Brittney Griner to America was another blow to the haters who went from lamenting the amount of time it was taking to get her out of a Russian gulag to whining about the price of the trade in the span of a news cycle. Seeing Griner's smiling face on the flight back home was an early Christmas present for many Americans.
That is because Griner is America. A force of nature formed by the pressure and fire of her surroundings. A fusion of different traditions and backgrounds into a unique and powerful individual.
While pundits and politicians from the right continue to force divisions among us in their protestations over an "un-American" gay bipoc basketball player, notice they are tight lipped about the 34 congressmen who were texting the White House in support of shredding the constitution and overturning the presidential election.
I say more fusion, less fission this holiday season. Who's with me?