At a vintage market a few days ago I picked up a Dresden plate-patterned quilt, folded up and very heavy, the hand stitches so minuscule, the colors that brilliant vintage calico only an old handmade quilt can showcase. The shopkeeper stepped over to me. “It’s a cutter” she said. “I will sell it to you for $15.”

Without missing a beat — or opening up the quilt — I replied.

“I am a fixer. Sold.”

We all know that is not quite true for everything. But doesn’t trying to fix something, or make someone feel better, or delivering a cake just because cake always make the day bright do something for the soul?

I grew up in politics; a grandmother who was a Connecticut State Senator after twenty years of local politics before that. An uncle who was a Congressman. The family was made up of opposite parties and the best of friends. There were as many democrats as republicans at our houses for coffees, teas, drinks. I attended election night countdowns from my sleep suit years to my high school years, helping chalk up the results board, eating sandwiches with the Governor, listening to the debates, the excitement, the hopes. I knew politics to be non-partisan (def: not biased, especially toward any political group), hard-working, problem-solving and a terrible topic of discussion at the dinner table after two rounds of Manhattans.

So disappointing, these days. But how to fix that?

Not with needle or thread. Not with anger or disruption. Not with locked-in, myopic, self-serving rhetoric. Think about the big picture. Save the earth we live in and on for our grandchildren and their children. Be the solution whether that means with scissors or tape or talk or change. Listen to the other side. Work it out. Your playground is my playground is our playground.

We have one life people. Make it good for everyone.

I have begun to stitch that quilt back together. Not a job for the fainthearted. It has massive, deep holes through the layers. Enough with the metaphors.

Thinking of everyone: we all lost in so many ways last week. Have some tea with me.