Weeks after a long weekend are always crazy. But this short week has also been so strange. Busy, rainy, and strange…with a delicious whisper of fall in the air.
I've been thinking and reading a lot about how we're collectively dealing with everything going on. Attempting to figure out how I can best help. Trying to determine when my coping mechanisms become a privileged level of ignorance.
TBH, I've had a lot of guilt.
Because, personally, my week has not been bad? That is, until I read the news or check social media and see the suffering and the apocalyptic images from the west coast. Fires are a way of life in the west, but this is on another level. My heart breaks, not only because I know what they're going through, but also, what can I do?
The pandemic, too. We Americans are literally treating everything that's going on as totally normal. "I've gotta live my life, man." Capitalism marches ever onward. Media produces. Influencers, they influence. Talking heads, they talk. Commenters, unfortunately, shame.
But, like, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about our current status is normal!
We should not be okay with any of this!
So when does coping turn to complacency and then become the point of no return? This article about Gaslighting I shared in April and Ed Yong's latest have been running in my mind the past few days. As ever, I seem to have no answers, only a lot of questions.
Like I said above, I have not had the worst week. We've been doing okay. So here are some small things that helped me get there this week.
I hope they do the same for you, wherever and however you may be.
