I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am having a devil of a time trying to convince myself that there is a bright-ish side to all this chaos and uncertainty that we have been experiencing.
I realize there’s not a whole heck of a lot…as I’ve said before…I, as a well-intentioned humanoid, can do about things in general. But I sure would like to have some sense of stability. It seems like just when there seems to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon, something else falls out of the sky and we’re scrambling again. I feel like I’m living H.G. Welles’ “War of the Worlds“!
It’s apparent from various posts that I see on social media that others are feeling pretty much the same. The interesting thing for me on reflection is that, in today’s world, we actually have these platforms on which to air our concerns…our revelations…our hopes and fears. Better to put those emotions into words than to bottle them up and, sooner or later, explode in often very unpleasant ways.
I try to keep tabs…at a distance, mind you…on my former Curry College and my current University of Tampa student/friends. I’m not trying to be nosy. It’s just that I know what I’m experiencing emotionally myself, and I want them to know that someone’s listening and cares.
We will get through this madness, and we will all come out the better for the experience. But it’s going to be an uphill slog with no clear end-point in sight. To quote, as I do so often, John Masefield in “Tomorrow“: “And many a broken heart is here and many a broken head; But tomorrow, by the living God, we’ll try the game again.”
Be strong, my friends.
Well, it may be misplaced optimism, but I’d like to think that if it results in the defeat of your current president, it won’t be a total loss.
Mind you, the deaths, by then, of close to 200,000 Americans is a “devil of a price” to pay.
I’d like also to think that it will provoke people to understand that we are in the “Cancer Stage of Capitalism” (John McMurtry, Fernwood Books: Halifax, Canada) and that there are better ways to organize our economies … including those that do not foreclose on our planet. But that might be asking too much.
Just remember: “Things could be otherwise” and “The are strategies more ennobling than a pre-emptive cringe.”
Courage!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fingers crossed on your first statement, Howard. Let’s just hope other, future leaders have learned a valuable lesson in this fiasco. Thanks for your feedback.
LikeLike
I’m right there with you, my friend! Keeping up a positive attitude (or at least the appearance of it, in hopes that it will “stick”) has been increasingly difficult. In our industry, it’s simply not practical to *not* keep up on regional, national and international news. To help quell the stress, I’ve purposely made a couple days this past month a “no news, no social media” day (typically a weekend day since it’s part of my job Mon-Fri). 😉 I did feel some relief on that day.
Unfortunately, by the following morning, I was in full-on anxiety attack mode and was frantically reading, watching, listening all at once to ‘catch-up’. Phew! A conundrum indeed. Hang in there, Kirk. Sending virtual hugs from the midwest!
LikeLike
Thanks so much, Tressa. It’s tough. I want to keep up to date with news in general, but the downside, obviously, is that I get the whole ball of wax, good AND bad. Fingers crossed we get back to some form of “normal” sometime soon-ish.
LikeLiked by 1 person