Photo: theconversation.com
Not Politics
As I sit here staring off into space wondering what I could write that might be of even the slightest interest to you, I keep coming back to politics.
I don’t want to write about what’s going on ‘out there’ right now. Actually, you can thank your lucky stars, right at the start of this post. Why? Because I just wrote a medium-sized (for me) post on my ‘birth’ into activism some 18 years ago.
And then I chucked it.
Finding the Sweet Spot
I don’t want to talk or write about politics (at least not today), and if I write about activism, and how mine was sparked, that presumes speaking about the issues that call to my heart and stir my passion. And probably like many of you, I feel there are a myriad of things happening right before our very eyes that are, quite simply, incendiary.
Indeed, it’s tough to find a sweet spot these days when it comes to balancing civic responsibility with maintenance of even a modicum of mental, physical, and spiritual hygiene. It is nearly impossible to keep up with everything that’s going on and not feel mired in muck. Or enraged to the core. Or hopeless.
And yes, I do turn the tv off while I write my posts, so anything I write pretty much comes from a place of me sitting in my beloved silence. But it’s hard. And even when I do, it’s swirling in my mind.
Setting a Disturbing Precedent
I’m finding our current state of affairs to be setting a truly disturbing precedent. It’s just like smart phone use. It’s addictive. And making matters even worse, it’s also akin to driving slowly past an accident on the interstate. We can’t help but look.
All of us know things are accelerating in Washington D.C. The pace of revelations is unsustainable – although it’s only just now reaching the top of the first (and usually biggest) rise of our cultural rollercoaster. Prepare for more – and at stomach-dropping speed.
The disturbing precedent I mentioned, though, is that fix of dopamine we’ve all become habituated to receiving every ten or fifteen minutes every day, or even more frequently if we are hopeless ‘refreshers.’ The only thing that saves some of us is when we are fortunate enough to have a task where our full and undivided attention is required.
It’s a problem, and it’s disturbing. I worry whether we will ever allow ourselves as a society to drop back from this break-neck pace of constant “Breaking News.”
Will We Ever Return to Peace?
I ask you: Can you honestly imagine our society returning to a relative sense of calm and trust in the day-to-day institutions that keep our lives running with some sense of normalcy, order, and trustworthiness?
Sometimes I am glittering with hope in humanity. Other times…not so much.
I’m going to wrap up this post and bring it to a close. My eyelids are heavy and my heart’s close behind.
Aren’t you glad I didn’t talk about politics? Ha ha. Yeah. Me too.
Have a great day.
(T-1038)