I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten to where I can hardly even skim the news. It seems like, over the last year especially, I’ve been walking this fine line of wanting to stay engaged with the world around me, but also wanting to protect myself from what I can only describe as widespread insanity.
I fantasize sometimes about moving out of the United States, because we seemingly are at the top of the insanity pile. We have ridiculousness here that nobody else has (rabid gun violence, a stupid healthcare system, poor safety nets, an unlivable minimum wage, no guaranteed parental leave, paltry PTO, etc.). Truly, I feel like I could make a long list.
But then I remember that not only are there worse places to live than here (the war-torn Middle East comes to mind), but there are “better” places to live that still have their own set of problems. Suffering is universal, really. Although we do make some interesting choices in this country that allow a lot of unnecessary hardships to impale a huge swath of the population. Our priorities are all messed up.
I have no idea what it will take for us to decide to do something different. We all talk about how only a few people are in power, and how a tiny fraction of humanity is making the terrible decisions for the rest of us. But we also forget how we, as a people, have allowed it. We have allowed it through our votes, through how we have continued to spend our money, through how we have approached the idea of community vs. the idea of the bootstraps individual.
We allow everything we see, and not enough of us want to do or be anything different.
I do think that the next 10-20 years are going to be a really interesting time to be alive. I have hope that we will make a major shift in the 2030s, because we seem on the precipice of a total collapse of what we think of as society and the world order. And also, our younger people have no hope of a livable future. Heck, I (Gen X) don’t even know if I can retire or if the planet will be on fire. Everything is completely unsustainable.
In the interim, I find that most of my life revolves around my little bubble. It’s myself and my husband and my cats, and the birds I feed outside, and my plants, and our little home we make together. It’s also my job, and my creative work, and the microcosm that is the town I currently live in. And when it’s not that, it’s often an escape to the past through classic movies or decades-old music.
I don’t like to run away from the now, as a practice, but lately the now really sucks. And maybe it’s ok if I tune out for a while, since I’m already doing my part to try to make the world better (shopping small businesses, spreading kindness, voting for change, recycling, reducing consumption). I don’t know. There are no answers at the moment, but it sure is hard to get up and move through this version of the world every day.