Dirty clothes & dead kids
Dirty clothes & dead kids
alt-text: there’s laundry to do and a genocide to stop. I have to eat better and also avoid a plague. my rent went up $150. I’ll need to pick up more shifts. Twenty people died in Rafah this morning and every major news outlet is stretching the limits of passive voice to suggest whole families may have leaped up through the air at missiles that otherwise had the right of way. I just got a notification that my student loan payments are starting up again and my phone isn’t charged. My cousin got COVID for a fourth time and can no longer work or walk or even feed himself. The person across from me on the L train seems to fashion themself a punk rock revolutionary, but they’re not wearing a face mask, and that’s the kind of cognitive dissonance that makes me want to steal batteries. Fascists keep winning primaries for both parties, and I think I gained a few pounds. The CDC just announced there are no more speed limits on highways, and I think this Ativan is finally hitting. The NYPD farmer’s market only sells bad apples, have you heard that one? Listen it’s warm today, too warm for March. But I don’t have time to think through the implications because there’s laundry to do and a genocide to stop.
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You can't fix it. Turn off the news. Go for a walk.
It's true that everything is shit. But everything has always been shit, whether you cared about it or not. And we're all still here.
The only difference between caring and not caring is that now you're miserable and anxious. And there's still nothing you can do.
Living in ignorance is hardly healthy though. You'll only be caught flat footed when the bad shit finally catches up to you. How long that takes is a matter of luck and privilege, for some people it's sooner rather than later.
Sure, but if you can't compartmentalise the stuff that effects you from the stuff that doesn't, then it's not worth sacrificing your mental health over most of it.
More importantly than the stuff that affects you is to focus on the things you can change. A friend of mine was in AA, which is a whole can of worms that I'm not going to delve into, but one thing I really like was the Serenity Prayer. I'm an atheist, but I like the thought anyway. It goes
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Do what you can, so when the end comes you know you did your part. Go vegan, ride a bike, vote left, shop ethically. It does a lot to curb the unease.