Alert readers may have noticed that, unlike previous incarnations of my blogery, news and politics have been absent from all three or four posts I’ve made since the latest resurrection. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, anyone likely to be reading this also, likely, aligns closely with my own political views. “Preaching to the choir” is the applicable phrase here.
Second, as I believe I have mentioned previously, this is a really shitty time in history to have and anxiety disorder1. I have been something of a news junkie in the past but I just can’t handle this election cycle. In the past, not that long ago, worrying that a major-party candidate was going to engineer a coup if they didn’t win would have been the irrational anxiety, now it’s barely newsworthy.
I am aggressively trying to avoid the news. I am going to attempt to withhold comment except to say, if the country makes it through this election more or less unscathed I may have to rethink my opinion on the existence of the divine.
- To be fair, I can’t really think of a good time in history to have an anxiety disorder. Maybe April 11, 1954. ↩︎
There are plenty of agitavores out there locked and loaded to work themselves into a lather over this election/country/planet; your contribution, while valued, is not key to turning the tide. OTOH, your continued presence on this plane of existence is of tremendous importance to so many people, (presumably) including you. So don’t sweat it.
While I have not been commenting, I have continued reading here because I am, unfortunately, finding a lot of your posts to be Relatable Content.
I think I have mentioned this elsewhere, but I am also aggressively trying to avoid the news at the moment. My immediate life right now is too anxiety inducing and I don’t need to feed that anxiety with things that I have no power over.
I am presently in the Seattle area for an uncertain length of time. Probably 1-2 weeks.
Would love to see you if the opportunity presents itself. If nothing else I will be taking Nina on walks most days, and we would love the company if you wanted to join us. Let me know if that sounds interesting and we’ll coordinate.
“To be fair, I can’t really think of a good time in history to have an anxiety disorder. Maybe April 11, 1954”
Yeah, if you’re into lobotomies without anesthesia.
I fell out of being able to follow the news almost 10 years ago. There’s no point in doing something that you know will make you nauseated unless you really like throwing up. (EW! Maybe bugs LIKE to barf!).
It took a long time for my Evergreen educated brain to stop trying to make me feel guilty about not being more socially and politically aware. But the best counter to that is that if you’re so socially and politically aware that you can’t function it doesn’t do anyone any good. So poke your brain with a Q-tip, do what you can (voting is a pretty painless process these days), and live your life.
I have to admit I had to look up the April 11, 1954 reference. Interesting stuff. I love that someone(s) tried to figure out the most boring day of the modern era. Humans gotta human 🙂