Back From a Little Break
Mental Health is Important Folks... Anything Important Happen in the Last Week?
I’ll be honest. Last Monday’s travesty in the Oval Office nearly broke me. I realize that it is but one of the many ways that this administration has shit on what the United States is supposed to be, and that I really need to separate myself from what’s going on, but it’s just really, really hard for me to do so.
I was actually off of work all week, and while I had some family stuff to take care of, I also had a lot of time to myself. While I generally appreciate the luxury of time for my own use, it also left me alone, which can be a somewhat fraught place depending on my mental state. Last week was not a good time for riding solo.
I had thought that I would finally have a lot of uninterrupted time to work on a couple of long-form essays that have been in process for a while now1 but the brazen way that both Trump and Bukkake2 acted on Monday set me off in ways that I am not really proud of. I vacillated between white-hot rage and a deep sense of despair, and both emotions led to some really dark thoughts, which are another thing that I had kind of forgotten from T1.0. Additionally, the relative absence of reaction from most folks (or the absolutely vile reactions of some) really brought me down, and every time I fired up the laptop to work on stuff I just got pretty damned depressed.
I was able to compartmentalize the garbage on Tuesday when I had a family obligation and then distracted myself on Wednesday by a combination of household cleanup and a healthy dose of Balatro and Subnautica3. I also did a lot of petting of the doggos, but all of that was procrastination.
I sat down again on Thursday and started working when word came out that there was an active shooter at Florida State University. I went to FSU way back in the day, and I am on an FSU Discord chat, which is where I first heard about the shooting. That led to following updates from Tallahassee and making sure that friends I have in that town and on that campus were ok, or as ok as you can be when that particular violence finds your door. My heart goes out to the families of the two men who were killed, and I will be keeping a close eye on the narrative that develops from this shooting, considering the shooter is a far-right asshole. It will be interesting to watch the spin on this.
I was able to round out the week by attending a Hands Off rally in my hometown, which was just what the doctor ordered. In fact, there are some new subscribers here that either my wife or I met at that protest, so if you are one of those folks, welcome! I was worried that the rally would be sparsely attended as I did not see nearly the amount of promotion for it compared to the April 5th events. Fortunately, the crowd in my town was 2-3x larger than the organizers were expecting. Seeing all of these people re-energized me and reminded me that we are NOT alone, and that there are a hell of a lot of people who are just as scared, just as pissed, and just as resolute as I can be (on a good day).
So yeah, I am back, and T2.0 seems to want to keep giving me shit to write about, so I will get to it. The next Hands Off rally is currently scheduled for May 10th, so start planning on going, and start inviting friends and family who share your views. We need to not let up, because they won’t.
Take Care and Stay Strong, Together.
One thing that I had almost forgotten about Trump 1.0 was how things just. kept. happening. It’s even worse now, they have gotten very good at flooding the zone, so I get caught up in reacting to the latest insult to our nation. I have to remember that I am not CNN (thank FSM!) and I am under no obligation to “report” on every damned thing this admin does. It’s hard though, when so much hits me viscerally.
I know what his name it. I am also emotionally 12 years old sometimes.
I had been hearing about Balatro from soooo many people and could not understand how people could be so excited about an online poker game. Then I played it and now I get it. It’s a ton of fun!