A new year has turned over—we are nearly 30 days in. Everything has changed and nothing has changed.
Outside, the shit storm has been raging. A few short weeks ago, the capitol was stormed by an angry mob, COVID continues to mutate and claim life after life, people continue to implode under the pressure of rapid change, massive uncertainty and a tumultuous transfer of power. Parents continue to face impossible decisions: send kids back to in-person school and potentially risk everything or continue to keep them home and potentially risk everything. In short, the world keeps muddling through crisis after crisis while inside our individual homes, we keep on keeping our schedules. We wake up in the morning, make our coffee, get dressed, do our jobs, grocery shop, do the dishes. Even though these things may look different than they did in the early parts of 2020, we're still carrying them out with the same, familiar mundane energy of trained robots. If aliens dropped down from the sky and into our home around dinner time, it may look like nothing. ever. happened. I struggle with that.
How do we rationalize all of this normalcy amidst the chaos? How do we wade through all the mixed messages and decision fatigue and get the kids to bed on time? How can I continue to write ads for things like pet food and toilet paper (my day job) when our democracy appears to be gasping for air? How can I just go on, especially when so many have it worse than I do. And what's coming next? More shit storm? Can we even handle more?
That was me last week, when I started writing this.
If January 20th hadn't come and gone as peacefully and reassuringly as it did, I think the recent weight of all this may have indeed sent me into deep, dark, vodka-fueled spiral, at least until it was time to feed the children again. But now, as I sit here and try to finish what I started, I'm feeling slightly lighter and even...positive, which is completely unchartered territory for me. My brain's thought processes are skewing more towards hopefulness than downright fear. Again, weird for me.
Yes, it can't be ignored that there is still a lot fo work to be done. In so many ways, the shit storm is still raging out there. And who knows where or how it's going to touch down next. Even though there seems to be a glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, now is not the time to forget the darkness that got us here—the worst may not in fact not be over. But—and it feels really odd to say something like this on so many different levels— we have to use the dark to fuel the light.
In other words, even if we feel a little better then we did one week, 10 months or a year ago, we can't get fucking lazy. We can't let the fact that things feel a little better plunk us into inaction or letting that everyday, robotic normalcy bog us down without taking time to remember that there IS actually good in the world after all. And it's worth working for. Now's the time to remember where we've been so we can get somewhere better. Now's the time to find the positive amidst the negative, change bad habits and above all else, just keep moving.
Ok, all this positivity talk is officially making me all sorts of uncomfortable. So before these alien feelings leave me for a potentially more deserving host, I think I need to pass it on. As we begin to head into the last week of the first month of 2021,
here are 5 things that might help you feel as weirdly positive as I do.
1. 21 reasons to hope in 2021: Dr. Fauci. The space economy. An explosion of remote work nomadism (it's a thing). This article from Fast Company pretty much has everything you want in a year, besides a cure for cancer. It will give you all the hopeful feels, or at least 21 one of them.
2. Bernie memes: You've seen 'em. This week, the first sign that 2021 has started taking a turn for the better came to us from the internet because of course it did. Whenever you're feeling glum, just take a sit with The Bern, or better yet, make The Bern sit with you, wherever you are.
3. The end is near-ish: For those who prefer tempered positivity vs. a full fledged hope fest, give this episode of the In The Bubble podcast a listen. Through the voices of many an expert, you'll have a better understanding of when, exactly, we might be able to put this pandemic lifestyle behind us. Some predictions are a little more "blue sky" than others but hey, sometimes you gotta use a spoonful of sensibility to help the positivity go down.
4. Good good good: Kinda like cool cool cool, but better. Mitigate your bad news intake by signing up for the Goodnewsletter. You'll get 5 good news stories in you inbox every Tuesday because, as it turns out, the whole word might not be a stage 5 dumpster fire.
5. This. Just this.
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