Howdy ho, doomscrollio.
Cranes are for origami, not your neck, so unfold yourself and listen up. You’ve been feeding yourself a diet of bad news and coffee. Lingering quietly in comment sections, calling it “research” instead of “self-destruction.” Equating paying attention to paying dues.
It’s time, kindly (and also a little less kindly), to knock it off.
The world will not cease to turn if you aren’t viewing its mess through the window of a screen. In fact, look at the smallness of the world around you this very moment. Is it turning? Is it living, breathing, evolving? Are you okay, right now, in it? Before you re-absorb yourself into the mire, touch the things that are not plugged in, and feel the electricity of reality. You are here.
And it’s okay, then, to keep in touch with what’s happening. It’s important. Essential. But understand where you stand in the shadow of it all.
Anger and sadness feel productive right now, but they’ve been freezing you up instead. Ask: have those feelings been productive for me? If they haven’t, what is it that will be productive? If I was a betting woman (I am), I would say that fighting for joy—both your joy and the joy of the people around you—is where you can make a difference. Dig in and advocate for joy, as soon as you can, as much as you can muster. And, where anger and sadness are productive for others, meet them there. Basically, this: if it’s working, it’s working.
All I’m saying, Doomscroll McGee, is that you can pause on the phone for a few. You can look away from the storm clouds and the doppler radar, and instead turn to your garden to plant a few seeds before the rain hits. There are a million metaphors. Pick one, and stop with the screens if that’s what it means to move forward. Now look out over there, rising with today’s sun. What is that? Oh—it’s the world’s gift to you: a Friday!
What are you going to do with it?
Next Steps: Drink a glass of water, take one final scroll, then (duh) put the phone down and take a stroll out in the actual world.