Is That a Bat Signal in the Sky? – Photo: L. Weikel
A Rough One
Last week seems to have been a rough one for a lot of people. I’m just tossing this observation out there in case anyone felt it or perhaps noticed it being endured by others. Perhaps it’s just a buildup of all the awfulness we’re witnessing all over the place, and especially in Ukraine. Or maybe it’s a result of the past two years of Covid and strife. Maybe – just maybe – it’s exhaustion.
I know many people who are doing their best to just hang on, hang in there, or otherwise maintain a façade of chill. And for whatever reason, maintaining that fragile balance is especially challenging at the moment.
Spring
It feels to me as if this new season of spring is speeding everything up. It’s as if our rollercoaster ride has, over the past couple of months, been tick-tick-ticking its way up that first really steep hill that’s usually at the very beginning of the ride. The one that, when you breach the top and gravity zooms you down and creates a momentum that takes your breath away over the next several zigs, zags, and centrifugal-force loops, you sometimes find yourself asking yourself why in the world you paid good money to experience this.
If any of us are feeling that subtle sense that things are really going to start heating up via unexpected revelations and other exposures of truth and intentions, it’s possible we’re also just a teensy bit on edge over what the reaction to those revelations will be. Yes, many crave accountability. But there’s also the faction that may or may not accept that reckoning peaceably.
From Micro to Macro
What I find fascinating is how we are seeing the very same themes playing out in our own neighborhoods and school districts, in the way our states treat their citizens, to the entertainment industry, and all the way up and out to how entire countries are behaving around the world. Abuses of power. Over-reactions. Blatant lies and gaslighting. People beseeching authorities for accountability or, at the very least, an acknowledgment and attempt to address and rectify the abuses – and terror at what those who may be held to account for their behavior may do to the rest of us. We are in fear of their spoiled tendencies to lash out when they are caught hurting the rest of us (or the world at large).
It just seems like we’re getting tired of allowing the bullies and tyrants to get their way. What kind of a life is it to look the other way when abuses are taking place all around us? What kind of a life is it to keep pretending everything is normal, when right before our eyes it appears as though the ones that break the rules rule the day?
I’m not sure why I’m writing this except to say we need to stick together. Last week was a rough one. This week may be worse. No matter what, though, we need to stand up for what we fundamentally believe is right and true. And we need to be especially kind to ourselves and one another in the days to come.
Because from the smallest encounters to the greatest, it will be the kindness we display that will be the ‘bat signal,’ if you will, that we’re both sending to and answering for each other.
A Break in the Gloom on the Horizon – Photo: L. Weikel
(T+117)
It is hard not to get caught in that downward spiral of despair, esp. When you don’t feel well and have no energy. I have to admire all those of resistance and persistence who fight for freedom and justice. What keeps them going?
Probably a lot of different factors. Age, number of people they need to care for in their own families/communities (in other words, are they able to rely on others for provision of their basic needs – i.e., do they have people who cook or clean for them, etc.), how well they set boundaries, etc.
Everybody’s situation is different.