How is everyone holding up these days? The end of August is usually a lazy, hazy time when everyone is soaking up the last of the summer sun and hardly paying attention to anything. Instead, we’re left trying to figure out wtf is going on right now. It’s a little hard to wrap your head around it all. And while I certainly don’t claim to have any answers, one thing is clear – these issues cannot be ignored. From the national dialogue, to crazy behavior in your own backyard, our world is not in its right mind right now. This week I had one friend get followed home by not one, but two men shouting horrible, angry things to the point she had to call 911. Another friend was punched in the face during a traffic altercation. The world just feels really really angry. This reality cannot be brushed off. We cannot expect it to simply go away. We can’t say “oh, it’s happening on that other block over there, in that other state, on the other side of the country.” Nope, it’s all around us, everyday – often hidden in plain sight.
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
What to do about it is a personal decision. Write a letter, call a senator, make a donation, show up at a protest, don’t how up at protest, eat sheetcake – but we can’t bury our heads in the sand – that’s for certain.
While the gesture of this post is extremely minimal, I just couldn’t keep sharing pretty things with you while ignoring the ugly that’s trying to grip our nation. So I guess all I wanted to express to you today is that I am paying attention. And I hope you are too. And you’re not alone – be it in your worry, your own anger or your desire to do something. With solidarity, we can overcome. Here are my favorite weekend links that made me think a bit more. I thought you might like them too.
~ I really appreciate Victoria’s post on this subject.
~ That friend who got punched? She’s rather brilliant and wrote a really insightful piece about her experience here.
~ Maybe we all just need to take a chill pill. These eight things claim to be the secret to happiness.
~ #Sheetcaking. It’s a thing.
~ Instagram making you feel bad about yourself? Yeah, me too. Here’s how to keep social media from getting you down.
~ Maybe we’d all be nicer if we just had more friends in the real world.
~ If you missed the emotional cleansing of the eclipse, this beautiful piece attempts to put the emotion into words. Watching it made me feel amazing at least until the speech in Phoenix happened.
Oh, and I did talk about nice, pretty things this week too, here, here and here.
xx
image via here
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