At a Loss

What do we do when nothing feels useful?

It’s been a solid 2 months since I wrote anything new here. Life has intervened in a variety of ways. As you can tell from the posts I have sent, I’ve been busy editing our Angry Albums Fan Favorites. I’ve also been helping Leslie Philips on her newly launched Science Saves Lives newsletter. (If you believe in science, do check it out!) The Husband and I got norovirus (or a virus doing its best at cosplaying norovirus) and then my mother-in-law passed away rather suddenly. And when I’ve not been busy with actual work, throwing things away continues to be my part time job. The pay isn’t great, but I’m good at it and I find the work fulfilling.

So life has intervened, yes, but I think there is also an underlying reason I’ve been unable to write: I’ve found myself at a loss for words. Or maybe it’s not so much that I’ve lost the words to describe what many of us are going through, but that I’ve said all the words already, far too many times. There’s nothing to add that’s not just the same thing over and over. And I’m not sure who that helps.

One of the things stopping me from writing is also one of the things I’ve wanted to write about: The spectrum of anger on the left. Whatever your kink, there is an outrage for it among Dems right now. And it’s not that I don’t have anger of my own, but we’re all angry at someone different. And if you and I are angry at different people then we’re probably going to be angry at each other before too long. I’m watching with a mixture of sadness and condemnation as people spout once unthinkable vitriol, back horrible people because they’re aligned on one issue and tear down former allies.

A lot of the anger is being aimed at our political leaders - again everyone is mad at someone different for completely disparate reasons. And while I, too, am angry at the way in which some of our representatives are seemingly chill about the clear and present danger, I'm also aware that there is little within their power they can legally do and even the things they can legally do, are thwarted by the people doing the illegal. It seems that when we installed checks and balances and a rule of law, no one thought to ask what would happen if the checks were done by those OK with breaking the law. It’s a pickle.

At the heart of it is that we feel powerless - and we hate that.