Staying Sane in an Insane World
All We Can Do is Try
With age comes wisdom, so the saying goes. But what comes with wisdom? What comes with the growing ability to see many different perspectives and points of view, and understand the implications of human shitory? That was a typo, but I think it’s not wrong so I’m leaving it. How do we not give in to the abject terror and hopelessness that can lead to paralyzing depression as we gain such wisdom?
I’m here to share my own attempts to live a content and productive life despite all this, in the hope that my perspective can offer some comfort and help other people trying to find ways to deal. Perspective is 100% your truth, that’s another saying; and I’m here to show you my own spin, the way I talk myself off the ledge when I’m teetering.
Seeing the Big Picture Does Not Have to Destroy My Own Little Piece of the Pie
The world is a mess and I have 24/7 access and a front seat to all of it. A flood in Spain that killed hundreds? I know about it while it’s still happening. Violent protests in Amsterdam after a soccer match? Live video in my face. Election results in the US that are leading to changes in the very fabric of our country? Fuhgeddaboudit.
But, and I may be the only one who is surprised by this so bear with me, my daily life hasn’t changed. I still wake up each morning and drink that first cuppa with a contented ahhhh. I still lace up and go for a run or a hike every day, still sit in front of my window to compose stories or articles, still lounge with a tea in the afternoon and read a novel, still marvel over photos of my growing family, still have to give my dog treats so he’ll just leave me the f*ck alone for five minutes. Outside there’s a tempest and, don’t get me wrong, some of it directly affects what may happen to me and to people I care about. But today, this morning, right now, I’m fortunate to be able to have a very good life. I have to fight off feelings of guilt that others don’t have this and anxiety that it may all be smoke and mirrors. But that fight is important because giving in to these feelings is giving advanced permission to that which is causing them to begin with.
The world, the entire world, seems to be heading into a phase of history where the handshake of honor, integrity, ethics and morality, the very rule of law, are submerging in favor of something else, something that feels dark and scary. But I don’t concur, I don’t accept that it has to be like this, and I won’t acquiesce my own values. I won’t give in without a fight.
So, What’s a Girl to Do?
I go small. I continue to be kind and show humanity in my world, the part of it I see and experience personally, every chance I get. Every person I can hold the door for, every heartfelt “how are you?” which I follow up by listening to the answer, every car that crashes into a storefront leaving a lady wandering around in shock (yep, that happened last week), any opportunity that comes up where I can be there for someone makes me feel better about my life. Going small means I can live, be truly alive, in my own little corner. There are plenty of ways to do that every time I’m out in public and I want to do them all. This is living, as opposed to conceding. This is my resistance.
In spite of what’s happening out there, I continue to live with wonder and awe, curiosity and awareness, a stubborn desire to take control instead of relinquishing it. I search actively for joy and contentedness wherever they hide. Remember that garden where naked, ignorantly blissful Adam watched equally naked but uber-curious and discontented Eve bite into that apple and got them both thrown out into the wide, scary world? We live in the same world today, where people have the option of turning a blind eye like Adam or grabbing it by the…carpe diem and giving it a good shaking to see what falls out.
Power is not taken, it is given, and when it comes to that, I’m not in a giving mood.