Thank you for articulating the sense of helplessness I have been feeling in the face of the pain and suffering that Trump and his minions are inflicting on so many innocent people. Moral injury is a helpful concept and empathy is at least one way to try to understand the damage that is being done. Another wise saying relating to this issue is from the Jewish text "Pirkei Avot" (Ethics of the Fathers): "You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it." This encourages taking some action even if the problem seems overwhelming. So please do keep writing about the political situation!
Can't help myself--I'm keeping on. But it's so depressing to know that many folks welcome the chainsaw presidency and don't give a thought to how it affects and hurts real people.
Write what YOU need to write! I encourage everyone to put their thoughts in writing during these chaotic days! Some people will avoid reading about the present state of the union. Some will find a nugget of peace in the words you squeeze out of your soul and put on paper. Some will smile when you turn a phrase. I'm writing newsletters here on Substack too. Not because I want a zillion followers, but because I discovered years ago that when I feel the NEED to share my thoughts, writing them was good therapy for me....and maybe helpful to someone reading them as well.
Yeah, I accumulate so many thoughts in this stuffed brain of mine that I just have to spit them out, hopefully having taken the time to make sense of them first. I have a couple of close family members that actually believe all the propaganda they see on Fox and cannot comprehend why I'm so worked up. And they're just a teeny sample of a large segment of the population that is either uninformed or deluded. GAHHH.
Lordy, I know. I have pretty much eliminated the MAGA crazies in my life. My entire county/state is red and uniformed. You wouldn’t believe some of the conversations I hear in local stores! I have to drive into Nashville to feel at home in only one of the two blue counties in the state….and our totally redneck legislature is trying desperately to gerrymander those counties too. Thank goodness for the friends I’m making on Substack and BlueSky! It gets pretty lonely out here!
Joy, you do a great job of mixing "Tell it like it is - including the depressing, the anger- or anxiety-provoking - with reminders and examples of beauty and joy! Thank you!
I loved your post, Joy. I am experiencing moral injury, too, and it helps to give it a name. Please continue to write about these times we are living in.
You always balance with something beautiful as well❤️
For me it has been a good balance of current happenings and helpful suggestions to not feel so overwhelmed with information overload and empathy for what all people are going through.
Joy, I want to hear about your agony and ecstasy, the yin and the yang, the sorrow and the JOY. I’ve started reading the prayer of Saint Francis every morning while waiting for my coffee to brew and then I play and practice and memorize Claire de Lune on the piano as well as a spiritual tune a friend wrote years ago. And then I read the news and the shock and horror of it all attempts to steal my calm and then I journal. And I come to a troubled peace that may never turn into an untroubled peace in my lifetime. Such is the world we live in but finding joy and beauty in the midst of tragedy is our survival mechanism and you share it beautifully. With deep appreciation and gratitude, Leslie
Claire de Lune is such a gorgeous piece of music for soothing your soul! I do love the sentiments of St. Francis' prayer. I have ee cummings poem framed on my bathroom wall:
Thank you for articulating the sense of helplessness I have been feeling in the face of the pain and suffering that Trump and his minions are inflicting on so many innocent people. Moral injury is a helpful concept and empathy is at least one way to try to understand the damage that is being done. Another wise saying relating to this issue is from the Jewish text "Pirkei Avot" (Ethics of the Fathers): "You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it." This encourages taking some action even if the problem seems overwhelming. So please do keep writing about the political situation!
Can't help myself--I'm keeping on. But it's so depressing to know that many folks welcome the chainsaw presidency and don't give a thought to how it affects and hurts real people.
Write what YOU need to write! I encourage everyone to put their thoughts in writing during these chaotic days! Some people will avoid reading about the present state of the union. Some will find a nugget of peace in the words you squeeze out of your soul and put on paper. Some will smile when you turn a phrase. I'm writing newsletters here on Substack too. Not because I want a zillion followers, but because I discovered years ago that when I feel the NEED to share my thoughts, writing them was good therapy for me....and maybe helpful to someone reading them as well.
Yeah, I accumulate so many thoughts in this stuffed brain of mine that I just have to spit them out, hopefully having taken the time to make sense of them first. I have a couple of close family members that actually believe all the propaganda they see on Fox and cannot comprehend why I'm so worked up. And they're just a teeny sample of a large segment of the population that is either uninformed or deluded. GAHHH.
Lordy, I know. I have pretty much eliminated the MAGA crazies in my life. My entire county/state is red and uniformed. You wouldn’t believe some of the conversations I hear in local stores! I have to drive into Nashville to feel at home in only one of the two blue counties in the state….and our totally redneck legislature is trying desperately to gerrymander those counties too. Thank goodness for the friends I’m making on Substack and BlueSky! It gets pretty lonely out here!
Joy, you do a great job of mixing "Tell it like it is - including the depressing, the anger- or anxiety-provoking - with reminders and examples of beauty and joy! Thank you!
Thank you. It's quite a juggling act.
I loved your post, Joy. I am experiencing moral injury, too, and it helps to give it a name. Please continue to write about these times we are living in.
You always balance with something beautiful as well❤️
Can't help myself. I just don't know how so many aren't bothered by the harm being done to real people. We have to keep standing up for what's right.
For me it has been a good balance of current happenings and helpful suggestions to not feel so overwhelmed with information overload and empathy for what all people are going through.
I wish the hits weren’t so relentless. It seems like the senseless cruelty is escalating.
You do you! Thank you.
Really, do I have a choice?
Joy, I want to hear about your agony and ecstasy, the yin and the yang, the sorrow and the JOY. I’ve started reading the prayer of Saint Francis every morning while waiting for my coffee to brew and then I play and practice and memorize Claire de Lune on the piano as well as a spiritual tune a friend wrote years ago. And then I read the news and the shock and horror of it all attempts to steal my calm and then I journal. And I come to a troubled peace that may never turn into an untroubled peace in my lifetime. Such is the world we live in but finding joy and beauty in the midst of tragedy is our survival mechanism and you share it beautifully. With deep appreciation and gratitude, Leslie
Claire de Lune is such a gorgeous piece of music for soothing your soul! I do love the sentiments of St. Francis' prayer. I have ee cummings poem framed on my bathroom wall:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Thank you for sharing his poem, a wonderful reminder to connect with nature, truly a place of calm and nurture. ❤️