09/29/2026
🙏🏻🪷
Part 3: Even More Notes As I Watch the Potential Fall of Democracy and actual birth of a dictatorship (updated and recorded for posterity and in no particular order):
1. You can actually continue to live life while people in charge do things so ridiculous you never in a million years would have imaged they could have gotten away with it. Like you still make sandwiches while the president shuts down the Kennedy Center because he wants his name on it and he was told no so now it can’t be open and somehow you just scroll past and say “that tracks” and move on. It’s wild what the human tolerance is for handling absolute stupidity.
2. I’ve learned you can take control over your nervous system and you don’t have to react to everything with your body. I didn’t know I had this in me and it’s good to know. It’s a lot of work but good to know.
3. I am still asking myself, “How can each day be more insane than the last?” everyday for a year and a half. That’s still a lot of days.
4. We’re almost to the midterms and everything hangs in the balance meanwhile it’s hard to imagine this administration accepting a loss of any kind. It will not be simple. We need to be vigilant and ready and hopeful.
5. In other news I had no idea how important the U.S. Mail system really was. The rigorous hiring process has always made sense but the need for honesty all the way through is paramount in all the ways. It’s held so far and that’s something.
6. Watching people be prosecuted and put in prison for standing up to our government is not something I ever, ever, ever imagined. That others would applaud this simply because they didn’t like what they’re saying either makes me understand people don’t understand the constitution nor do they understand without it this can all happen to them too.
7. That men in power can simply refuse to release evidence while ignoring the law and that others defend this as being just fine reveals the blackness of hearts I didn’t know existed.
8. My nervous system now feels off only 19% of the of the time, I’ve had to adapt and wonder if you have too.
9. It takes a lot of energy to keep caring. To keep informed. To keep fighting. I need more naps than I used to.
10. Gen X is not wired for this. Nothing I ever read in my Weekly Reader or saw on School House Rock prepared me for the fact that a president could lose his mind in front of the country and no one would seemingly be able to do anything. And...
11. The real heartbreak lies in seeing some of those that taught us kindness now supporting cruelty and violence against immigrants and the poor who we were taught to help and protect. Our hearts hurt in a specific way we didn’t know was a thing.
12. I still ask myself, “How are we not all just constantly screaming on the streets?” on a loop. Also I know why I am not and assume it is the same for you.
13. I’m in my 50’s and keep looking around waiting for the grownups to show up. I’m starting to realize it’s the grown ups we’ve raised that might just do the saving.
14. NONE OF US can decide we just “don’t do politics”. Politics are not separate from our lives, they reflect our morals and values as a country and drive our freedom. Tapping out hurts us all.
15. There was a WWE match on the White House lawn. Bananas.
16. I don’t argue anymore with people who think this administration is good or godly. It is way past that. Thou shalt not waste thine energy on fruitless tasks is a good commandment to give yourself.
17. The little things in our days still matter, even more than they did before. A smile, a kind word, holding a door open for somebody, all of these small acts of kindness make me want to cry. They remind me people are indeed good. We need these reminders desperately.
18. I will never again let someone talk me out of listening to what my gut is telling me. If you sounded the alarm early you know what I’m talking about. Also my gut is weary of being right.
19 I am an indoor person who has become an outdoor person and I touch my flowers and trees everyday and I lie to just lay on the grass and look at the sky and if bugs land on me I don’t freak out. I think I’m reverting to my childhood and maybe I’ll even start jumping rope, I was the first one to jump 100 times in a row in Kindergarten so I might be unstoppable. You REALLY just can’t predict what will help when your country is off the rails.
20. We are all interconnected on this planet in a way that we cannot deny and when we try to the results are tragic. This is globally true.
21. Collectively we are not as smart as I thought we were. The driving while looking at our phones should have been a clue. Education is important…like really important.
22. Which brings me to this, Americans were living with a few piles of unearned pride and honestly we need to humbly learn from other places in the world how to do some things.
23. We are in an expensive war and even the war doesn’t always make the headlines because the jokers in charge try to keep things as insane as possible…see also Trump TV.
24. But…people are starting to stick together. Grateful in my heart for these moments and bonus when the news stations refuses to cover him we all get a break.
25. Love of money is indeed the root of all evil and clearly very motivating to the point people will sell their souls. And the worship of the wealthy and the adoration for those that have great possessions is a cancer in our culture. It might be the death of us.
26. VOTING has never been more important.
27. The algorithm on our socials wants to keep us furious and mad at each other and not working together. Be sure to stop scrolling for pictures of babies and birds. Seek out people who give you hope and like their stuff. I’m currently deep into anyone who does those multiple videos where they play all the parts. People are funny.
28. I STILL believe in us. For real.
Despite it all I just do. People are good at the core and if enough of us stick together love and sanity will win. I have to believe this.
Vote like your life depends on it. Someone’s does and even if it’s not yours you are responsible to make the world safe for all humans. Do not take this lightly.
(I threw a bunch of seeds on the ground and tended them and they grew taller than me and I love it. There are good things at our fingertips even with all this….gestures wildly. There you have it folks, beauty still exists they cannot ruin it even if they try and crush it or paint it all gold.)
