{"id":1413,"date":"2021-08-13T02:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2021-08-12T17:05:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T01:05:25","slug":"angry-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2021\/08\/13\/angry-these-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry These Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest IPCC report<\/a> makes it clear that climate change is happening now and that we need major, concerted, international efforts to slow it down and deal with the ongoing crises it will cause.<\/p>\n

After 18 months of a worldwide pandemic, it\u2019s pretty obvious that major, concerted, international efforts will only happen in a fantasy world. And not in a fantasy novel, since I\u2019m sure no editor would accept a novel that posited major, concerted, international efforts to do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo implausible,\u201d they would say. And they would be right.<\/p>\n

I haven’t thought about the report very much. I knew what it would say when I heard it was coming out. Good news about important things is in short supply.<\/p>\n

In truth, I\u2019ve been depressed lately. Anxious, too, though not as anxious as I was last year. And angry. Very, very, very angry.<\/p>\n

This might seem to call for therapy. But I\u2019m depressed, anxious, and angry because of the pandemic, the atrocious US public health response, right-wing extremism, and climate change.<\/p>\n

A therapist can\u2019t fix any of that. All a therapist can do is help me put up with this nonsense.<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t want to put up with it. <\/p>\n

OK, for my own sanity and ability to act, I need to get back in the habit of meditation. Seeing myself as a tiny grain in the whole enormous universe helps give me perspective. Being mindful gives me the space to take action.<\/p>\n

I know myself well enough to know that I do my best fighting when I\u2019m centered and calm, not when I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n

But another truth is that I am not willing to let go of my rage, because what is going on is truly outrageous and we should all be extremely angry about it. It\u2019s important that I express my anger.<\/p>\n

Somehow I need to figure out how to stay angry and centered at the same time. It\u2019s a balancing act. I need to draw on Aikido, both claim my space and let the attackers fly past me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier to visualize that balance as physical movement than it is to put this in practice in real life when the attackers aren\u2019t coming at me with a punch or a sword. I know what to do with punches and swords. I\u2019m not sure what to do with people who actively advocate for policies that are going to kill a lot of others.<\/p>\n

But I am trying to work on it, to find a way to keep my center without completely letting go of my anger. It\u2019s righteous anger.<\/p>\n

There is a useful saying attributed to Angela Davis, though I cannot find exactly when and where she said it: \u201cI am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried to do that a lot in my life, but right now trying to change the things I can\u2019t accept feels a lot like Prometheus pushing his boulder uphill.<\/p>\n

Making real change is a very slow process. Watching the suffering that keeps happening because we are unable to fix things that should never have broken is painful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not giving up anger. I am going to try to be centered underneath it, but I\u2019m not going to stop being mad.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on in the world is unacceptable. We must stop accepting it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest IPCC report makes it clear that climate change is happening now and that we need major, concerted, international efforts to slow it down and deal with the ongoing crises it will cause. After 18 months of a worldwide pandemic, it\u2019s pretty obvious that major, concerted, international efforts will only happen in a fantasy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,17],"tags":[312,311,34],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid-life","category-rants","tag-anger","tag-climate-change","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}