In the face of Despair
Mar. 22nd, 2023 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osirusAnd no, that icon isn't the face of despair, it's my face. Forgot I had that eyebrows icon on here, and it amuses me.
But the news sure is causing a lot of despair lately. I know, maybe I should doomscroll less, but it seems like a constant stream of reasons to feel hopeless about the future, from the accelerating climate change we continue to do nothing about as we have for the past 50 years, to the steadily marching fascism which wants to make various types of people illegal, from trans people to democrats. AI is a powerful tool that I in no way trust humanity with (since humanity is often what's lacking), and of course Covid is still a thing in spite of how most of society has decided to treat it.
So in the face of all this, I've mainly fallen back on an epicurean form of hedonism, less the drug-fueled orgies and more just trying to avoid pain as filling my life with small constant enjoyments like good food and video games and so forth. And of course, laughing at it whenever I can, like putting all my annoyances into a March Badness bracket.
But I was typing this, a tiny bird just walked under the bush in my side yard, the one buried under two feet of snow last week which we thought might fall over and die like the other tree in the side yard, but so far this bush though brown and withered remains standing, and tiny life is trying to keep existing beneath it, and that feels like a metaphor for something.
But the news sure is causing a lot of despair lately. I know, maybe I should doomscroll less, but it seems like a constant stream of reasons to feel hopeless about the future, from the accelerating climate change we continue to do nothing about as we have for the past 50 years, to the steadily marching fascism which wants to make various types of people illegal, from trans people to democrats. AI is a powerful tool that I in no way trust humanity with (since humanity is often what's lacking), and of course Covid is still a thing in spite of how most of society has decided to treat it.
So in the face of all this, I've mainly fallen back on an epicurean form of hedonism, less the drug-fueled orgies and more just trying to avoid pain as filling my life with small constant enjoyments like good food and video games and so forth. And of course, laughing at it whenever I can, like putting all my annoyances into a March Badness bracket.
But I was typing this, a tiny bird just walked under the bush in my side yard, the one buried under two feet of snow last week which we thought might fall over and die like the other tree in the side yard, but so far this bush though brown and withered remains standing, and tiny life is trying to keep existing beneath it, and that feels like a metaphor for something.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 08:36 pm (UTC)I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to cultivate hope even in terrible times, even in the face of ... well, everything. I can't say that I have answers, but I do think one piece of the answer has something to do with finding joy where we can. Good food and games and tiny birds and things that stay alive, including us.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 09:02 pm (UTC)