What it's all for
I am scared. Really scared. I don’t know where our country goes from here. Admittedly, late at night I’ve allowed myself to fall down conspiracy theory rabbit holes leaving a tinfoil trail so I can find my way back out. In the light of day, I try to ground myself in facts but even those are harder to discern especially as we find ourselves in this early age of AI. Is that video real? This picture edited? How do you tell? It is not lost on me either that seeding distrust in the news and media is a well-documented step on the way to authoritarianism.
The current rhetoric is not going to simmer down on its own. There will have to be a tipping point, and I don’t want to think of how many more lives will be lost in the fall or leading up to it.
Yet, as all this happens in the background, we continue to live our lives. That dissonance alone is enough to spike my anxiety. How do you process the 46th school shooting of the year while snuggling your child? Or learn that the supreme court has given ICE permission to racially profile people in-between responding to work emails? Or scroll past a mother’s social media plea about how she’s afraid her disabled child will no longer receive Medicaid and then go on folding the laundry?
And these are just the everyday activities we juggle alongside this vitriol. What about the unexpected medical diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, or an unusually stressful workday? Or perhaps most dissonant are the moments we wish to celebrate: the new beginnings or anniversaries that now feel sour or tempered in light of the day's news.
I know how easy it is to get swallowed up in the chaos, to fear where all of this leads, because I too can only see how it gets worse before it gets better. Sometimes, it can feel healthiest to turn away, and while breaks are necessary, fully turning off the news is not something any of us can afford at this time.
If it is true that it will get worse before it gets better, and perhaps especially if that is true, then I am about to put my compartmentalization skills to the test. Because I refuse to not celebrate the good in my life. I have grieved too much to not smother myself in joy when it presents itself. Otherwise, what is it all for?
This does not mean I don’t watch, read, scroll through the news.
This does not mean that I do not feel grief, compassion, and fear when taking in the news.
And perhaps most importantly, this does not mean that I do not engage politically or via advocacy. Quite the opposite.
It means that just as I schedule time for work, for my family, and if I’m lucky, for myself, I will also schedule time to engage in the news of the day. And maaaybe midnight, when my house is quiet and my mind is raging, is not the best time to do this.
Earlier this year, I wrote that I was choosing a specific area to focus my energy because there were too many fires and we can make the most impact when our advocacy is focused. For me, as it has been for years, my focus is making sure we are funding medical research. To that end, I urge you to listen to this month’s Seizing Life podcast that I host for CURE Epilepsy. I chatted with Dr. Olivia Hoffman from the University of Wisconsin – Madison about her research which shows that she may have found an actual cure to treat acquired epilepsies AND it helps with cognition. A f$%*!ing cure!!! However, due to funding cuts at the NIH her research is currently stalled and cannot make it to human trials.
It is so important that we share these stories so that it is clear what is at stake when funding is blindly cut. Our next election day is only 52 days away on Tuesday, November 4th (hmmm… that date seems familiar ;)). It's not a presidential or even mid-term election but do not sleep on how important EVERY SINGLE election is. There are thousands of reasons and causes to get behind. Find yours, get out and there talk to people about it and then do your part and make a plan to vote.
ID: Miguel is cuddling his 6yo daughter Anessa on a blue couch. Anessa is bundled in a light blue blanket and all can be seen is the top of her head. Miguel is backlit from sunlight coming through the door behind him. On the wall behind them is a black and white photo of Jackson and Adelaide from her 3rd birthday party when Jackson was six.
