Ever have that sinking feeling that everyone all around you is doing so many important, life-changing things, going on marine research expeditions, volunteering at shelters, fighting for diversity and equality? While all you're doing is shuttling the kids to school, cooking dinner, trying to research your next book, or make that eLetter deadline.
I get that feeling all the time.
On the flip side, ever have the opposite feeling? That you're the only one in your family/community/town/country/planet trying to effect real, positive change instead of blindly following celebrity tweets?
I get that feeling too. (Depending on which news piece I'm reading or listening to.)
Both are perfectly natural, real, and valid. We live in some pretty insane times, don't we? The people living in tumultuous eras gone by probably felt like that too. You know, the Greek and Roman Empires. The Spanish Conquest and Inquisition. The destruction of the Mali empire. The French Revolution. The US Civil War (the one in the 1800's).
The only real reference we have is each other and our memories. Our parents' memories, perhaps, but the further back in time you go, the foggier it becomes.
The trouble with this latest period of lunacy is that the very bedrock upon which we rely for information, is crumbling. Fake news, online trolls, lies told under oath, and emerging technologies that make it possible to edit things out of, or into, video footage, and even to manipulate a person's facial features in a video to make them say something they never actually did.
Bone-chilling stuff. Certainly makes me want to unplug it all, run for the hills and raise chickens on a farm somewhere.
But no. I'm going to stay right here and do whatever I can to make sure the social fabric of the world our children deserve to grow up in, remains intact. Many others are doing the same—in a way, these blatant, violent and relentless attempts at curbing every right, freedom, and, quite frankly, JOY, that we have all been able to rely on, have galvanized and united people in a way I have not seen in my lifetime.
Rainstorms can't happen without millions of drops of rain. We are the raindrops.
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