It’s dark out there. We are all hurting–albeit to different degrees–and still we feel completely alone with our grief.
Our inability to be heard in a way that would bring any kind of lasting, or even immediate change leaves us feeling helpless.
I would argue however, that we have the capacity to be less alone now than we did in February, when we had the option to turn away from death and force. Try as we might, we can no longer choose blindness when faced with our collective pain.
So now, here’s a question for you: what do we do with this?
The disconnected state that was possible pre-pandemic was, and remains to be, a horrifying display of apathy.
This unemotional state is not a single individual’s fault (although *cough cough big baby*) but is made necessary by the system we rely on to survive.
And yeah, dude of course I’m a socialist I’m 23 and I have a brain.
It scares me that even now, when presented with real-time images of deeply racist America and a thousand preventable American deaths reported every day, helplessness seems to be more common than empathy–than compassion. But I get it. To feel empathy is enough to motivate action, and action right now feels impossible. Helplessness–uncomfortable as it is–seems easier.
But it isn’t. It isn’t easy to turn away from human suffering. If you’re honest with yourself, if you’re listening, it isn’t easy at all.
Connection is possible. Always. There is never a time when it becomes too hard, or “not worth it.” Compassion is the most valuable weapon we have, and this is the hill I’ll die on.
The voices we need to be listening to right now are the ones asking for help–not always so plainly–but through telling their stories.
Talk. Keep talking. Listen. Ask questions. Don’t allow the feelings of helplessness to keep you from connecting with people’s pain. Please.
It isn’t as easy as it seems to live in apathy, I promise you.
Connection is everything.
You’re not empty, and you’re not helpless.
I love you, dear reader. I love you so much.
Girl Seeking Peanut Butter 
With everything going on around the world, it is even harder to connect to the pain of others when you are overwhelmed by the weight of your own pain. But in that tiny moment where you feel relief, you must allow yourself feel for another. Your anecdotal ramblings are pleasing to my reasoning in a way that it challenges me to see different. Another perspective. I want to read more. Dear writer. I love you too.
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Thank you so much. Its so beautiful to me that my writing is landing with someone. Thank YOU for your perspective. All the love.
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