Since the election, holidays, finished project, and with the sense of impending doom and general panic that has set in, (in my mind and therefore also muscles) I was finding it really hard to work.
It’s never easy, to just sit at home and work, but I’d gotten so much better at it. And then it disappeared.
But I have found a useful tip (from a guy called Jack Cheng, article here: http://ift.tt/15eMMkY ) and it is to have different spaces for different activities.
In the lead up to the election, during the holidays, and during the transition, I had obviously been checking Twitter somewhat non stop and it became a huge problem. So what I have done is this:
– my computer is not to be used for social media (other than uploading) or to read the news or read essays or read fanfic or really for anything other than work
– I can still check social media and read the news as often as I want, without beating myself up, I just have to go into another room, pick up my phone and do it from there
It’s working really well for me because I don’t feel anxiously disconnected, and also I’m getting lots more done. The first day was super hard, I kept clicking on extra tabs, opening the internet as a reflex, but honestly my computer has now quite quickly become a much more peaceful place for me.
Anyway, I recommend the essay, and if you’re having concentration problems too, trying it out :)
The history of the US is riddled with leaders betraying in practice the laws sanctified on paper. Centuries-old injustices over race and class are frequently glossed over in textbooks that seek to inspire with tales of heroism instead of to scare with the truth of the disregarded. But in the past and recent present, US leaders struggled to hide or justify their misdeeds, afraid of public accountability. They did not always uphold the values of our founding documents but they knew they were supposed to try. They knew there could be penalties if they were caught in immoral or criminal behavior, such as humiliation, a lost election, or even impeachment.
In contrast, bigotry is blatant; laws are broken; patriotism is sham that seems to amuse them. What is unprecedented is not that a president is doing bad things, but that he does not bother to pretend to be good. This malice is not an indicator of liberating honesty, as contrarians have framed it, but a signpost on the road to humanitarian catastrophe. Policies Trump has embraced include eliminating healthcare for millions of Americans, using nuclear weapons, supporting Russian imperialism, rounding up ethnic and religious minorities, and making lists of federal employees who study climate change or gender equality, in seeming anticipation of a mass firing and an attack on science and freedom. These authoritarian moves do not benefit any US citizen, including those who voted for him. That these policies are being proclaimed openly, and in several instances blatantly favor Russian interests over those of the US, implies that traditional penalties for betraying the electorate are gone.
As anyone who lives in an authoritarian state knows, once authoritarians get in, it is very hard to get them out. Politicians looking at 2018 and 2020 fail to comprehend that authoritarians rewrite rules, that laws are only as good as the people who uphold them, that the constitution is a piece of paper unless it is honored in practice. So long as the majority of politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to cower to the new administration, it becomes increasingly unlikely that democracy will hold.
So incredibly grateful to these talented people who gathered last night to read my first screenplay out loud. My heart is so full. It was so good to visit my old friends ❤
I posted that earlier to my facebook feed, and I’ll be honest… When I did it I was kind of hoping it would encourage my friend who studied the life of Fred Rogers extensively to chime in because I knew he would have something pertinent to say. I was not wrong.
“Fred Rogers had such a huge problem with both Regan (who he programmed his show against) and Bush Jr. (The latter of which is much more complicated as they had a relationship that tested Fred’s boundaries.) that I can’t say “I can’t imagine how Fred would react” I know how Fred would react based on his interactions with the lesser evils of Reagan and Bush:
1. Had he not been retired, he would have themed weeks specifically against what Trump was putting in the news cycle. When Trump mocked a disabled reporter he’d have a week on disability and inclusion, when Trump promoted sexual assault, he’d program a week on respect and physical boundaries, when he bad mouthed women he’d have strong women on for a week. Fred would have travelled to do a week on Mexico and he would have moved in an Islamic neighbor.
I know this for a fact because these are the actions he took with Regan both with his “conflict weeks” and his traveling to Russia for remotes during the Cold War.
2. Fred would have attended events Trump invited him to but he would do so on his terms. He would participate in these events as well as long as it was on his terms. Because Fred would rather speak truth into those spaces then avoid them. But Fred would not accuse, he would just bear truth, refuse to be seen as supporting an evil and exit.
This is what he did to respond to the love the Bush family had for him and his work. He even offered prayer at one of their fundraisers: but it was a challenging prayer, one insisting that those in power and privilege use that for the least of these and especially children. After delivering that prayer Fred exited the building and sat outside like a kid after soccer practice waiting for his ride, spurning the thousands of dollars a plate dinner not even gladhanding with the bushes after.
When asked why he said he had reached the limit of what he could do before becoming an accuser. He wanted to challenge but never accuse as accusation was what Fred associated with the devil.
3. Fred would accept invitations to news programs when those programs allowed him to educate parents on countering the negative things coming from the president for their children. He knew those things affected children so he wanted to spread tools on helping them reject war, violence, hatred, oppression and racism.
He did this during any presidents term if it didn’t prevent him from meeting an obligation to children (he once turned down a spot on Nightline to talk about violence and children, one of his main causes, because he had a visit to an elementary school that same morning and knew he wouldn’t be mentally present for it if he was planning for Nightline in the afternoon.)
So we need to be like Fred. Getting in between children and any normalization of Trumps ways or words. Fred would have been diligently working on how to handle Trump in the land of make believe. Just like when King Friday started building nuclear bombs with money he promised to schools. Yeah Fred wasn’t subtle.” – Rev. Kevin Ireland
I marched! It was wonderful! There’s plenty of good analysis going around about the successes and failures of this march; I don’t have a ton to add to that because I honestly had pretty limited awareness of what was going on at the national and international level. I had no idea quite how enormous this had become until I saw the news later, although I started to get an inkling when I went to catch the light rail and saw the crowd of people just waiting to get onto the platform to buy a ticket, and the trains going by without letting anybody else on because they were jam-packed already. I waited for a bus for a little while, thinking that might be better, but the bus didn’t even stop. I ended up walking there, about three miles. Just as I was starting out I ran into someone I know from choir, and I walked with her and her family and friends. (Weird moment: I was starting to say, “I went to a women’s college out east,” and one of the friends said “Let me guess, not Smith–Mount Holyoke, right?” and I was struck speechless. Apparently he and his wife used to live in western Mass, but even so! I hadn’t even named a state! I seem to have Mount Holyoke written all over my face.)
British Columbia based photographer Jess Findlay captured the rare yet beautiful fiery-throated hummingbird with the help of his lens, paying tribute to the majestic bird.
