Radical Acceptance
Just as tough as it sounds
I have these moments. I just had one. It’s passed but while it was upon me I badly needed, wanted, HAD to start running around shrieking at all the numbskulls in this world.
HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE THIS INCREDIBLY STUPID?
We’re at the brink of what could be a catastrophe the likes of which this fat, lazy, complacent, television-watching bunch of nincompoops has never experienced and what are they doing? Cheering for Saint Nancy’s announcement of her Herculean efforts to pass the legislation to ensure paid sick time……..for roughly 20% of the population. That will help.
Oh, right, and panic shopping. People are fighting over toilet paper. Nothing says preparedness like having eighteen cases of Charmin.
And then there are the geniuses crying because Amazon won’t let them price-gouge hand sanitizers that they’ve run around buying up so that the rest of us can’t find any. Let us all pause and reflect on the challenges facing the true capitalist in this environment. And Amazon? Really? You are one big fat kettle to be calling any other pot black.
Our elected representatives have never been all that keen on actually representing our interests and are even less so now (although we all know that they’re busy ensuring that they and their immediate families are safe).
The comptroller of New York City, Scott Stringer, is proposing shutting down all bars and restaurants and no one is saying one word about what the millions of people relying on those businesses for their livelihood are supposed to do. Die I guess. Because clearly the Nancy Pelosi’s and Mitch McConnell’s of this world haven’t realized that they’re going down with the rest of us.
I find myself clenching up, vibrating with fury and unable to do anything about any of it.
Radical acceptance
It came as a bolt from the blue when I heard someone say that we don’t have to like or condone something to accept it.
Now, keep in mind, I heard this over fifteen years ago and I regularly forget it.
I’m beyond furious that this country remains the only industrialized nation in the world not to guarantee its citizens ready and affordable access to health care. And let’s just cue the whiny chorus of “how are we going to pay for it” one more time, shall we Mayor Pete? We’ll all note that this question has not been brought up regarding the trillions being thrown to bail out Wall Street. Again.
And yet what can I do about this unacceptable state of affairs?
Accept it.
Hate it and accept it. Screech at the top of my lungs for fifteen minutes and accept it. Send Bernie Sanders’ campaign another $2.70 and accept it. Make sure my friend, Brenda, whose immune system is badly compromised has groceries and accept it. Wash my hands again and accept it. Stop refreshing that handy dandy Johns Hopkins map of new infections globally and accept it.
Remember that everyone, no matter how idiotic their response to this crisis, is scared shitless. And accept that, too.
Maybe more powerfully, I can also accept my own fear, my own selfishness, my own intolerance and let myself off the hook. That doesn’t mean I get to continue freaking out, snatching the last roll of toilet paper out of some grandmother’s hands or posting snarky-ass, mean memes. Although the memes might continue for at least another day or two. We all need our release valves. But it does mean that I learn how to pause, breathe, and regroup.
And leave some toilet paper for someone else.
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