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Abstract

</p><p id="7a79">I think about food shortages, gas prices and supply shortages. What will our food supply look like a year from now as the war in Ukraine promises to continue indefinitely? How are we going to be able to provide for our future, when the future itself doesn’t seem as definite as it once was.</p><p id="334e">How do we rise above the noise of social media verses “real media” and the insanity of the nation’s cultural wars playing out on our information feeds each and every minute. Why do I have the intense need to scroll the feeds to see what is happening out there in the world, only to find more chaos and instability? Why am I intent on searching my news feeds for something interesting and positive, when I know I will only find more of the spiralizing chaos of sensationalized click bait?</p><p id="ab6f">The Constitution and the founders of our country specifically warned about the danger of intertwining of religion and politics. How did religion and politics become inseparable in this country? The battles continue in our country and people with the loudest voices and emptiest heads rage on.</p><p id="c789">I have been to the torture chambers in the Tower of London. I have seen the metal head pieces they would fill with vermin and put on someone’s face. I have seen the tortuous beds, stretching machines, dungeons and horrendous means of inflicting pain. I have seen the creative energy religious leaders used in coming up with new ways to torturing anyone who had another opinion about science or life itself. I have seen what sins man’s fight against wrongs can wrong.</p><p id="0541">With the fear of losing power, the GOP have doubled down on hate messaging to LGBTQ people. How can one person take over a state and its laws, education and social norms so completely and so quickly? How can burning of books take place in this country? How can we stand by while it is happening?</p><p id="ecdf">Immigrants be damned. Because nothing fires up Jesus’s followers more than hate and demonizing those who may believe our society should take care of those who are abandoned, poor, and homeless from war.</p><p id="7e9e">Just like our mother earth’s heat, our collective temperatures have gone up. But our fuses are shorter and our patience with each other is wearing very thin. Road rage, airplane rage, mask rage and the rage against other’s rights to have free speech in the almighty important desire to be right.</p><p id="650a">It’s all just too much to face, and the instability causes more chaos in my brain. Is it too much to wonder why I want to stop the world and jump off?</p><p id="6a4e">I started this article weeks ago on a Friday night. I am finishing it today, and I realize I made it through weeks of horrific world events.</p><p id="ee1e">Now that I have shared my dismal thoughts with you, I want to also share some things I did to help myself cleanse of these worries.</p><p id="0225">I built a fire in my back yard. I put on music I liked. I had a couple of drinks and I danced. Let me suggest Jon Batiste grammy winning album <i>We Are</i>. The positive energy in this music will move the darkness out of your spirit.</p><p id="6869">Watch old episodes of <i>Mary # Options Tyler Moore, Seinfeld, WKRP in Cincinnati, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cheers </i>or<i> Frazier</i>. Mix in a season of the <i>Marvelous Mrs. Maisel</i> and you will forget about today’s anxieties.</p><p id="efc5">Go outside and go for a walk in the woods. Just breathe. Just be in the moment.</p><p id="682f">Find a lake, pond, river or other body of water and just go watch the waves. Reflect on the calmness of the waves in and out. Breathe in and out.</p><p id="cd13">Go for a bike ride, even if you can’t remember how to ride a bike. Feel the wind in your hair and just breathe.</p><p id="3c53">Read a good book, just for fun. Stay off social media. Don’t watch the news. Work a jigsaw puzzle or try your hand at an adult coloring book.</p><p id="64ef">Call an old friend. Share how you are feeling, chances are they are feeling it too. We are in this together and we will get through it.</p><p id="c4ef">© July 2022</p><p id="d196">See my other stories reflecting on current events:</p><div id="bd6c" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/its-a-bubble-struggle-a593844fc625"> <div> <div> <h2>It’s a Bubble Struggle</h2> <div><h3>What have you learned in your bubble?</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*uQyFBWFkxeKsUu9GEzo9Ig.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="3d01" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/a-show-of-force-d7d652c21d9d"> <div> <div> <h2>A Show of Force</h2> <div><h3>Democracy Held by a Thread</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*wnhU4O1SXdmdcn9rsxVMVg.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="cbf2" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/our-brains-will-drain-away-3b28ed78c02a"> <div> <div> <h2>Our Brains Will Drain Away</h2> <div><h3>The Best and the Brightest Will Leave</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*arJ74Jhs3CR0MpxPl8Ggjw.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="7fcd" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/incendiary-times-90aa90c6f679"> <div> <div> <h2>Incendiary Times</h2> <div><h3>Join Dumbledore’s Army</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*GOW22Uc90F9eNtURQUcXAA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Stop the World I Want to Get Off.

When the News is Too Much to Bear

The past few months have caused a nebula of mixed emotions and thoughts, but I am seeing through the void to find clarity to share what we may all be feeling.

I am continually worrying about world issues, and although they are extremely important, they are things I cannot control:

My heart hurts for the people of Ukraine. How they have been living in crowded conditions in basements, with little food and water. How women and girls have been raped, how the soldiers have been torturing innocent civilians. I see the utter devastation of major cities and the country of Ukraine as these people fight for their lives against the Russian war machine. To quote Anderson Cooper in a recent story, it is “the sheer destruction of ruined lives.”

I worry about the sanity and calculations of world leaders as we face the very threat of nuclear war. Radiation from Chernobyl is being leaked out right now as you read this article. Can cooler heads prevail and bring us all back from the nuclear threats we face?

Is Covid really over? Or are we all being lied to and misinformed? I am frustrated with mixed messaging from the scientific community. The competing policies of the CDC and experts who say the pandemic is over and the next day, it is not over. Things we thought we knew, like masking saves lives, seems to have gone away with our resolve to try to stay Covid-free. Guidelines be damned, no one seems to care anymore as we admit our Covid fatigue.

I worry about global climate change; things are spiraling out of control as we see critical effects of drought and overconsumption of water resources like never before in our history. I worry several southeastern states will not only run out of water, but electricity as well.

I worry about how votes are being stripped from people each day, and if voting itself will soon be as effective in the United States as it is in Russia.

I worry about women’s rights over their bodies which are being stripped away in states, but not in others, as if we have different women’s needs and behaviors in different states?

I worry about red states verses blue states. Will this infighting lead to another civil war? Do we have a country worth fighting for as we fight against our brothers and sisters and demonize anyone with another point of view?

Is Democracy itself strong enough to continue against those who seek to destroy it from inside?

I’d like to know why a Congressional investigative committee, with the sole purpose of getting the facts on an insurrection carried out in broad daylight, continues to seek testimony from a multitude of witnesses without indictments being issued. And how the wife of one of our Supreme Court Justices was involved in planning this treason and no one seems to care.

I think about food shortages, gas prices and supply shortages. What will our food supply look like a year from now as the war in Ukraine promises to continue indefinitely? How are we going to be able to provide for our future, when the future itself doesn’t seem as definite as it once was.

How do we rise above the noise of social media verses “real media” and the insanity of the nation’s cultural wars playing out on our information feeds each and every minute. Why do I have the intense need to scroll the feeds to see what is happening out there in the world, only to find more chaos and instability? Why am I intent on searching my news feeds for something interesting and positive, when I know I will only find more of the spiralizing chaos of sensationalized click bait?

The Constitution and the founders of our country specifically warned about the danger of intertwining of religion and politics. How did religion and politics become inseparable in this country? The battles continue in our country and people with the loudest voices and emptiest heads rage on.

I have been to the torture chambers in the Tower of London. I have seen the metal head pieces they would fill with vermin and put on someone’s face. I have seen the tortuous beds, stretching machines, dungeons and horrendous means of inflicting pain. I have seen the creative energy religious leaders used in coming up with new ways to torturing anyone who had another opinion about science or life itself. I have seen what sins man’s fight against wrongs can wrong.

With the fear of losing power, the GOP have doubled down on hate messaging to LGBTQ people. How can one person take over a state and its laws, education and social norms so completely and so quickly? How can burning of books take place in this country? How can we stand by while it is happening?

Immigrants be damned. Because nothing fires up Jesus’s followers more than hate and demonizing those who may believe our society should take care of those who are abandoned, poor, and homeless from war.

Just like our mother earth’s heat, our collective temperatures have gone up. But our fuses are shorter and our patience with each other is wearing very thin. Road rage, airplane rage, mask rage and the rage against other’s rights to have free speech in the almighty important desire to be right.

It’s all just too much to face, and the instability causes more chaos in my brain. Is it too much to wonder why I want to stop the world and jump off?

I started this article weeks ago on a Friday night. I am finishing it today, and I realize I made it through weeks of horrific world events.

Now that I have shared my dismal thoughts with you, I want to also share some things I did to help myself cleanse of these worries.

I built a fire in my back yard. I put on music I liked. I had a couple of drinks and I danced. Let me suggest Jon Batiste grammy winning album We Are. The positive energy in this music will move the darkness out of your spirit.

Watch old episodes of Mary Tyler Moore, Seinfeld, WKRP in Cincinnati, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cheers or Frazier. Mix in a season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and you will forget about today’s anxieties.

Go outside and go for a walk in the woods. Just breathe. Just be in the moment.

Find a lake, pond, river or other body of water and just go watch the waves. Reflect on the calmness of the waves in and out. Breathe in and out.

Go for a bike ride, even if you can’t remember how to ride a bike. Feel the wind in your hair and just breathe.

Read a good book, just for fun. Stay off social media. Don’t watch the news. Work a jigsaw puzzle or try your hand at an adult coloring book.

Call an old friend. Share how you are feeling, chances are they are feeling it too. We are in this together and we will get through it.