Weekend self-care open thread: Breathe
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| Breathe, by Shawn Rossi, CC BY 2.0 |
Journalist, tweeter-extraordinaire, and wife of the inestimable Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, Connie Schultz, often posts tweets with some darling picture of her dogs or her grandkids, and ends it by saying "Breathe".
Over the past week we've been treated to doomsday scenarios of vermin Donald Trump and his vermin GOP cohorts not just stealing the election, but abnegating a Joe Biden win and taking over in a putsch.
Breathe.
This is what greeted Trump as he dared defile the space where the tzaddik Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state:
"Vote him out." "Honor her wishes."These are not the words of a cowed populace. These are the words of a people fed up with the dark place to which Trump and his minions and have taken us. These are the words of a mighty majority forming to retake what it means to be American.
I know it's hard. Lord, how hard it is. We're bombarded by malefactors on all sides. We're inundated with the daily grind of Trumpian fuckery. And then we're treated to doomsayers who treat every deranged utterance as the signpost that Trump and his party will sweep away all opposition and impose a dictatorship.
Breathe.
Trump's proclamations are nothing but an indication that he's scared shitless of what awaits him in a few short weeks.
Breathe.
Ignore the doom patrol. They have no more insight than you or I do. What they have is a need to generate clicks and clout online.
Breathe.
In the Bhagavad Gita, before the great battle which closes the Indian epic The Mahabharata, as Prince Arjuna recoils before the coming bloodshed, the Lord Krishna reminds him of his duty. Much like Arjuna had a role to fulfill, so do we all. This is our time.
Breathe.
In Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark's dear friend Horatio tries to postpone the coming duel. Hamlet will have none of it. There is a providence in the fall of a sparrow. The readiness is all. We, too, have to be ready, but not paralyzed by trepidation.
Breathe.
Things will get worse. There will be an element which will react to Trump's ouster with violence. Rebirth is not without blood. But a rebirth is what we're going through. We've put it off for decades. The piper demands payment, and we dare not deny him.
But breathe.
The human condition is pain and pleasure. One follows the other. And many times one needs to go through pain to attain wisdom. What's true in an individual's life is corollary to the life of nations.
Breathe.
We many, we happy many, we band of friends. We shall get through this, and come out at the end in a better place. Because the arc of history bends towards justice.
Breathe.
This is your weekend self-care open thread.