Well, hello again, friends. Every Friday, I try to highlight some of the things that have made me happy during the week. As I struggle in the fight against depression and anxiety, I found it helpful to focus even a small amount of my energies towards finding the positive in the every day.
This week, the call for positivity rings a little hollow. I support your right to feel fear, sadness, outrage, and uncertainty this week. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. I am so, so sorry.
In conversation with my boyfriend on what will go down in history as 11/9 — the day after America chose to destroy itself, and the logical backlash to 9/11 when the terrorists achieved their goal of destroying our freedoms — we talked about “positivity.”
I have seen some people, in the past few days, encourage others to “chin up!” and “be positive!” in a way that I find completely unhealthy. Suppressing your negative emotions about this will only have negative consequences for you down the road. Blithely ignoring the reality of the current situation is tantamount to dangerous denial, something America is clearly suffering from, evidenced by the fact that we failed to see the rise of the alt-right and racism erupt in this new regime of hatred. Pushing our feelings to the side to play nice and look at pictures of puppies in daisy fields is NOT the solution.
Well, hold up, there — because I’m not saying there’s no positivity to be had this week! I refuse to participate in hollow acts of escapism, in favor of highlighting some of the events that have actually kept my faith in humanity afloat these past few days.
Washington State sending Pramila Jayapal, First South Asian Woman, to U.S. House of Representatives https://t.co/gxGdiW0wPq pic.twitter.com/mQVsR4w31m
— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) November 9, 2016
Several women made big wins in down-ticket races. Nylon takes a look at some of the historic wins achieved by WOC at the state and local level.
https://twitter.com/heidiheilig/status/796392908907655169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I was raised on Thank-You Notes. It’s the classy thing to do. “When they go low, we go high!” — Michelle Obama
If you can, donate to Planned Parenthood. I’m unemployed with no source of steady income on the horizon, but I did it and I’m glad as hell I did.
2 responses to “GOOD NEWS: You Don’t Have To “Be Positive””
I’ve been seeing this post circulating about donating to PP in Mike Pence’s name so he gets the ‘certificate’ or whatever and I couldn’t be more in line. There ARE silver linings to this shit week, I guess. But I’m still in mourning over this. 🙁
Tell me about it. I can’t think of anything else to write about. I think I’m tired, too tired of having to defend my own humanity and double down on personal safety, too tired from checking in on friends in vulnerable positions, to think of being creative. The only things that have made me happy are the things I blogged about and the odd puppy picture. Everything else feels cheap and forced.