The days have turned into nights! The months of complaining have begun. You won’t find me joining those complainers. I love the extra dark, the crispy cold, the silence of the mornings. It’s like those elements help smooth out the static of the everyday and let me parse what’s actually going on.
World AIDS Day, for one, has been and gone. It was a stark reminder of growing up in the midst of a plague that interested no one. I remember the snide comments after news segments. I remember the scoffing at the protesters. I’m watching now as the rotation in the soil of dirty politics allows those old notions to rear their heads once more. I guess this is what comes with aging: nothing ever really changes. Ground just gets tilled over again and again. Awful opportunists showing up to ‘protest’ our horrifying histories as fake. Denialism. Inability to acknowledge that we are as horrendous as we are wonderful and beautiful. The jerking back and forth these days has me really tired. Denying Residential Schools existed? Anti-genocide equals antisemitism? Immigrants are responsible for your work strife? It makes one want to walk around screaming. I’m losing my mind.
So, I’m disengaging for a while. I don’t have much to donate, but I have. I’m not the most articulate monkey in the barrel, but I’ve sent my emails, made my phone calls. I’ve witnessed the largest protest/rally I’ve ever had the privilege to attend. All the while, the lousy, grifting, putrid actions of government lay bare, more so than ever before. What to do? Aside from the above, I’ve made stuff that addresses the way I move in this environment, how others move, my observations about all these things even if it’s not immediately apparent. I’m tapped right now.
I will ask that if you have complained at all about the state of things, if you’ve been sharing stupid memes about stupid politicians, if you are at all frustrated, that you make that five minute phone call, send that email, attend that rally. Show support for our public services, for vulnerable groups being mercilessly attacked. All the memes in the world won’t do a bloody thing aside from distract attention from the absolutely shitty things politicians have been getting up to since the dawn of these systems. We have more access than ever to their dealings. To paraphrase the infamous Dorian Corey, ‘You don’t have to bend the whole world.’ Many people doing little things adds up to this big web of care. And you know who loves a web? Shelob! She will wrap those fuckers up and drain them dry.
Delete the memes. Help build the web. Justice for Shelob.
That’s enough for today. Next time, I’ll have more info about the crowdfund for my new album of music.