Moving Into August

Still Carpe-ing Those Diems

This year, this fucking year, continues to bring its wild medley of dismaying moments, shiny experiences, and surreal instances. Which is, now that I think about it, synonymous with life. I spent a lot of time driving, most recently to Pittsburgh and back for Confluence, and I’d like to say I used it profitably, but most of it was listening to the radio and on the way back, thinking about a particular question.

Since I was one of the Confluence Guests of Honor, I got to make a speech, and I’d spent some amount of time writing out the notes. I figured out since I got to speak to a bunch of people, I’d use their time in a productive way, and so I talked about The Current Moment. We need to acknowledge that we are living in times full of unprecedented things, not the least of which is that Elon Musk’s on track to become a trillionaire soon while humanity still hasn’t addressed homelessness, or world hunger, or anything like that, let alone the looming climate change.

I refuse to give up hope that we can swing this world in a better direction if people would just get their shit together, because to give up that hope is to surrender to the deluge of bad news designed to dishearten and discourage, I said. I talked about how we need to create the stories people are living by, stories of cooperation and working together, stories of putting ego aside in favor of the common good. I said a bunch of stuff like that, and people applauded, and there was a moment of community and encouragement that was quite nice.

And afterward, a young person came up and said, “What do you say to those of us who are my age (20) and have never seen things getting better, only worse and worse?” To which I didn’t have a lot to say, because I was swept with that wash of guilt and compassion and want-to-make-it-better that many of my generation feel, I think, when facing these beautiful and doomed young folk who sometimes face pressures the likes of which we have never known.

I have something of an answer now, I think. And that is that - while you younger folk have never seen things getting better, those of us with (slightly, so very slightly) more informed perspective have. That as we’ve rolled through life, we’ve seen people working together, and gradually we’ve come to the moment where, despite the fact we feel 20 years old in our hearts, we know we are finally, reluctantly adults and that we are now the ones that need to step up. Some of us come to that realization very early in life, others less so, and a sad few never hit that stage.

So, babies, like Kurt Vonnegut, I welcome you to this fucked-up world, which has always been fucked-up in one way or another, and will say that, despite the shittiness of the moment, we have made advances. We understand (again some of us, not all) gender better. Medicine and science are doing absolutely amazing things on a daily basis. Education and art are much more accessible than they used to be, and you can talk to someone from around the world instantly, which is a very new thing when you think about how long humans have been talking to each other.

Will we survive into the future? I don’t know. I still hope so, and still do what I can to bring that about: write, help others, attend protests, call my government representatives, teach and encourage, and some days just get out of bed in the face of all the wtf-ery presented on a daily basis by the shitshow that is our current American Administration.

All right. That’s my preachiness for now, written on a fine Sunday morning in the hour before I head off to today’s Unitarian-Universalist gathering. If you’re looking for news of my upcoming classes, Patreon events, recent publications, and such, here’s the blog post with all of that information.

Some recent reading, watching, and drinking: Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is twisty and complicated and absolutely fine horror writing. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by him so far, but this is definitely my favorite. I suggest following it up with the horror movie Barbarian, which I accompanied with some very nice rye whiskey, Town Branch Single Barrel Reserve, purchased during a recent trip to Lexington.

Peace and bright blessings,

Cat