I have faith in hope. Or hope in faith. Despite it all. Even as a wax sculpture of Abe Lincoln had his head melt off in suburban Washington DC due to this month’s record burn. Even as it seems like the fractures of our society are fracturing what’s been fractured and we all get siloed. Even as we build walls up around our little silos and forget how to relate. Even as it feels like a chore to go to the movie theater. And reproductive rights, marriage rights, voter’s rights are lining up at the chopping block of original-ism. But that’s all small fry shit. What concerns me is our fear of waking up from this American dream because to do so, means facing far too much. And so we linger in a collective denial fueled by streaming content, Amazon day, and access to a pill for everything.
All because we know what is coming. It’s like thunder on the horizon. An election cycle.
What makes this election cycle different than 2016 is that in 2016 we were blissfully unaware of how bad and wrong we could be. No one had the world changing events of the last eight years on their bingo card. We were naive. Over confident. We had taken for granted the power of the status quo. And what one lunatic could do. And now we have cicadas taking over, endless culture war, and a disease of autocracy spreading like a cancer infecting every democracy on earth. It’s enough to make us all check out. I know it has been for me.
And part of me prefers it that way. Truly. I don’t regret it. I mean, I do my part, but I don’t do more than my part. I recycle, I try and pay my carbon offset when I can afford it, I try and be kindness, but I’m not really interested in giving 5 x matching donors on texts to contested elections for battle ground House seats. Does that make me a bad citizen? Or simply a prudent dude who is managing how many fucks he has to give? I listened to this thing awhile back on NPR about how the only way to endure this landslide of concern is to have one lane, and do that one thing.
I help shadow artists find courage to stand up and share their stories. That’s how I contribute, to help the singers sing. Part of me has to go blind to everything else so I can be of maximum service to the people and things in my lane.
A little while back I was making the convo with some dog park friends while we watched our furry beasts ignore us. The topic was what to do about democracy. I listened as I watched Chekhov hunt for ground squirrels that are bold enough to make their home in a dog park because they are either suicidal or thrill seekers. Eventually I chimed in when it looked like it was about to devolve into a shit throwing session: “We are the only modern democracy that never fundamentally updated their governing system to avoid minority rule and rely on an antiquated voting / electoral system that no longer is relevant and promotes the one thing James Madison and John Adams were afraid would happen. 1 ‘ we would calcify into a two party system that ground itself into stalemate. That until those systems evolve, our political ecosystem will continue to devolve, till one of two things happen; it breaks apart or we change.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tales From The Pond by Matt Doherty to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.