Take a Hike

We got out for a hike this morning, and we’re going to try to do that every morning weather permitting. I’m grateful that we live in a place where beautiful and wild places are minutes away. I’m also grateful that we don’t have a shelter in place order and most likely won’t thanks to the small size of the community and our low population density. I feel for my friends in New York and San Francisco who no longer have this outlet.

But I think the most important thing I was grateful for this morning was some space: a break from being up to my eyeballs in news and updates and decisions related to the current situation. While social media has been a great benefit during this time in many ways-- up to date information, fun diversions, connection with friends near and far-- it has also created an environment where it’s very easy to begin to lose hope, fall prey to worst fears, and get sucked into pointless battles about which conspiracy is true or not.

My advice for all of you, my friends, is to get outside if you are able, and if you are not to find some other way to unplug from the crisis. Greet your neighbors from a safe distance. Sing, tell jokes, create art together. Find ways to connect and build community in real life and not just online. The world you see through the lens of social media is only one very small aspect of our vast and beautiful universe. Make sure you give yourself a chance to pay attention to everything else.

 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Barackary Clintama

I've started to hold out some vague hope for the next presidential elections. At least, unlike the last time, it looks like I'll have enough choices to make voting in the Democratic primary worth my while. Last time I was so non-plussed with my choices for Democratic nominee that I voted in the Republican primary just so I could have the pleasure of voting against Dubya twice in the same year (which had the unfortunate side effect of putting me on the Republican mailing list. Although I've often entertained the idea of showing up at some of the party events I get invites to just to blow their minds). Don't get me wrong, I like John Kerry just fine. I just think it's an indication of how badly people wanted to get rid of Bush even in 2004 that Kerry did as well as he did. Speaking as a fellow tall, funny-looking egghead, he just wasn't electable. So at this point it looks like it will be Obama vs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination (although lord knows ...
Read more

Springing Backwards

Image
I hate daylight savings time. I really do. Maybe it's a silly thing to hate, but it has always seemed utterly pointless to me. And now the additional monkeying around we're doing with this already absurd device is making it even more pointless. IT departments all over the country are having to scramble to reprogram all the automatic clock settings on all the computers everywhere. At my own work, after the patches were applied we all had to go into our calendars and manually move all of the appointments from March 11th through April 8th one hour earlier, since the patch advanced all the times that were already in the system. This has got to be costing millions nationwide. And for what? Apparently the goal is to get a jump on the amount of time people are using lights and thereby save energy costs. Putting aside the fact that with a stroke of the pen congress could mandate 45 mpg minimums for vehicles and thereby save a heck of a lot more energy, how much are we really sav...
Read more