Sure, the first year (or two) of COVID were wretched, but most of those barriers have since cleared — yet I’m still struggling. I’ve noticed the same with a number of people within my family and neighbourhood....
Gotta have opposites, light and dark and dark and light, in painting. It’s like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in awhile so you know when the good times come. I’m waiting on the good times now.
I’m so incredibly lucky, covid showed me that I don’t have to work in a cube farm, I can do my job from anywhere. It crammed my whole family into each other’s business, now I know my kids better than I did before. I grew meals in a crappy suburban garden.
I lost a lot too, connections to extended family and friends. A lot of relationships died because I was afraid. People like me were dying and I didn’t trust that extended family to give enough of a shit about me to wear a shitty little mask from Amazon in public. (Which turned out to be right, they lied and ended up with covid) I lost some people who were very important to me, not even to COVID, just regular old cancer.
For me, the last few years have thrown what’s important into sharp relief.
I can’t control anything that’s going on outside my house, or even most things inside my house. But I can have Christmas trees up year round if I want to.
The trees and lights make the people I love happy too, which makes me happy.
My big dumb dogs make me happy.
That crunchy snow noise makes me happy.
The tip of my nose freezing in the wind while the rest of me is warm makes me happy.
There’s so much awful out in the world and I can’t really do anything about it. So I cling to all the things I’ve found that make me happy and I try to suck all the juice out of each and every one.
When you find the things that give you some warmth, grab them and hold on. Put your energy into the things that give you energy.
It’s almost like an economic system that purports itself as a fair system that rewards hard work regularly reveals itself to be arbitrary and rewards those that already have more often than not.
Before I say anything else, if you’re voting, right now at a national level at least, Democrats are essentially the only option if you give a shit about democracy and aren’t an accelerationist.
That said: The GOP fucking up covid so hard is probably the only reason Trump didn’t get re-elected. Democrats as a collective do not support universal healthcare. They had the capability to pass whatever they wanted in Obama’s first term. They actively rejected even a public option. They fucked us (normal, non-rich people) hard, because, as a group, they ain’t us. They could have fixed a lot of the issues around public education that were introduced in the bush administration, but they didn’t. How’s that student loan debt forgiveness going? They, again as a group not individually, hate the idea of all those loans not getting paid. THINK OF THE BANKS! As far as free and fair elections go, they benefit from the FPTP system, they will never get rid of it unless they’re forced to.
ALL OF THOSE THINGS SAID: VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL IS WHAT WE’RE STUCK WITH UNLESS WE WANT THINGS TO GET WAY, WAY WORSE.
The alternative to these fetid dickbags is fascists and yes, some literal Fucking Nazis.
In a world where the Overton window isn’t totally fucked, Democrats are center-right. They, again as a group, give zero shits about regular people.
Is it just my circle, or has it been a challenge getting into the Christmas/holiday spirit the last couple of years?
Sure, the first year (or two) of COVID were wretched, but most of those barriers have since cleared — yet I’m still struggling. I’ve noticed the same with a number of people within my family and neighbourhood....
America: Getting ready for another election. Rest of the world: (lemmy.ca)
Black olive birthday (lemmy.world)
me_irl (lemmy.eco.br)
This IS my final form (lemmy.world)
Mustard brings all the boys to the yard. (mander.xyz)
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/e80bf8d3-ad4d-4491-9725-51103ced6930.jpeg
Some days are better than others (lemmy.world)
You can even leave your doors unlocked and let your guard down. (startrek.website)
Two Party System. Why. (lemmy.zip)
EDIT: To the people downvoting this post because democrats > republicans: you’re missing the point.