A Moment of Silence, A Year of Rage

Sic semper tyrannis

Context

Despite the title of my blog, I rarely react to current events in this space. Our online lives are flooded with people’s opinions on every topic under the sun, whether we asked for them or (usually) not.

I made an exception a little over a year ago, largely because that event was so closely related to multiple books I was reading at the time. And if you’ve read any of my writing, you know how powerfully my frustration and hope for the world fuels my craft.

My plan for this week was to follow up with Part II of ‘The Catharsis of Endings’, on the subject of death. But while I fully believe those lessons are valuable, I don’t think they’re appropriate for today. So rather than a long article today: a moment of silence, and a year of rage.

Rest in peace Alex Pretti, Renée Good, the dozens more murdered by ICE; the millions of victims of genocide, civil wars and invasions over the past year.

The POTUS’ Gestapo thugs are kidnapping children out of schools while he tests the limits of modern day appeasement. It makes me fucking mad.

"Alex Pretti defends his city", art by author Molly Crabapple

This will be the topic of a full piece at some point, but for now I just want to say: remember that anger isn’t inherently bad. It’s a sign that the world isn’t aligning with your expectations and core values.

What we do with anger can often be problematic: lashing out at ourselves or those around us with any number of different kinds of abuse.

But do we really have to think very hard to find the root cause of our emotions, here and now? And there are a hundred positive ways to channel it, if you just look.

I’m blazing through Biography of X by Catherine Lacey right now for a book club, and one small facet of this novel (which reminds me a little of House of Leaves in a lovely way) is that it offers a potent reminder that things could still get a lot worse if we let them.

Let’s not. Down with tyrants.

Thanks for reading and understanding; until next time <3

'The Poet' Renée Nicole Good, portrait by Taryn Okesson