Anger can be a healthy emotion. It can motivate people to action. It can inspire creativity. But it can also lay under the surface and eat at a person’s gut if it isn’t acknowledged and addressed.
Back in March my wife and I spent 10 days in Mexico for the first time since before the pandemic. I’d been nagging to go for a couple of years and she finally conceded for my 60th birthday. We did almost no touring...just went to our favorite restaurants, saw our favorite guitar guys play every night while we sipped really good tequila, and went to the pool where we could swim up to the bar and, yes, sip good tequila.
What dawned on me while I was there — I had my computer so I still had access to the internet, this place, mastodon, etc. — was how good relaxing felt. I realized I was wound up (again...this happens every four years) in election paranoia which, coupled with a certain criminal defendant continuing to evade accountability (may that change next week), and I was angry. Going 10 days without MSNBC or CNN and limiting my social media to posting pics and checking on Ukraine (I ignored the political posts here almost entirely) wasn’t just refreshing, it was cathartic.
When I returned home I kept the TV off for the first week as I didn’t want to fall back into the funk that 24/7 anxiety-inducing info-drama created in me. The last month has been a bit of a deep dive back into that cesspool, in large part because I wanted to know how fooked Trump might be if the NY DAs prosecuted the case effectively...and they did. Better still, the defense scored an own goal with their stereotypical mob lawyer witness losing his shit in the courtroom. So there’s a bit of hope left.
But the anger I feel — about Republican corruption, Alito, the six month assist the GOP gave Putin in Ukraine, and the non-stop focus on every little crazy bit of bullshit that comes out of Trump’s mouth here and on TV — that’s there and I can’t ignore it.
I don’t want that. It’s not healthy, and it’s crazy making. Alito’s coup-curious! Why aren’t the Democrats doing anything about him? No...his alliance with traitors to this country isn’t a partisan issue, nor should it be. It’s abhorrent. Trump wants to cancel birth control. He’s not going to win the election and reasonable people understand that. He’s planning on losing and trying to have a repeat of 2021...but he’s not president. Joe Biden is. Stop participating in unnecessary panic.
So...how do I deal with my anger and get the fuck out of this diary? A few things work for me:
- Walk my dogs every day — image at the top is for cleansing the mind.
- Make food at home
- Focus on my job when I’m at work...lord knows they pay me enough...social media and political bullshit doesn’t fall into my job description — plus it’s a good escape — I feel like I’ve accomplished something at the end of the day
- Ignore the negative stories — even political cartoons get overwhelming at times — how many ‘shoot the dog’ strips did you see two weeks ago? How many upside down flag posts? Republicans aren’t funny, they’re abhorrent.
And share images of my animals, I suppose…
I’m off to Sphere and Loathing in Las Vegas. That, too, is going to be a healing experience.