What To Do When There’s Nothing We Can Do.

Stay AWAKE, and don’t forget our own powers.

tinalear
5 min readDec 21, 2023
image courtesy of stock.adobe.com

Every day, I get my news from an email called Next Draft, edited by Dave Pell. He lets me know what I need to know, in a way that I want to know it.

I say “my” news, because I don’t believe anymore that there is “the” news. What I receive, what we all receive when we get our news, is information processed through the lens of whatever ‘camera’ we trust most. I recognize it could be (is) skewed, but I trust Dave Pell’s ‘camera,’ so there it is.

So I’m supposed to read the news, and see images like the one above — and not forget about my own ‘powers?’ What powers? My soul can barely handle what’s coming at us day and night. I don’t know where my strength or power even is, so maybe I’ve already abandoned it.

There’s a weird disconnect I feel from the chaos, the criminal violence, murder, rampage going on with no seeming consequences. I feel impotent and numb, and I’m trying to stumble my way back into real connection, however I can. So I’ll take you through my attempt at figuring out what to do, when there’s nothing I can do.

  1. I open the “Next Draft” email to get my news. Today’s first article is called “The Mile High Snub: Colorado Kicks Trump Off the Ballot. A Tree with a Message.” I start reading…

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tinalear

Novelist. Poet. Musician. Buddhist. Quilter. Animal lover. Visible grownup. Hidden child. Secret dancer when all alone. Makes good bread.