Take care!
I travel most of the year for the last 4 years. Last year, I was on a plane almost weekly. I am exposed to a lot of people and get to observe a lot of human behavior. I am noticing people seem cognitively checked out in a shocking way.
The weight, residual energy and grief of barely surviving a global pandemic, Trump administration, recession, war, division, social media addiction, opioid addiction, etc. is causing I believe cognitive/brain issues.
People are not tapped in and it gives collective psychosis, numb and zombie energy. Please check in on each other. Look at each other in the eyes, offer reciprocal care not rooted in capitalism and extraction. Stay present. Get off phones more. Sit in sun. Rest when you can. Be in community in person.
I've been naming pandemic grief multiple times everyday in my personal and professional circles. It feels like i can't not say it anymore. It feels like I've seen this on a smaller scale personally and professionally watching individual families numbing after significantly grief and loss. To see it societally unfold is so strange.
I shared with my husband this week that I'm even needing to rebel in spaces that are supposed to be about connection and family. Among my daughter's school community, it seems like more than half the kids are always on tablets outside of school hours and structured extracurriculars. And as I try to navigate relationships with other moms, the need to control their kids (except roblox and YouTube), persona curation, constant anxiety and social comparison.... They run rampant. I don't want this for the other Black mamas of the world, but I know I need to focus on having agency in my own journey (instead of these tech executives controlling my brain). I try to connect to community care where I can. I often find myself thinking of the maroon communities you always have mentioned. When I left Facebook in 2012, I didn't know what internal rebellion I was planting the seeds for.
Did not come this post to leave a long comment but I guess I've been wrestling with some of these things for a while.