Pandemic Day 126 / Floyd Protests Day 50

Al Tenhundfeld writing on Simple Thread's blog:

At work, your team is smoldering. At home, your family is smoldering. Your friends are smoldering. Everyone you know and love and care about is smoldering. As a nation, we are smoldering.

By smoldering, I mean we are on the edge of burnout. We have used up our reservoirs of resilience, our ability to take setbacks and keep trucking. Some parts of our society have already crossed that threshold.

I'll admit I had to check Wikipedia to see if the protests were still going on. I've tried to increasingly control my media intake. I try to be a responsible citizen and stay informed, but also recognize this is taking a severe toll on my mental health.

My therapist encouraged me to really feel my emotions at this time. It hasn't been pleasant. My primary emotion is rage. Science was the answer to the pandemic, but instead we responded with... whatever is happening in our government right now.

So, I'm going to do what I've always done. Channel it into art and music. Help others channel it into art and music. Art and music have always seen me through the dark days. And have always seen humanity through our darkest hours.

The next music I'm going to write is going to be utterly different from what I've done before. One primary adjective comes to mind: extreme.