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The follow up…

 I was thinking a lot about how we lose joy so quickly in the face of things we have no control over.


I am an empathetic person, my mother says it’s a “superpower”, but it’s never really served me well.  I have no power or influence over anyone or anything but myself and I try to utilise my empathy to enhance my own existence and thats it.  I see joy in others and I will try to share that feeling so that little crack of light in my life might shine in someone else’s.  When you have supersized empathy, life gets heavy and dark very quickly.  


The world is kinda a shitty place at the best of times, now our news feeds are filled with images of genocide and hate, rich people debating free speech and whether or not artists have the right to criticise the poor job of governments in the face of this so obvious slaughter of people and if you turn your individual focus away for a second, you are told you don’t care.  I care, but I understand the limits of my ability and the capacity I have to continue the cycle of despair.  After years of seeing the same fights being fought, I understand how people become radicalised.  I, myself, have become radicalised in a way.  Nothing I have had to act on myself, but being a ball of empathetic anxiety is like being a powder keg and this world is a room full of open flames.  I definitely feel like one wrong move, dirty snide remark or show of blatant hate could actually send me into a fit of unbridled rage.  I choose my battles carefully because of this.  I know my limitations, I’m poor, I am not formally educated and I am an immigrant.  I will always want to be on the right side of history and I will always do my best to support those who ask me to, but I cant spend my life dwelling in and focusing on the shit I cant control.


In the shadow of the mistakes of humanity, I will try and shine whats left of my light on those things that focus on peoples joy, a chance for someone to celebrate themselves takes nothing away from anyone else and it will take a universal shift in consciousness for anything to change.  People with power and influence would have to become comfortable with having it stripped away and that would have to come from a place of humility.  

The idea of stripping the world of art to try and change the minds of oligarchs is a nightmare, but it could also be the answer.  Is that the world we want to live in? Could you sacrifice all your joys? Would you trust in others to do the same?

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