I have something to say. I know, I’ve ALWAYS got something to say, but this is serious for a change. Do any of you REALLY think you can change anyone’s minds about politics, about masks, about anything of consequence right now? You cannot reason with fear and I believe that most of us are scared for one reason or another currently. Half of us are on edge about the political climate and the unrest of so many citizens. The other half of us are scared of catching Covid. Neither side can stand to listen to the other for any amount of time and we’re all shoving it down each others’ throats 24/7. I’m a firm believer in the freedom of speech. I may not agree with everything you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it. However, we’re all in this together whether we like it or not. It’s gotten so bad two really good friends of mine deleted their accounts simply because they can’t take the unrelenting pressure of debate in their news feed. I’m not telling you anything new. All y’all see it, two or three posts on one side of the fence, two or three on the other. Back and forth, back and forth. Back. And. FORTH.

I think some of you are just trying to fit in. Did you not learn to be yourself sometime right after high school? Do you need something else to occupy your time? Idle hands truly are the devil’s workshop, and these keyboards are conducive to spewing more hate than goodness these days.

Can we please just go back to posting pictures of our pets, our suppers, our music, our flowers, our crafts? Something beautiful, something inspiring, something worth sharing? What are you doing? What are you reading? Who do you love? Is it worth alienating people we actually care about for the sake of pushing our personal agenda? I know I post a lot of silly stuff. And it is ridiculous to be joking with everything going on but I’m trying to make y’all laugh again!! Maybe if we could lighten up a little things wouldn’t seem so bleak. The world is hard enough without worrying if we’re offending someone. I’ve shared and haha’d some truly low-brow memes about all this mess (mainly to let “my” side know they’re not alone) but I hate to encourage it any further. It all just seems so MEAN now. Can you all please just SHUT UP or set your Covid/ politics to a group of friends you feel want to hear it? I’ve unfollowed so many people lately and it hurts my heart I may be missing something big in their lives but I absolutely can’t scroll through ten tons of garbage to see it. If you want to make a change, if you want to speak out, I encourage you to do so on a local level first (county commissioners), working your way on up to however far you need to go to make your voice heard. Keep it off here. Nobody wants to hear it. They’ve not been listening for awhile, anyway.

And all that being said, I truly recognize it’s a free country and you can post whatever your heart desires but for the LOVE OF MANKIND I’M BEGGING YOU TO JUST STOP. I can’t even write stories these days, it’s like I’ve got three marbles, a wiffle ball, and a dehydrated cantaloupe rattling around in my brain. I’ve been stringing together enough words to scratch out a poem but even I know that’s not my strong suit. I can’t write right now. It’s like everything is pressing in on me. It feels like my head is extra hot and compressed and at the same time like someone is playing ten TV’s in every room but static is the prevailing noise above it all. I’m serious. I’m going crazy from all this garbage. I haven’t watched the “news” in years because this is how it made me feel. There will be no more stories until I can reset.

I’m afraid we’re all gonna be on medication to cope before this is over.

So I first posted this little blurb on my Facebook, set to Friends, not public. Within moments I had a comment from a man I’ve known my entire life. It was like he hadn’t even read my post. It’s like those comments you can’t help but read underneath any given news post. He encouraged me to keep writing, that it was the only bright spot in many people’s days. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I elaborated on previous points. He commented that I was strong and I could overcome all this drama. Yes, I can, and yes, I will but…I answered him this way: “That’s partially where I’m coming from…someone like me, who is completely stable and rational (hold the laughter, please) but seriously, someone who is adjusted and at peace still about to go ’round the bend from all this crap…how are the people who are barely hanging on taking it? That’s what concerns me. I CAN reset. I WILL reset. But…what about those who can’t? Who already had a thousand battles that they barely had a foothold in? And now…all this division. All the hate.”

I just think back to a job I previously had. It was constant turmoil, mountains made out of molehills, things that could be solved easily enough but it was like walking across landmines no matter which direction you chose. And all was well in my life at the time: I was healthy, I had friends, and my marriage was good. But I would often think, what if it wasn’t? What if I was dealing with cancer or some other predicament? What if my husband had lost his job? What if just one other thing was going on in my life, how would I cope? How could I stand to battle whatever tribulation I had going on personally, only to go to work and struggle there, as well? That’s what concerns me now. So many people are burdened by finances, by trouble at home, by some sort of medical condition. It seems impossible to go on. And they open up their social media platform to check on their friends and family that they’ve not been able to see in months and this is the crap they’re faced with, day in and day out. It just makes me sick.

No, I can’t change the world. I can’t even change my friends. But it’s like the story about the boy walking along the shoreline with his grandfather. There were thousands of starfish washed up. He walked along, stooping every few seconds to pick one up and pitch it back in the ocean. The adult asked him why he bothered, he couldn’t possibly pick up all the starfish, to just let them be.

“Because it matters to this one,” the boy replied, stopping to fling another. “And this one….and this one.”

Just a little compassion, y’all. Just THINK. Does it help? Could you maybe share a scripture instead? Maybe a picture of your birdbath, with a little finch on the edge of the glistening water? And if you can’t do that, if you just want someone to share in your snarkiness, could you just share it with a small group of people that will agree with you? Our mental well-being is at stake. It matters to this one.

Love from Appalachia,

~ Amy