We're just past the election, enough that the results seem clear. I had been reading old novels from a previous century, just to settle my mind. Now I'm reading speculative fiction about the future. Even reading a Reader's Digest can seem overwhelming, because it is about the current times. The future is well out of my reach, and the past can be chewed over and evaluated for hits of what our species (OK, I'm actually talking about myself) can do to take some measure of control out of the maelstrom.
Some people feel compelled to make public demonstrations in large groups. Some people are looking into leaving the country for a few years. Some people think they are bound to do better under a new leader, others fear the future.
Reading history is very instructive, even when it is in a novel, and one thing that surfaces with regularity is that we are not seeing anything new right now. People are constantly thinking they are more advanced than their deceased predecessors, and thusly will not make the subtle but defining mistakes made in the past.
Wherever you go, people will find things to fight over.
People will find ways to take power from others.
People fall in and out of love.
People will claim a spiritual being (benign or evil) compelled their behavior.
Being old enough to inspire a little awe in my teen child (You lived through the cold war and Vietnam? ) as a balance for standard teen derision of all things extant does not make me wise. It makes me cautious and willing to give humanity a fighting chance to be humane.
What I can do as an individual is make an effort to be kind, spend what money I have where it supports the society in which I want to keep living, and find spots of joy every day to share.
It is not much, but in this current environment, now that I can get my head out of a novel, it is what I can handle.
What can you do?
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