When I got out of bed shortly before 4:00 a.m., I was disturbed to realize the distressing national and international news from recent days had stayed on my mind again overnight. News about violent incursions by ICE in Minneapolis and Portland accompanied me to bed and remained with me when I woke. The madness of U.S. imperialism—most recently involving Venezuela and Greenland and Iran—continued to stoke my anger this morning. Embers that kept the flames of my fury burning spiked into a raging firestorm. Foolishly, I allowed myself to fuel the fire by reading more news while in an already unpleasant state of mind. When my animosity had almost reached the point of irrepressible rage and hatred, I dragged myself out of the inferno by reading the most recent piece of the NPR series, My Unsung Hero. The story, about a man’s memory of being found after becoming lost one night in a campsite on Lake Superior, soothed just enough stress to prevent a complete meltdown. Though that positive human interest story did not change the scope of this administration’s cruelty and march toward authoritarianism, it blunted some of the sharp edges that, lately, escort me into each day. Positive stories, unfortunately, cannot erase the mental damage done by terror nor can they serve to reverse actions that foster it. But at least they can provide just enough of a relief valve to avoid a damaging explosive response. Rage, I think, is a dangerous reaction to feelings of hopelessness. If human interest stories can temper the venom of anger, they should be given more credit than we tend to give them.
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The paragraph above notwithstanding, hopelessness is not always a negative emotion. Losing hope (or avoiding its development) can make reality easier to face than holding onto hope long after evidence confirms its futility. The energy expended on hope can be invested, instead, on achievable aspirations. Hope, in the absence of reasonable expectations, is simply fantasy. Hopelessness, on the other hand, may be polished and shined into something more productive: acceptance of reality. Logic can get in the way of both perspectives, though. That’s true of almost everything in which a wish is involved.
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When a delusional Head of State is starved for affection, he or she can simply demand it. As much as the people under his or her rule may desire a much more rapid outcome, the only viable option may be to acquiesce to the leader’s wishes; let him/her starve.
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Roughly two hours have passed. Human interest stories, like many other mood-enhancing drugs, may not all be of the extended-release form.
