As we tiptoe hesitantly towards the end of Daylight Savings Time and months of literal and figurative darker days, let’s remind each other that we need each other and find ways to meet those needs.
Longtime POME fave Anne Helen Petersen put a name to a mildly bleak feeling the coven has been experiencing recently: fall regression. If you’re getting hit with it as well, here’s some (possibly easier said than done) advice:
Instead of masking that brokenness, lean into it. Give the wound some oxygen. Be vulnerable and needy with one another. Go ahead and consider or even make big life decisions. You’re not acting emotionally; you’re actually listening to your emotions instead of blunting them, and there’s a very real difference. Refuse the rut and your own complacency with it. Life is hard and will always be hard in different ways, but given our advances as a civilization, there’s no reason it should be this hard. Be mad about it. Acquaint yourself with how you’re feeling and refuse to be embarrassed or ashamed with those realities. What feels like a personal regression is usually your mind and body reacting to an ongoing societal one.
The above advice will be especially important to remember for folks following the national story of the murder trial for the 3 killers of Ahmaud Arbery, which is currently in jury selection. If the trial and the inevitable reflection on the effects – or lack thereof – of 2020’s Black Lives Matter uprisings bring on feelings of isolation and hopelessness, we recommend Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor’s August essay, “Did Last Summer’s Black Lives Matter Protests Change Anything,” for an honest, grounded perspective.
This week’s Thing We’re Extremely Looking Forward To is Iron Circus’s latest project, Real Hero Shit by Comrade Himbo contributor Kendra Wells!!! The Kickstarter is already overfunded with only ten days left to go, but you’re not gonna want to miss out on getting the first crack at it!
Speaking of Kickstarters, if you too are plagued with woe over the state of producing and actually receiving any sort of nice things, including necessary staples (!!!!) in our broken world, you will not only enjoy this editorial in the Guardian, but might find yourself nailing it to doors Martin Luther-style: “Why it’s high time to move on from ‘just-in-time’ supply chains.”
Need a laugh? Welcome back to the surprisingly hilarious reviews of expensive candles that we missed while Gawker was in another plane of existence for a while.
Farewell for now: we’re retreating back into our snuggies and box wine for another week.
