So much devastation, so few resources. There are the horrors of war and the devastation of cities and culture. There’s the devastation of our ideals by a government that should never have been allowed to hold power. There’s the devastation that nature can bring by flood and fire and earthquake and tornado.
Somehow, we endure.
I hope to find a way to rise above devastation. To keep on keeping on. I get discouraged. Demoralized. I had thought this would be a time in my life when I could get look back and see how far we had come. It seems no matter how far you think you’ve come, it doesn’t take much to undo it.
I want to believe that what goes around will come again. Education will be valued. Art will be supported and treasured. Truth will be recognized as singular, not negotiable. Those who want to save the planet will win over those who would despoil it.
I want to live to see it. Some might call it motivation!
DEVASTATION | DAILY POST
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Categories: Anecdote
THE GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE BOOMERS WAS DENIM 
BUDDING LILACS ABOUT TO BLOOM 
JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS 
LILACS ALWAYS BLOOM FOR MY SON’S BIRTHDAY 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Many of the most successful people on earth had a parent die while they where young. It almost seemed like that devastating event helped them achieve knowing that death/devastation was nearby. After a forest fire and a volcano erupts…..life and vegetation flourishes more successfully than before.
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I think childhood trauma, at least, tends to be make or break many people. Yes, some kids rise from it stronger. But many (more?) don’t. Even in nature what you say is true, except when it isn’t. Nothing is true all the time for everyone or everything under all circumstances and while yes, devastation can give you a push, it can also bury you. It’s not so simple.
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Yes, I agree with you. I forgot to mention all the life and vegetation that “got buried” and died when forest fires and volcanoes hit.
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I come from a very abusive childhood. My brother survived and managed to build a relatively normal, successful life. Me too, with glitches, but no worse than most lives. My sister was a casualty. I am mostly of the opinion that loving, supportive, not-whacked-out parents is a pretty good place to start. And having a president that isn’t going to turn the clock back to 1952 would be overall better than what we’ve got. Overcoming challenges may be doable, but I doubt it’s desirable 🙂
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May the man upstairs hear you and make it all true!
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I hope so too! Thank you.
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I feel like this a lot about a lot of things. I have come to see part of it is just being 65 years old, but some of it is that humanity seems very slow… I think (have thought for a long time) that all we can do is lift our flag and carry on, even if our territory and influence are very small. And my strongest feeling around all this is still disgust. The DNC sent me a fund-raising letter today disguised as a survey. I just thought, “Seriously? You have all the money in the world. You don’t need mine. And, you fucked the country. Thousands of women marched a couple of days ago — many of whom didn’t vote. And why was that?”
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I don’t disagree with you. Whatever we do may be futile, but it’s not in me to just throw up my hands, put a bag over my head and pretend nothing’s wrong. I may not be able to do much, but a lot of little things may make some difference. How much? I have no idea. I know what I can’t do … but I’m not yet sure of what I can do. I have never really tried to influence anything or anyone outside my own small circle of friends. Maybe it’ll turn out to be nothing … but I won’t know if I don’t try.
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I never suggested pretending nothing’s wrong. Too much is wrong for any pretense to be in the least convincing. The people around here who say, “He won. Get over it.” Well, I’d like to move away, actually. I’m pretty done with this.
I think when people give up because their sphere of influence is small then they are abandoning a lot more than they realize because each of us affects the next guy for good or ill. I believe all those little things make ALL the difference.
But right now I’m still sick and very tired of it. It’s also been a ridiculous winter with 7x the normal amount of the snow for a whole WINTER having fallen already. The pass to the west has been closed several times, many of those for avalanche mitigation.
I’d like to go move where are more people who are less likely to say things like, “Get over it. He won.”
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I never thought you would just give up, but there are plenty of “just get over it” people everywhere. I suppose the main advantage of New England is that as a group, we are so anti social, people don’t say much of anything. I never thought i’d view that as an advantage. Times change.
We’re having — so far — a mild, wet winter. But we’ve had ones like yours. Two years ago we had our first snow on January 29 … and got 12 feet in the next 5 weeks. Snow stops being fun at around 4 feet, After 10, it’s an endurance trial. And you’ve been sick, too. I was still recovering from heart surgery, so there was no way I could do much of anything. But spring comes. It only feels like forever.
I’m feeling a cold draft, so i’d better go see what’s open that shouldn’t be.
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You just said what I’ve been feeling and thinking these last two days – devastation and a sense of hopelessness. I couldn’t find the words to write it – a kind of momentary loss of the belief in the power of words. So, I’m thinking to myself, “The Women’s March was wonderful. But it’s over. And the President will now go on to ignore and obsess his way/our way into . . . what?” I wrote my congressman and Sen. McConnell about the President’s turn around refusal to release his tax returns, his press secretary’s and Kelly Anne Conway’s “alternative facts” – asking them to reach across the aisle to stand against this. Looking for a place to stand myself I turned to Ecclesiastes’s sense of vanity and found a friend. “There is a time for every season under heaven. A time for . . . ” What time is it for me, for you, for us? Thank you, Marilyn, for the post.
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Thank you for getting it. I feel like having fought these battles and not just once, I shouldn’t need to fight it again. But things are what they are and we do not get to choose the battles. I think they choose us 🙂
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Thank you for the positive end note. All so well said and sums up how I feel too.
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We get handed a world and we either sit it out or join the battle. To the degree that I am able, I prefer to do what I can. It may not be much, but it’s not nothing. If we all do the best/most we can, maybe it will BE enough.
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We will over come.
Leslie
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We certainly will try.
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