Things Are Not Getting Any Better

But they are also not getting any worse

2020 was a bad year. We all agree on that.

2021 did not seem to be a whole lot better, though things were beginning to revert back to the version of normal that we were all familiar with.

2022. It really feels like more of the same. Things have been slowly rolling back to how they used to be, but now we have a new set of problems. Gas is expensive, relative to 2020 when the entire global economy was at a near standstill. Everything else is expensive too.

As our kids go back to school, we are not preparing them for the world they are going to graduate into. With states banning discussions on important, progressive ideas that will allow the next generation to further combat bigotry, we are actually and actively setting our kids back. They are going to find themselves in a world that they may not know how to properly navigate.

Unless we, as their parents are willing to have those conversations with them.

And I do not even have to tell you about the political landscape. Threats of civil war. Threats of violence against people who hold a different ideology. Threats of violence against…well…everyone.

Increasing gun violence, which we seem unwilling to even have an honest conversation about.

Things just do not seem to be getting any better.

On the other hand, things do not seem to be exponentially worse. It is not as though we are moving into an apocalyptic scenario. Yes, abortion rights are being quickly eroded. But that has been happening for a while. Yes, there is rampant racism and police brutality. Yes, there are way too many shootings.

But in the midst of all of that, it is being balanced out, although imperfectly, by incremental changes. At an individual level, people’s attitudes toward those things are shifting in a more progressive, forward-moving direction. Young people are actively tired of the gerontocracy that we currently have and are getting involved. The political landscape is changing.

We are slowly moving toward a more sustainable way of living as a country. It is likely too late, but positive change is always positive.

In other words, I think there is reason to have hope for the future. But for us to live into that hope, we have to come together. It is imperative that we set aside our differences of opinion on negotiable matters. And when it comes to our non-negotiables, we must ground them in the truth. Not in an alternative truth of our own design, but in actual, lived reality.

We must be willing to call out lies and sins, even (especially?) when they are committed by those we support.

Just because someone is our friend/ally/leader, that does not make them above reproach. One is above reproach by making themselves above reproach.

I do believe that is where we will be headed next time.