No going back…

It feels like I went to sleep one night and when I woke up, life as I knew it had changed. It’s probably not what happened, more than likely it just all hit me at once that everything was different.

Change is inevitable, I get that, but I remember it being at a much slower pace, there seemed to be an easing into things, a transition period. A timeline if you like, of what you might expect next, a natural order, that allowed you to feel like you had a solid footing.

The pandemic was the catalyst. No one really knew what would happen from day to day, everyone was out of their comfort zone. Although we were isolated from everything we knew, we were still very connected, through the internet.

I was super fortunate to be living in unit on the beach, with access to pretty much everything I needed, except medical care, but that’s s whole other story. Not exactly the kind of setting I had invisaged for an apocolypse, but the unknown was scary.

Due to my health issues I was more than used to isolation. So quarantine for me mentally made no difference. But it was during this time I realised that when push came to shove, each and every one of us was truly alone, especially if we went against the narrative. Where I once thought it was ok to respectfully agree to disagree, I realised it was not. I saw something in the way people were interacting that shocked me. It was probably there before, but seeing it on such a large scale was hard to digest. It was the realisation that we weren’t in this together.

And the ease with which livlihoods were being destroyed and the heavy handedness that ensued left no doubt as to where we stood.

People that I had once seen as respectfully authoritarian, suddenly looked like every other voice, struggling to make sense of a new normal. When you no longer know where to look for guidance, when there is no real firm leadership, you question many things, that once seemed kosher.

When the fear of the pandemic finally passed, nothing really went back to normal. We were a world divided and we remain that way on many levels. It’s as though the pandemic opened doors for stability of any type to be taken away. Personally I realised that I am at the mercy of whatever might come next. That I have no say in anything that might happen. I mean it’s not like I felt like I had any power to start with, I just realised the extent to which we don’t matter in the big picture. And there is obviously a big picture, one of which again we are not privy to.

The cost of living has become unrealistic for the average person. I’m continuously asking myself how families are surviving. Rent, food and fuel alone would leave very little to cover the many other costs of living. I don’t know how people are making ends meet. I’m a strong believer that everyone should have access to the basics, housing, food, medical education, even luxuties. Why should less fortnate people have to struggle for what we all should have. Yet it seems it is intentionally being made more difficult to obtain the basics. And the quality of everything is deteriorating, that too appears intentional.

Given that most of the ‘conspiracy theories, turned out to be fairly factual, it’s anyone’s guess where we are headed…

I found the above blog in my drafts. I often start something with the intention of getting back to it shortly. I did not. But reading over it, in what seems like a couple of years later, it’s still valid.

We have just seen Donald Trump be re-elected as President. How that occurs is beyond me. I’m no political intellect, but given his questionable history, it would seem inconceivable that he will be governing our future, with his posse of billionaires and celebrity off siders. It’s a scary time to be a woman or a minority.

If anything, we move forward with a deeper divide and a more aggressive hatred that has definitely become the norm. Yet at the same time there seems to be more people with their eyes wide open. But open to what, is still the question. Maybe AI is still deciding on the ending 💁🏻‍♀️