Illness and Fear

So, having ramped up to do this engagement with the outside world, and getting my tech to expend precious resources to make it work, I immediately fell ill. Early symptoms looked enough like ReDS that everybody freaked out. It was just a cold, exacerbated by my asthma, but I spent two days being treated like a radioactive bomb. I am still de facto quarantined in my house until the cold finishes its run. That's good because it allows me to rest, but it means I already feel behind trying to get this little project going.

Many of us have all lived in fear and anxiety for a long time. After the '12 elections it became especially clear that fear was now the way that governments, corporations, and even more benevolent organizations motivated people to do things. We had harped on that fact for awhile, but it became much clearer after the debacles at the turn of the decade, some of which probably set us up for many of the problems we are facing now. Fear made people flee, or retreat into their own foxhole; it made people lash out also. Fear has created a cycle of chaos and violence that now powers the very threats that may well end our species.

I want to fight the fear, and I want to understand it. How can we transition from fear to hope? And not vaccuous, ungrounded hope, a knee-jerk reflex to combat terror and despair, but the kind of hope that makes things happen, and improves our lives. How do we essentially change what is fueling our imminent demise into power that pulls us back from that brink of destruction? And where do we go from there?

I have a lot of ideas, and I am finding out that other people, other communities do as well. But first, I need to articulate where I stand, and where my feet are planted. So, I first want to talk about where I live, and how I live, and how I see what's happening in the world, and from there start tossing out crazy ideas :-).

That will have to wait, since I am getting a bit dizzy. Back to bed for me!