Hope. It’s hard to hang onto right now, but what’s the alternative? That was the gist of Michelle Obama’s message in an interview with Oprah a few weeks before Christmas. Over the holidays, I tried to hide from the gloom, but wasn’t strong enough to eschew my news feed entirely. In a weak moment I clicked on a New Yorker piece by Eric Schlosser—World War Three by Mistake. It threw me back to a childhood terror I had almost forgotten.
When I was about 14 and shortly after one of the times the world, according to Schlosser, nearly went thermonuclear by accident, I had a reoccurring nightmare. I dreamt about the beginning of the end. Night after night, I watched mushroom clouds bloom in the distance. I never woke up soon enough, and always with my heart still hammering and my body chilled, pooled in cold sweat. It is still the most terrifying dream I have ever had.
That a teenager would suffer from an underlying angst about the end of time in the early 1980s is hardly surprising. I’m just grateful that back then, Ativan weren’t yet the pharmacological equivalent of Smarties. Despite the release of Ordinary People, child psychology was still rather frowned upon as a silly indulgence of the neurotic and the obscenely rich. So when I finally told my father about what troubled me, instead of bundling me off to therapy, he simply told me not to worry. He was also genuinely surprised that I would fret at all about that sort of thing. If the world didn’t end with Hitler, or later, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he reasoned, then it sure as hell wasn’t going to end now. And he turned back to his newspaper.
My father was born in 1935 in Chatham, Kent. His childhood included the terror of buzz bombs and blackouts. This lends English people of his generation a reassuring sang-froid. Think Michael Caine or Judi Dench. At least, they are reassuring to me. So I listened to him, and the dreams, though they continued, no longer consumed my waking hours with a clutching fear the way they once had.
The dreams are back. I am resisting the grown-up allure of Ativan, and choose instead to find my inner fulcrum, somewhere between Chicken Little and Happy the Dwarf. So, along with Paul Krugman’s depressing 2017 message America Becomes a Stan, I also take heart in Rebecca Solnit’s belief that Trump will be resisted. Even as Trump blithely tweets about ICBMs as though he and Kim Jong Un were two 12-year-olds sharing insults across a Catan board, I think about the upcoming Women’s March on Washington, and how it could breathe new life into American feminism. I am reassured by the GOP failure to eliminate the ethics office. I am trying hard for hope.
On the first day of 2017, Kim and I decided to do something fun together, something simple. We went to the movies to see Rogue One. We were both unexpectedly moved by the last line, eerily delivered by a CGI-rendered Princess Leia, five days after Carrie Fisher’s death.
“Hope.”
© 2017, Kate Barker. All rights reserved.
Superb post however , I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject?
I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more.
Thank you!
Amazing! Its really remarkable paragraph, I have got
much clear idea on the topic of from this post.
I believe this is among the such a lot important info
for me. And i am satisfied studying your article. However
want to remark on some general things, The website
taste is ideal, the articles is in reality nice : D.
Just right job, cheers
Hi my friend! I want to say that this article is amazing, great written and
come with approximately all vital infos. I’d like to peer extra posts like this .
Superb, what a website it is! This webpage presents useful data to us, keep it up.
Terrific work! This is the type of info that should be shared around
the internet. Disgrace on Google for now not positioning this submit upper!
Come on over and discuss with my web site . Thanks =)
Actually when someone doesn’t be aware of after that its up to other
viewers that they will assist, so here it takes place.
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your website. Do you ever run into
any browser compatibility problems? A handful of my blog readers have complained about my website not operating correctly
in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any tips to
help fix this issue?
This is my first time pay a visit at here and i am in fact
happy to read all at one place.
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to
do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking
to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from.
cheers
This site was… how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me.
Cheers!
This is my first time visit at here and i am actually happy to read all at alone place.
I need to to thank you for this wonderful read!!
I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have you book marked to look at new stuff you post…
Excellent article. I will be facing many of these issues as well..
Hello very cool blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Wonderful ..
I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds also? I am glad to find a lot of helpful
information right here in the submit, we want work out extra techniques on this
regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as
long as I provide credit and sources back to your website?
My website is in the very same niche as yours and my visitors would really benefit from some of the
information you provide here. Please let me know if
this ok with you. Thanks!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later. All the best
Thank you a lot for sharing this with all of us you actually recognize what you are talking approximately!
Bookmarked. Please also seek advice from my site =).
We can have a hyperlink alternate agreement among us
Aw, this was an incredibly nice post. Taking the time and actual effort to create
a really good article… but what can I say… I hesitate a lot and don’t seem to get nearly anything done.