EPISODE 937: TRUST IN THE FLYING BEAR

We're going to be okay, and you only live once.

Is it me or do Halloween decorations just seem scarier this year? I was at my friends that I wrote about a couple weeks ago for the weekend in Jersey and there was just one lawn with like eight hooded figures that looked really real just standing there. They were terrifying.  In the village last week I came upon an apartment buildings doing a kind of installation of four animatronic figures in a kind of spiderwebbed prison (see photo above) and I was just like, what are you doing?

Then in Chicago today I saw this:

Seriously, what is this???

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So is it me, or are we all kind of freaking out?

Everything I read in the news says the election is razor thin. National Catholic Reporter did a survey that found the majority of Catholics are going to vote Republican, which is probably the point I started to officially lose my mind.

But can I be honest with you? I don’t care what the press says, I just don’t believe the election is that close. Maybe it’s foolishness on my part, but I don’t think the American people will just ignore all of the past and present craziness around Donald Trump, or dismiss all of the Republicans who worked for him who are actively saying he is a threat. Like his former chief of staff, who said this week that Trump used to talk admiringly of Adolf Hitler. I think all of that actually means something to people.

I think the perceived inevitability of Trump is actually a big part of their campaign’s strategy. They’ve basically positioned him as a horror movie villain—of course he’s going to come back. That’s how horror franchises work.

And all of his crazy behavior in the last few months reinforces that in a way. This guy is so destined to be re-elected, it doesn’t matter that he’s shouting insane things about people eating pets or rambling incoherently about shark attacks at one rally and then simply dancing at another. He can do whatever he wants, is the message. He’s already won.

The crazier he gets, the more oxygen he consumes from the daily news cycle, too, which further reinforces that sense of inevitability. If Kamala Harris were going to win, wouldn’t we be seeing or hearing more of her?

Meanwhile she and the Democrats continue to have massive rallies. They’re just too normal—and also positive—for the press to cover. The only Dem story I’ve heard about in recent days is Barack Obama campaigning for Harris in Michigan. And why did that cut through? Because it involved him with Eminem, and Obama actually rapped part of Eminem’s “8 Mile” in his speech.

In other words, it was random and unexpected.  

The news cycle is not a reflection of reality, let alone destiny lol. It’s about eyeballs and advertising dollars. But once you go down that rabbit hole of coverage, it is so hard to climb back out, isn’t it?

Actually, I feel like we’re back in the pandemic, in the sense that it feels like we’re trapped in a very small space. (Call it the news bubble.) And we can’t get out, and it’s kind of driving us crazy.

But if that’s the case, maybe the thing to do is to respond accordingly. How did we deal with the pandemic? Okay yes, we drank too much wine. But other than that?

We took long walks. We exercised. We reached out to friends and family. And we spoiled ourselves a little bit. Aka we worked hard at self-care.

None of that fixed our problems. But it did somehow make the world bigger, and life more livable. It helped us to breathe.

We could spend the next 10 days letting the news draw you deeper and deeper into their doom-scrolling abyss. We don’t have to, though. We have other options. The weather in a lot of the country seems pretty beautiful right now. The foliage…*chefs kiss*. So we could allow ourselves that.

Or maybe we spoil ourselves a little bit. Have Door Dash deliver a meal you used to love in the pandemic times. Or buy a treat you like, and take the time to enjoy it. Or do a little retail therapy.

Instead of watching network or basic cable, we could stick to the streamers, where you’re not going to see a thousand political ads every commercial break. Apple TV has some crazy new thriller about the papacy that I keep hearing about, and the second season of Shrinking, which has the warmth of Ted Lasso but with shrinks and Harrison Ford.

We could also just take a few minutes throughout the day to stop and take some deep breaths. A couple breaths is good, though probably you’re still going to be caught in your feelings. But do ten, and by the time you get to 7 or 8, you’ll just be savoring that act of breathing. It’s a really great feeling. Yet we so rarely take time to enjoy it.

Have you ever had a friend that pretty much was always in the midst of a situation? Like, there was always drama, to the point that you thought, I don’t know what’s going on here, but somehow this feels like a you problem rather than a reality one. That’s the press at this point. They want us to believe the sky is falling again, to ride their roller coaster and believe all is lost and people suck and we’re all doomed.

But fuck that. Get some air, binge some Bake-Off, have a yogurt with a friend. We have no idea what the future holds, but honestly, that is true every minute of every day. So what if we live in the moment, enjoy the little gifts of our lives, and trust that what will be, will be. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

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I’ve got something special for subscibers coming soon. And thanks to everybody for reading. <3