Tell Me Something Good

August 3rd, 2024

Dudes.

I don’t know if you’ve been on this planet (and this internet) for the past week but has it not been just fucking brutal?

It’s been hard to keep with the idiotic, ignorant, and hateful discourse; it’s been difficult to be a compassionate, empathetic human among those being less than. My stomach gets strangled thinking about confrontation; it’s hard to be a people-pleaser and want so terribly to put some people in their place.

I got so upset on Thursday night that I sat down and wrote an extremely long post filled with objective, irrefutable facts that would show everyone who is making this world a sucky place to be exactly how they were wrong and stupid and mean.

But when I finished it, I realized two things:

1. I did not feel better by writing it. At all.

2. This isn’t the kind of person I want to be.

Don’t get me wrong: I love to engage with people about all aspects of life, but it should be a conversation; too much of this mess is made by people who shout while covering their eyes and ears.

So I thought about who I do want to be, and that person wants to talk about something, anything, that is good.

And that good thing for me has been the Olympics.

Not the made-up culture wars surrounding them, no, but the actual culture. It’s astounding that the Earth stands still to do something together, and it fills me with genuine awe and wonder.

It really represents everything there is about being human: connection, cooperation, competition, excellence, failure, order, chaos, love, surprise, heartbreak, the appreciation of chocolate muffins.

If you’re a naturally curious person, it’s impossible to not get sucked into the excitement and drama of… well, sports you’ve never even heard of, as well as the classic and modern games you think you know so well.

Because they don’t happen often, it’s impossible for me to get sick of the spectacle; I also just love events, and there are few things more eventful than this.

If you’re wondering why I’m just rambling about the Olympics, it’s because I’m struggling: with politics, with wars, with humanity itself. I won’t say these are unprecedented times; things have definitely been worse, and likely will be worse at some point in the future.

But it does feel like a lot. It seems like a lot of people are lost, and their reaction to that personal disorientation, their unremembered spirituality, is splayed negativity and pointed projection.

It feels personal and it’s hard to witness day after day. Like I said, it’s brutal.

So I’d only encourage you to find something that’s not bad. Maybe even something good. Even if it only comes around every few years.