A book has always been my escape. This has never been truer than 2020 when it feels as if the universe is piling on to America. Or, the chickens are coming home to roost, depending on your worldview. Still, reading has, by-and-large, helped me retain some illusion of balance this year. It’s challenged, comforted, and made me laugh.
But this weekend books didn’t work for me. I haven’t been able to read at all, much less write a coherent review. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death has left me flattened, numb. Without words. This brilliant, fierce woman who fought so hard for equality and the rights of the marginalized is gone. Try as I might to be rational I can’t help believe this is catastrophic for our nation. Any semblance of balance in the Supreme Court is gone. To the joy of some, it’s likely to revert to its 1950s iteration and many of the gains fought and won for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community will be under assault. The GOP is already moving to make this happen.
Books and reading aren’t helping me right now, so I have nothing to share. I really try to keep this blog (mostly) just about books, to not wade too deep into politics, but this is too much. I need to step away and collect myself. To try to put the pieces of my mind back into a place where I can read and share my love of books. I know that now, more than ever, we need to fight. That democracy and decency as we’ve known them in the past are on the line. I just need a minute before stepping back into the fray.
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Thank you for your support! I feel weak and selfish backing away when so many people have real struggles, but words about books have been hard to come by this week.
I feel my generation (X) was riding too long on the achievements of the previous generations. Too much attention and energy spent on shiny new toys and distractions. We didn’t want to deal with underlying conditions that were inevitably going to undermine and destroy those moral advances if not addressed. Now, those forces are coming out and can’t be ignored. That can be a good thing — eventually. Time to get to work.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Even if you can’t read books at the moment, you are reading the signs of the times. That is important too.
I feel some of that being older. I was politically active in my 20s/30s, because the rights were still new and still being fought for. Now, I feel as if young women have become complacent, thinking rights they have are “basic” and they’re not.
Thank you for understanding, as well. I LOVE books and reading and sharing it all so much, but then something happens and I feel as if writing about them is silly and insignificant.
It all feels like too much, doesn’t it? Hope you can gain some peace. We’ve got to do whatever we can to stay sane and to stay in the fight!
It does. It is uncomfortable to have my brain churning so hard, but to feel so paralyzed.
p.s. I’m so sorry I haven’t been over to your blog recently- I just figured out I needed to log in. Will head over soon and get caught up!
Thank you for the RBG quote – I hope it’s okay that I use it in my book blog as well. Such a sad time.
Absolutely! I don’t even know where I grabbed it from, but it’s so appropriate. What a loss and at such an already challenging time.
Yeah RBG’s passing was about the worst thing that could happen now …. It’s very tough. I advise not turning on the TV news. Just step away for the moment. Luckily we had gone on a road trip like two days before it happened … and we’re like in the boondocks of B.C. so it feels like an escape … though I know all the bad of the year is bearing down. There will be a fight … there’s no doubt about that. We’ve got to push on for the result of the election … and for there to be no rush on the Court. but don’t get me started … right now on what’s going on with that.
It’s already too late. It will happen. Every norm we’ve lived with our adult lives is being shattered. The Supreme Court is lost and now he’s threatening to not step aside if he loses. I’d hand over most of my 401K for a remote cabin in B.C. Sadly, you folks won’t let us in.
It is a catastrophe for our country and I’m so sad that that is so much of our focus instead of us just being able to mourn this brilliant, inspirational woman.
Exactly. Even her lying in state is utterly tainted by that monstrosity showing up with his fake religiosity. Not to mention the mind-boggling hypocrisy of the Senate slamming through a new judge before the election. It is a devastating time for America.
Take care. Kxx
Thank you!
I’d be crashing your country if you’d let us in. It is a dark time here.