Community Saves Lives
Bonjour, mon ami!
I'm here to state: Community saves lives. We've been isolated for too long during this pandemic, especially caregivers of vulnerable populations who cannot get vaccinated for medical, philosophical, or religious reasons. Human beings are not built to survive alone, we are meant to survive with the help of each other (#Society).
The first thoughts that came to mind when the U.S. was shutdown due to COVID-19 were the following: What about all the precious children who cannot go home? What if it's safer to not be home? Where are they supposed to go? These thoughts came to my mind because I have so many dear friends who at one point in their lives were in jeopardy of losing their homes and security during easier times. This struggle is compounded by socio-economic inequity and neglected mental health within families.
Can you imagine coming of age in a world that tells you you're on your own kid, and in addition, you're being pushed out of your own home because you either don't feel safe or it's so toxic that you have no choice but to leave. It's infuriating to me, that all these lost souls are wandering this Earth, searching for their real #Framily and some may find it in time, and some may not.
These thoughts came to my mind because I'm in the process of trying to create a happy home for my blossoming family (#Privilege). I know that my children are safe, but that is not good enough for me. It's a hard thing to accept that you're okay, but that others are not okay as if that somehow makes it better. It does not. This is one of the triggers for my anxiety, trying not to care.
But I'm not built to not care. I'm built to care too much (#Empath). In other times I might have done well in a secluded nature surrounded tiny house somewhere (#QuietIsTheNewVacation). My brain is at peace when there are fewer visual and audio inputs competing for its attention. But I am also woke and informed - the competing logical brain - telling me to help others when I can. So I do.
I plan, I organize, I connect people, I build community. Even when the world tells me that I need to stop connecting, social media has shown us that we cannot not connect. It is in our blood, it is tribal, it is natural. The dance videos being sent to people each day is like sending a smoke signal to your fellow weirdos (#FollowMe). You can even collaborate with someone you've never met before, which I think is a beautiful new form of communication.
I am happy to see things like a dance revolution happening on TikTok and IG and other social media platforms. I know a lot of people think social media is toxic when it is consumed in mass quantities. However, social media has provided me a voice because #IAmSomeone who does not communicate well under pressure, I stutter when my mind works too fast and is trying to find the words, and I often shutdown emotionally and verbally out of embarrassment or fear of failure. No more.
I am very smart, I connect a lot of dots. I am good at a lot of little things, but not one big thing. I have a lot of good insight on life and I'm surrounded by people who listen, but do not always hear me when I say #ISeeYou. People choose not to listen because they think we are not alike because I can see their eyes judging me on appearances alone and they are battling their internal biases. But what they are missing is that I am just like them because I want the same things: A safe, happy, warm home full of people who accept me for who I am and who do not try to change who I am. Isn't that what we're all striving for in a sense?
I now see a bunch of people who are having a lot of the same communication pitfalls that I've spent my life learning to master in a society that does not play kindly with those who are not the smartest, the fastest, the greatest. That was old generation and colonial (#OkayAmerica). That is why you're seeing top performing athletes throw in the towel and they are saying #IAmEnough and my #MentalWellness comes first.
The new generation shares, the new generation collaborates, the new generation creates, the new generation changes lives. The new generation changes the rules. Amen!
The new generation is also suffocating in anxiety and depression because we are too disconnected. Let's connect again and build the society that we want through love, kindness, and understanding (#KeepTheConversationGoing).
Yours Truly,