Near sunset recently: That’s a POW-MIA flag flying beneath the American flag at a Houston post office.
Never say to me that you support the troops or the military or veterans if you are not screaming at your representatives right now to stop the administration’s attack on the USPS so they can commit voter suppression.
Do you know how many veterans work for the USPS and depend on that income while hours and jobs are being slashed?
Do you know how many veterans count on the US mail to get the prescriptions that save their lives and keep them healthy or treat the PTSD they got serving this country?
Do you know how many people, civic groups, churches, and other organizations use the US mail to help families and supporters communicate with those currently serving in the military?
Go ahead and be blindly loyal or believe the lies or pretend it’s not real. Your choice. But never do that and say to me that you support our troops or our vets. That makes you a liar, too.
This was originally posted back in April, but somebody may need to read it now.
Let Me Be Clear
Alexis Rockley
Psychology-certified business coach (not a therapist) and author
Those “all over the place” feelings you’ve been having? They are symptoms of stress, NOT personal failures of yours.
Do you feel FLAKEY and INCONSISTENT? That’s because your brain doesn’t know what news to brace for next, or what next month will hold.
TIRED EASILY? That’s because your brain is burning your energy ten times faster than usual.
CAN’T SEEM TO FOCUS? That’s because your brain has temporarily shut down some functionality in your prefrontal cortex–the part that juggles complex tasks and planning due to the stress response.
Feeling CREATIVELY BLOCKED? That’s because your brain has temporarily diverted all its creativity (aka ability to solve novel problems) to “how do I avoid dying?” while in a narrowed, slow burn, fight-or-flight state.
SUDDENLY DON’T GIVE AF about future-based goals, projects, or dreams like you used to? That’s because your brain knows being short-sighted is a safer way to cope right now.
Your plans, creativity, energy, focus and motivation are on a YO-YO right now, because your brain believes you need to be EXTREMELY ADAPTIVE.
You will not be on this rollercoaster forever. Be patient with your brain.
Sincerely,
a positive psychology-certified coach and fellow human
I had a different post planned for today but I can use it later. I’ve been writing most of the day, and then was reminded of a text exchange with Marika from a while back.
We were talking about the Beach Boys, as I’ve been known to do a few times in my life (the photo above would be different if I hadn’t used that image from the Internet because Harvey drowned most of my Beach Boys vinyl collection, which was vast–Tom could attest because of the number of times he had to move it through the years).
I should add we were talking about the REAL Beach Boys, not that sad assortment that Mike Love still puts together on stage for whatever reasons he has to do that. SALUTE to Brian Wilson, the late Dennis and Carl Wilson, and the loyal Al Jardine Beach Boys.
Anyway, Marika mentioned that what the Beach Boys needed was a teenage death song to capture her heart. NEVER imply that any heart can’t be captured by something the Beach Boys have done, but I understand. She tends toward the macabre, Marika does. Comes with being a mystery writer. To be helpful, I just said off the top of my head, “Pretend ‘Surfer Girl’ is a ghost. It’ll change everything when you listen to it that way.”
I’m not sure if it worked for Marika with “Surfer Girl” (which I then had to find a way to reference in my work-in-progress because…Beach Boys) but today, also randomly, I texted, “I wonder how ‘Tiny Dancer’ sounds as a ghost song?”
Whereupon we both listened to it from our separate Gulf Coast quarantined cities and agreed, damn! “Tiny Dancer” works great if she’s a ghost.
Then Marika texted that “Sara” sounds like it’s about a girl who was murdered by her lover (more specifically, by one of my characters WHO IS NOT A SERIAL KILLER. I’m not the mystery writer here). I knew she was probably referencing the Stevie Nicks song, but I couldn’t resist asking, “Starship ‘Sara’ or Hall and Oates ‘Sara,'” whereupon I had to listen to both of them, and hand to heaven, they are both ghost songs about a girl possibly murdered by her lover.
I guess this means Monday’s mood is melancholy or murder, or maybe the moral is, don’t name your daughter Sara (hi to my niece Sarah!). Seriously, if there’s a song you’ve heard a million times and want to make more interesting, turn it into a ghost song. Or listen to the Becky and Marika Ghost Song Playlist below, with a bonus track suggested by Marika of HELL YES THAT’S A CREEPY SONG in the context of the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much: Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart, Hitchcock.
In order to avoid saying all the things I want to say about public figures who are complete assholes, or what we value in our society, or why math and science are not THAT FUCKING HARD, I shall present to you this coloring book that, if 2015 me had known about 2020, I would have bought five years ago. Right now it’s listed on Amazon at $914.95. NOT a typo, and that’s one thing that made me laugh today, anyway.
Be safe. Stay home when you can; mask when you can’t. As someone I respect reminded people a couple of weeks ago, “YOU ARE NECESSARY.”
Do old moods still apply when people don’t know what day it is? Is every day like Sunday?* Are we living in a world of Mondays? Should Mickey be wearing a mask?
It’s thundering here on this Monday, and the Batpack is not having it.
