Finding Hope

Amidst horror and devastation

Some time ago I made the choice to quit the news. I once started my day with multiple daily news podcasts and throughout the week engaged in more in-depth analysis and coverage of that news. Now there is only one news brief in my life and that one only engages in the dark side of the news three days a week and even when it does the blows are pulled (or cushioned by some good/hopeful news). I do have a trusted few weekly podcasts to keep me updated while not demoralizing me. This choice was not easy for me. I am a former journalist and one does not let that go easily, but it was necessary for my sanity. 24/7 news is not necessary or healthy and this is even more true in our current world.

Cutting out so much engagement with the news has afforded me the time to read more and my practice retirement in January encouraged me to expand my reading with book clubs and challenges. Broadening my reading habits has been a true awakening. One I highly recommend as I believe it is healing my brain as well as my soul. I wrote in last week’s writing invitation that engaging with the arts is an act of resistance and I have been thinking about that a lot for several reasons but not least of which is because within the space of a week I filed my retirement application and turned 60. I knew both events were coming and, in fact, long prepared for them but can you truly prepare?

This transition is not what I want to write about. I want to consider the power of Story to sustain and inspire us. This is why it is such an act of resistance. I’ve known for a long time that I look for these traits in a book. I don’t need the fearsome gritty reality of true crime and its relations because the news delivers more reminders than I need of the horrors that humankind of an wreak (especially on women) as well as the vagaries of fate. This is often why I have avoided more literary fiction as well. However my library book club has repeatedly sent me a form of women’s fiction I am finding more depressing than the literary fiction I long despised. These stories are adjacent to true crime and give us truly terrible humans doing terrible things. I’m not sure what draws someone to read this type of book but I do not enjoy them. Do not recommend. One of those trusted podcasts (Vibe Check) brought home to me this week why I do not choose to enjoy true crime and its fictional cousins. I do not need reminders that being a woman is a horror story (at least the horror genre is honest about it and doesn’t try to dress it up as empowerment). What I do need — as an antidote to the world — are reminders that humans can be good, kind, and generous and that living and working in community can solve a myriad of problems.

That is why I do recommend engaging with stories like Project Hail Mary. Full disclosure I have not read the book and I’m not sure that I will as I heard it leans heavily into the white male savior while the movie adaptation delivers such a beautiful heartwarming story I don’t want to taint that experience. I highly recommend going to Project Hail Mary while it is still in the theater if you can. I cannot recommend it enough. Project Hail Mary delivers what I need right now. What I think we all need.

• Beauty

• Laughter

• Love and friendship

• Bravery and sacrifice by ordinary humans

• Science, innovation, creativity

• Cooperation and commitment

I’ve heard the book leans into the white male savior but I love that the movie does not. If anything RG is disposable and the alien is the savior taking the lead on much of the science. On earth the science and technology is very much a team effort to execute Project Hail Mary on both the front end (dispatching a space ship) and the back end (using the information returned). Project Hail Mary gives me hope that we humans can stick work together to solve big problems and that even selfish humans can rise to the challenge even if it is against their will.

This week’s primary election in Kentucky was a real rollercoaster ride. I am very pleased with Charles Booker as a candidate for Mitch McConnell’s seat but fear it is an uphill battle given Thomas Massie’s fate. I filled many pages of my journal with rants about that specific election. I have never voted for Donald Trump but I have always understood why some people do so. However, I do not understand why a Republican would vote against Thomas Massie. I fear the effect of this cult on our country and our world, but I am finding some glimmers of hope in Stephen King’s The Stand which I am reading for my Slow Read book club. We are well into Book 3 and things are grim all the way around (in both the good and evil camps). However, I am seeing the same glimmers of hope that I saw in Project Hail Mary. That humans connecting with each other to build community, working together to solve problems, will stand up to the stresses of life (whether normal life or life with demons) while leadership built on secrets, lies, and threats is weak because community bonds are only superficial. I do believe that most humans are inherently good and I can’t believe that Stephen King is making me feel better about humanity while also delivering some pretty terrifying brutality, but here we are.

Reading the USA Challenge

I have slowed my roll a bit with my Reading the USA Challenge and only completed one book since my last update (Washington, Montana, Idaho, and California) and I still have some books to go before I leave the West. I recently finished Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. Although some of the stories are pretty dark and some readers might find them triggering, I recommend the collection because it is very well written and the characters are compelling, but it may not be for everyone. I am currently reading Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey which I am enjoying very much and learning quite a bit about Utah along the way and just started Katherine Center’s Happiness for Beginners which is fun but stay tuned to discover how much I actually learn about Wyoming along the way.

Other Hopeful Reads

Among my reading I have also included some fantasy novels that have also made me feel hopeful about humanity and the future. These include Heather Fawcett’s Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter and the first two books of Tamora Pierce’s Legend of Beka Cooper (Terrier and Bloodhound). I also completed The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington but frankly found it a bit of a slog compared to the others. Maybe at a different time and state of mind I might enjoy it more. You can check Fable to see what I’m currently reading (somehow I have managed to get myself back into too many reads territory again).

Hopeful Watches?

I wrapped up Season 2 of House of the Dragon and have a lot of thoughts as we prepare for Season 3. I’m struck often by the ways that this fantasy show based in a historical world with dragons and magic resonates with me and our modern conflicts, but I suppose humans are going to human even when there are dragons involved. Definitely the patriarchy is going to patriarch until we all burn because of the ways we harm men (who then perform their pain with great violence). I will hear no criticisms of GRRM’s storytelling chops (I blame showrunners of Game of Thrones for any issues with that show) and I love the worlds and characters that he creates. I have also watched all the behind the scenes shows about House of the Dragon and Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and the collaboration and creativity of those teams is definitely a wonderful balm and reminder that humans can be freaking awesome.

For my movie challenge I watched Anchorman (which was ridiculous of course) and Lee (which was a slow burn but landed well). I’m not certain what movie we will watch next week or what show(s) I will watch. Maybe I will get back in the swing of Doomsday prep again. Stay tuned!

No More Practice

Soon I will need to update my about page for Deanna’s Third Act/Space as full-time teaching is now in my rearview mirror and I am busily attending to the myriad of details that accompany the onset of retirement. I thought I would begin shifting my Metawriting blog into full reflection mode but Harvard faculty inspired me to this rant: Grades Are Stupid. Last, but certainly not least, this coming week I will get to write in community with a dear friend and the Sawstone Writer’s Guild as well as the Poetry Gauntlet while the Rebel Cartographers prepare to join in the delicious fun of Lexington Poetry Month.

What rebellious and hopeful acts of reading, watching, and making will you engage in this week?