14 Comments
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Annie Hoy's avatar

I read this just after I returned from a coffee date with a group of women. Our topic of discussion was "what is a super power you have or wish you had." We generally don't go to the political realm but today we leaned in a bit. We experienced a sense of solidarity that felt good, even as we just danced around the topics that arose. So, I so appreciated your words today and your focus on the positive. It's so easy to drift over to the dark side and only complain. But you brought light in today.

Steve R's avatar

Thank you!! My chest feels lighter as well!! We (I) must continue to believe in the good...and it does exist, every day. Sometimes it just takes another thoughtful caring person to send out a reminder.

Candice Michel's avatar

I love the way you write. Thank you for sharing your gift.

Jenell Mahoney's avatar

What a breath of hope...thank you!

Paula Massa Anderson's avatar

Your emotional journey shared here certainly resonates. While national media churns out a gloomy state of the nation..of the world...the planet, there remain so many points of light that glimmer in our own communities; and, yes, in our world. You are absolutely right. We just have to adjust our lens. As stated in the Desiderata centuries ago: " ...despite all its broken dreams it is still a beautiful world." We just have to engage every day and do what we can. Even if it's just finishing the laundry!

Jo Shreve's avatar

Thank you! I needed this reminder. I've pretty well stopped watching anything about our government to preserve my sanity.

TJ's avatar

Find that the majority of people step into their own humanity versus the alternative. There are stars and glimmers of more good than those who would surround this time into darkness for their own egos to be stroked.

https://youtu.be/A8dH4cKGa6s

Dain Bramage's avatar

Shanley, you have a gift, a very needed one, to eloquently and poetically show us that there's still hope to be had. Yes, you do write analysises that are darker in nature (as they must be in this terrible period of our time), but those, too, have a brilliance to them that really make them stand out. You and your mom make a terrific team, and I look forward to both of your pieces equally. Thank you so much for your contributions. Your insights are very refreshing.

Just FYI, my laundry remains unsentient as well. 🙂

Anne Loader's avatar

A beautifully-written piece. Thank you. I have my own tapestry of doom-scrolling which is a mix of progressive media sites like yours reporting on the political situation in the US, leavened with coverage of life on the British waterways system, together with heart-warming horse rescues in the US, Canada and UK and the daily experiences of riders from novice to unbelievably skilled. I am 78 and was a pony-mad teenager who moved on to other things when marriage, children and journalism took up my time. I was never very good or very brave, but I loved horses and ponies. Similarly, our family loved narrow-boating and live in an area of the UK threaded with beautiful rivers and canals. Discovering these Facebook pages has given me a whole new vicarious interest and contact with a range of familiar people who almost feel like friends. It is a welcome antidote to witnessing the terrible events in the US, which I follow in depth with all the zeal of a retired 'journo'.

Kelly's avatar

Mary gives us the facts. You provide the comfort. Great teamwork!❤️

Patricia's avatar

Thanks, I needed that.

Lynne Avery's avatar

Shanley, you are an amazing writer. This essay is a spark of hope that is sorely needed by me and by many others. It's easy to get lost in all of the darkness surrounding us. Thank you for shining your light of hope out to the world.

August Becker's avatar

Hi,, I'm a subscriber, a big fan, and I moved to a full membership recently and sent guest subscriptions out. The problem is, your remarkable talent for gathering and packaging

in dynamic, eloquence the news of the moment is beginning to overwhelm me. It's hard

to commit to digest all of your epistles. When you grow folksy and personal, as in this article. I regret having upgraded my subscription. It's as if I have ordered too much of a delicious food, and it becomes, because of the plentitude, cloying. I hope you'll consider being more sparing with your talents, and meanwhile, please break yourself as soon as possible away from the

employment of the utterly useless, pretentious, word: importantly. (I am addressing here the letter, as if comes from one person, or one voice. I have not bothered to discover from which of the two authors a given piece arises.