Breaking

The Daily Vortex of The US Government is Breaking my Brain

Pale light. Day begins, and I’ve forgotten for a few sacred seconds. Then, drawn to devices, I’m sucked back in, sinking into the daylight quicksand.

I was born in 1960. I remember drops of purple liquid on a sugar cube to prevent polio, miracle of modern medicine. I was four years old the day the Civil Rights act was passed, eleven for Title IX, twelve when Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. Glacial pace, perhaps, but the world seemed to move forward with each dawn.

Sunup. I’ve read the headlines. I’m informed:

- Tariffs. Tanking markets, rancor from friends-turned-enemies.

- A child in a nearby town has measles, a disease I’ve not seen in thirty-five years

of medical practice. In Texas, there are more than 200 cases and one child has died.

- A few shootings, the usual, not in a school, but the day is still young.

- All aid to Kyiv is halted; the war continues.

Sunlight fades. I’m spinning, topsy-turvy, whirlpooled, whiplashed, lashed by a whipping wind. It dies down for a beat or two, only to return gale-force.

Find equilibrium, ignore the vertigo, push back the howling wind. One task, now the next. Seek distraction. Work, Wordle, laundry, lesson plans, a lap around the neighborhood with a dog or two. Don’t look ahead lest you see what lies behind us.

No time to waste, full speed ahead. How can time now move so fast yet take me backwards? Time progression, culture regression. Lines erased and redrawn, ink still wet but might be permanent.

Sun a marigold marble low in a late-winter sky. I call to have you tell me I’m not crazy. Still dizzy but not blown down. Nor are you, not today. Shaken but not shocked. Not broken and surely not alone. Hold on to that.

Tomorrow holds another dawn with phone in hand though I swore I’d take a news break. There it is: the breaking news.

THE END

I was going to submit this piece to some lit journals as micro-nonfiction. But a week or two went by and everyday was a new shitstorm, and we’re 100 crises past the crises I chronicled here.

I’m still trying to put down my phone, to stop looking at the headlines, but I haven’t been successful. My morbid curiosity combined with my fear of what I don’t know has kept me plugged in. But I’m still hoping to unplug, because the constant insanity is a terrible distraction from any work and it sucks the creativity right out of my brain.

Besides, I’m very afraid of what I do know, so fear accompanies me all the time anyway.

Is this your experience too? Let me know, and share any tricks you have for pulling yourself away from the news for a bit. And if you’re also afraid, let’s do something about it. Go out and protest on April 5- use the link below to get more information:

www.handsoff2025.com