You have to be mad.
These days you really do.
You have to be utterly insane to wake up to a world literally on fire, surrounded by violent wars, soaring energy prices, endless food recalls and general chaos and say “I think I’ll paint some flowers today”.
Believing in the power of hope, truth, and beauty feels more delusional than optimistic in times like these, but the glimmers in the darkness are still there, even if they are harder to find than they used to be.
And you do HAVE to find them because those little graces are what keep you going. They are what fuel your fire within. Without them this dark, cold, world gets darker and colder very quickly.
So we carry our little sparks, tucking them safely in their little nests of tinder so they can keep us warm as we travel on.
And somehow hold onto the belief that better days are just around the corner.
Madness.
Complete madness.
But when what passes for “good” news is that a woman who successfully fought off her would-be murder “only” has to pay through the nose for the privilege of walking on eggshells for the rest of her life instead of being sent to prison, when cities go weeks without power while data centers still churn out their slop, when yet another body is found in yet another tree and everyone looks the other way, you have to be an entirely different type of mad.
You MUST get angry. You must drink in the heat of the rage and let it sear you from the inside out. You must be furious enough to shake with indignation as you snarl at yet another disgusting headline scrolling across your screen.
They will tell you the anger is pointless. They will tell you you only hurt yourself by holding on to it. Much better, they say, to wall it up and not let it in. Others will say to let it in, but then let it go. Let it pass. Life is too short to carry that burden.
Others will tell you that anger is ok, but only if you use it “right”. You can feel it, you’re human, after all, it’s only natural. But you have to process it- turn it into something beautiful.
Hockey pucks.
You do NOT have to make anger beautiful. I mean, you can if you want, but it isn’t mandatory. There isn’t something wrong with you if you can’t dress yours up in pretty bows and turn it into a masterpiece.
Anger is allowed to be sharp edged and ragged. It should be a little bit dangerous. If it wasn’t, it couldn’t do what it is meant to.
What anger DOES have to be is effective. It has to be USEFUL. You do have to find a productive way to channel it, but you can and should feel it and use it.
If you don’t, nothing changes.
And things MUST change.
Our survival depends on it.
Image Credit
Statue of The Mad Hatter in Llandudno, Wales
Photo by David Pickersgill
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons