My husband Michael and I have been watching Deadwood, which was considered shocking when it debuted in 2004 for its extremely profane language. I assumed the language wouldn’t be shocking now but, much to my amazement, it still is.
Why is the language shocking to me? I think it’s because of the shocking anger and cruelty of several of the main characters. Somehow, despite all the anger and cruelty around us, it’s still shocking.
While I work towards acceptance and peace of mind, I’m grateful I still find some things shocking — shocked seems better than numb.
Do you see anything shocking in today’s blog post?
Okay, you bitches, here’s Randy Rainbow and his latest masterpiece about shocking behaviors in the USA House of Representatives.
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Thanks to all who helped me create this shocking post, including YOU.
Last week, when I was looking for good news online about the USA midterm election, I made up the word “hope-scrolling.”
Hope-scrolling is the opposite of doomscrolling, which is defined here.
Therefore, hope-scrolling is spending screen time devoted to the absorption of positive news, which could result in helpful — or at least harmless — psychological responses.
The problem with hope-scrolling is encountering bad news along the way because (in case you haven’t noticed) most of the news online is bad.
As this daily blog approaches its 10-year anniversary, my hope is to keep it a place where it’s easy to do hope-scrolling, like (I hope) today.
On America Recycles Day and National Philanthropy Day, let’s see what I find when I search for “hope-scrolling” on YouTube.
Looks like I’m not the first to think about hope-scrolling!
How did I get here, to this 2318th day of consecutive blogging, without writing a post titled “How did that get there?” I get that there were two thousand, three hundred, and seventeen other worthy titles to share, but I’m often wondering, “how did that get there?”
Indeed, yesterday I wondered that very thing when I looked at my calendar for the day:
I wondered, “How did that ‘X’ get there at 3 AM?” I also wondered, “How did that extra ‘l’ get there in John Mulaney‘s name?”
How did the other new photos on my iPhone get there?
How did that get there? My niece, Victoria, and I were wondering last night how our country got here and we shared how we get back to hope and happiness by watching, among other things, RuPaul’s Drag Race and John Mulaney stand-up routines.
Pete Davidson got to the audience last night by revealing the ending of Avengers: Endgame without issuing a spoiler alert. It gets to me how Pete Davidson’s father, who was a New York City Firefighter, died in the September 11 attacks when Pete was just seven years old. Pete got to that in his stand-up routine last night.
John Mulaney, in his stand-up routine, got to how he got there last night at Boston’s Wilbur Theater. He was there to raise money for My Brother’s Table, a Lynn, Massachusetts-based charity that his Nana has been volunteering at for years. His Nana, who was in the audience, got to see her grandson give a great show.
How did John Mulaney and Pete Davidson get to be such good friends when they are SO different? Here they are together on Saturday Night Live:
If you had been all about when Michael and I were having that conversation, what might you have said about all of THAT?
When I searched all my previous blog posts for “What was that all about?” the second thing that came up was Day 967: The meaning of life.What was THAT all about?
What were all my photos from yesterday all about?
What is that last photo all about? It’s all about where I park my car (near Fenway Park). It’s also all about how I’m going to spend this evening — at a game night with other group therapists. I’m game and all about that, although I’m also all about spending the weekend with Michael, as much as I can.
I’m all about my son Aaron, so here’s his second “Misheard Lyrics” video from many years ago:
I’m all about your comments, so please leave one below.
I’m all about gratitude, so thanks to all who were all about helping me create today’s post and — of course! — to all of you!!
Even though I’m up for anything these days, sometimes I get exhausted, especially on Thursdays, when I
work from 10 to 9,
facilitate two therapy groups,
orient new people for my groups,
see several people for individual therapy,
go to a meeting of social workers,
have about 20 minutes for lunch,
try to decide whether to look at or avoid the news,
practice my latest song, and
practice self-care.
In one of those therapy groups, a person exhausted by a major and unexpected loss shared that she practices self care by taking breaks, even if it’s a break for a moment. I wasn’t too exhausted to hear that she had learned that skill in my groups.
I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I added a new emotion to the emotions chart on my door:
Here and now, I’m exhausted by the possibility that somebody might tell me that “exhausted” is not really an emotion.
Here and now, I’m NOT too exhausted to share my other photos from yesterday.
I hope you’re not too exhausted to share what exhausts you and what energizes you, in a comment below.
Yesterday, when I was experiencing some frustration, I noticed that somebody had chosen to express that feeling via the emotions chart on my office door.
I wondered, “Who expressed that frustration? Was it a patient or a staff person? Why are they feeling frustration? Are they expressing that frustration to others? Are they keeping the frustration to themselves? Do they know they are not alone in feeling frustration? How do they deal with frustration?” I felt some frustration that I did not know — and probably would never know — the answers to my questions.
However, I can ask similar questions to you, my readers.
Are you feeling frustration these days? Do you share your frustration or keep it to yourself? How do you deal with frustration?
I am feeling frustration with our government, these days. Am I alone in that frustration?
Also, people in therapy have been expressing frustration about their relationship with food, especially during and after the holidays. I suggest that people NOT beat themselves up about what they’re eating– that leads to greater frustration and more eating to comfort themselves.
In addition, last night at a Board meeting, some of us expressed frustration about ageism, and how people — even those who are sensitive in their use of language about other differences — make jokes about age all the time. I remember feeling frustration about this when I was in Social Work graduate school, decades ago. Of course, my frustration with this gets worse as I get older.
After the board meeting, one of the participants shared this video in an email:
Is anybody feeling frustration that I’m taking so long to share my other photos from yesterday?
Are people feeling frustration about any of those photos? I’ll explain the last one — I bought a gelato-filled Panettone for the board meeting. Nobody expressed frustration about that.
Feel free to express frustration or any other feelings or thoughts in a comment, below.
Thanks to all who helped me create this “frustration” post and to you — of course!
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 