Stay Open
Donald Trump will be president again. We cannot succumb to despair.
LISTENING: to the groan of some truck outside
FEELING: scared
SEEING: the leaves fall from my balcony
I don't know where to start. I spent hours in bed scrolling this morning. When I eventually snapped out of it, I walked and walked. I removed Instagram from my phone. I ate an acai bowl and read Rebecca Solnit. I walked some more and stood with trees. I smoked some weed and felt myself drift. I listened to my heartbeat. I tried to shut out my thoughts. I kicked fallen leaves. I rolled my eyes at a pickup truck donning an American flag.
I spiraled: "How do I hold onto my empathy? How do I remain open? How do I stop my rage from consuming me?"
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Donald Trump will be president again. I covered his last presidency. I wrote about his ridiculous border wall and the ways climate change was complicating its construction. I wrote about his appointment of Anna Seidman, an advocate who believes in killing animals for sport, to the Fish and Wildlife Service. I wrote about his 15-minute visit to a U.N. climate summit in 2019. I covered the rise of air pollution under his presidency. Remember his attempt to revive the Keystone XL pipeline? Or the attempted assassination of the Paris Climate Accord? Or, hello, the COVID-19 pandemic that killed over 350,000 under his watch in 2020?
Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and the day is heavy.