I Feel So Seen
Maybe it’s a case of misery loves company, but I really connected with this Austin Kleon post. I am trying to keep in mind that everyone deserves a little grace right now. But sometimes people make it really really really hard to give grace.
When I hit that wall, I know it’s time to close social media for a few hours.
But I also loved his greater point: that we post things so we can connect with others. So we can hear that other people are thinking the exact same thing. That has been both the best thing and the worst thing about the pandemic:
Best: Finding other people who think the same way about being safe and feeling closer to them.
Worst: Finding other people who ignore the expert’s advice or rules and feeling alienated from them.
It’s connection. It’s lonely.
And then returning to that first point. Everyone deserves a little grace. Sometimes people make it really really really hard to give grace.
5 comments
Love the poem!
Personally, though, I really don’t care what choices other people make. I assume that they’re doing what they believe is best for them in the same way that I’m doing what I believe is best for me.
They might be wrong. But I might be wrong too.
So agree:
“Best: Finding other people who think the same way about being safe and feeling closer to them.
Worst: Finding other people who ignore the expert’s advice or rules and feeling alienated from them.”
💗
Yes, I can relate to this too. It’s great. Connection is so valuable, but so hard sometimes, especially in times of stress. And you can’t tamp down your loathing or infuriation all the time, or we’d be like Doug Forcett in The Good Place and lose ourselves in the process! I’m really glad this post made you feel seen.
I am uncomfortable with the amount of b ruining my psyche of late. Especially today, at work. Where people are opining about stuff and cannot see their own hypocrisy. I have little grace left to give – never had much in the first place.
This so perfectly sums up what I’ve felt this past year. I started out holding space for students, reminding them to give each other grace, and then feeling like people were stomping all over the space and grace I was holding … it felt like betrayal, even though grace isn’t supposed to be earned.