Making Soup & Doing Laundry

Is this just how it feels now? This level of stress. I remember feeling a new form of anxiety bubble within me while I watched TV footage as the US started bombing Iraq in 2003. I knew then it was BS and was war for war sake, to feed the ego of men’s insecurity and insatiable need for power.

Iraq, Venezuela, Minnesota, Greenland, it’s all the same. Different iterations. (But don’t just ask me.) It’s all the same anxiety too, and we’ve learned to live with it. The heightened level of stress and constant anxiety, a feeling of needing to look over your shoulder, flinching at loud sounds, panic when something seems out of the ordinary.

Where is everyone?

Why is the parking lot empty?

Why did it take so long for them to unlock the door?

Instagram "research" tries to tell us it’s from parenting or unpacking generational trauma, or the position of the stars, or, or…

(I recently learned of a new Latin abbreviation, “etm.” Similar to etc., or i.g., it’s a humous abbreviation for “et merda,” meaning “and shit.” Is it real? I do not know. Will I use it. Yes, I will. Thank you very much, etm.)

Maybe it is the stars or the unpacking of collective trauma, but I also don’t know how we’ve come to live with it. And we’re supposed to just make kid’s lunches, take the car to the mechanic, get exited about concerts and new TV shows, like nothing is happening.

Am I the only one? Is this an abnormal response amidst the absolutely not normal realities of the world? Should I be talking with my psychiatrist about a medication adjustment instead of writing to you all? Maybe both.

Reflecting on the events of Minneapolis, writer Jen Underwood was reminded of the book Number the Stars, which she read 100’s of times as a kid. Lois Lower’s 1989 historical novel tells the story of two ten-year-old girls, Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen, living in Nazi-controlled Copenhagen during World War II. When the Germans announce that they will be "relocating" Denmark's Jewish population Ellen’s parents flee while Ellen stays with Annemarie’s Catholic family masquerading as her sister.

Jen Underwood posted on Thread;

“I probably read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry 100 times as a young girl, and not once did I realize that the children’s moms still had to make them sandwiches and sweep the floor, like the world hadn’t changed. And they had to keep sweeping, even as the children slipped past the enemy on sleds. I never read about domestic perseverance in ANY 1990s Holocaust novel. Of course this was not the main plot, but at the moment, I am the new narrator, all is wrong, and there is still so much laundry.”

I asked my kiddo if the Spanish speaking kiddos in her class were still coming to school everyday. They are, she said, but of course insisted on knowing why they might not be. How do I explain this to a 7 year old when I don’t have an explanation for myself?

I have no answers and there is so much laundry to do.

The only thing I keep coming back to is community. Belonging to an with each other. Not all of us can be on the front lines of the resistance but all of us can cultivate community. All of us can see the people around us, invest in friendships, check-in, “I see you.” Because if and when the time comes and the resistance is on our doorstep, we will need to know who to reach out to, it will be the communities that we invest in and cultivate that will matter the most.

I’m so thankful to be in community with you for the mundane and prophetic. I see you.

I’d love to see you on Sunday, January 25, for a soup potluck.

Bring soup to share, we’ll have bowls, spoons, and drinks.

 🖤