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[Carrie's Weekly News] What to do when your diet doesn’t work
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Hi Reader, In January, I went on a “news diet.” It’s like intermittent fasting but for consuming news. You stay away from offending news for most of the week, and then take in what you can during a short period of time. My diet: no Heather Cox Richardson emails during the week, no Facebook scrolling, and no TV news, ever. On the weekend, I binge Heather’s emails and maybe tumble down a Facebook rabbit hole. By the end, I’m seething. And then I have the rest of the weekend to counteract the shitshow with something enjoyable. Why is this necessary? So I’m not pummeled every day by Trump’s latest illegal “Executive Order,” firings, or lies. So I don’t stew in hate for people who voted for a convicted fraud, liar, and rapist and expected something different. But sometimes, the diet fails. Last week I cheated, doomscrolled, and wound up in bed with a full-blown panic attack. My heart was caterwhumping while my brain ran questions on loop: 😵💫 What will stop this slide into fascism? 😵💫 if troops come to Seattle? 😵💫 Will my family be safe? 😵💫 How will I survive retirement? Sleep brought no relief—only nightmares. What did help was stumbling across this: “…We often throw our hands up as if now, for the first time, everything is going to hell.
Be a bit more cynical than that. Go big and deep.
Were our institutions that great before these recent attacks? Were they democratic and open to our input?
There is not and has never been democracy under capitalism. You can’t have economic and social inequality and also have democracy.
The crisis is much bigger than you think.“
—Pranav Jani, Critical Hope
Not exactly a pep talk. And yet—I felt lighter. His reminder: this isn’t new. We’ve always been in a mess. We’ve always forgotten, then remembered. And we’ve always fought back. Jani again: “But on the other hand, let’s also be a bit more hopeful. These crises have never gone uncontested.
Say it again with me.
These crises have never gone uncontested.
People have always fought back and mitigated the scope of the crisis — or laid the groundwork for conveying what we have learned to the next generation so they can keep fighting back.
Our struggle, or lack thereof, actually shapes what the crisis looks like, and determines whether it can ever end.”
That line shifted me. It reminded me that hopelessness isn’t the whole story. Resistance has always been part of it. Still—what rattles me now is how openly democratic principles are being eroded. Not just by corporations or elites, but by ordinary people who once believed in voting rights, civil rights, fair wages. Now, too many want those protections only for some. So I wonder: Help me out, dear readers: How do you keep hope alive? Does remembering that crises always come—and are always contested—comfort you? Or does it depress you? What I'm listening to, reading, and watching: Do It Again—Steely Dan. Ah, summer of 1972. Riding bikes in circles around Belfair State Park, looking for boys, trying to understand the lyrics. Contact—Carl Sagan. Remember the movie with Jodie Foster? The book is astronomically (hehe) better! My book club assigned this and we had a great conversation about how much of it might be based on what Sagan knew and was trying to tell us: there is intelligent life out there and the government doesn’t want us to know about it. Wormwood—Based on a real story, this docuseries tells the story of an Army scientist and CIA employee whose death was finally revealed as a staged suicide after his son spent decades investigating it. What actually happened involved top-secret experiments with LSD and germ warfare and a government cover up. Netflix. What are you listening to, reading, or watching that you think I’d like? Reply and let me know. Wishing you hope among the struggle, Carrie Carrie Kenner Author, So You Want to Be a Doula P.S. If it feels like the world is going to shit…do something good with the life you have: Become a doula! I’ve got a few options for you: Doula Magic: An Introductory Course for Healing & Helping Entrepreneurs Not sure how to start? Get the book that shows you how |
Carrie Kenner
Interested in becoming a doula, marketing your doula business, or what keeps a person (me) motivated and engaged in this work for over 20 years? Join my weekly newsletter on doulas, writing, ponderings on life and whatever is feeding my fire at the time, and get freebies and special discounts on courses.
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