I've been thinking a lot about "the Lost Generation." About Hemingway's famous take on that era in The Sun Also Rises, and the disoriented wandering directionless spirit of the survivors of the Spanish Flu epidemic and the first world war.
It feels relevant today, how covid, politics, war, and economy have psychologically affected us all. I wonder how they'll talk about our generation in the future. The generation who lives to remember these extraordinary times.
In the future, we can write memoirs about our experiences. We will remember how our friends who didn't drink began drinking, and those who already drank, drank more, while millions of people died globally and collectively grieved -- alone. We will remember the drug epidemic of all those wish to forget. We will remember the psychological toll that caused denial. The ones who survive and remember, must write.
Misinformation abounds, but our individual stories are very real to us. Our stories are all we have to ground ourselves. All we really have is our perception from where we stand. When we read others' experiences we can compare notes to make sense of the broader picture.
I like hearing how others are moving forward, or not, in this strange cusp of semi hope and weariness from three years of uncertainty. It helps to know I'm not alone, that my worries and fears are valid, and also that life can continue again, albeit a bit differently and more cautiously than before. It isn't over, but we know more now. We now have home tests and vaccines and paxlovid, and more solutions on the way.
Our friendships and relationships have been put to the test in these times like never before, and that too is interesting. Each individual has had a unique way of responding to change, with slightly different challenges, but similar, worldwide. Some became divisive, some came together, some withdrew, and some did the opposite. How will we all make sense of this years from now? How will this be written into a chapter in history books twenty years from now, or a hundred years from now?
I am eager for the future, when all our daily struggles are condensed into the big picture. I look forward to seeing the present in retrospect.
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And now for something completely different...
Five planets aligned in the sky last night, and I learned that in the ancient calendar of my grandma's ancestors, I am born on the day of the jaguar. Only jaguar people are shamans who have visions and precognition, knowledge brought from the other worlds. In my great grandpa's village I'd be both respected and feared as a bruja, considered able to shapeshift, and travel beyond the confines of my physical body. Cool. I'll just put that on my LinkedIn.
Funny since I've already been accused of witchcraft in my own small town, even though as far as I know I don't have magic powers. (Well, besides having frequent precognitive dreams that I have no rational explanation for.) Everyone always says I'm a witch, despite me not liking that title. But of course I'm excited to discover my nahual is the most powerful most magical one! Who wouldn't be?
Jaguar people are supposed to feel the strongest connection to Mother Earth. (Goddess!!!) We are loners who communicate with animals. Well that's fitting these days. It even said that snakes bring intuition from other worlds. My snake dreams began at age 30. This is all very weird. But I like weird.
I try to be an educated scientifically minded person, but intuition is just as valuable, and any belief system that respects the harmony and interconnectedness of everything on earth, animate and inanimate, seems wise to me.
- 2023-03-29