500 Words: Wait, Wut? #7

Welcome to the web version of 500 Words, a place for 500-word essays and creative risks. I’m posting about what happens as we slowly accept the impossible. When you see posts that are numbered, they are part of a series. To receive the posts in order as they come out, just click the link. You’ll receive 500 words of short-form writing in your inbox as I write it.

Imagine a scale. For deeply personal reasons, you want it to balance. You can’t remember why. You place weights on either side. Good things. Bad things. Each thought has its weight. You keep going, waiting for the scale to hit equlibrium. It never does.

The world is noisy quiet. Advances are retreats. Maybe the Feds will withdraw in Portland. Maybe they won’t. Hustling peaceful protestors off the streets and into unmarked vans is a story point from an America I don’t remember knowing. We can’t go back to the old America. The old America benefits old white men. Thankfully, the old America isn’t an option any longer. We have a chance now for Black lives to matter and to distribute power equitably. We can make real progress. But then again, in November the election might be delayed as it has already been in Hong Kong.

Wait, wut?

Locating normal on a map has become hopeless.