That month took a thousand years
Aw, wasn’t it cute when I resurrected my blog, back when things felt novel and changing and all I needed was ‘we can do it’ energy?
My family is all doing really well, all things considered. We’re incredibly privileged and lucky, which means J’s job is stable, we have fantastic school-from-home support, which I’m able to support because I’m not working and we have access to supplies like groceries and even a raised bed kit from a local company. I’m a little surprised to find that I feel gratitude for these things every day. I feel grateful for noticing this gratitude.
The other things I am grateful for is the TV show Steven Universe. We started watching the show a few months ago, and we’re finding it a huge comfort because we’re able to laugh, we’re able to think about hard things (that aren’t our hard things). It’s like Star Trek TNG in that sense. The episodes we watched last night (we’re at the end of season 1) adeptly addresses a lot of the feelings and uncertainty we’re experiencing right now. In the episode, the adults are trying to figure out how to respond to a vague, invisible, real, imminent threat. (Just like now!) The adults pretend like everything is fine when they’re around Steven (who is a child). Very realistically, Steven notices that they’re acting weird, and pieces together that something is wrong. He confronts his guardians, asking them for the truth. I can imagine how good it would feel as a child viewer to see this, because this kind of obfuscation totally happens all the time, and it feels empowering to see Steven address it. What happens next is a soothing balm for the adult viewers, because Steven’s response to the scary truth is to say “We’ve been scared before, right? None of us know what’s going to happen, but… that’s okay. We can figure things out – together.” You have no idea how good it felt to hear that sentiment. You have to know the show to understand how beautifully balanced this show is. The whimsy and goofy is there, but so is the serious and realistic — especially realistic are the emotions and motivations people have.