This Is Not a Floating Situation

I texted this message to my son today: “You have a very weird mother. I am relaxing by rewatching ‘Equalizer 3’!” Strong protagonists with a moral code that makes my Sicilian roots feel all warm and fuzzy lower my blood pressure and give me hope. Hope that there actually are a decent number of good humans out there. Hope that individuals can make a difference. Hope that good people are willing to band together to protect those who cannot, or who have been convinced that they cannot, protect themselves. Of course I also self-medicated by watching disaster films during the height of the Covid epidemic. Everyone in those movies was struggling to survive far worse circumstances than we were at that time. This too brought me hope and a modicum of peace, even if only briefly, even though based on a story someone somewhere wrote. But we all write stories. Sometimes people write stories about things they know nothing about. There seems to be quite a bit of that happening these days. You know that old saying? The one that goes, “whatever floats your boat.” I’m more interested in “whatever calms my waters” these days. I’m not looking to disengage or ignore the so-called reality around me. Rather I’m deeply passionate about diving down to the depths of my own and our collective experience of this being human thing. We may think we’re swimming in different ponds but it’s all water. It’s all connected. So do whatever you need to do to calm yourself enough to see what’s in you and around you. Slow the (insert-your-expletive-of-choice-here) down. Be here now. Truly be here. Show up as you. It’s the most we can do.

Cinse Bonino
2024