I really have no idea how fringe I really am or ever was, but I do keep a pulse on others who think like I do. I know I’m a little exhausted right now and just trying to be patient. Others have expressed this too but doing a better job at keeping a chin up. I’m more pragmatic.
Say you have a drug addicted close family member that lies to you saying he’s clean, been clean for X years. You point out his inability to maintain employment for anything longer than a few months, his current inability to stay on point during conversation, etc. You reassure him that you love him whether or not he’s using and point out that you care enough about him to be honest. So, he opens up, you have a good conversation about how powerful addictions can be, and how it can destroy lives. You might bring up childhood friends or other relatives who died from this reckless lifestyle or lived in homeless encampments for years. I personally saw a cousin come in as a patient where I used to work. She kept testing positive with tox screens. We never got past the initial, Let’s Be Honest Phase. She kept lying to me, but say you get past that point again and again with a particular loved one. He/she eventually goes into rehab, starts doing the process of repairing life and home, but falls off again and again and again. Jesus might say, “Try again” because you would want others to not give up on you, but there really is only so much that one can do. Jesus would probably also admit to that. He had to leave his home town to start His healing ministry.
I’m experiencing exhaustion right now, partly out of empathy for the ones who are trying to converse with a drug addicted (and likely vaccine-injured) family member. But then it’s also no one person in particular—it’s just people in general, the industry I work in, society at large. I can pray, but the addict has to come to their senses. I will not entertain the lie and cannot muster the energy to converse at length or argue, even pointing to simple facts. Like an officer weary of going in a third or fourth time to save a battered wife, I know that she may eventually end up dead, but do I want to go in to save her again, only to have her also strike or threaten me as I arrest her husband? It’s that kind of weariness.
People are addicted to the easy fix, finding little to no enjoyment in the work of taking good care of themselves, much less their nation. Chinese slave labor produces cheaper products they can afford, and then they bring up how they need a refill on their opioid pain reliever. Maybe a prior authorization done for their new diabetic prescription.
I’d much rather be writing something uplifting. There’s droves of it everywhere now—finally, vindication on everything critical thinkers have been thinking and speaking since JFK was allegedly killed by a Magic Bullet. The present US president’s administration is also making real cuts in abhorrently wasteful programs. Billions have been saved already. Federal buildings like some IRS buildings were reportedly closed with talk of $5000 returns for everyone this year. I should be elated. Maybe the addiction spell will break, and people will want to engage in wholesome life again, completely sober, and getting acquainted with common sense and God’s Good Earth again. I’m cautiously excited at times; guarded and resigned, however, most of the time because I’m still inhabiting the planet with enough junkies to make it discouraging.
These periods of cynicism come and go. I will be fine by next month and offering something more inspiring.
