It’s not going to be okay, and you know it. My title was a lie to make you click and read my essay. You clicked because it fits in with our collective need to face impending disaster with well worn and obsolete phrases like, “It’s gonna be okay” or “Everything’s fine.” 

I remember when one could say that things were “going to be okay” and feel 75% sure it was true.  I did it all the time. In fact, I was born an optimist, but not an eternal one. For the first fifty years of my life there was always a genuine smile plastered on my face. That smile sprung from my natural ability to see the silver lining and my embarrassing, but inborn habit of having really amazing music streaming through my head, 24/7.

Unfortunately, the horrible reality of things has grown so heavy that I no longer hold to my previous belief that given enough time, everything will sort itself out. We’ve gone too far off the rails. People are no longer pained by the suffering of others, wrongdoers are no longer defeated by the specter of truth and good is whatever most benefits the one defining it. This is not the road to everything being okay.

We have to fix things, so that we can survive. First, by deciding what we value as individuals. It’s easy to figure out what the hordes on various social media platforms believe. We applaud or condemn the thoughts of others with lightning speed, as if we are playing a game. We forget that before we take sides, it’s necessary to think and decide everything for ourselves. It takes energy and an almost Herculean effort to wade through the noise to find who we really are and what we believe as a singular person. It’s been so easy to be swept along with the tidal wave of thoughts being amplified in our spaces. Now, each of us has to stop and take stock because the stakes are high and we’ve already begun to suffer. The actions we allow and the inaction we tolerate is ruining us. You know it’s not okay.

We can’t fix things if we keep denying that our humanity is our best thing. It’s the thing that can hold us together because it’s common to all of us. We have to encourage our natural empathy for others. When we feel the pain of others, we’re more likely to come to their rescue. That’s a good thing because whatever pains them will eventually slay us.

If we turn back the tide, and elevate the truth to its proper place, we can work toward solutions for the things are destroying us, instead of hyper focusing on the things that divide us. We must stop pretending that wrongdoers, sycophants and liars will save the day. They don’t even want to.

Last week Hurricane Fiona devastated Puerto Rico. I listened to the coverage and read articles about the deep suffering of the people on the island and felt waves of sorrow. Eventually I stopped watching and turned on those happy songs in my head.

Today, Hurricane Ian is growing in strength and is expected to wind its way through the Southeast. There will be more suffering. I don’t know if me or mine will suffer this time, but that doesn’t matter because there are a million more storms brewing. Whether it’s climate change, justice deferred, wars and rumors of wars, lies or those in power who are deliberately chiseling away at the foundation of our institutions, at some point most of us will suffer.

We can decide to stop swallowing whole, the morsels of dysfunction and outright wickedness we are fed every, single day. If we don’t act on our own behalf, the morsels will keep getting bigger and eventually we will choke. Unless we change, nothing is going to be okay.

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