Writing in the Age of Trump

There are days when the writing just flows.  Where the ideas are coming left and right and can move to the fingers very easily.   Where emotion, frustration, inspiration, or celebration make it easy to share and to document.  

On the other hand, there are days where nothing comes.  No ideas. No even an inkling.  Just completely at a loss.  Writer’s block.  Hit the wall.  Done.

But writing in the age of Trump has a third problem. 

There’s no shortage of ideas.  In fact, it’s overwhelming.  There is so much to be frustrated by, saddened by, angered by, to the point where there are topics that could go on for days.  Our government, our country is being dismantled piece by piece and handed over to the world’s richest man to do with as he pleases.  We should all be enraged and moved to action.

And yet, it’s so overwhelming, it’s so all-encompassing, it’s hard to sit with.  It’s all coming so fast and from some many different directions, it’s impossible to keep up.  

There’s no time to react, there’s no time to grieve, you just have to move on to the next thing and pray it’s not as bad as what came before.

It creates a different type of writer’s block.  An overwhelming paralysis moving to apathy.  So much we care about is being utterly destroyed, that it’s getting hard to care about any single piece. 

And that’s where I’ve been.  These first two weeks have been overwhelming and dizzying.  It’s been hard to process it all and to determine what can be prioritized to discuss.   

Plus there is the overwhelming need to remove all expletives from my vocabulary before I start to write, because otherwise, this would be a very different blog.

And that’s the point of this whole blitz.  They are trying to break all resistance in addition to everything else.  They are trying to wear us down to the point where we don’t care anymore.  To where we don’t speak up, don’t fight back, just let it pass by.

We can’t let that happen.  

Take a break.  Take a breath.  Step away and relax.  

Listen to comedians to help diffuse the blow.

Implement time constraints on social media and the news.  

But don’t become numb to it. 

It all still matters.  None of this is normal. None of this is appropriate.  Much of this is illegal.

We have to remember it.  

We just have to be prepared to keep it up.  It’s going to be a long four years.