How many Elder Wands would it take
to straighten this mess out?
I'm thinking specifically about
the Texas Supreme Court
affirming no abortion ever
under any circumstances,
Mike Johnson declaring himself
to be Moses,
Donald Trump displaying certifiable
traits of insanity
on a regular basis, etc.
Which leads to the next question:
How do we plan to survive
the compete loss of bearings
on all sides until the freefall
into absurdity eventually subsides?
I suggest that you:
choose your inner circle wisely,
and lean on each other throughout
the madness on every side.
Consciously tend your balance and harmony,
integrity and sincerity,
original nature
and innate virtues/characteristics--
your inner YOU--
with grounding rituals
(A cup of coffee, a hot shower,
a walk through the woods
or by the sea...)
reaffirming your own grounded-ness
from which you live
in responding to the Next Crazy Thing
in the world beyond your own personal space.
Maintain your relationship with
emptiness, stillness and silence
on a regular basis.
Reduce the amount of noise/complexity/drama/trauma
in your life as much as possible.
Explore ways other cultures/people
(Native Americans, for example)
have dealt with the Complete Loss of Everything,
and borrow from their coping methods.
Immerse yourself in art, music and nature,
and in honest conversation
straight from the heart
with your Inner Circle.
Consciously grieve, mourn,
and express your sorrow/sadness/loss
in ways that give physical expression
to emotional angst
(A communal Wailing Wall would be a great idea).
Write, wail, sing, dance, play the piano, paint, draw,
cuss, stomp dance, scream, cry,
rearrange the furniture,
rearrange it again,
make your peace with having to make your peace
with atrocities beyond imagining...
And go through the motions of living
until life returns finally, again, at last.
–0–
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
The more sensitive humans among us are always at a higher risk of being invaded relatively more, by all the negative things happening around us, ‘atrocities beyond imagining’ as you say. But your suggestions for coping are all to the point.
I might add, that the world will perhaps continue as it goes, like a viral illness, it will take its own course and hopefully the calamities will eventually subside (if only until the next cycle begins). It has been happening throughout human history, repeating in different names and forms.
In times of overwhelming gloom, it may perhaps help to remember, that each of us are a unit of the whole humanity, a drop in the ocean, so if we can manage to keep our own sanity and somehow find our own peace, I am hoping at least some of it will seep through to the heal the surroundings.
Humans are also one of the most resilient species this planet has seen so far, so as a collective we can try to be optimistic that we will survive (together with all the beauty, joy and wisdom that is also our heritage)!
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Yea! Amen! It is so what you say! And will always be so!
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I would be happy to see you more cheerful Jim! The beauty of the nature (some of them reflected so exquisitely in your own photographs), the wisdom of the old masters, the kindness of many who still care- are also good reasons to not give up hope, in the face of the overwhelming darkness and the disappointments 🙂 We carry on as best as we can and leave the rest to the universe to unfold!
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I like the company I keep. The Buddha with his 4 noble truths about suffering, Lao Tzu who said the hell with it and went off to the west to die, all of the Old Testament prophets, particularly Jeremiah, Jesus and John the Baptist…and so on through the eons and ages. I also have a deeply playful side, as I hunch most of them did, offsetting, balancing, the gloom, as the gloom offsets and balances “the sunny side of life.” So, it’s a mix, where “The light shines in the darkness,” and “The darkness is the cradle of light,” (Rumi).
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So well said!
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