i’m trying so fucking hard to be okay i’m trying so hard
but, i was made with empathy built in- i care
i care about the greed that drives the cruelty throughout this world, i care about how easy it is for some people to move that needle, i care that people die to fuel others trivial comfort, and that we all do it constantly together over and over and over again on and on for as long as recorded history has existed
i care that i benefit from that- and that someone benefits from my toil
i care that others don’t care
how could you not care? are you that numb? how?
i’m getting up early, drinking water, taking my meds, eating usually, i take walks- i sit with the squirrels and the rabbits and i talk to the crows and i spend as much time as i have left with Girl and i do the things i commit to well, exceptionally if possible
and still- i’m lonely, frustrated, and bitter…
not even without good reason- i’ve got plenty of good reasons to feel the way i do but i don’t want to
i want to be content i want to be dumb and complacent and devoid of empathy
but i don’t know how to not recognize every life as valuable, i have known too many to believe that’s possible
i know not the ease of a healthy body, or of even the middle class
i am poor, and sick- and everyone i love and know is either poor or sick, or both usually both as one begets the other
and i do know how the pendulum swings, and just keeps swinging- i know things fall together as they fall apart…
so bleak, so serendipitously sinister…
anyway, I’m suffering constantly physically from whatever ails me (they don’t care enough to figure it out), and Maya has cancer, and Girl has cancer, i don’t know what Jerry has (other than bad luck) but it’s not good, and i’m supposed to be getting top surgery soon and i made the mistake of letting my family know that was dumb- and things are moving so fast who knows if it’ll be legal when they cut into me you think they’ll stop halfway through if they ban it? idk what it’s like to have friends that hang out with you and/or have any semblance of stability does that mean i make them unstable? or that i attract the unstable? does it matter?
i’ve never really learned to deal with grief- and now i’ve got to reconcile with knowing the cat who has been with me for however long- it’s been so many years i stopped counting she’s old and had FIV for as long as i’ve known her this was going to happen that doesn’t make it any easier- knowing it may not have come back if they’d finished the surgery I’ll miss her so much i already wish there was more that she says that i can understand
i wish i could’ve done more for her sooner, I love her so much and she is mortal just as the rest of us are
so is Maya i never really considered she’d die, she’s so unabashedly her, strong and complex
so is Jerry i knew he would- but i didn’t think it’d start happening so soon- and it may not be but i didn’t know id care this much, i never knew what having a dad felt like is this how it feels? does it feel different for everyone?
i’ve got to process all of this and process a major life changing surgery, and possibly having to leave everything and everyone i’ve ever known because it is rapidly becoming less safe for people like me here at least most people
i had a plan and none of this was in it
i should’ve known not to plan… expectations only breed disappointment and despair