It is a warm Saturday in June, a steady morning breeze makes my back porch tolerable. Our morning got off to a late start. The fur kids all just finished their breakfast, and they are now all in the backyard with me. Potatoe is sitting next to me under the table on the back porch, and his cat siblings are running around in the backyard. They are too focused on tackling one another to notice the bird in the grass gathering little twigs. Little does that birdie know, he is perched on dangerous ground.
I have had an intense week of work this week. The week has been a bit of a roller coaster. The markets had a significant dip on Thursday driven by a poor economic outlook and fears of a second round of the virus. Houston has been on the national news as Houston officials are considering a second shutdown. CBS world news last night made it sound as if we are in the middle of a crisis here in Houston, which is not the case at all. Some of the hospitals here have still yet to see a single case of the virus. CBS introduced the Harris county judge, which has zero experience and is believed to have been elected because of straight ticket voting, as a “high ranking official”. They failed to mention the outrage of the masses over her leadership during the virus, and the fact that her orders are being completely ignored by most. I guess those facts did not fit the CBS narrative.
We are going to be enduring the aftermath of the shutdown of our economy for many years to come. How can someone that has never actually held a job make the decision for the rest of us that we cannot earn a living? How does this make any sense? The same people that are pushing for a second shutdown, are championing the protests. I feel like this exposes a clear political agenda, and it is upsetting because it makes people less receptive to the deeply important cause behind the protests. The agenda needs to be to unite rather than divide.
There was also a report on CBS world news last night that nearly all Americans responding to a mental health survey were having feelings of depression and anxiety brought on by the shutdown. This is a terrifying report. Moreover, domestic violence and suicide is on a steep incline.
Something that I almost never talk about is that I went through a chapter of my life that was riddle with depression and anxiety, which was driven by things in my life that I simply could not control. I rarely write about it, and it is even less often that I talk about it. Through no fault of their own, this is what so many Americans are now faced with today, and I find myself thinking back to this chapter of my life more and more. Some things that helped me were obvious – my situation eventually changed for the better, but other things that helped are less obvious. The kindness of strangers being a less obvious factor.
I think that we all underestimate how much of a positive or negative impact we can have on a stranger or someone that we do not know that well.
I am now in an extremely happy place in life. When I have a bad day, I know that it is a temporary state of being. I have a sense of inner peace, yet I still feel the impact of the kindness of strangers.
This week alone there are plenty of examples, and I barely left my house. There was the girl that answered the phone at the hotel when I called to asked if they allow dogs. She could not have been kinder, and this made that much more excited about the little trip I am going to take with Potatoe in a couple of weeks.
There was the woman from a dog rescue that spent a great deal of time with my sister to help her through the adoption process. One positive impact of the shutdown has been that pet adoptions are on a steep incline, which makes me happy. This meant that my sister had a little trouble finding a dog to adopt. Her first dog really wants a side kick. My sister finally found the right dog for her family thanks to the help of the stranger at the rescue.
As the world becomes more and more digitized, we have less interaction with other people, making every interaction that much more important. This something that I plan to think carefully about for the rest of my life.
It is the little things in life…