Thread by @HoarseWisperer

You may have noticed I’ve done less real-time covering of hearings and more tweeting about life outside Twitter and politics lately.

That hasn’t been an accident. I’ve felt a negative tide pulling at me and at the lot of us on Twitter as we all gnash in frustration.

1/

There is an inevitable sense of helplessness and despair that comes from staring too long and too intently at the public murder of truth in service of a corrupt president.

To wallow in that riptide is to be pulled under and pulled farther and farther from shore.

2/

And that shore is decency and honor and integrity and character and human goodness.

Those things still exist - even if not on display in these hearings - and they need to be found and seen and basked in to stay grounded in what makes life worth living.

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So, there will still be tweets about the events unfolding in Congress and in the impeachment process.

But there will also be others about life outside that toxic little cauldron.

I’m feeling a tug to get back to a place more balanced between goodness and outrage.

4/

Next year is going to be long and taxing.

I don’t think it can be successfully navigated while being drained by helpless fury without being renewed and restored by hope, faith and humanity.

We need both. And right now we have a surplus of one and a shortage of the other.

5/

You’ll probably hear more about the things outside politics that make me feel something other than frustrated angst.

We’re being ground into numbness. So, I’m making adjustments to not allow that to happen.

Whether it be joy, hope, sadness or grief, to be alive is to feel.

6/

Narcissists win by making you “overclock” until you are exhausted.

They rev you up until the high RPMs make you engine break down.

The antidote is to step away from the abyss on occasion.

There is decency in the world. We cannot lose sight of it if we are to preserve it.

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