We want to tell the truth about the suffering of our world. But here are three things about the intensely URGENT AND APOCALYPTIC culture of Twitter actually prevents me from grappling with the truth about suffering sometimes. (thread)
1. Most people need to manage the amount of suffering they absorb in a day. Twitter seems to demand that you withstand life's terror every day, at all times, or else you are somehow complicit. I wish there were more grace for the way that we need moments of exposure and shelter.
In the cancer clinic, the nurses always turned off the news. I always appreciated that as a permission slip. One day's suffering is enough.
2. The pace. The pace of Twitter demands that if someone levels an accusation, it must be answered within hours or else that signals something else. It seems like a perverse biorhythm to conform the hours of our precious days to this arbitrary schedule.
3. I love experts. I love a good pause to hear what they say. Jumping on every issue is not always bravery. I'm not an epidemiologist or botanist or forensic psychologist. If we rush, we often simply fall into confirmation bias. A pause to weigh evidence is not simply "silence"
I'm sure all of this has been said before, but I just wanted to be honest about how much I have loved the community I've made here, but how much this forum gives me pause about how we weigh each other's sorrow.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
o God these are darkening days,
with no hope in sight.
o God help us in our fear and desperation.
anchor us in hope!
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.
“let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me.”
John 14:1
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.
blessed are we with eyes open to see
the suffering from pandemic danger,
sickness and loneliness,
the injustice of racial oppression,
the unimpeded greed and misuse of power,
a blessing for the day we mourn our dead (All Saints’ Day)
o God, we have not been here before.
sorrows old and new envelop us
as we grieve in this new pandemic reality,
without hugs and funerals, shared jokes and fresh tears,
and graveside picnics to place flowers
for those long departed.
God, give us comfort that is bigger than all this,
and love that is stronger than all this.
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.