20 Comments
User's avatar
Mr. Troy Ford's avatar

Here for this, Ben - I think it's the inability to abide in uncertainty and tolerate fear that we activate our worst behavior and instincts. Thanks for this, Ben

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thanks, Troy.

Expand full comment
Meg Oolders's avatar

If only brazen kindness could prevail over all the brazen cruelty. I'm still rooting for good to win the day. I hope, for your health and preservation, my friend, that you do spend some mornings NOT scrolling. The good stories are happening all around us, too ... They're just not as easy to find inside the machine. Take care. 💜

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thank you, Meg. I appreciate that.

Expand full comment
Kimberly Warner's avatar

Here here Ben. The heaviness is pervasive. We are all fractals of one another, so hard to understand how anyone could think otherwise. Leaning into your poem makes me believe someday, our togetherness will be the only truth we’ll never deny.

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thank you, Kimberly.

Expand full comment
Stephanie Sweeney's avatar

Ben, one thing I love about everything I've read of yours - fiction and non-fiction - is that kindness and compassion undergird all of it. Thanks for that, and may those who've forgotten or discarded those qualities remember them again.

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thanks, Stephanie. I’m glad the kindness manages to come through in my writing. The older I get, the more that matters more than anything else.

Expand full comment
Tom Willner's avatar

Great post, Ben. I keep looking for the flickers of light in all the darkness. I'm reminded of "The Fourth Turning" and how the authors suggest we are in the winter, the climax of another human historical cycle. I agree with you, I hope we can all make it through to a better place without too much damage.

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thanks, Tom. It’s good to hear from you. I do need to read that book. I still remember our conversation about it.

Expand full comment
Chloe Hope's avatar

Amen to all of this, my friend. It's exhausting, and there being no end in sight (that I can make out, anyway) just adds to it... And, while I hate that you're feeling it, too, it helps a little to know that there's many of us feeling similarly confused by the insistence on the binaries...

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thank you, Chloe. It does help to know that we’re not alone in this struggle.

Expand full comment
Jacky Haworth's avatar

Yes, I hear you. I feel like I have been shutting myself away because I just can’t listen to it all. When I am helping others through my healing work or attending a beautiful sound healing event, it all dissipates as the richness of divine connection flows in. We have chosen to be in this time of transformation and it’s a rough ride. But we got this.

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Thank you, Jacky.

Expand full comment
Georgia Patrick's avatar

Howdy Ben, It was good to see that a prolific writer and creative mind like yours felt the drag coefficient of too many words on our own desire to continue with that spark of awe and fresh thoughts to share through writing. I did not publish much last week because I could feel the collective shutting down of my readers, plus millions of others. You captured the symptoms and some solutions, with clarity and precision, in your article today.

Expand full comment
Ben Wakeman's avatar

Hi Georgia, thanks for reading and thanks for the kind words. These are difficult times to keep the pilot light on. Take good care of yourself and the ones you love.

Expand full comment
Nathan Slake's avatar

"But I don’t think it’s too much for us to learn to accept each other— to accept that we all exist in this pitcher together."

I'm 100% with you, Ben.

I feel the hurt from the news each and every day and constantly ask myself why? Why is it not possible for humanity to be better and do better and be kinder.

Expand full comment
Holly Starley's avatar

Gorgeous! Like Troy, so here for this!

“Forces together and pulled apart by forces we understand as much as water understands the pitcher that holds it”

Ben, I will take this metaphor with me. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Susie Mawhinney's avatar

"But I don’t think it’s too much for us to learn to accept each other— to accept that we all exist in this pitcher together."

Me neither Ben, me neither... 🙏🏼

Expand full comment
Jennifer Rose's avatar

I'm standing with you, Ben. We are together.

Expand full comment