8.5” x 11” hahnemühle rag

The world is heavy.
They want us to think that this
is our fault.
That individual choice can cause
a revolution, and that the ’system’
supports our freedom.
We carry on with our self-work.
Self-love. Self-discovery.
On a mission to solve things.
They monetize the movement.
We pay them desperate for repair.
Everyone is searching for answers.
We are desperate to understand our desperation,
and to hear that things are okay,
that we are okay. Maybe even over-reacting.
That maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem.
We get comfortable in this crisis,
and isolate ourselves thinking
that someone has it worse and that we
must be okay.
Some people hole up, close themselves off.
They don’t let anyone in or out.
These people need our love.
We know to show up for them.
Other people swing the other way.
These are the ‘happy people’
The one’s we watch dancing on instagram,
spreading joy like it’s their job.
Loving. Loving every person they touch,
because they’ve seen that the world is hard,
and that we cannot do it alone.
Even if it is a show, isn’t the show of loving
eachother, like it is our job, better
than closing off to the world?
We cling to their resolve and joy, and forget
that they too are human.
That they too feel this heaviness.
That they have spent their lives trying
to lift the weight for others, because
they know that it is too heavy to carry
by themselves.
Until one day it becomes too heavy,
and they leave us unable to bear
the weight of the world they were taught
they could carry alone.
We must end this madness and
turn our anger towards the system
that glorifies individualism and leaves us
frozen, waiting for the person
whose individualism will save us
instead of remembering that this world
is heavy, and that our joy is collective.
Our grief the same.