this week
Brooklyn, New York, June 28, 2018.
This week, our family took a quick trip to New York City. Our daughter Alex is part of the model United Nations team at her school, and this week she attended training to be on the Bureau in future model United Nation events. So basically, Marcus and I decided to tag along on our daughter's business trip. Usually, it's the other way around.
The times, they are a-changin'.
Because Alex is the one with the busy schedule and not me, I actually had ample time to do my usual This Was A Good Week post, but I have a confession: I just don't have it in me. I've been overcome by stories of the possibility of naturalized immigrants having their citizenship status reviewed and possibly denaturalized and deported (for clarity, I've been a naturalized citizen of the U.S. since the 90s, a member of the group this article specifically discusses will be targeted), not to mention immigrant toddlers having to appear in court alone (you have got to be kidding me). All this has been coupled with personal stories that dear friends of mine have shared about events that happened to them this week (one Black American friend on the northeastern coast of the country was spat on, and then over on the northwest coast, another Korean-American friend was at the receiving end of an irate woman honking her horn and yelling at her to "GO HOME!! GO HOME!!"; on both occasions, my friends were simply walking along the street minding their own business, provoking no one). As a result, I've just been vacillating between anger and terror all week long.
I'm just spent.
So this week, while I logically know that there was good in the week, instead of searching for it around the world, I'm going to spend time focusing on the good I get from the two people who mean the most to me. Please spend time focusing on the people who mean the most to you, too.
We'll call this "self-care." And then next week, we return to the fight.