As we descend daily into deeper levels of Shit’s Fucked, and as a sensitive person, I can overdo it with the doomscrolling. I want to know the newest developments, the details, but it can be so psychically overwhelming.
Why am I SO sensitive?? Why can’t I handle this?
Moths are sensitive too, and I love them for it—resilient, night-flying creatures that return after disaster, pollinating by the light of the moon, aiding the earth’s recovery.
Mutual aid is a lesson from nature—ecosystems thrive when they transcend competition and scarcity into cooperation and interdependence. Moths return en masse after fires and floods, pollinating plants that stabilize the soil. They set the foundation for recovery, just as we two-leggeds do through mutual aid.
Human mutual aid mirrors this natural process, building networks of support without waiting for authority or permission. (Did you see how, after catastrophic Hurricane Helene floods in North Carolina, cops barricaded a grocery store to “prevent looting,” effectively stopping people from buying food? Authority seems to do nothing, or make things worse in disaster situations.)
Grief, painful as it is, allows us to fully witness suffering—human and planetary— to try to comprehend the enormously fucked situation we all face.
Et voilà, your bonus for making it to the end is my fav silly remix of this Sarah McLachlan song that lives in my heart, to soothe your soul.
“The world's on fire, it's more than I can handle
Tap into the water, try to bring my share
Try to bring more, more than I can handle
Bring it to the table, bring what I am able”