Step into my office, stop doom-scrolling the news, and lie down on the couch for just a minute (or actually 50). You experienced a traumatic period in your life. As the trauma receded, the first thing you tried to do was to put the whole experience behind you. This repression seems like a good idea on paper, but doesn't always play out that well in the unconscious. Everything is not OK. You experienced a global pandemic that completely altered your view of health, safety, politics, and just how aggressively you could move to snag the last roll of toilet paper on the shelf. In The Atlantic (Gift Article), George Makari and Richard A. Friedman argue that there's a reason that America is in a funk. "Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in half a century and the stock market is sky-high, but poll after poll shows that voters are disgruntled. President Joe Biden’s approval rating has been hovering in the high 30s. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives—a measure that usually dips in times of economic uncertainty—is at a near-record low, according to Gallup polling. And nearly half of Americans surveyed in January said they were worse off than three years prior." It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic. And consider our kids, who were stuck home from school, saw their adolescence interrupted, and whose parents could only answer the question, Is it gonna be OK?, with, Kid, I really don't know. "Four years ago, the country was brought to its knees by a world-historic disaster. COVID-19 hospitalized nearly 7 million Americans and killed more than a million; it’s still killing hundreds each week. It shut down schools and forced people into social isolation. Almost overnight, most of the country was thrown into a state of high anxiety—then, soon enough, grief and mourning. But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured." (I'd love to hear more about how you feel about this, but our time is up.) 2My Baby She Wrote Me a Letter"Yet as we adjust, her correspondence and ours — traveling hundreds of miles, as if from one era to another — is teaching us all more than we’d imagined. The gift of digital detox that we thought Australia was giving our daughter has also become a revelatory bequest for us — her American parents and her older brother. Something in the act of writing, sending and waiting days or weeks for a reply, and in the physical and social challenges experienced by our daughter at a distance, is changing all of our personal operating systems. Without the ever-present immediacy of digital connection, even just temporarily, can a family be rewired?" Damien Cave on what happened when his 13-year-old "left her phone behind for hiking, chores and study in the Australian wilderness. Our pen-and-paper correspondence is opening up an unexpected world." NYT (Gift Article): What We Gained (and Lost) When Our Daughter Unplugged for a School Year. (I'd love to get back into the practice of writing on paper. But at this point, my hand gets sore signing a check.) 3Stop the Steal"The vote to merge the blank check company with the Trump Media & Technology Group came during a special meeting of DWAC stockholders. The now-approved plan will allow Trump's company, which operates the Truth Social social media site, to take over DWAC's listing on the Nasdaq within days or weeks." Donald Trump is set for a $3 billion paper windfall. It may not solve his current cash crunch. Seriously, who would invest in this garbage? You get to put money into a shell company led by the world's most famous failing fraudster that includes a money hemorrhaging social network with only one prolific poster? I'd rather invest in something safer like Shohei Ohtani's interpreter. 4Weekend WhatsWhat to Watch: The team behind Game of Thrones is back with a new series on Netflix call 3 Body Problem. I may not understand all the physics references, but it's got a great first episode and I'm looking forward to a weekend binge. (Which will help take my mind off my March Madness bracket. It turns out knowing nothing wasn't an ideal strategy after all.) 5Extra, ExtraRoyal Rx: "Kate, the Princess of Wales, said Friday she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Friday, coming after weeks of speculation on social media about her whereabouts and health since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery." (Maybe we just leave her alone for a while?) This announcement comes just weeks after Charles reported that he has cancer. 6Feel Good Friday"We asked the photojournalists of The Everyday Projects — a global community of photographers using images to challenge harmful stereotypes — to look through their archives for scenes that capture a sense of happiness and well-being, from small uplifting moments to big bursts of joy." NPR: Can a picture make you happy? We asked photographers and here's what they sent us.
Dave Pell, News Therapist
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