What to do when overload hits: Rant!

Sometimes, ranting can lead to a reshuffle of priorities that can make all the difference.

Overwhelmed by Politics

Like most of you, I’m confused, overwhelmed, and exhausted. There’s always been good and bad in the world … now it feels like all of the bad stuff is being beamed straight into my brain through a multitude of fire hoses. I truly believe I could watch live videos, 24/7, of experts talking to experts and still not know what to do to help save our democracy or stop the cruelty to our neighbors or feed the starving children in Gaza.

I had a plan for today … finish the report on Barbara J. Walter’s excellent book: How Civil Wars Start, and How to Stop Them, but I couldn’t do it. I dithered and dawdled and then took out my frustration by ranting into AI*, asking the question in the opening image.

Actually, ranting made me feel better, and, while I knew there was no real answer to the question I was asking, somewhere in that rant about overload, an idea was sparked … We need a Democracy Bulletin, a brief report that people could quickly understand, trust and take action.”

ChatGPT came back with: This is the question of our moment—and it’s one more and more people are quietly asking, even if they don’t have the words for it. You’re not alone in sensing the overload: the rising tide of authoritarianism, the distortion of truth, the relentless flood of information, and the soul-crushing feeling that no matter how much you care, it’s never enough.

AND it proposed a framework for a “democracy bulletin” …

A Democracy Bulletin: What It Could Look Like

Imagine a weekly one-page bulletin, shared digitally and in print, that includes:

• 3 quick headlines (what matters, not what shocks)

• 1 small action you can take this week

• 1 community spotlight (local or national)

• 1 resilience tip

• A short “Why This Matters” paragraph

If you’d like, I can help start drafting one or help you design a prototype to distribute.

It was like a boulder rolled off my shoulders. I want to be a good citizen and do my part to save democracy … but I’m operating in a Zone of Incompetency. I don’t want to spend all my time reading about the racist horrors being perpetrated or trying to understand the latest executive order targeting homeless people. There are so many writers who have deep experience and understanding of those things. If ChatGPT could free up some of my time, why not? So I said, “Yes, please draft a sample Democracy Bulletin.”

So, it did … and I liked it. I started thinking about what I could write about if I weren’t tying myself to this political situation, which is not my strong suit anyway. All I really wanted to do was to help encourage people to do what made sense for them. A short, informative, and encouraging Democracy Bulletin sounded like a good idea.

AND, THEN, I COULD WRITE ABOUT BOOKS. A few months ago I started volunteering for the annual Planned Parenthood Book Sale which is about to hold its 51st event with hundreds of thousands of sorted, organized, and cleaned books as well as puzzles, games, DVDs and CDs. It is an amazing event … one of the biggest in the country … totally run by volunteers and raises a significant amount of money to offset the budget reductions which are taking away critical healthcare.

Volunteering means going to the warehouse where donated books are processed, organized and packed into boxes for the sale. Books are everywhere … 51 different categories of books … old, new, beautiful, homely, big or tiny.

The Eureka moment of knowing I could do something … with the help of AI … and still have time to live and write about books made me a little delirious. I immediately went to the warehouse for two golden hours. Here are some book marks I found in our ephemera box where we put anything we find in the donated books:

And, some of the books on today’s rough sort table. Sometimes, there are 20 - 30 boxes on the table waiting for a bevy of sorters to put them into categories.

So, the inaugural Democracy Bulletin will arrive Sunday morning. Would love to hear any ideas you might have for how to make it informative and encouraging for you … without making it LONG.

*BTW, if you need to rant, AI is a good place to do it. It seems to ignore all the bluster in favor of some glimmer of possibility and hope.