It’s Thursday already, woo! Welcome back to our daily open thread.
A friend and I were talking over Zoom about the future earlier this week, namely the near future of America’s November elections. Given how grim everything is these days, I tend to panic when I think too hard about what’s going to happen, which I can usually head off by reminding myself that freaking out about the future doesn’t actually do anything about it. I take a pretty nihilistic comfort in thinking that I have no idea what could happen—everything is so terrible and bizarre that I’m sure some occurrence I’ve never even imagined will swoop in to surprise and terrify me. There’s something to be said for being surprised, I try to tell myself to keep from dissolving into anxious tears.
This sense of mystery is weirdly juxtaposed against the reality of most of my days, which are painfully the same. I don’t wonder so much what I might get up to after work, or what I might eat for dinner, or who I might meet today—I’ll probably just be inside again, and I’ll probably eat whatever I made for the week, and I’m not going to meet anyone because we’re all social distancing. It’s strange to feel both bored and terrified most of the time. I guess it’s nice of life to teach me new combinations of emotions.
Anyway, what about you? How’s it going?