Brain is feeling overwhelmed
I am struggling with humanity right now. There’s a starting sentence for a blog from a children’s bookshop eh? But I don’t know what else to write about. I have two young children and there’s an alarm going off in my head on a regular basis - ‘WHAT WORLD ARE WE LEAVING THEM?!’ I am overwhelmed by the live streamed genocide - I have run out of words to express my rage and grief, words aren’t enough anymore; I am overwhelmed by a Labour government playing keeping up appearances with Reform; I am overwhelmed by the rich and powerful managing to convince sizeable chunks of the public that migrants and the trans community are the root cause of all of society’s problems, that people are illegal and should be treated as criminals (seeking asylum is not illegal but what’s the law at this point?!); I am overwhelmed that you are now arrested and jailed in this country for peacefully holding a sign, or for non-violent protests attempting to get the government to do something of significance to try and curb climate change; I am overwhelmed by a government that isn’t doing nearly enough to curb climate change while simultaneously not doing nearly enough to prepare for the devastating impacts of it; I am overwhelmed by fascists being mainstream again and on our TVs doing interviews because that’s normal now; I am overwhelmed by the campaigns we’ve been fed by billion dollar corporations to convince us that the plastic crisis is something that can be solved by individuals while these same corporations continue to make billions by spewing out single use plastic that is ending up everywhere and in everything, in our oceans, in our bodies, in our breast milk;
I am overwhelmed.
Yet here I am, going to work as normal; organising a children’s book festival; booking autumn wreath making workshops and pilates classes; starting to think about Christmas presents for the kids…. My brain feels like it is split in two, with one half screaming about the end of humanity and the other half deciding whether we should have veggie stir fry or lasagne for dinner, then immediately thinking about how unfair life is that I am here, making this choice about dinner surrounded by shelves of food in the supermarket while people starve, while babies die from or with starvation; then back to looking at winter jackets for the kids and would my youngest prefer frogs or penguins?
I keep being told blog, blogging is good for your SEO, for generating sales (which at the moment I am maybe making about two sales a month but I love it so still doing it) So I think I should blog but my brain is overwhelmed. So here’s some keywords for the blog - I am a Scottish woman who owns an online children’s picture bookshop and I sell some really beautiful books. I sell some books that help open up discussions about empathy and social justice, I sell books filled with funny stories that just make you feel good (or at least temporarily better) And sharing funny stories with my children and teaching them empathy is about the only thing I feel in control of at the moment. Join me.