As you may have noticed by my general lack of posts lately, I've been suffering from some "activism burnout" lately. This happens to me at least once every year or two.
You can only care for so long before you start to think, "Well, if the rest of the country doesn't care about their future, why the hell should I? If the rest of the women my age don't give a shit about their right to abortion, why is it my job to help them maintain that right? If no one else cares about the growing wage gap in this country, why should it be my problem? If other people think gay marriage is somehow going to ruin their life, why do I have to educate them? If everyone else is content to just watch all their rights slowly slip away because politics isn't 'interesting' enough to keep up with, then why the hell should I care so much?"
Seriously, sometimes I feel like the fate of the world seems to fall on the maybe twenty percent of us who are paying any attention at all and actually dare to ever say anything about it. I'll probably never need an abortion, I'll never be the victim of racism, I'm not poor, I'll never have to worry about my marital status being questioned, I don't need to worry about feeding my kids, and I live a generally comfortable life. So why should I care about ensuring that anyone else lives a decent life?
Oh ya, because I have a conscience and compassion. I know that being an atheist means I'm supposed to just live for myself and have no moral compass according to the fundies out there, but I really do care, and it's exhausting. Sometimes I just want to take a nap and pretend like the only things that matter are Kim Kardashian and who's winning on American Idol.
I'll snap out of it eventually; I always do. It just might take another month or so. I'll let you know when my nap is over.
I know how you feel, Amy. Hang in there & do what you need to do to take care of yourself. Unfortunately, there will still be plenty to work on when you're feeling better.
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