Hypernormalization
It’s a Tuesday morning. Or a Wednesday. Truly it could be any weekday. I unload the dishwasher. Hold up a fork. Inspect it. Shiny & clean. I put it in its spot in the drawer as video after video of a man doing a Nazi salute floods my phone.
‘Have you seen this?’ my friends, nieces, and most beloved ones ask. ‘What do we do?’
I close the dishwasher. I’m very proud of myself. I am doing a great job of keeping up with the dishes. Not letting any dirty dishes sit in the sink. If it’s dirty it goes right in the dishwasher. If the dishwasher has finished a cycle and is clean, it is emptied immediately to make room for dirty dishes. Nothing sits. Nothing attracts bugs. No need to touch gross dishes that have been sitting for days. My kitchen has never been so clean.
I get in the car. Drive to the gym. As a man I’ve never met, a man people who purport to love me voted for, writes words on a paper, and signs away my rights. And the rights of my neighbors and friends. I no longer am a full citizen with equal protection under the law. The weights I lift don’t seem so heavy today.
I drive home, open the front door, and my dog launches her full-blown joy attack. The sound of her feet tippy tapping joy dance. Licking the sweat off my face. How can I feel such joy & love as everything burns to the ground? I step outside & come back in. I need another joy attack.
It’s odd to me that it’s Monday again. Another day, another week. We continue to pay taxes & go to work. We continue to watch the sun rise & do dishes. All the while a man does a Nazi salute and his friend writes our rights away. At least the dishes are clean.
“These people who fight through every day like fucking gladiators. Who fight demons worse than you and I can ever dream of. Just because they want so badly to live. To hold on. To love. Because you can’t be this afraid of losing everything if you didn’t love everything first. Because you had to have a soul crushing hope that things will get better to be this afraid of missing it.” - Catalina Ferro